[applause] >> and we have a special guest here today. and i've had the honor of linda and i of being with senator scott before -- right before the event. and senator scott is going to be -- i know he's going to talk to us about the things he's going to do for iowa and specifically for our senate seat here. and i've asked several people including two of his colleagues. i talked to senator grassley earlier today. and senator ernst. and i have talked. and you may live in the sunshine state, senator, but i

think joni, you have the final word on this, but i think -- can we all agree that he can come in without a passport, without a ticket anytime he wants into iowa? is that correct? anytime. ok. [applause] and we don't do that for everybody, senator scott. just those that are planning on spending millions of dollars for our senate seat. that's it. that small elite group. but in sincerity, you've followed your career, the steady hand, the checkoff while you were governor of florida just tick them off right down the line. if you google rick scott, you'll see promises he made in the campaigns and then you'll see when he gets to the end, because they term limit in florida, and you can see everything that he actually was able to accomplish. very steady. and following through on promises. and i just know that's why florida has deemed you their

senator. i just know that's why our senate seat is going to be safe for you. we truly do appreciate, we truly do appreciate you coming up here and gracing us with your presence and let's give an iowa hawkeye or cyclone or panthers welcome to senator rick scott! [applause] sen. scott: it's really nice to be here. the sun is really nice. it is about 40 degrees warmer in my house. [laughter] so i grew up in the midwest. i was born in illinois and grew up in kansas city, missouri, and i got to florida as fast as i could. because i -- i hated snow. and ice storms and all those things. but it's a beautiful day here. and i'm very appreciative, jeff, and linda, for inviting me. joni and i -- i've been up there two years, and we've had the opportunity to work

together. we're on armed services together. and you have a wonderful senator in joni ernst of the she cares about this state -- ernst. she cares about this state. like senator grassley been there long enough knows his way around. and they are committed to making sure money doesn't get wasted and they -- you can't talk to them without talking about iowa farmers and iowa farmers and iowa farmers. and iowans. they really represent their state. and that's our job. our job is to go up there and represent our states. and you have two wonderful people. so let's give joni and chuck grassley a round of applause. [applause] i want to congratulate congresswoman miller meeks. in my -- i've won -- by such a wide margin, we relate. i think in -- all my races together i've had one primary and three generals i think i've won by 150,000 votes -- we have 13 million voters.

so -- they've all been close. my last race i had to win three times. i had two runoffs. i had the -- the democrats all over the state. 1,000 lawyers. it was work. we were able to do it. thanks for standing up and fighting. it made a difference. [applause] and i wish you the best of luck. i look forward to working with you and making sure that we do what you're talking about. we have to make it so this is a country that we all want to continue to live in and our kids and grandkids have the opportunity to live the dream. so the first thing people have asked me since i got into this my first race was 10 years ago why in the world would you do this? i mean, it seems pretty mean-spirited. sometimes you fool like you can't get anything -- you feel like you can't get anything done. and i blame everything on my mom. so i was -- i was born in illinois. she was a single mom. we lived in public housing. and she was -- i thought my mom was the toughest person in the world. she said you will go to church

all the time. you will be an eagle scout. you're going to make straight a's and get out of the house and make some money. i started selling things door to door. when "tv guide's" were sold door to door i sold 50 cop ace week. and i grew up in this country and didn't matter we were broke. you could be anything if you grew up in the united states of america. and there's no other place like this. and i actually believed her. and i -- i joined the navy at 18. my mom eventually remarried to an army. he did all the combat jumps in the 82nd airborne and second world war. wonderful guy. i joined the navy. he told me how great the army was. [laughter] got married at 19 -- i got married at 19. we now have two daughters and six grandsons and a beautiful granddaughter. so -- my wife and i have been blessed. we've lived the dream. i love business. i got into business and built the largest hospital company in the country. i've built a whole bunch of manufacturing companies.

