TED CRUZ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AT THE TAKE BACK AMERICA PRESIDENTIAL FORUM
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.
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Senator Cruz, welcome and your first question will come from Daddy god bless
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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
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setting the agenda in Washington are over that obviously has not happened you
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spoken a lot about the so-called washington cartel how do you actually
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overcome its influence if Congress doesn't want to play along well that's a
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great question you know if you look at the washington cartel that's the term I
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use for career politicians in both parties that get in bed with the
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lobbyists and special interests and grow and grow and grow cover if were gonna
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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Obamacare
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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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simple flat tax
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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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Hollywood for ugly
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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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lines
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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
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let's look at the record you know democrats a bad almost a thousand when
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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
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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
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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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this country
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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
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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
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what Obama has done with cuba is actually consistent with what he's done
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with respect
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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
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the United Kingdom by sending her children bused back right when Obama got
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elected or whether it is Israel with this administration being the most
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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
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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
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dictator across the global now that the days of of apologizing for America the
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days of bowing and scraping the dictator
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that's the days of appeasing radical islamic terrorists are over it is worth
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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
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