attorney general top rebooking house intelligence committee, it is about one hour. [applause]

a philosopher said once that you can go decades where nothing happened and thank you can go weeks where decades happen. in other words, brotherly seeing moments in history unveiled in front of your eyes and we are in a unique moment in our nation and i think it is a moment where we are all stepping back and wondering whether american leadership is up for the task. i kind of feel like at times this is a 1970s remix. inflation at home as noted, build back better plan seems like everything is building back better for the taliban and inflation and there is a sense of frustration where america is. candidly, it almost feels like a crisis of confidence of who we

are as a people. there is a poll done, i think the week before last and asked us if you are in a position where your country was invaded, would you stay in the fight? it was a little sobering. my friends on the other side of the aisle, 52% of the said they would flee. only 40% said they would stand. i think it shows a bit of a general crisis in our education system. if you are raising a generation of young people who don't believe america is worth fighting for and they won't defendant. it was mentioned last fall our campaign and myself and governor duncan, it was amazing one of the great things about it, you get outside the media bubble and you interact with everyday

virginians. it is not a red or blue state, it is a common sense state. i remember being at an event where veteran came up to me and said what's happening in our schools is a national security crisis. i just thought it was -- you hear all sorts of things in the campaign trail. i asked him to expound on that. he's had how in the world can you recruit a young person to join the military going to try die for our country? it shook me to my core that i think he was right. you see that in the polling particularly a moment on a global scale, axios reported

recently the slide for autocracy and dictatorship is increasing from 49% will live to what's considered autocratic or dictatorial form of government and that is now 70% from 2021. when i say crisis of confidence, little bit is a crisis of who we are as a people and who we are in the west. the west doesn't mean white european, japan and south korea are both part of the west, a passionate defense to believe in liberal order, traditional classic liberalism, freedom of speech and religion, freedom of thought and being able to choose the destiny of your own government. margaret thatcher once said in europe off the countries merge of history, america's the only

our country on philosophy. what america is the only country to ever have been founded on a creed. what is that creed? i think america best encapsulated that with martin luther king on the blinken memorial went he said the right laid out in the separations of independence, life, liberty and the pursuit of happyness. doctor king referred to it as a promissory note aid to every american past, present and future. right now we have an entire generation undergraduate and law schools questioning the validity of that promissory.

you now have a percentage in majority of young people 18 to 29 think you should amended. "wall street journal" about two weeks before thanksgiving discussing a poll in which 66% of college students said it was okay to track down political opinions of someone you disagree with my 66%. an additional 23% but okay to use violence to do so. that means 89% of college students emerging out of public and private schools now on college campuses do not believe engaging the marketplace of ideas. i don't have to engage you if i think your speech is violent. i don't have to engage your

ideas if they were never in balance to begin with. our educational system is producing individuals who do not believe in the western ideal, freedom of speech and freedom of association and religion. they don't feel they have to engage, that is shocking for us in the legal profession. one of the most sobering moments to realize and crystallized recently that yale law school in which you had a farm by the yale federalist society in which you will have, and it was dedicated to freedom of speech, the idea you could have an atheist humanist and conservative

federalist society to be debate the idea we come from different political background but we both agree on rhythm of speech on college campuses. we saw what happened. one hundred yale law students shouted down their voices that they disagree with and they had to be called in. this is not a law school, it's one of the absolute higher legal education system in america today, best and brightest presumably someone on campus right now would be a future supreme court justice definitely a future senator or even presidents. right now yale law school, and of those students, i am happy to be corrected, happen published or chastised for shutting down a form dedicated to the idea of free speech.

you can disagree about be disagreeable and take away the ability of discussing big ideas. those individuals, it will be college students and tend to be leftist, currently there are voters now and if you enter in the halls of power in law or policy or politics or business very soon and i think it is a call to action for us. it's also when i go see high school and college classes about how much students don't know about us as a people and our history. one of the favorite questions i love to ask, i was speaking recently at a wealthy private school, tuition is more than my car.