i love being in business because you can go try things and you had -- you got to work with a lot of people. it was a ball. in 2010, i decided to run for governor in florida. and the reason i -- i won -- we had lost -- think about florida state. in 2010, in four years, we had lost 800,000 jobs. do you realize go back then more people were leaving the state than moving in the state of florida. home prices in four years had dropped by 50%. 50%. i mean, it was a tough place to do business. so i ran and i ran -- i said i have seven steps to 700,000 jobs over seven years. the weather or sports, i said i have a seven-step plan for 700,000 jobs over seven years. i said that a gazillion times. and i shocked everyone and won the primary. every republican republican

endorse -- every republican endorsed my opponent. and i ran the state like a business. and you have to have a plan and work your plan and you say i'm going to get this done. i'm going to figure it out. and you surround yourself with good people and we did. so we -- in eight years, we didn't do 700,000 jobs. the private sector did 1.7 million jobs. all right? we paid down a third of the state debt. the state of florida had increased the state debt by over a billion dollars every year for 20 straight years. we are going to go in default on our school debt when i got elected. and they gave me a $4 billion zest when i walked in. we paid off a third of the state debt. $10.5 billion. we cut over $10 billion of taxes. cut taxes and fees every year i could do it. we cut taxes and fees. we did it by -- my first year even with the budget deficit. and we ended one record revenues. people flocked to our state. businesses came to our state. we had record funding for education, transportation. for the environment.

because we had a good budget. eventually. and at the end when we finished, we were number one in higher education. generally the top five or so in k-12 education. and out of 20 -- we had 22 million people when i left. we only were down to 61,000 people in unemployment. because everybody could get a job. there were plenty -- we needed more workers the whole time. so i ran for the senate in 2018 with the same belief. if you run the federal government the way we run our states, where you are held accountable, you balance your budget every year. you watch how you spend your tax dollars. anything is doable. but as we know that's not what's happening in d.c. it's frustrating. the democrats think there's no limit to debt. they think you don't have to get a return on any money you spend. they're living in a fantasy land. they think inflation will never happen. look at the -- look at the so-called covid bill. they don't tell you what's in it.

but it's going to take us to $30 trillion of debt. think about it. 20 years ago we had less than $6 trillion worth of debt. we are now going to be at $30 trillion worth of debt. and if you look at what -- what actually about the next one, $2.5 trillion -- it will be $4 trillion they're going to spend. how -- who's going to pay for that? all right? and it wasn't a covid bill. less than 10% had anything to do with covid. the so-called infrastructure bill has nothing to do with infrastructure. it's a bunch of liberal priorities. they're going to try to make americans dependent on government. it doesn't work. i mean, none of this -- what they're doing makes no sense. i went to the border. all right. we did an aerial tour and i went with the governor from arizona. we went along the border. here's how the border looks. you have a nice wall that they built. right? but then every so often they have gates and didn't put the gates up because biden said don't put the gates up. people just walk through.

they have these beautiful lights and cap rass so the border pa -- and cameras so the border can watch rather than walk along the wall the whole time and they didn't electrify them and decided to shut it down. it makes zero sense what they're doing. he won't go to the border. he puts kamala harris in charge and she doesn't go to the border and believes in open borders. she doesn't -- wants to decriminalize illegal border crossings and take our tax dollars and pay for health care for illegal immigrants. think about this. he put in charge kamala harris like -- like having an arsonist be your firefighter. [laughter] think about this. it's like having andrew cuomo doing a seminar on sexual harassment. i mean, this stuff is crazy. it makes zero sense what they're doing. and then the latest is they got their election bill. they say if you do anything, anything in this country, to

make sure an election is fair, that's voter suppression and you're racist. think about this. have you ever got on an airline without showing your i.d.? those airlines, what are they, racist? rent a car do, they ask for your i.d.? yeah. that's not racist. they're calling the filibuster, everything is racist. and i have this new job as the chairman of the national republican senatorial committee and americans that think you should have an i.d., 77%. register to vote so you can vet people, absolutely. should your vote be in on time? yes. but not the democrats. i mean, their goal is they -- they want to allow fraud for one purpose. to win elections. they don't care if year vote is diluted. they just -- they will do anything, we just went through.

they'll do anything to get power. and that's what they're doing every day. so what we're going to do is we're -- we absolutely can win this. but it's no different than what you just went through here. if we stand up for what we believe in, we win. the public is completely on our side. even democrats are on our side. they know you should have -- have to have an i.d. they know your signature ought to match if you do a mail-in ballot. but we got to talk about it. we can't be intimidated when they say oh you're a racist because you believe in voter integrity. so this is -- this is ours to win. and if we do it now, if we -- if we fight over -- you're going to stop wasting our money and put this debt on, this is -- it's our country. we can win this. so -- and this new job as chair of the nrsc what we have -- we have to win the senate back. we have 20 republicans up, 14 democrats.

