Sep 21, 2015
TED CRUZ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AT
THE TAKE BACK AMERICA PRESIDENTIAL FORUM
Ted Cruz at the Heritage Action Take Back America Presidential
Forum in South Carolina
Machine Transcript, expect errors.
0:01
Senator Cruz, welcome and your first question will come from
Daddy god bless
0:08
the great state of South Carolina Cruz back in 2007 Barack Obama
said he was
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running for president to tell your corporate lobbyists that their
days of
0:23
setting the agenda in Washington are over that obviously has not
happened you
0:29
spoken a lot about the so-called washington cartel how do you
actually
0:33
overcome its influence if Congress doesn't want to play along well
that's a
0:40
great question you know if you look at the washington cartel that's
the term I
0:44
use for career politicians in both parties that get in bed with
the
0:50
lobbyists and special interests and grow and grow and grow cover if
were gonna
0:55
break the Washington Park tell the only way to do it is we gotta
take it on and
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we've gotta bring power out of washington and back to the
people
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and I'll say two things in regard to that number one we've done it
before
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when was the last time we beat the Washington cartel and I'll
submit it was
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nineteen eighty the reagan revolution now the Washington cartel
despise ronald
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reagan and you look at what happened in the late seventies all
across this
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country men and women came together from the grassroots many of the
men and women
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here in the thirties rose up like a tidal wave and turn this
country around
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what my campaign is working to do is the same thing
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build a grassroots army here in South Carolina and across the
country to take
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power out of washington and bring it back to we defeat
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and I make a final point on this
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if you look at the debate stage weather in California cleaver you
see the
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candidates standing suddenly everyone is standing up to the
washington cartel
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that's fabulous they say imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery have you
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noticed that the washington establishment they tell us over and
over
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again every time they run they run as a concern they were on as one
of us not a
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single person on that day and California said i'ma squishy
establishment moderate
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I stand for nothing and yet they say it here actually one of us you
can't win
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they're convinced every person in this stadium is unelectable if
you're really
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a conservative you'll really stand up to Washington your
unelectable with a test
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I think we ought to apply to each of those men and women standing
on the
3:18
stages that's great you're adopting rhetoric today against
Washington if you
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want to be an outsider fabulous show me where you stood and fought
against
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career politicians in both park
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in order to get things done an effective president needs to have
good
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relationship with congress some reportedly said you don't have
good
3:45
relationships with members of your party or the democratic party in
congress what
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do you say to people who don't think the president crews to be
effective in the
3:52
atmosphere between you and your fellow senators well Michael listen
i I will
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agree with if you're looking for someone to go along to get along
if you think
4:04
Washington is doing great we need to keep going in the same
direction just
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kind of fit around the edges
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suggest you we've had way too many Republicans whose number one
virtue is I
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get along great with them right now republican leadership in
washington
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seems to be competing for who can surrender faster and more
ostentatiously
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to Barack Obama the premise that an effective president is someone
whose
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blood it busy buttons placebo buddies with the opposing party
Friday gonna
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have a field day with that I would point for the Presidency of
Barack Obama if
5:09
you're a leftist if you actually believe in socialism if you
believe in
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diminishing America if you believe and status control over our live
Barack
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Obama has been the most successful leftist president in history and
left
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Obama doesn't spend a whole lot of time but winning with
congressional
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Republicans if we turn this around when it hit nominator elect a
Republican
5:39
president but will simply manage the decline of this country
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one Republican should nominate a candidate as committed for
conservative
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principles as Barack Obama is too liberal
6:15
health care plans about what to do after Obamacare is repealed some
of them have
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a tax credit of people buy health insurance
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some uses standard deduction on a policy areas complicated as
health care the
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details matter what are the details of your replacement for
Obamacare let's
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talk about it into pieces replacement for Obamacare I wanna talk
first about
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getting rid of Obamacare and replace now why do I start with
getting rid of
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three election Barack Obama was elected two of them
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2010 and 2014 the number one issue was repealing Obamacare and we
want historic
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tidal wave landmark election in the middle election 2012 we thought
out and