we got into debate about socialism versus free market. if you know my background, my mother fled cuba with literally nothing but the clothes on her back. i pointed out and said the year he took over in cuba, cuba have the same gdp as italy figure he died, cuba had the same gdp as sedan. i don't think socialism works that well. but i said 1980, roughly 30% of the globe lived on less than $2 a day, that is starvation level poverty, 20% of the globe in 1980 living on $2 a day or less.

by 2020, that number is now below 5%. in the last 40 years we've seen 1.5 billion, give or take, people lifted out of what's considered starvation level poverty, that is inflation, 1.5 billion people lifted out of starvation level poverty. i said that is the greatest eradication of poverty in human history. i asked the entire class and asked more than once and said what happened? what's the greatest eradication of poverty in human history unlike anything we've ever seen? none of them knew the answer. one person did say it was -- which i thought was quite funny.

[laughter] united nations and said no, sorry. it's a word paying college campus, you would probably be chastised, a free exchange of good ideas and services, i will be rewarded for a period in this room, it is normal. the reality is, it is abnormal throughout history. if you have a good or a tonic, i will force you to do that for me and you will not be paid for. if you have plant that's not yours, i have the power to take it from you. it was western order that transformed the world but really it was spread of free market in areas that used to have government control over their economy and it was all over. singapore, south korea, india, chile.

you literally saw transformative moment were more people were lifted out of poverty than any time in human history cap if you pull young people and just as many states socialism is the best way to organize our economy rather than capitalism. you go into an elite school multiple times and asked college students and high school students what happened, what led to the greatest eradication of poverty in human history and none of them know. i should make every person in this room want to volunteer right up basic economic civics in our high school and colleges. ultimately you have a group of young people entering and and they don't even know the biggest headlines. when was the last time he saw the new york times essay capitalism leads to poverty more

than ever in human history? so we often hear from our friends on the other side that they are on the right side of history. i say no. on the right side of history, there's government that got away from government control when the economic systems. i am a passionate believer of the dignity in the people. here's the other amazing thing. when you empower people to the economy, do you know what you see flourish? thinking and literature. empowering the dignity of the individual people transform society because it means god has given you a talent and no one will impede your ability to do it. i want to be on that side of history. i think everybody in this room

wants to be on backside and that is what we are trying to do here ultimately. what we are trying to do in virginia is respect the dignity of the individual and empower them. part of that is empowering parents. you look at polling for the first time, republic it's trusted more on this occasion democrat. as is an abnormally. what we see over and over again, our public school systems particularly incorrectly him curriculum focusing on the wrong thing. that doesn't mean we teach all of history, we should teach all of history, the good and the bad. absolutely. it is the only way to learn from history. it also means we should teach that america has given more

second chances to more people for more background race and creed than any country in the history of the world. [applause] if you don't believe me, go to youtube and watch the opening ceremony of the tokyo olympics. 119, there is only one when they walk in, they look like everyone. it is the united states. no other country can claim that. we've failed living up to the

promise doctor king referenced but we celebrate the fact that we have spent that second chance. abraham blinken called us the last best hope on earth. he got that from esther jefferson. but i think -- think about this, when blinken referenced back, we were ater 80 years young, i don't think anybody in america you that as last best hope on earth, he knew what we could become as a people. it is that last best hope that brought my family that i'm not looking over my shoulder in fear. that is our hope in virginia.

i am not sure the format but i am happy to take questions because one of my great montrose in life, recognize i'm not the smartest person in the room and i know there are a lot of lawyers smarter than me. >> i don't know if you saw political this morning but the headline discusses the fact that the d.o.j. has warned attorney general's over transgender issues. if i might read the first sentence of the letter from the assistant attorney general at the d.o.j., u.s. department of justice committed to ensuring trans unit all youth are treated fairly with dignity in accordance to federal law including ensuring such youth are not under skirmish based on the gender affirming care.