five of our seats are open seats. so what i'm doing is recruiting good candidates. traveling the state. traveling the country and raising money. the last four days i was in alabama. mississippi. tennessee. and here. we're raising money. we're finding good candidates. and we're going to win. because republicans and independents and some democrats are fed up with the biden agenda. it's not a good agenda for this country. i think about what my mom said. my mom said in this country, you can be anything. but not with the biden agenda. so i'm going to do everything i can, if you have anything you think i need to work on, to make sure we get a majority back call me. i return phone calls. i return emails. i'm committed to winning this two years from now. so thank you for the opportunity to be here. i think -- i think if you look at what you've got with -- with joni and chuck grassley, you got fighters. i'm going to do the same thing of the we're going -- same

thing. we're going to fight this agenda. i want my kids and grandkids to have the same opportunity i had. the best thing you can give your grandkids is the opportunity to live the dream of this country and that's what i'm going to do. so thank you very much. [applause] >> i just texted senator grassley, senator scott. and i said that senator scott is bragging you up, up here in cedar rapids. do you have a message for him? >> win. >> he said win. i was hoping -- if i have time to check afterward i say you will announce to everyone that he is running. sen. scott: we see each other mostly on the senate floor. so every time i see him, i say, chuck, are you raising money? have you announced your race yet? so every time. joni says she has to be nicer about it. i don't. i got elected to have an agenda. win elections. and chuck can win. [applause]

>> and i would be remiss talking about voter integrity couldn't agree with you more. we have three of our legislators here tonight. and i just want to make sure that our senator and our two representatives, scott, i'm proud to tell you that iowa i think was in first to pass one of the strongest voter integrity bills in the country. thank you. [applause] so -- sen. scott: something else republican senatorial committee is going to do is in these lawsuits we're going to get involved. we have -- we're a party to the iowa lawsuit on behalf of the state. and on the georgia lawsuit. so we are all in. we're going to fight to win for the next two years. and we're going to continue to do it after that. we will get a marnlt back in the seat -- majority back in the seat. >> thank you very much. [applause] and just so you know your republican party of iowa is also a litigant in that lawsuit as well. so i'm going to actually bring up a another lady. i don't think you need much of an introduction.

but just kind of fun to brag on her. it really is. we're going to have -- the two senators up here and i'm going to ask them a few questions. but i just want to -- on her way up there i want to say to you, joni, and i know i speak for everyone, we are -- we are so proud of how you conducted yourself in this last election. we're so proud that your integrity won out over millions and millions of dollars. we're so proud that you haven't forgotten who you are. we're so proud that you are all about iowa. and we are just plain and simple i think politically in love with joni ernst. joni ernst. [applause] sen. ernst: yeah. thank you. please, sit down, everybody. thank you so much. jeff, thank you for the wonderful and kind introduction. and this is my opportunity to say thank you to all of you for the love and support that you

have given me through the last two years of a very, very difficult campaign cycle. and when all of the pundits were saying iowa is leaning left, iowa is leaning democrat, we proved them wrong. and we won by seven points. [applause] ok. but i could not -- could not, could not have done it without you. so god bless you. and so many in this room that were out there knocking on those doors, making those phone calls, sending checks, sending me your prayers. and all of that made a difference. so god bless you. here in iowa our motto, our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. and chuck and i take that very seriously in the united states senate. we carry that with us. and what we see right now coming from the democrats is an affront to our liberties and our rights. and so guaranteed, folks, that

chuck grassley and i partners in crime in the united states senate will continue fighting for those liberties and our rights. so again, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity and the honor to serve the great state of iowa for another six years in our united states senate. i am going to fight every single day for you. and yes, i used the word "fight." and i am going to keep fighting. we know how important this is. the next two years are very pivotal for us. rick scott has a level of optimism that i love. he feels we are going to take the senate back in 2022. i know that with ashley hinson and marinet miller-meeks in the house they will continue to push and we will take the house back in 2022 as well. [applause] this is doable.

