washington journal and find scheduling information for the tv networks and radio. plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. your proceed washington anytime, anywhere. >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you're from world whereyou stand on the issues . c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span . powered by cable. >> arkansas senator come, was

the key speaker at this lincoln day dinner hosted by the republican committee of allegheny county pennsylvania. after hisspeech editor cotton greeted attendees and took photos . [applause] >> thank you so much for that incredibly kind introduction. you know, usually you want your parents to hear that but if i'm being honest i wish our teenage daughters heard tonight. i get a little more respective. i really such an honor to be here tonight to see you and the great people of allegheny county. two fans have given so much. those of you know sam know that his whole life has been at about service. service to the county since 2015, service to the community as a dedicated and

successful businessman . and service to the party, culminating in the selection of chairman in 2019. but sam's lifetime of service started long before that in the united states marine corps. sam once told me when you put that uniform on, and take the oath to protect, defend and serve the country you never stopserving. reyou are a true patriot and a public service . [applause] and so as our guest of honor tonight, my dear friend senator tom cotton. tom and his wonderful wife anna asked both dedicated their lives as if to the national security of this country. a decorated, veteran, concert

in 101st airborne division. [applause] the original band of brothers and in the third infantry division, the old guard at arlington cemetery. after leaving the army he was elected to congress in 2012 and since 2014 he has represented his home state of arkansas and the united states senate. he is a man who wakes up every day thinking about how to protect and defend america . in the senate tom is a leader on the intelligence, armed services and judiciary committee. when i have the honor of serving as deputy national security adviser to president from he was truly an invaluable advisor to the president and to the white house . i remember sitting in the oval office and listening as he helps the president develop and national security strategy that be back around. that defeated terrorists around the world and that

helps orchestrate the groundbreaking abraham records that brought peace between our allies israel and its arab neighbors. the first piece to be having 40 years. recently,, near best-selling book called sacred duty about his former unit, the old guard and its enduring vigil at arlington cemetery. in it he describes the great lengths our nation goes to to recover, to honor and memorialize our fallen warriors. we do these things he wrote for them but also for us, the living. their stories of wisdom, of sacrifice, of patriotism remind us what is best in

ourselves. and they teach all of our children what is best in america. ladies and gentlemen, senator tom cotton . >> thank you. thank you all. gosh, thank you all very much for that incredibly warm welcome and dana, thank you for thatgreat introduction . sam, i have to say i am so grateful to be here. i was supposed to be here five years ago but one of my bundles of joy gave me the flu so i regret it's been five years to cash my rain check but it's great to be back in pittsburgh among so

many great patriotswho have made the republican party what it is today . i'm so grateful for all of you who've made our state and nation but i and my peers in washington couldn't do that without allof you . we couldn't do out that without the marianne malloy's of pennsylvania and arkansas and all across america. i was so blessed to be able to visit with nmarianne. hethe purpose of the visit when i walked in the door of although a lot of you have been kind i think she's illness so thank you marianne, thankyou sam for having me . we are at a turning point in this country. the election this year will be historic. with america under assault from the left and conservatives under attack, we have to redouble our efforts to win everywhere and that starts right here inthe keystone state .or

you've got so many great candidates for governor who are going to reverse the animal's disastrous policy and make sure that hischief eight or a better job. hero goes looking for work in november . and to say although to me is one of my favorite senators i am confident you are not just going to send another republican, you're going to send him one who is going to be even greater than to me in the united states senate. i just say that because patis not here watching but don't tell him . but it really is vital. that's where win the election for governor, for senator,

for some of these important house races and all acrossthe country . put the brakes on the biden agenda. to protect this country. that's what the american people expect republicans to do is to protect americans and protect our country, protect our pocketbooks. protect our families andour communities. i know it seems like you're up against the wall sometimes but it may be a tough job . but we all need to have the courage of our convictions to do the right thing and seethe fight to the end . you know, it reminds me of that time with my oldest son gabriel. we were reading one of his favorite books, rick warren's children's bible stories. i see some of you nodding. i said what do you want to read and he said i want to read david versus goliath. i said that's great, why do you want to read that? g

he said i like that because the little guy kills the big f guy in the story. he'd only read it 182 times by then and i said that's great son. i said do you know who the bad guys were in david versus goliath ? i said no son and he said the philippines. i said, close son. i think you mean the philistines the philippines are a nation off the coast of india . but we had one of those moments where kids put old wisdom in a . he said daddy, do you know why able david was ableto beat the giants ? because he believed in god who gave him the courage to do whatwas right . [applause] a drill sergeant in basic training used to say you need to do all hard right over the easy wrong.