several statutory obligations for these put fundamental principles. do you have any comments on this? >> i have not seen that letter. i would love to read the letter before i dive in. i am a measure twice cut once type of person. i will look at that letter and i'm sure i will be hearing from you shortly. >> if you know the thomas jefferson school about this, are you in that case? >> this is thomas jefferson high school. for those of you not familiar with it, it is a magnet school where the best and brightest and what has happened, thomas

jefferson high school has traditionally been a majority minority you literally had a lawsuit saying baby majority minority doesn't have the right way to make it up and i've said before the world oldest form of bigotry anti-semitism but right now the only state sanction over bigotry is anti- asian bigotry. on the campaign trail had a mom who said my child had straight a's since the first grade and what i realized, they will be denied their dreams of thomas jefferson solely because of what they look like. that is sanctioned by the state. it is no freaking should ever be

denied their dream because of who they are and what they look like. so we file a brief as well and i have met with different chapters and concerned parents. i view it as a civil rights issue, incredibly troubling what we are seeing in pending litigation and harvard and the supreme court. i will side on the side of parents and i will always side on the side of allowing an individual to pursue their dream and not have the government shut down. take that from them so we will see the full force circuit and it's very different than where it was a decade or two ago. my fingers are crossed. >> good morning, governor

youngkin is all the more amazing given the loose virginia election law including 45 days of early voting. today in the paper it shows florida's election law was struck down from federal district judge in respect to restrictions on drop boxes for mailing voting. what you think the chances are for the prettiness election laws to be tightened up in early voting and surviving a court challenge? >> should be easy to vote and hard to cheat. that should be the standard. i am not familiar with what happened in florida.

getting back to virginia, it was a historic collection. election night, one of my political advisors pointed out if we pull this off, he will be the first candidate to defeat attorney general since 1883. [applause] i responded, i am so glad i did not know that when i was considering whether to run for office. here is the think we need to realize about early voting looking at the numbers. early voting in virginia helped and here is how. we had numbers we've never seen before. in a highly populated suburban

area, some areas it is much harder to get. i credit governor duncan and his team in our state party and our unit chairman as well, they joked virginians are tired of losing. a more unified, we've got numbers out of rural virginia and a lot of it was easier so it probably means democrats, joking, fourth the media but it helped us and i am a big believer, tell me the rules so we can know how to maximize. we are going to play by the rules and maximize.

so i think areas like that are the drop talks, my big problem is voter id, getting rid of voter id for me when i had to get, i got vaccinated earlier in 2021, i had to show id. a library card, i had to show id to get on an airplane and it is common sense the demagoguery that is associated with that is outrageous. the majority of democrats support that. i think all of us want confidence on election systems. it is common sense promoters, most voters, you have voter id everywhere. the reality is but listen when i was in the assembly, i remember

a built bill required for registrar's for people with voter rolls, i think it was 2019, at least once a month, the was a bill this year that would have said you can voluntarily tell the registrar and your voter file you want to voluntarily say when i vote i want to be asked to produce photo id. it died on a partyline vote. it is literally a voluntary system and i had a dear friend of mine a couple of years ago called me up on election day and said i couldn't vote today and i said why? i looked his name up in the voter file, a very unique name and it wasn't just nobody, it's

while there were two jon smith's and maybe they get the wrong box checked. there was not another individual by my friends name in the entire city of virginia beach and asked to go down to a provisional ballot and was a first generation immigrant and he was taking this precious thing it was taken from him. when you have a voluntary system, easy to vote, hard to cheat should be the standard. everybody should support the idea of election integrity and everybody support the idea when people have confidence in election systems, it is good for democracy. after the 2016 election, the percentage of democrats in the 16th election was pretty high

so everybody should have product in it. for me, the easiest quickest is voter id. that's what i hope virginia get back to. i know there are federal laws that essentially abolish, i question the decency of it but it is clear from the constitution in determining their own individual election law. thomas jefferson calls with the laboratories of democracy and let individual state figure out the best way to heal these issues, not a one-size-fits-all situation. >> mr. attorney general, you may recall in the earlier elections in this century, there's voter

intimidation at certain pulling places in large cities, the democrat obviously know the way bowling is right now, you're not in election this coming midterm. has there been any discussion within virginia government or attorneys general to shore intimidation will not take place in larger cities? >> i confess as far as the idea of voter intimidation, intimidated to vote, everyone should have the decency of being able to vote if not have fear. if anyone tried to do that in virginia, my office would come down on that like a pound of bricks. one of my earliest memories as a

child was my mother taking me with her to watch her vote her first time she got to vote which was for ronald reagan in 1984 but every american -- if any american or virginia feels they are intimidated and can't vote then full force of my office and make sure they have. [inaudible question] >> across the country particularly in larger cities, to be sure voter intimidation is stopped at the polling places, it isn't allowed to happen for we go back afterward to arrest people -- >> my office has an elections section and they always game plan for every scenario.