we've got to keep the faith, folks. we got to keep the faith. the next two years are going to be very, very trying. there is no doubt about it. but i am a believer and there is a plan, there is a plan. and so we are going to do this, folks. please, stay steady, stay strong, stay with us. and we will take back the majority. so again, god bless you so much. i appreciate all of you. love you. thank you. very much. [applause] jeff: i probably don't need a microphone i would assume. but we've been doing this format for the last year and a half and people have really enjoyed it. and part of the goal of this, and we have not talked about questions. joni, we've done this probably 15 times. sen. ernst: i'm worried! jeff: your staff told me and the governor's staff told me

i'm one of the few folks that you actually don't do prep beforehand. that's a lot of trust you're putting in me. but no. this is an opportunity. i want you to see what makes these folks tick. when it's all said and done, the quality of the individual is the integrity of the individual that we trust when you're in d.c. or whether we're in des moines or your county seat. so i want to start all the way back, senator scott, we'll start with you. you had mentioned that you grew up in a single parent household. you mentioned your wife with -- your mother with great reference. -- reverence. tell me. your story is a great one. it's an american story. there's no doubt about it. why does it matter in terms of your leadership as governor and now as senator, why does it matter where you grew up, the fact you grew up in a single parent home, the fact that you grew up in -- with some pretty meager surroundings, does that matter and why? sen. scott: at least for me, i think about my job every day.

i think about families like mine, kids like me growing up. you know, a lot of times people don't feel like you have a shot. and this country's great because those people do have a shot. and if we -- if that's true forever, then it's a hell of a country to live in. and so that's what i believe in. and sorry. i tried to always think about what i was doing. i always believed the most important thing you can do for anybody is get them a job. if you can get them a job, they can solve all the problems with the world. i watched my dad -- i have an adopted father and my mom eventually remarried to a bus driver and then a truck driver. and he never made any money. i remember when his car got repossessed, devastating to -- to somebody when that happens. so i think -- i think it -- it molds how you think about things. and so -- for me the biggest thing you do every day is give somebody an opportunity to be self-sufficient. and that's because what my mom told me. and also to be optimistic. and she told me you could --

you could be anything. and not what i thought about my mom growing up. i actually thought she was pretty tough. i told all my friends. you don't have anybody like my mom. i mean, she was -- gosh, she was committed. and it was her way or the highway. but i'm very appreciative of her. and -- by the way, she had a great -- to help me when i ran in 2010 and she was a celebrity in florida because of that ad. we ran it so much. so she had a ball. jeff: i wish you folks could have the view i have right now. you are -- you are -- i can see your pride. i mean, the love and the sense of pride you have for your mom, when you were growing up, that says a whole lot about you quite frankly, senator. i appreciate those comments. joni, we all know about the bread sacks. we all know about that -- i got to ask you, if you remember the commercials, about joni wearing bread sacks to her -- to school. i got to ask you, is that accurate? number one. and number two, you also grew up in a -- in a family that

certainly was not financially on top of the world initially. what -- talk a little bit about the same question. sen. ernst: yeah. absolutely. and the bread bags, a lot of you will remember that. and boy, the democrats came after me hard because i had said that my mother used to put bread bags over -- over my shoes. and the point was that when it -- when it ran, we only have one good pair of shoes. and that was to protect it from the mud. because i lived on a farm. it was muddy in the driveway. so if the school bus is coming to pick us up my mother didn't want us to have dirty shoes when we got to school. so because we had those good shoes she would put the bread bags on. and we would secure them with little rubber bands. and the democrats were like oh, that's not how it's done. you put bread bags inside your shoes to keep your feet dry. yeah. but that doesn't keep your shoes clean, you know? so yes. it is accurate.

we did. and my mother had an entire drawer, an entire drawer of bread bags because they came in so handy for everything. we didn't have handy little zip lock bags when i was a kid. you -- packed our lunches, you wear them for shoes, whatever. we were stylish. so the governor actually -- the governor also wore bread bags. and kim and i got into it one time over our bread bags. because she said that her mother put her in wonder bread bags. and i said, well, ooh-la-la, ida nake. last -- i had generic. [laughter] that's how we were raised. and weren't you so embarrassed by that? and no.

because every single kid on our school bus, we all wore bread bags. that's just the way it was. but it didn't bother me a lick. jeff: i just want to warn you in two weeks, i don't know if you remembered, but i'm going to be with you and the governor both. so i'm going to probably initiate that little back-and-forth again. so senator scott, you're a businessman. very successful businessman. you're now a united states senator. what has been most frustrating from the business person perspective about being in the u.s. senate? and what should give us hope about being in the senate? sen. scott: the most frustrating thing about -- it's the same thing in the governor -- when i was governor. is just the lack of accountability. you know, in business, you know, you got -- you have a loan from the bank. you have investors. you have customers. you have employees. and everybody has got to get a return on what -- what they're doing. and in government, just like so