over there for my fellow veterans, it's the hard right for the easy wrong, that's what thecountry expects us to do . at least on the hard thing, the foolish thing as i went in to see him and i said i want to sign up for the army. he said what do you want to do and i said i want to go to officer school, go to infantry school, ranger school and go downrange and he said what do you do for a living? i was dressed like this and not a lot of people go into the recruiting station in stripmall stress like this . and i said i'm a lawyer. he said you know sir we can sign you up. our army needs jack's and if you're motivated by go going overseas it's faster and it's only six or eight months of training.

you can be a captain, not the lieutenant so you'll makemore money . he said i said i want to go to infantry school, air force school, ranger school. he said you're not a very good lawyer are you sir ? and. [applause] i'm afraid he was right about that but he signed me up. so i was able to join like some of the veterans i've met here tonight become part of the 9/11 generation, thousands of americans from all walks of life who answered the call to do our duty after the power's response to go defend their freedom aroundthe world . nothing special about us. we simply did all generations of americans going back to 7070 1770 6f done. what's all those young men and women whose pictures i saw have done. as i drove him to the airport

from tease rock and saw the banners on those light posts. of pennsylvania's own who have given their lives in service of their country, going back decades and centuries. honored every day in your communities here in pennsylvania. because we owed them everything that we have today and we know it to them to hi defend this great country just like they did. [applause] and who's going to do it if republicans want? the democrats don't have what it takes to defend this country and keepit safe. joe biden certainly doesn't . joe biden has forgotten that the surest way to preserve the peace bis to maintain our strength. only the strong can survive in a dangerous world. only the strong can preserve

their freedom. only the strong can protect the week. only the strong can afford being merciful. yet joe biden's weakness has unleashed chaos and conflict all around the world. it was barely 6 months ago when we saw the collapse of kabul. when job left behind hundreds of americans. thousands of brave afghans who had served alongside ofus . he called that an extraordinary success. ladies and gentlemen, that is not an extraordinary success. i'm sorry, that is defeat with dishonor and republicans would never let it happenh again . [applause] we were humiliated

in front of the world in afghanistan because of joe biden's incompetence. we lost 13 brave troopers who should have never been there and is it any surprise that a month after kabul fell vladimir putin began to mass forces on ukraine's border because you weakness is provocative. he saw what had happened in afghanistan in addition to what had been happening the day joe biden took office. a series of wheat, one-sided concessions where there was a bad arms-control treaty or that gas pipeline running to germany or the summit in europe or the refusal to

retaliate for cyber attacks in the colonial pipeline and other critical infrastructure . and he thought joe biden can't stand up to a depraved seventh century band of savages in afghanistan. there's no way he can stand up to a nuclear armed russia in europe. and unfortunately, four months he didn't. we saw in september and october and november and january the build up of those forces. it may not have been public, you may not have known it i promise you we knew it and we never signaled to russia that we wouldn't stand for it. all those weapons were rushing to ukraine right now, we didn't rush there and all those months. all those sanctions we imposed on russia, we didn't impose then. every step of the way, every

step, president biden tingled that we would stand idly by while russia invaded a sovereign nation of 45 million souls. and unfortunately that's exactly what happened three weeks ago. now, i welcome some of the steps he's taken since then t but i have to say he is still pussyfooting around . hemming and honda, hedging and training. not sharing intelligence but sharing a little bit more. providing antitank missiles but not providing antiaircraft missiles. telling ukraine that it's a okay if poland give you those aircraft but it would be a dangerousprovocation if the united states gave them to you . how does that figure?e exactly the logic he had all last fall and winter. we can't send weapons to

ukraine because if we do vladimir putin mike is a. how foolish does it look in retrospect? every step of the way, president biden has been dragged kicking and screaming to do what we should have doneweeks ago . whether it was by president zelensky or the ukrainian people are congress and it's still happening. and if you won't take the steps necessary, then i promise you i and republicans in the congress will. we will make sure ukraine gets them. [applause] because ukraine has earned the right to defend its territory and defendants people. i've got to tell you, i was so heartened, so heartened on that drive-in that in addition to seeing those banners honoring america's

fallen to see multiple homes who had notjust an american flag flying outside but the ukrainian flag as well . and i bet some of those homes belong to descendents of ukrainians. who we today for their home nation and want to support it. just like here tonight i've seen so many people like mary barber right here wearing a ukrainian flag alongside her american flag or a written in ukraine's national colors. or father jason, stand up father. [applause] i'm not sure all of you heard the story before he blessed us tonight because we're still sitting down. father jason, the ukrainian