>> thank you for coming to see us, we hope you will come back. one thing that concerns me, when i see prosecutors on the coast, i am concerned about that and we will see the impact with letting people out, what are you seeing that we can do about that? >> they don't like me very much, i can tell you that. it's one of the biggest issues we are facing, $30 million in the district attorney's, in virginia we call them commonwealth or racist from left-wing special industry. they have realized they don't need to change state legislature

or governor to change the law, they can spend money in our local prosecutors race and decide we are not going to prosecute grand larceny. so huge problem in virginia and you have northern virginia and fairfax dishonor several hundred thousand dollars from left-wing special interest groups. ... over the objection of the family of the he reached a plea

deal and drop the charges and reached a plea deal with this individual's family and he'll be eligible for parole in a only 10 years but potentially 10 years. you had a serial killer on the news in washington d.c. in and manhattan shop by a homeless individual. this individual had 88 prior charges without probation for federal armed robbery charge picked up on an induction breaking and entering of a dwelling at night and possession of a múniz and -- ammunition charge. there was question of eyewitness testimony in the objection charge but not in the breaking and entering. in the virginia code that's five to 20 years. he got a misdemeanor in three or four months in jail. this is december 2020 he gets

out in june to the serial killer is back on the street and starts shooting in murdering innocent virginians. for this decision to go easy on this individual back on the street he would have harmed more innocent people. you have organized retail crime theft at a level we have never seen before. the only thing that frustrates me is this idea we have criminal justice reform and criminal justice is not reform. and you have small business owners that are hardest hit rate the idea larson is a victimless crime. no it's not. a small business owner trying to feed his family having losses of

10 to 15% of inventory. first of all he doesn't know whether he will keep the job and every single person who shops there are paying higher prices to try to make up for the loss. so it's a devastating for this happen so yes i think they say the only thing you learn from history is -- there is nothing new under the sun and all of these proposals they are proposing that are somehow new and different world tried in the 1970s. early release of violent offenders, allowing people to be back on the streets with cashless on. all of this was tried.

getting rid of truth in sentencing. all that was tried in the 1970s and you had skyrocketing murder rates, skyrocketing murder rates. and so the idea is there's a lieneke, to offense in the middle of a field perhaps you should ask why is there before you knock it over. there are a lot of things we learned their history one of which is violent criminals need to be off of our streets. prior to governor jordan allen in the 90s to him getting into office he served on average -- so you are convicted for rape and he get 10 to 20 years and you get out in life.

how is that compassionate to the victim, two women? not surprisingly in the 1990s he started the series and saying do the crime you do the time and you have to serve 80 to 95% of their sentence. he saw crime drop people who live in fear should be the lawbreaking not the law-abiding. the law-abiding people are looking over their shoulder in fear so that's what we will be focusing on. i'm getting the message that i'm going over my time. thanks you all, thank you for what you do. god bless you all. [applause] >> so much for your time attorney general.

next i'd like to invite mark rein to the stage. >> i at the great pleasure to introduce another ohio in. if you're from michigan we don't want to talk to you. everybody else in the state is welcome. we live in exciting times and in these exciting times the gentleman about to speak to you is at the epicenter of it. exciting times with war and distress. congressman turner was the mayor and for 20 years has been a member of congress and is now on

the armed services committee and is the ranking member of the intelligence committee. needless to say those are two vitally important committees may be more at the center of the action today than in recent times. history turns out not to bend the end of history and warfare and international affairs and the need for armed services that is drawn and rub us to an intelligence. the gentleman about to speak to you is all of those. congressman turner. [applause] >> thank you mark iii good morning. this is a great way to start the morning with a discussion on national security issues and as you can imagine the world is becoming a less safe place and