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nominate the one person on the planet who it actually designed and
implemented
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a plan just like Obamacare literally there are 7 billion people on
the face
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of planet Earth we coulda walked up to anyone we coulda said sir
had you
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designed and implemented a plan like Obamacare No
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2012 we got clobbered now what's happening in 2016
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you know if you look at that stage in california those eleven
candidates there
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most of them never utter the words Obama can I promise you if you
do not campaign
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on repealing Obamacare you ain't gonna repeal Obamacare
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the only way we're appealing if we take on the Washington cartel I
intend to
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make 2016 a referendum on repealing every word of Obamacare and
adopting a
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and that's how you break the Washington cartel if you repeal
Obamacare it should
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come out of 2016 with a mandate from the people cutting a change
the incentives
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of politicians in Washington you know there's an old joke that
politics is
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my wife says I resembled everybody the way you break the cartel if
you make it
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politically more risky for elected politicians to do the wrong
thing it is
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to do the right thing we make this election a referendum question
let me
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get to that but it's important to start with that Frederick it
because most of
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the other candidates aren't willing to fight the fight to repeal
Obamacare now
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once we repeal it we absolutely need common-sense health care
reform it needs
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to expand competition it needs to empower patients and it needs
to
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disempowered government bureaucrats from getting in between us and
our dog and
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let me give three specific policy proposals that reflect those
principles
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number one we need to allow people to purchase health insurance
across state
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that create a crew fifty-state national marketplaces drives down
costs if you
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want more activist you want more toy and lower costs
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what is Obamacare do it's less choice and higher to expand health
savings
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account so people can save an attractive advantage way for help
caring and her we
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need to make health insurance portable so if you lose your
job
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it goes with you from job to job about the tax credit proposal that
someone put
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out there some conservative some republicans think that we need
a
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refundable tax credit to help Americans buy health insurance do you
support a
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refundable tax credit as part of a replacement to Obamacare likely
if you
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know there had been a lot of ideas put forth by think-tank by
various thinkers
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in terms of replacements and tax credit i'm open to considering
using the tax
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code as long as it's consistent with those principles that I laid
out in
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powering patients I want the person picking your doctor to be you
and not a
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government government bureaucrats and repairs on Wednesday night
you said that
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you were graded your support of John Roberts confirmation to the
Supreme
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Court we all know to be difficult to identify and appoint judges to
that
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court and so one of your proposals is that judicial retention
elections on as
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a check on those permanent appointment wouldn't have no idea like
this
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politicized judiciary would not make them unlikely to go against
Detroit area
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listen i I wish it were the case that we didn't need fundamental
reform of the
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court if the justices were doing their jobs if they were following
the law you
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wouldn't need fundamental reform something like traditional
re-elected
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but if you have judges behaving like politicians making policy
decisions that
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they have no authority under the Constitution to do then they
cannot
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expect to be exempt from the authority of we the people
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and Michael expand on this point as well as this is a great
illustration think
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about the debate this week in California if you asked all eleven
candidates what
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kind of judges will you appoint to the court every one of them
would stand up
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and say I will appoint strict constructionist who won't legislate
from
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the bench they'll say that word for word those are the talking
points every one
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of their campaigns is given every Republican has said that for
forty years
12:53
let's look at the record you know democrats a bad almost a thousand
when
13:01
it comes to Supreme Court nominees every Supreme Court nominee they
put for work
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boats like a radical leftist nutcase
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Republican about 500 but half of republican supreme court
justices
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actually honor their oath to defend the Constitution the other half
are
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screaming crying wreck disasters was a republican nominee bill
Brennan was a
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Republican nominee John Paul Stevens David Souter harry blackmun
who authored
