SENATOR TED CRUZ AT THE 2015 NRA ANNUAL MEETING - NASHVILLE

SENATOR TED CRUZ AT THE 2015 NRA ANNUAL MEETING - NASHVILLE

 

Nashville Tennessee National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting, speech by Ted Cruz

Transcript English (Automatic Captions) 0:00 god bless the NRA up 0:07 so now is this the ready for Hillary gathered 0:14 you know we had good news ready for Hillary 0:16 had their first tire the head a female security 0:24 so it's very very good plus Lerner now has a job 0:27 you know I started this day this morning 0:35 at Fort Hood at Fort Hood today 0:39 they finally after over five years awarded the Purple Heart 0:54 to the soldiers who were wounded or lost their lives on November 5th 2009 1:00 for over five years 1:03 the Obama administration has insisted that what happened there 1:07 wasn't terrorist the dollar sign 1:12 had communicated with Anwar Awlaki a radical Islamic terrorist 1:17 past about the permissibility of waging jihad 1:23 against his fellow soldiers and then on that fateful day walk through Fort Hood 1:30 screaming Aloha 1:33 are Kabar as he shot his fellow soldiers 1:37 and yet shamefully this administration characterize what happened there 1:43 as workplace violence 1:47 lot tell you one other things that was very proud to do 1:52 last year I introduce legislation in the United States Senate 1:56 to mandate that we give the purple heart to the soldiers deserve it 2:10 that legislation earned unanimous support in the Senate Armed Services 2:13 Committee we brought together republicans and democrats 2:17 over the strong objection to the Obama administration 2:20 and this morning those soldiers received the recognition 2:25 that they deserved 2:33 it is a time for truth you cannot win a war on radical Islamic terrorism 2:41 with the president who is unwilling to utter the words 2:45 radical islamic terrorist 2:56 instead the president who boycotts 3:01 prime minister netanyahu imagine 3:06 America's standing unapologetically with the nation of Israel 3:18 imagine a commander in chief standing up with clarity and saying 3:25 we will defeat radical islamic terrorists 3:35 and under no circumstances well the nation overran 3:40 be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons 3:50 some weeks ago i join with 46 other senators 3:53 signing a letter that we sent to Iran explaining that under the United States 3:59 Constitution 4:00 there are only two way something becomes a law either it is a treaty 4:04 ratified by two-thirds of the Senate or a law passed by both houses of Congress 4:10 signed by the president well the Obama White House when a little bit hysterical 4:15 about that letter 4:16 I went on MSNBC 4:21 on Morning Joe and they went a little bit hysterical about the letter 4:28 they asked do you regret signing that letter 4:31 I said that the only thing I regret is like John Handcock that I did make my 4:37 signature bigger 4:45 so that the ayatollah could read it without his reading glasses 4:49 you know we're at a time a crisis 4:55 here at home millions of people are hurting as the economies in stagnation 5:01 abroad peel bomb a clinton foreign policy a bleeding from behind 5:08 does not work and we're saying an unprecedented threat to our liberties 5:15 each and every day 5:16 from the federal government and yet i want to tell you I am inspired I am 5:23 optimistic I am hopeful 5:25 and I'll tell you why it's because I'm each and every one have you 5:29 NRA the men and women here 5:33 our men and women in action you are leaders to stand and fight 5:39 for your constitutional rights 5:42 this next election in 2016 5:46 is going to come down to a leader who will tell us the truth 5:52 and who will do what he says he will do 6:06 well how do we distinguish there a lotta good men and women 6:10 thinking about running in 2016 and we've been around the 6:15 the block before we understand that a Republican primary one stands up and 6:20 says gosh did lay on the most conservative guy 6:22 who ever lived yet somehow actions don't always seem to follow those words 6:29 I was up in iowa recently a gentleman looked at the ask the question 6:35 how can we trust you the most important question 6:40 you know I'll point out when I ran percent in the state of Texas 6:44 when people went to our website you know every website always has 6:50 an Issues page ABCD any and in a republican primary people say 6:55 word-for-word the exact 6:57 same say I pointed out all the time if you go to our web page 7:03 Ted Cruz .org Ted Cruz doubt or Ted Cruz .org 7:07 what are the first things people notice is we don't have an Issues page 7:14 instead what it says is for far too long politicians have said one thing and 7:19 another 7:20 every one of us should ask any candidate who shows up in front to be a 7:24 you say you believe these principles show me 7:28 one abuse stood up and fought for them 7:31 wanna be bled for them and what have you accomplished 7:36 as the scripture says you shall know them 7:40 by their fruits 7:50 so here's the example I used over and over again in the state of Texas 7:54 the Second Amendment in texas there's a right answer 7:58 I support the Second Amendment 8:01 unless you are clinically insane 8:05 I even if you're a democrat that's the right answer in texts 8:10 now I like to point out that if folks went to our website 8:17 I actually didn't say I supported the Second Amendment 8:20 I didn't say a word about what was hidden in the deep recesses of my heart 8:25 what I did say is that what I was the solicitor general a Texas I led a 8:30 coalition of thirty-one states 8:32 before the United States Supreme Court defending the Second Amendment right to 8:37 keep and bear arms and we won 5-4 8:39 a landmark decision upholding that right 8:54 and then I linked to the 2010 8:57 NRA's Carter night freedom fund award given every year to what are the leading 9:01 to second-amendment defenders in the country 9:03 you know I had a former boss I used to say 9:07 if I'm ever accused being a Christian like they've been up 9:13 