catholic church recently returned from ukraine where he helped save 22 orphaned babies. [applause] he and his associates saved 22 souls. who might otherwise sadly feature in the future video like the one president zelensky played yesterday showing the e slaughter of innocents acrossukraine . these people have earned the right to defend themselves. they have earned the right to have the unconditional support of the american people and american arms. and we should arm every last ukrainian in that country until they can defend their territory and reclaimtheir freedom . [applause] what you see in

ukraine is the responsibility of vladimir putin, a brutal dictator who launched a naked war of aggression without provocation. but also the fault of western leaders who included president biden who didn't take themseriously . who didn't stop them before it happened. who failed to heed the lessons ofhistory . that's the price of weakness in the world. that's the kind of conflict and chaos that president biden's weakness as unleashed in the world and we are paying for it and the ukrainian people are paying for it. and until we stand up to it and until we stand up to other brutal dictators like xi jinping we will risk paying for it more in the future. we won't only pay for it abroad.

in the form of conflict and chaos, we pay for it at home as well . because it's also unaffordable to live in joe biden's america today. that is the direct result of his failed policies, not only his failed ukraine policy but that taxing and spending and regulating that has caused inflation to hit 40 year highs at eight percent . driving from the airport today i saw gas prices, $4.50 a gallon, $4.60 a gallon. in arkansas the dollar store had to change its name to the dollar and a half store. it's like the 1970s all over again. we have russia invadingother countries . we have an energy crisis. we have gas prices through the roof.

and we have an incompetent democrat in the white house. pretty soon joe biden's probably going to tell you to turn down your thermostat, put on a sweater . actually some of you may already be doing that because of the price of your heating bills thanks to joe biden's policies. these prices are not affordable for working americans. and what's worse, we've done it to ourselves.i can't by canceling the keystone pipeline, but refusing to approve other pipelines, by refusing to approve natural gas export facilities, i cancelingleases on public lands and permits . what do we do in joe biden's america when we ban the import of russian oil? we go begging to countries like iran and venezuela.

there is more than enough oil and gas in pennsylvania alone to replace what weimport from russia. it would only produce it right here in america . [applause] but what's the solution? their solution is $4.50 a gallon gas. that is not a problem for the democrats, that is what they want. they told you that for years. because they want you to get out of your pickup truck and out of your suv. they wanted to look downtown on high-rises or take the e subway or take the train or ride an electric moped or whatever it is that the buttigieg takes to work this week. speaking of the buttigieg he wants you to drive a $350,000 electric car, a car that can get you on one charge to cleveland. not many people from pittsburgh will go to cleveland . i guess maybe to see the

steelers beat the browns. these are not accidents. these are not accidents, this is what they want and this is what theycannot have . that is why it's so important that we stand up and we fight back. joe biden said in his state of the union he wants to make things in america again except for oil and gas.it's time to make everything including oil and gas in america and that includes right here in pennsylvania . [applause] but if we're going to protect our country and were going to protect our pocketbooks joe biden's inflation we have to protect our workers right here in america as well. we have to protect them from decades of bad trade deals which to be honest were pursued by both partiestoo often . that includes two of the most disastrously wrong decisions of a generation. giving communist china

permanent normal trade relations and admitting them to the wto. congress just voted today to revoke permanent normal trade relations from russia. we should vote tomorrow to do the same thing from russia. [applause] ebecause we haven't funded the rise of the world's communist superpower. our most dangerous adversary. and they done it through every crime in the book. through illegal dumping and subsidies. currently currency manipulation. economic espionage intellectual property theft, even the use of slave labor to this day and it's cost us

dearly. here in pennsylvania it's costing 30 percent of your manufacturing jobs . 230,000 families without a breadwinner because of these failed trade policies. it's time to turn them around . it's time to protect our workers and make sure they have good, high paying manufacturing jobs in the united states. [applause] but you know, if we're going to protect our workers it's not just open trade policies that have hurt them, it's open border policies for thelast 30 years as well . for too long our country as imported cheap, illegal labor to take american jobs and drive down american wages and it needs to stop now. i know that we're long way away from the mexican border right now . hundred thousand of our fellow citizens died ofopioid overdose . 100,000.io

friends, when hunt 100,000 americans are dying every er year every state is a border state and every town is a border town and it's time to secure our border and finish the wall . [applause] and it's not just illegal immigration at the border. it's time to crackdown on employers who abuse our laws and higher illegal labor to take american workers jobs. now, i know. i hear it all the time. there's been ceos of companies who don't like that and tell me americans do this job. folks, there is no job hard-working americans will not do . . my response to those ceos would be one of you pay them more? why don't you give them better training, more benefits and why don't you treat them a little bit better and that's what the republican party stands for.