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roe versus wade was a republican nominee you remember the old Pogo
cartoon we
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have met the enemy and they have it's important to understand how
that happens
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I mentioned in the debate to moments in time that would
particularly important
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number one in 1990 George Herbert Walker Bush had in one room
14:05
David Souter and in another room heated Jones the rock-ribbed
conservative on
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the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals George Herbert Walker Bush picked
davidson
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fast-forward fifteen years to 2005 George W Bush had in one room
John
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Rogers and in another room my former boss Mike looting the
rock-ribbed
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conservative in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals a man who was
justice scalia's
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very first law clerk George W Bush picked John right now it's
worth
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understanding why they did it it's not that they were secretly
desiring I want
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some big government liberal it would both David Souter and John
Roberts they
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didn't have a paper trail they'd lived their whole lives they've
never written
14:49
or said anything to prove they were a conservative and both
president bush's
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said gosh if we nominate a conservative will have a fight the
democrats will
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oppose us the media will criticize us and Republicans will get
nervous so
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let's nominate someone who's never said or done anything to prove
their
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conservative every time we do that we get burned
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suggest to you the difference between me and the other very very
fine men and
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women who are running for president is when push comes to shove
when it comes
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to the moment to make the decision whether it is really taking on
Obamacare
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whether it is standing up to Amnesty whether it is actually
defunding Planned
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Parenthood or whether it is standing up and putting a principled
conservative
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jurist on the Supreme Court the difference between me and the
other
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candidate is that i'm gonna do what I told you I would
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to characterize your position that the left has politicized the
American
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judiciary we should respond in kind isn't that throwing in the
towel on a
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pretty important part of the constitutional separation of powers
in
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Michael let's be clear we shouldn't politicize the judiciary let me
give an
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example I'll give an example of a policy matter I care passion
school choice
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school choice is the civil rights issue the 21st century we are to
be willing to
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fight and to go and every african-american community every
16:40
Hispanic community and say every child in america has a right to a
quality
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education regardless of race ethnicity well Thursday
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now Michael a part of the united states senator if I'm president we
have never
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seen a president fight for school choice the way I thought I would
be perfectly
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clear no supreme court could issue of Rolling demanding school
choice and
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every school in America I agree with that policy position but the
place to
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advance that policy position is in the elected legislators that are
accountable
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to the people know our judges shouldn't be political they should
follow the
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constitution then retrieved on wavering Governor Haley back onto
the stage
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Carolina we welcome you it's a great day to be in South Carolina
and South
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Carolina 10 a.m. at lots of fun things to talk about but i wanna go
back to the
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fact that your family emigrated from Cuba and this president has
dramatically
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changed the relationship with the United States has with cuba what
would that
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relationship look like under President crews well governor you're
right and and
18:03
what Obama has done with cuba is actually consistent with what he's
done
18:08
enemies of the United States across this country for six and a half
years we've
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abandoned and alienated our friends and allies whether it was
18:17
the United Kingdom by sending her children bused back right when
Obama got
18:22
elected or whether it is Israel with this administration being the
most
18:28
anti-israel administration in history of this country as a foreign
minister of a
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senior ally of ours said to me it's hard to be friends with america
under this
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president but at the same time this president responds to enemies
of America
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with weakness and appeasement whether it is Putin whether it is my
sis whether it
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is around or whether it is Fidel and Raul Castro in Cuba
19:05
what Obama cuba deal does is send billions of dollars to to
communist
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dictators that are oppressing their their citizens that are
exporting
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terrorism across Latin America and there are ninety miles off the
coast of
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America if I'm elected president on the day I'm sworn into office
every two-bit
19:26
dictator across the global now that the days of of apologizing for
America the
19:33
days of bowing and scraping the dictator
19:51
that's the days of appeasing radical islamic terrorists are over it
is worth
19:56
remembering that is released our hostages but Ronald Reagan was
sworn
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into office and if I'm elected the world will know america