evidence to convict me 9:23 the same is true for being a conservative in a republican primary 9:29 every candidate's gonna stand up and say 9:33 I oppose Obamacare the question we ask is great when you stood up and fought to 9:39 stop 9:40 Obamacare 9:50 every cat is gonna say they'll support amnesty 9:53 alright great when did you start up and thought to stop the president's illegal 10:00 and unconstitutional 10:01 executive and missed 10:10 you know we all remember two years ago the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook 10:15 every one of us whose parents it was heartbreaking to see those little 10:19 children 10:20 murdered by that lunatic and yet we also 10:25 remember the president's response to President Obama had an opportunity then 10:29 he could have tried to bring people together in a bipartisan manner 10:32 to say let's go after violent felons 10:36 let's go after criminals let's protect our kids and stop the bad guys 10:40 but instead he used as an excuse 10:44 to try to come after the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens 10:49 I gotta tell you in the weeks and months that followed Sandy Hook 10:53 if you guys were sittin in the Senate Republican lunch 10:58 kidder jumped out the window because the Senate was 11:03 there was this is unstoppable 11:06 this is a freight train it can't be stopped let's get out of the way 11:12 and I'll tell you I was proud to stand with my friends Mike Lee and Rand Paul 11:18 in sending a 11:27 in sending a very short to set this letter to Harry Reid that we said we 11:32 will filibuster 11:33 any legislation that undermines the Second Amendment right to keep and bear 11:37 arms 11:55 now we all know what happened what that did 11:59 is two things it slowed it down 12:03 and it shined a light on what was happening and that's when the men and 12:08 women in this room 12:09 began to take over in the weeks that followed 12:14 each if you and millions of Americans 12:18 lit up the phones started with three of us 12:23 by the end to the next week we were up to 17 senators on the letter 12:29 then we had our first vote we needed to get 12:33 241 we only got to 31 12:36 and all our friends in the media setup 12:41 if failed you only got to 31 but like 12:45 any meaningful military conflict it's rarely one on the first term ish 12:50 that 31 was a whip count 12:53 and suddenly chip you knew every senator that had voted against the Second 12:58 Amendment 12:58 and heaven on earth descended on those senators 13:11 and thanks to the passionate leadership on the men and women in this room 13:15 when it came to the senate floor 13:19 every single wanna President Obama's proposals to undermine the Second 13:24 Amendment 13:24 was voted down on the senate floor 13:43 that is the power of the men and women here 13:46 our country is in crisis yet we're gonna pull back 13:50 and change the path we're on but the answer 13:54 is not gonna come from washington 14:01 even better man it's going to come from 14:04 you 14:15 the only way we will turn this country around is for millions up courageous 14:20 conservatives 14:21 to rise up and say we will defend the bill a bright we will get back 14:26 to freedom and the constitution 14:37 we're building a grassroots army all across this country 14:40 how many of y'all have your cell phones 14:46 if you are willing to stand and fight is part 14:51 that grassroots army I want to encourage you to text 14:55 the word Constitution to the number 33 15:01 7 33 let me give you that 15:04 again the number is 33 7 15:07 33 if you would text constitution what we are working to do 15:13 is energize millions up courageous conservatives to reignite 15:18 the promise of america you know fifty eight years ago 15:24 my father fled cuba 15:27 he had been in prison he had been tortured as a teenager in cuba 15:32 he came to america i couldn't speak English get a hundred dollars in his 15:36 underwear 15:36 he washed dishes making fifty cents an hour 15:40 worked full-time paid his way through school went on 15:45 to start a small business today is a pastor when I was a kid my father said 15:51 to me over and over again when we faced oppression in cuba 15:55 I had a place to flee chip 15:59 if we lose our freedom here where we go 16:03 that is why the men and women gathered here 16:08 are standing up because we're not prepared 16:11 to lose our freedoms in 1835 16:17 the town of Gonzales Texas 16:21 received immediate for Mexican general Santana he demanded that the Texans who 16:29 lived in Gonzales 16:30 hand over their guns 16:33 and hand over the Canon the guarded the city 16:37 well the Texans responded to general Santana 16:42 by raising a flag 16:46 on that flag was a picture 16:49 up the Canon and a simple legend underneath 16:53 Cup comma and take it 17:04 that was the opening battle of the war for Texas Independence and I'll tell you 17:08 we've seen on the news 17:10 this weekend hillary clinton is announcing for president 17:21 well I'll tell you that hillary Clinton is going to join with 17:26 Barack O'bama and a gun grabbers and come after our guns 17:30 that why I say is com and take it 17:44 if they are going to come after the Constitution 17:47 what the american people what we say together 17:52 is com and take it 18:01 and if they come after our liberty our god-given rights that each and every one 18:08 of us our rights don't come from government 18:10 they come from God Almighty 18:19 these are our values these are who we are 18:22 we are fundamentally a center-right country with judeo-christian values 18:29 and this is a time 18:33 for choosing a time for getting back to the principles the free market 18:39 principles 18:40 and the constitutional liberties that had built 18:44 America into the greatest nation in the history of the world 18:48 because %uh view because if your leadership 18:55 I am both humbled and proud to stand with you 18:59 as together we bring back we revive 19:04 that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America 19:09 thank you and god bless you