many people just -- and what's going on with the democrats right now, there's no accountability. it's the most frustrating thing is -- in business, you say, this is my goal. and i'm going to spend my money to get a return. and if you don't, you'd stop doing it. not in d.c. right now. i mean, there was no -- if you look at what they're doing now with this new bill and the last bill there's none. so -- you can do it. we were able to do it in florida. i mean, i said that -- according to u.s. news and world report our higher education was number one in the country, well, we did it because i took the new dollars into higher ed and we'll give it to our schools based on three things. what's it cost to get a degree? do you get a job? how much money do you make? pretty basic, right? what did you think about when you were going to school? what is this going to cost me, is something good going to happen at the end? if it's not why am i doing this? and so -- they fought me when i

was governor. but we were able to do it. and that's how we got to be number one in higher ed. but the federal government, boy, there's no accountability. so that's the most frustrating thing. because it's your money. somebody is going to pay for it eventually. and the democrats are really messing up this country. they're creating an unbelievably bad incentive. jeff: you were in the military, joni, you were in the military as well. you were in a combat zone. things had to be organized. things had to be accountable. what's been most frustrating for you and is there some hope that you can throw us to in terms of your experience in the senate? >> is exactly what rick said. you do like someone who would be accountable. it is so frustrating for me, and i will tell you. i am the biggest fan of our u.s. military because you brought this up. i am a big fan of our military. i am very proud of my service. i am proud that rick served.

we have some the colleagues that have served in uniform. when i look at our dod just as an example, our department of defense, i just sent a letter to the secretary of defense austin, because deity -- dod has not completed an audit and we have not had a clean audit. as a former county auditor, as well as someone who served in the military, it is really important we are able to track our dollars and how they are spent and make sure those dollars making cash being spent our meeting our objectives. the dod cannot do that. it was one thing that when secretary mattis was our secretary of defense, he did initiate that audit. he started down the right path.

we still have not had a clean audit. it is very very frustrating. i think if you have enough people that are serving in our great congress that are committed to taking care of our taxpayer dollars, we will continue pushing and making sure those that are accountable are held accountable. that is exactly what we need to do, whether it is the epa, or dod, or the department of homeland security. we need to know how our dollars are being spent and that it meets our objective as the u.s. >> senator scott, not to put you in a quarter, -- corner, but i am the iowa gop chair. we are on tape right now. i have to ask you. i could lose my job. in all seriousness, the

democrats from california, the democrats from new york, they are attacking iowa right now in terms of starting out this wonderful process. the five -- besides the fact that we have done an admirable job in terms of our first nation status and republicans are coming off of close to flawless as you can get with human beings running it. what do you think about this whole process, starting right here in the state? sen. scott: it has worked. so why would you change it? [applause] i have moved around the country. every state is different. every state is unique. what you have extra works for iowa but also works for the country. if you look at the result, the individuals that have come through on the republican side, you have helped give us really good candidates. we have generally done pretty

well in the presidential race. we did not win every time, it is not perfect, but you guys have done a great job. so i would you change it? >> this is the closest i have come to hugging a u.s. senator immediately after meeting them the same afternoon. i will say -- i am not going to, maybe a second visit i may very well, but i appreciate that. our folks will live up to that standard, i promise. >> one thing i was impressed with, joey goes on the floor often to talk about waste of government to try to get people to deal with it. if each test -- if she could just tell you -- they might not do what you are asked no what you're doing all the time. >> you can sign up for my squeal news letter at my webpage. we get suggestions from all of the folks around iowa on certain

areas of waste that they are concerned about and will do some digging into those areas. they will give a squeal award. my staff will talk about it. and pick out the most egregious examples of government waste. but then we also try to come up with the best solution to combat that waste. not only are we pointing it out, it is easy to point out -- way too easy to point out. we have to come up with solutions to combat that waste. you can go out there and sign up. one of the areas i have highlighted just recently because of coronavirus -- we are coming off of coronavirus. we have spent millions of dollars of the u.s. government through the ni -- nih, our national institutes of health, we have given grants, millions of dollars in grants through the

nih to the wuhan institute of virology. that is the infamous wuhan lab. they were doing dangerous studies on bats that could transmit the coronavirus to human beings. u.s. diplomats even -- a number of years ago, raise alarms about what they were seeing at that laugh. -- at that lab. that we were sending taxpayer dollars two. they threw up the warning flag. they alerted folks in washington dc and said there are dangerous, unsecure conditions at the slab. and yet, they continued to receive our dollars. it is things like that that we are ferreting out with the other entities, like the white coast -- white coat waste project.