orderly we will have a lot of policy issues and discussions in one of us. i've been asked to give it to her of some of these issues. i'm also a lawyer and my mate begin by thanking you for what you do and for the fact that you are active in this association is incredibly important that you have come together and we look at ways in which we can support it principals that are both conservative and support those who are trying to advance republican issues. i practiced corporate law in real estate law. i was in-house for corporate organization and house counsel. i do have a great appreciation for what you do having >> two decades doing it. this is my 10th term in congress. in the senior member of the armed services committee. i've cheered and ranked the

strategic forces subcommittee which is weapons missiles space missile defense and military. i also have chaired the air and land acquisition arm of the armed services committee everything that applies to the air. then i have then aim member of the intelligence committee and as mark said i was appointing the ranking member of the intelligence committee and that means if the republicans do take the house next year i would be the chairman of the intelligence committee. [applause] my goal is to return the intelligence community that tune people ask me how well i work on the other side of the eye and i remind them that my co-worker is

adam schiff. i must tell you even in rooms that are nifty-big d and the demographic clinical makeup the laughter is about the same. that tells you something about those sides of the aisle. so as you are aware the intelligence committee was somewhat derailed over the past several years. it became a partisan committee for the purposes of attacking others in the trump administration and members of the house. only losing focus there are real people who want to do damage and hurt the united states and our allies and there are those who want to destabilize democracy and make the world less safe. they are people like vladimir putin who have evil intentions and authoritarian regimes in lead the world where they can

exert their influence including as we have just seen attacking ukraine a democratic state with a conflict that was completely unprovoked. it is our job as the united states, the leader of the democratic free world to support democracies and we improve our strength as ronald reagan said so that we work to hold the day those authoritarian regimes would try to impose their will on us. i was asked to talk to you about the current state of intelligence. i do want to give you this drive the version of what we are seeing around the world in these threats are becoming even more dangerous for the united states and our allies and it's not just because of their will. they have always had the

intention of wanting to do harm to the united states and our allies. it's the increased capability that we are seeing. those increased capabilities mean not only are allies or risk but also the united states is. why is that important? it means that we have strived to make certain that our capabilities can compete with theirs and extent we can behold the midday and we can deter them and the actions they want to undertake and with that i will begin with -- the obama administration entered into the nuclear deal with iran a broad agreement with reed kasich tenets. one that had an inspection regime. it did have an inspection regime which did answer overall goals of trying to hold that a iran's nuclear program. the second go your two the agreement is that critical

provisions of the agreement expired. that time has not been extended so their ability to have enrichment processes, all of those have critical expiration times and a bad deal in the hurd is it did not include missile technology which meant it was cause with the jcl eight read they had been able to undertake development of missiles that could reach the united states. we saw that with their so-called space program when they tested missiles that ultimately could be developed as icbms and put the united states at risk and the trump when they exited the jcpoa added a fourth element and that was never including any restrictions on their destabilizing their neighbors in the middle east. they had no restrictions there. as you know this administration is attempting to re-enter the

iran deal. they are a couple of problems they are having in attempting to do so. one is iran is insisting at the re-enter the deal would be a deal that the united states can't back out of. there could be a republican elected president is that i'm not going to stick with this deal. a public that is in order to have the deal that's binding it has to be a treaty and it has to go before the senate and with the agreement there's not going to be a senate that's going to be willing to enter into this deal. the second thing is there is widespread concern that the is not attempting to extend any of those states that have expired so we will go into the agreement that artie if he ended the second critical provision and as you know as we look to iran that their attacks on saudi arabia and their attacks on shipping they continue to be a great risk

to the united states and then of course there's north korea and the trump administration have attempted to engage in negotiations with north korea putting tremendous military pressure on them and also sanctions. they are continuing to develop their missile tech knowledge he already meaning the united states could be in reach of north korean missiles which would be a game-changer. their advances they have made that are very troubling and dances that they have announced that they have made that if have not necessarily been realized that this is an area of great concern and continuing of the ocean. is not on the administration's agenda. they have no specific policy with respect to north korea and i don't think you'll see me dance at their north korea being left to continue weapons technologies and missiles that will threaten the united states. when you look at china, china

continues to be a threat to united states not only militarily. our allies and also on the technology playing field. we are all aware of course of the cyber threat from china. we are also aware of this concept of their surveillance society what they have done in china to their citizenry by the use of technology monitoring what their citizens do and utilizing that are impacting people's freedom. they try to export technology and export technology export their surveillance. our efforts in trying to keep that date chinese technology is not just the cyber threat but to lessen the reach of their surveillance. then let's talk about russia. vladimir putin has made it her a clear that it is his intention to reconstitute the geographical area of the former soviet union.