now of course, immigration doesn't just hurt our workers and families. it also threatens our communities. and i want to talk nowabout republican party's responsibility to protect our communities and families and our kids . crime isskyrocketing all across our imcountry . driven in no small part by our wide open border and the drugs and illegal immigrant criminals crossing that border. the democrats want to condemn our criminal justice system as inherently racist. and i know the prosecutors and sheriffs and police officers i've met tonight find that deeply offensive. and i find it deeplyoffensive . yet that's what the democrats believe. every stage of our criminal justice system systematically racist so what do they want to do?

they want to let felons out of prison. when you get arrested and charged with a crime they don't want to hold you in jail, they want to eliminate our mail system and when you're convicted by a jury of yourpeers and want to reduce sentences and eliminate mandatory minimums . and what has resulted? the worst increase in the murder rates on record. those hundred thousand drug overdoses last year nationwide, 5000 right here in the keystone state. 13 of your fellow citizens on average every day dying in pennsylvania from drugs largely coming across our wide open border. you've got prosecutors like larry glassner in philadelphia who refused to even prosecute violent and serious crime. you let a third of all criminals out of jail, whatdo

you think happens ? a 40 percent increase in the murder rate. democrats want to defund the police. they want to undermine the rule of law . they want to excuse and apologize for criminals. that my friends is not what republicans do. we stand up for law enforcement. we always back the blue. we will never defund the police . [applause] and we believe that there's one place for criminals. it's behind bars. it's time to lock them up once again until our streets and our communities are safe. that's what the american people expect from us. that's what we have to deliver for them.

that's the kind of future that our kids deserve. to be able to walk to school in the morning without fear. for our parents to be able to drop them at the bus stop. go play in a park. we can deliver that kind of safety again. and speaking of our kids, our kids deserve a lot betterthan they've gotten over the last two years . from the school lockdowns to the zoom schools to the mask mandates, we have abandoned a generation of kids to 2 years of terrible learning loss they will never recover from because democratic governors and joe biden raall want to control your kids lives better than you can control them yourself.

republicans will always stand up for the right of parents to teach and educate and raise their kids. [applause] you know, it's a sad fact that those kids are never going to get those 2 years back and the kids who lost the most are the ones who aremost vulnerable . who are least privileged. who needed it the most. one thing we could do though is to perhaps give them a measure of justice . is to fire tony fauci. [applause] i don't know if you agree with me or not but i don't bthink tony fauci is right there he often rather than sitting in the white house trying to dictate how our kids are going to learn

or how our businesses are going to operate, sitting on cnn or msnbc pontificating about things of which he knows nothing, i think it would be better for tony fauci to answer to the congress and the american people for his repeated lies about the pandemic including his role in funding the labs that likely caused the pandemic. [applause] but you know, sadly as bad as it was to have those kids locked down in school for so long, in some ways it's even worse what they're exposed to in their curriculum when they go back to school . we have a bunch of left-wing radicals in our schools chthat n'can't even teach our children long division because they're too busy teaching them racial

division. they're teaching them to hate their country. they are indoctrinating them with their strange weird radical views about race and sex. at the youngest ages. as opposed to teaching them the skills they need to succeed in our world. and teaching them that this is a good and noble country and they should lovethis country and stand up and salute its flag . well, republicans and i bet your next republican governor in pennsylvania along with your legislature will turn things around. we're going to make sure you're in charge of your kids and your kids get

the skills they need and your kids are taught to hate america or heat each other. we're going to do that in part by banning critical race theory from our schoolsacross the country . i know all this seems like a big ask. i know it does. sometimes it seems like you may be alonely voice of sanity . but trust me. i traveled pretty widely. i've talked to a lot of our fellow citizens and there are millions of tamericans just like you. they might not speak up a lot. they may not come to a republican party event. but they are with us. they believe that this country should be defended. they want asrepublican party that protects this country and protects them and protect their families . i promiseyou , millions of people outthere just like you even if they don't speak up .

i meet them all the time. sometimes you meet them inthe streets, in the most unexpected places . a while back joe biden had a crazy nominee in front of one of my committees . i know that doesn't narrow it down very much . she had testified back in summer of 2020 during the blm riots all americans harbor racial bias so i asked her simply who do you harbor racial bias against? let's just say she was tongue-tied, didn't have an answer. the next day i was walking down the halls of the senate passed a capitol police officer whose african-american. we've known each other for six years, we don't talk politics. we consider it unprofessional to talk politics with the careerstaff at the capital unless they raise it . we talk about our kids, talk aboutthe weather .