we are out there coming up with these horrible, horrible spender chairs through the u.s. government but we are trying to put a stop to it. those are the things i have been working on with my staff. i could give you literally billions of examples of dollars that have gone to projects like that. for the life of me, i cannot believe we send millions of dollars to the commonest party of china to do those types of studies. that is what we are working on. thank you, rick. these are efforts i will continue to engage in. >> can both view you -- i know this group in here is worried about holding the filibuster. can the two of you just talk about the importance of holding this filibuster? what you think the prospects are? sen. scott: you have the

filibuster to make sure you have thorough discussion before you pass a bill. that is the whole theory of it. real debate and real concert station -- real conversation and everyone gets to participate. right now, it appears we are lying on two centers, -- two senators to hold it or not. my belief is to -- i do not know what they will do. i know what we can do. we can make sure the things they are trying to do that all americans know about it. in my role as chair of the national republican senatorial committee, we are already running for ads in four states, states where we believe we can pick up senate seats, arizona, ads in english and spanish, nevada, ads in english and spanish, new hampshire into georgia in english. we're talking about the importance of election security and that you have the id -- an

id to vote. how many of you think you should be able to get on a plane or do any of these things without an id? none of us do. on top of that, did you realize in the bill that democrats wants, they will take your tax dollars and give it to candidates -- six dollars for every dollars they raise to basically do whatever they want, including attack ads? the way i think we will keep the filibuster is we will make sure how everyone knows how bad these democrat ideas are. $30 trillion worth of debt now. it will be 32 trillion, 33 trillion, 34 trillion with their new spending. what i can do in this job is get information out. the other thing we are doing is we are going on television. we're talking about this all over the country. i do not know what the democrats will do. it will completely change the senate. >> jeff, i will mention a little

bit about what could happen. this is what should put the fear of god and everybody when it comes to the filibuster. this is something we have believed in maintaining, that 60 vote threshold in the u.s. senate which i know has been inconvenient at times, even when republicans held the majority of both chambers and the white house. but the reason is, if you go back in history, the times that republicans actually were in control, very, very small amount of time in u.s. history. normally it is democrats that are in control. if we would've changed filibuster, the natural flip is always to swing back the other direction. democrats would be in control again and have the opportunity to pass anything they wanted at 51 votes. which, if changed the filibuster now, they will change whatever they want.

with just 51 votes. no offense, ladies, we do not need a second house of representatives. there is a reason we have a house and a senate. with a 60 vote threshold. it protects the minority rights. if they get read of that, they have already outlined a number of things they want to do. one comment they will federalize our elections with this horrible elections bill. they will proceed to attack -- to pack the supreme court. packing the supreme court means they will expand the number of seats on the super court, immediately opening up opportunities for this president to appoint justices. how about d.c. statehood? they also said they will make that happen.

if they get rid of the filibuster. which means you have a bunch of lobbyists, really? you want lobbyists to have their own state? influence peddlers. with their own states. that is not what we need. order rico, another state, which hopefully we could flip republican. initially the thought is they would f4 blue senators. right? and we would never gain the majority back. in the u.s. senate. so they have a number of opportunities to do something that would radically change the u.s. as we know it. folks, sometimes it scares the holy jesus out of me. we have to make sure that with this plan of communication that senator scott has targeting those states where we have vulnerable senators and making sure their constituents know

what they are up to. we are going to have a hard press. like i said, it will be a rough two years for us. we will be in for some bumps. but you have to keep praying and keep the faith. >>, thank you senators. two more questions. maybe one, we will see. i would be remiss. i just saw kevin and the crowd back there. we have a former state senator here this evening that is 98 years old, merlyn halsey, would you stand up and wave to everyone. 98 years young. former state senator. [applause]

another question in terms of d.c. if you regain the majority in -- >> widen. -- when. >> i feel very countable saying when after having a conversation. what will be a couple of the most stark, abrupt changes that we will see in the u.s. senate after january of 2022 -- or january of 2023. >> i will keep my answer very brief because i want rick to talk about this. we have a lot of things we are targeting. immediately, it is just to stop the absolute madness that is coming from the left. you know what, we need to take that crown away from chuck schumer. [applause] he has to be stopped. he absolutely has to be stopped. he rules with an iron fist.