he has made that statement for over a decade and he has become the russ is by invading ukraine. what's interesting is you will continue to hear from representatives of the administration they are surprised that he would do so. the thing that we know adversaries don't select. when someone decides to be an adversary of the united states it's something that we didn't something they've been once they make that we should probably listen to them as to what their goals and objectives are. we are seeing right now in ukraine the beginning of what vladimir putin announced was his intention of expanding the influence of russia in the geographical area to reconstitute that soviet unions fear. doing so of course we take down significant democracies that advance the fall of the soviet union and would broaden his the terry in reach. now ukraine.

presence zelensky has been amazing. don't you think he's been amazing to watch? [applause] i have gotten to hear him several times and his ability to articulate that this fight is about democracy, this fight is about freedom, this fight is about a gore terry does them have such clarity that around the world he has addressed parliament's the legislature after legislature, basically i think trying to instill in them that amber if we are all wearing the same jersey. this is not an issue of ukraine and not an issue of nato. this is not an issue of europe or the united states or north america. this is an issue of democracy itself determination of people who are watching the will of the nation to defend themselves

based upon another countries unprovoked war to try to enforce authoritarianism. putin has shown that this is not just a military action. he is killing and slaughtering innocent people and bombing residential areas and these bombing people who are fleeing in none evacuation zones. the administration has said they have evidence to identify these actions as war crimes and leave putin and russia should be held accountable at what did we do wrong here quite so we did wrong here is leaving -- believing that our actions would result in russia taking actions in ukraine and that's where the administration was afraid of what they would consider her pocket to her bioweaponry to ukraine so they could defend themselves. the administration said ukraine

with would fall within 72 hours and today the war still goes on. imagine that would not happen if we would have given ukraine and the tools the beginning of this is not something in the obama administration when russia won into ukraine and annexed crimea poroshenko of ukraine spoke to a joint session of congress lamenting that he was not being given weapons by the obama administration is said to congress i cannot win a war with -- when donald trump became president he provided javelins to ukraine and rescinded the prohibition on legal assistance and began to send weapons to ukraine but it wasn't enough. when the biden administration came in even with calls from congress and even with putin's army at the port of ukraine and retreating they did not take the

opportunity and now we are trying to play catch up. we are trying to get weapons in and trying to assist zelensky so he can defend his people. this is important. this is the light that putin has begun and it will not end in ukraine and we know that. the administration has responded and congress is taking the lead. they begun the process of banning russian oil and they begun the process of getting additional lethal aid to ukraine. imagine do we had not. when it thinks it will tell you that i know it's somewhat obvious is this is not a president biden speech you are receiving today when reason you'll note that is you won't tap to have someone to clean up and tell you what i really think. [applause]

so what does this all mean? this all means we need to invest in capabilities and as we see her adversaries reach for capabilities to threaten united states and we reach for capabilities to deter them that we worked to strengthen our allies and make certain that they have the capabilities necessary to be able to defend themselves and we work to ensure that there is this moral compass of democratic nations and that we understand there are those who are out there who will try to harm our country and are populous and we stand collectively in the way of doing so. we need to stand together as the world of collective democracies or others will try to lessen and arodys. i don't know if you watch the news just yesterday lavrov from russia went to china and announced they are going to seek a new world order raised upon a

new democracy. well that's not democracy. we are a democracy and we have allies that democracies do we know what freedom is. president zelensky is called on us to stand together and we should. thank you for having me today. [applause] >> what we are going to do is spend about 10 minutes talking about education and there will be interaction among ourselves and during the course of this in terms of q&a if you would submit your questions in writing i will bring them up here at the tail end. if something pops up in the middle go ahead and write it down and bring your questions appear to me and we will ask those. those of you