Remarks by Vice President Pence at CPAC 2019 | National Harbor, MD | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center  •  National Harbor, Maryland •  March 1, 2019  •  10:27 A.M. EST

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Matt. And hello, CPAC! (Applause.) It is great for us to be back at CPAC 2019, the largest gathering of conservatives anywhere in America. (Applause.) Thanks for coming out.

    And I'm honored to be joined here by thousands of conservatives in our nation's capital, but I also want to give a shout-out to all those great conservatives watching across this country, especially all of our friends joining us live from Lynchburg, Virginia at Liberty University. I'll see you in May! (Applause.)

    And to all of them, and to all of you, I bring greetings from a friend of mine - a man who restored American leadership at home and abroad, and a man who can't wait to be with you tomorrow. I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)

    You know, it's the greatest honor of my life to serve as Vice President to a President who gets up every day and fights to keep the promises that he made to the American people. (Applause.)

    I mean, think about it: This President promised to get this economy moving again. And working with Republican majorities in the Congress, in our first two years, President Trump has cut more federal red tape than any President in American history. (Applause.) We've unleashed American energy, and now the United States is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. (Applause.)


    Under the President's strong leadership, we've forged new trade deals that finally put American jobs and American workers first. And with the support of this generation of conservatives, President Trump signed the largest tax cut and tax reform in American history. (Applause.) That's promises made and promises kept!

    We cut taxes across the board for working Americans, for American businesses, and we cut out the core of Obamacare. The individual mandate is gone. (Applause.) And the results have been amazing.

    As I stand before you today, the American economy is booming. (Applause.) In just over two years, businesses large and small have created 5.3 million new jobs, including over 480,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs that the other side said would never come back. (Applause.)

    Unemployment has hit a 50-year low. And more Americans are working today than ever before in the history of this country. (Applause.) The unemployment rate for women has hit a 55-year low. And the unemployment rate for Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans have reached the lowest level ever recorded in American history. (Applause.) And the wages of working Americans are rising at a faster pace than they have in more than a decade.

    Under President Donald Trump, working Americans are winning again. The forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more. (Applause.)

    Everywhere you look, confidence is back, jobs are coming back. In a word, America is back - and we're just getting started! (Applause.)

    But for all the progress we've made, President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. And from the first days of this administration, this President has worked to make the strongest military in the history of the world stronger still. And last year, President Trump signed the largest investment in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.)

    We're modernizing our nuclear arsenal, updating missile defense, and before the year is out, President Donald Trump will launch the sixth branch of our armed forces, the United States Space Force. (Applause.) Under this Commander-in-Chief, we'll make sure that America is as dominant in space as we are on land and air and sea.

    So, we're rebuilding our military, we're restoring the arsenal of democracy, and we're once again giving our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard the resources they need to accomplish their mission and come home safe. (Applause.)

    And we're also standing with our veterans and all the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States. And we restored accountability to the VA. (Applause.) We're finally giving our heroes access to the world-class healthcare they earned in the uniform of the United States. Veterans Choice is here! (Applause.)

    And in this administration, we're also standing every day with the brave men and women of law enforcement, and we've been giving all those who stand on the Thin Blue Line the resources and the respect they deserve every single day. (Applause.) And that includes the courageous men and women of Customs and Border Protection - (applause) - who put their lives on the line every single day. Under this President and this administration, we will never abolish ICE. (Applause.)

    You know, as the President has said many times: If you don't have a border, you don't have a country. And since day one of our administration, we've been working to remove dangerous criminals from our streets in record numbers, enforcing our immigration laws, and working to secure our border. And we've already started to build that wall. (Applause.)

    And I'll make you a promise: Before we're done, we're going to build it all. (Applause.)

    AUDIENCE: Build that wall! Build that wall! Build that wall!

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, we're building it. (Laughter.) As the President often says, "Don't worry about it." (Laughter.)

    Make no mistake about it, folks: No matter what you hear from the Democrats and their allies in the media, we have a crisis at our southern border, and it's like nothing we've ever seen before.

    For the first time ever, the majority of illegal immigrants coming into our country are unaccompanied minors and families - families that are being exploited by drug cartels and human traffickers, encouraging them to make the long and dangerous journey north at a great financial price, and often at a great price to themselves and their safety and well-being.

    You know, when President Obama, in 2014, said we had a humanitarian crisis at southern border, 120,000 minors and families crossed our border illegally. Last year, there were 145,000. And in the last four months alone, more than 120,000 unaccompanied minors and families have been apprehended at our southern border.