he said senator cotton, he said you were great at the judiciary committee yesterday . i said i don't know didn't know you go around watching committee hearings. i didn't normally but i watched it and my son is a junior at college . they've been filling his head with these lies and nonsense from the moment he stepped on campus. and i taught him since he was a kid that america doesn't oh him anything. we all america everything and it was good for him to hear from the united statessenator what his dad has been telling him the last 20 years . [applause] and i could tell stories like that all night long but the razorbacks tipoff at 9:20. i'll just leave you with one

last story. i used to get asked when i was in the army, still do sometimes why is the flag reversed by our soldiers uniforms? and it is on the right shoulder. and the answer, it's a head nodding from my fellow veterans. i said it goes back to the days of horse mounted cavalry charges . the soldiers brought horses into battle and carried the colors with them. you see the flag flying in reverse and we still haven't reversed it on their uniform today until our forces are long gone . to remind our enemies and our friends alike that army never retreats and always advances. and a time when america is

under assault and conservatives are under attack i think it's a good lesson for all of us. we will never retreats. we will never surrender and we will never back downto protect this great country . [applause] ladies and gentlemen, god bless you. god bless pennsylvania and god bless the united states of america. [applause] >>. >>. [inaudible] >>. [inaudible] you can

prescribed any medication, i've never had ... [inaudible] >> picture real quick. >> appreciate you. >> i wanted to meet johnny's cousin. >>. [inaudible] you are related to john than? >> somehow, right. >> thank you.

how are you. >>. [inaudible] >> thank you for what you did . absolutely. >> what battalion were you in in the 101st ? >> commander in the 311 battalion in the 80s. reactivated it there. >> it was activated. >> where you at campbell?

506 i was at campbell maybe nine or 11 and the divisions one through again. >>. [inaudible] >> they still have the flag but they're farther out. >> anyway, you should be a baptist preacher. nice speech. take a picture with you? >>. [inaudible] thanks for all the work.

>> i actually worked for charlie kirk. >> nice meeting you, thankyou for your work . >> my pleasure, sir. >> go razorbacks.

>> thank you. you ready? >> thank you guys. good job. >>. >> nice to meet you.

>>. [inaudible] >> thank you for yourservice . one, two, three. >> i started getting gray hair after that.

>>. >> it's a privilege. your call. >> thank you. >> my brother was in the old guard . >> thank you so much.

>> i'm so excited. >>. [inaudible]

>> it wasn't me. [laughter]. >> thank you. were you sleeping on or jumping out of them ? >>. [inaudible]

>> thank you for all you do. >> thank you so much. you are amazing.

what do you do now?

[inaudible] >> thanks for your service. appreciate it. how are you doing? >> how are you. nice to meet you. thank you. >> we have to get the majority before worry about that. >> nice to meet you.

>> how are you? >> you are my hero. you really are. >> thank you so much. >> i don't want my picture taken. i just want to say hi. >> thank you. >> all, my gosh, so handsome. thank you so much. >> nice to meet you. >> how are you? >> good, good. [inaudible conversations]

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other television providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> booktv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 8 p.m. eastern jacob mchangama and host of the podcast clear and present danger talks about his book free speech, history from socrates to social media. at 10 p.m. eastern on "after words" former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch and author of lessons from the edge a memoir reflects on her career, u.s.-russian relations and her congressional testimony during the first impeachment hearings the former president donald trump and she's interviewed by new yorker staff writer susan glasser. watch booktv every sunday on c-span2, and find a full schedule on your program guide

or watch online any time at booktv.org. >> at least six president recorded conversations while in office. hear many of those conversations on c-span's new podcast, presidential recordings. >> season one focuses on lyndon johnson. you'll hear about the 1964 civil rights act, the 1964 presidential campaign, the gulf of tonkin incident, the march on selma and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson secretaries new because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact, they were the ones who make sure that the conversations were taped as johnson would singled to them through an open door between his office and there's. >> you also are some blunt talk. >> gym. i want a report of the number of people assigned to kennedy on me

the day he died and the number assigned to me now. and it might are not less i want them less right quick. >> yes, sir. >> and if i i can't ever go te bathroom, i won't go. i promise you i won't go anywhere. i'll just a right behind these black gates. >> president to recordings. find on the c-span now mobile app aware of you get your podcasts. >> the leaders of u.s. central command and u.s. ever command testified on global threats and security challenges facing the u.s. and its allies. the generals agreed russia presents the most immediate nuclear threat to the u.s. while discussing the russian invasion of ukraine. other topics included iran, the withdrawal from afghanistan, and china's influence in the middle east and africa. [inaudible conversations]