he has a number of ploys to keep the democrats where he wants them to be. that is how they keep everybody together. he controls the money. he controls the gavel. all the committees. he needs to be stripped of that authority. that is the first thing. we just stop the madness. then we have to work hard and make sure we are setting ourselves up for success for the next two years, as well. >> just the way it works, whoever the majority leader is in the senate, they decide what we vote on. it really matters that we have a majority leader that is a republican. if you look at when we get the majority back in the house and senate, then we will do the budget. there will not be any bills that we do not want to pass that we have to vote on. we will not be doing it two or three or four and $5 trillion so-called infrastructure bill.

they'll have the presidency until 2024, but i believe will get the presidency back in 24, because i really believe that if you look at where we are, the biden agenda is unpopular. we did a pull at the end of january and we went through it. it said, do you believe we should have a secure border? we all do. by the way, hispanics do. in florida, about 15% of our voters are hispanic. they agree with us. we talk to them. do you believe we should open our schools? 70 plus percent of the people, absolutely. do you believe we have to shut down the keystone pipeline? no. so i think what will happen is, we will be able to pass what we want to pass and then joe biden will have to make a decision whether he will sign it or not. but we will stop all this crazy spending and we will be able to stop all this -- all their bad

ideas. i actually believe if we all are vocal, no different then what happened with your congressional seat, if we are vocal about this, we will stop the stuff. >> that is a very hopeful message. that is something every single one of us in this room can do. i have to tell you, and i say this to republicans all over the state. and what you are doing, what your posting, what you are writing, what you are debating, is not tied into 2022, think about doing it. think about whether you really need to do that. everything, every focus, should be on 2022. not small differences. but what binds us all together. that would be my plea to every single one of you. we do not care how the deck chairs on the titanic are arranged. that is what a lot of these small little fights we get into are all about. we want to steer away from the

iceberg. that's what senator scott is telling us. that is my plea to all of you. we can all do that. final question for all of you. again, welcome, again, it is been an honor for you to come up . this is the epicenter of keeping our senatorial seats and taking back that seat. this is our epicenter. when you are in iowa, talk a little bit about -- what is your perception? how are we different than your fellow floridians? you have a little more confidence that we will have a good job? sen scott: i believes before i got up your that you would do a good job. i will tell you the differences. you can see this is an agricultural state. for florida, our biggest

industry is tourism. my last year we had one or 26 million tourists i came to our states. hopefully some of you did. if you buy second homes and do not use them, you pay property taxes, so it is really nice and i want to thank all of you that do that. we have an agricultural community but it is totally different. we've a big cattle industry in our state. you do not see it as much. you can see the infrastructure you have here just flying in. where i grew up in kansas city was pretty hilly, so we were not an agricultural area, but you can see it here. just the fact that you have some the opportunities to grow things , it is really nice. the people are nice. i am a midwesterner because of my mom. hard-working people trying to get up everyday day and work

hard. that is my oppression of iowa -- impression of iowa. you get what you see. they are honest, ethical. that is what most people around the country think of iowans. >> he is from the midwest. i knew there was something special about you. i just knew it. senator, these are your people. they work their tails off for you and will keep working. what you have to say to your folks up here? >> i want to say thank you so much. you work so hard. they in and day out. you all make a difference. don't ever -- think that we take it for granted. we most certainly do not. i appreciate you inside and out, all of you that are contributing in whatever way you can. i know that you do. i want to thank you again. it is such an unbelievable honor

serving you in the u.s. senate and going back, rick, i know the beginnings you came from and you talk about them with a lot of pride, understanding we can come from a place -- i do not know your mother ever believes you would be a u.s. senator. i know my mother never believed i would be a u.s. senator. certainly, we have that opportunity. i am grateful you have given me that opportunity. i will continue to serve you with honor and dignity in the u.s. senate and believe me, we will fight for those rights and continue to maintain those liberties, as well. god bless you all. thank you, rick, very much for coming to iowa, being with us. we know how important it is to get the senate back. there are days -- my heart gets a little heavy about the situation we are in right now.

i just listened and i know we are going to be ok. we will fight through this and come together and take back the majority in our u.s. senate. thank you also very much. i appreciate you. [applause] >> we are going for a picture but i'm trying to be subtle about it. let's give these leaders one more round of applause. [applause] thank you everybody. i appreciate you coming. we will work for 2022.

[applause] the fight against covid-19 is not over.