    Now, Democrats want to say it's a manufactured crisis, but the only thing that's manufactured is their outrage. (Applause.)

    Every day we don't secure our border, we're allowing the crisis to worsen, more lives to be endangered, and more people to be exploited, and more drugs to flow into our country.

    That's why President Trump used his authority under the law to declare a national emergency on our southern border. (Applause.) But now - now Democrats are trying to stop the President from exercising the authority that the Congress gave him to address this real crisis.

    So today we call on every member of Congress: Stand up for border security, stop playing politics with the security of the American people, and stand with President Trump for a stronger and safer America. (Applause.)

    With his renewed commitment to law and order, this President has also been busy seeing to our judicial branch. President Trump has appointed more men and women to our federal courts in the last two years than any administration in American history. And they are all conservatives, like Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh! (Applause.)


    And they're conservatives who will uphold all the God-given liberties enshrined in our Constitution, like the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. (Applause.)

    You know, the freedom of religion is not just enshrined in our Constitution; it's enshrined in the hearts of the American people. But make no mistake about it: Freedom of religion is under attack in our country. Lately, it's actually become fashionable for media elites and Hollywood liberals to mock religious belief.

    My own family recently came under attack just because my wife Karen went back to teach art to children at a Christian school. Let me say, before all of you, I couldn't be more proud of my wife. (Applause.) She's a Marine Corps mom. She's a great schoolteacher. And Karen Pence is a great Second Lady for the United States of America. (Applause.)

    But let me be clear on this point: This is not about us. It's about all of you. It's about the sincerely held belief of millions of Americans who cherish their Christian faith and Christian education. And so I'll make you a promise: Under this President and this administration, we will always stand with people of faith. We will always defend the freedom of religion of every American of every faith, so help us God. (Applause.)

    And as we reflect on our God-given liberties, I got to tell you, I couldn't be more proud to serve as Vice President to the most pro-life President in American history. (Applause.)

    Since the first days of this administration, President Donald Trump has stood without apology for the sanctity of human life. In one of his very first acts, the President reinstated the Mexico City Policy, preventing taxpayer dollars from funding abortion or abortion providers around the world. And here at home, President Trump signed a law to allow all 50 states to defund Planned Parenthood. (Applause.) Life is winning in America once again.

    But for all the progress we're making - tragically, at the very moment that more Americans than ever before are embracing the right to life, leading members of the Democratic Party are embracing a radical agenda of abortion on demand.

    In state legislatures across the country, Democrats have endorsed late-term abortion. The Democrat governor of Virginia openly defends infanticide. And just four short days ago -

    AUDIENCE: Booo -

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: - Democrats in the Senate, including every Democratic senator running for president, voted against a bill that would prevent newborn babies who survived failed abortions from being killed.

    You know, I've long believed that a society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable: the aged, the infirmed, the disabled, and the unborn.

    With Democrats standing for late-term abortion, infanticide, and a culture of death, I promise you this President, this party, and this movement will always stand for the unborn. We will always defend the unalienable right to life. (Applause.)

    So we've restored American strength and security at home, and we're doing the same thing around the world. And today, under the leadership of President Trump, the United States of America is once again standing proudly as leader of the free world - (applause) - like when this President kept his promise to our most cherished ally and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel! (Applause.)

    So we've stood with our allies and we've stood up to our enemies. We've taken the fight to radical Islamic terrorists on our terms, on their soil.

    In Iraq and Syria, thanks to the courage of our armed forces and our coalition partners, the ISIS caliphate has been decimated, and our troops have liberated 5 million men, women, and children. (Applause.) To see the extraordinary progress they've made in liberating millions from the vicious grip of ISIS, I say with conviction, again, what has been said throughout history: The Armed Forces of the United States are the greatest force for good in the history of the world. (Applause.)

    At this very hour, along the Euphrates River, the last mile of territory, where the black flag of ISIS once flew, is being captured.


    And in the wake of these gains, President Trump has announced that the United States will begin to hand the fight off to our partner and bring our troops home. (Applause.) But be assured of this: We will keep a strong presence in the region. We will get our allies to do more in the fight against ISIS. And together, we will hunt down and destroy the remnants of ISIS wherever and whenever they rear their ugly head - (applause) - so they can never threaten our people or our allies again. (Applause.)

    And with that strong leadership on the world stage, President Trump has also confronted the greatest threat to peace and security in the Middle East when he withdrew the United States of America from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. (Applause.)