voices cannot be heard in all the stuff that's going on in our society. so i can tell you this, in the state of florida, i am walking that line. i am standing my ground. i'm not backing down. we've done an awful lot in the state of florida. but we have a lot more to do. and i have only begun to fight. thank you, guys. thanks so much. thank you. thanks. [applause] thanks. thanks so much! ♪ >> good morning, everybody. good morning. it's great to be back. thank you for all having me this morning. good to be back with the republican jewish coalition.

my wife, mary pat, and i are proud to be here and proud to be allies and supporters in the causes that we all believe in. we watch what's happening in washington, d.c., right now. and i think it brings us an incredible focus about what our mission is over the course of the next number of years. there's no question that leadership matters. and if we didn't know that before, and we didn't know that barack obama's phrase that elections have consequences was correct, we've seen it over the last nine months. this past tuesday was the beginning of the new era for the republican party. [applause] let me make one thing really

clear. the only reason to affiliate with a political party and the only reason to support a political party is to win. nothing else matters. if you don't win, you can't govern. and winning campaigns are always the campaigns that look forward and not backwards. i'll tell you a story. yeah. it deserves applause because if we don't get it, we're going to lose. [applause] let me tell you a quick story from 2013 when i was running for re-election for governor in the aftermath of superstorm sandy. the boardwalk in asbury park had been destroyed and we rebuilt it in less than six months. and i went there to walk on that boardwalk, and honestly, to take a victory lap, for having gotten it done that quickly. and a voter came up to me and said governor, you're running for re-election and why should i vote for you this time? and i said well, look at this boardwalk. rebuilt in six months. no one thought it could be done.

and he said no, no. that's what i got for voting for you last time. what do i get for voting for you this time? what voters remember and understand better than many people in the political community is that these things are always about tomorrow. and if we don't articulate a vision for what we want to do for this country, then the voters will abandon us. and they have. and we saw it happen. now, look, anybody in this room who is a supporter of president trump's -- [applause] the line forms behind me. and here's why. i was the first major office holder in the country to endorse him in 2016. i chaired his transition. i played hillary clinton in debate prep. you want the videos of that, believe me. you want the videos of that.

i chaired his open doi commission to deal with the scourge of drug interviews in this country which killed over 80,000 americans last year. we needed to get on that. and then i played joe biden in debate prep in 2020. so for all people who say they're supporters of president trump, the line begins behind me. i started that. but let me tell you something else. we can no longer talk about the past. and the past elections. [applause] no matter -- no matter where you stand on that issue, no matter where you stand, it is over. and every minute that we spend talking about 2020, while we're wasting time doing that, joe biden, kamala harris, nancy pelosi and i chuck schumer are playing ruin to this country. we better focus on that and take our eyes off the rear-view

mirror and start looking through the windshield again. and there's the formula to do it. there's a formula to do it. in 2009, when i announced for governor of new jersey, a state that has not supported a republican presidential candidate for 35 years, a state that has not elected a republican to the united states senate in 50 years, the longest streak of any state in america. a pretty blue state. george w. bush's approval ratings in new jersey as he left office were 18%. 18%. on election day of 2009, barack obama's approval ratings in new jersey were +21. +21. and we won. in the face of barack obama who

had won the year before by 17 points in new jersey, we won. there's a formula for doing it. and we need to get back to that. because it focuses on all four types of voters that we need to gather to win. first, first, we need to look at suburban voters. and what do suburban voters want? what suburban voters want is a government that is honest and truthful and efficient and not wasting their money and not wasting their time. they want it to be sane and rational. and they want it to speak to them. rural voters. rural voters want to make sure that we're not giving payoffs to big business. that we're supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs all across rural areas of this country so they have an

opportunity to rise up and we can appeal to those voters as well. blue collar voters, just want us to tell them the truth. the truth about their future and the truth about their children's future, and to give them an opportunity to grow and prosper. and urban voters, yes, we can appeal to urban voters. if you don't believe it, in 2013 when i was re-elected i won 51% of the hispanic vote and 29% of the african-american vote in a blue state. and you know what we talked about almost exclusively? recent newership -- entrepreneurship, opportunity in business and choice in education. so they can get their families and their children out of these failure factories, in these public schools in urban areas that are failing those families and failing those children. and let me tell you, if you don't think education is going to be the biggest issue as we go into 2022, and putting parents back in control of their children's future, not the teachers union, then you're not listening to what the american people said last tuesday, and

not listening to what's happening every day in urban centers and suburban areas all across our country. i took on the teachers union 12 years ago, and i've never stopped. and guess what? joe biden is giving them oxygen. we have to cut off that oxygen and put control of education back with parents. [applause] and when i say government shouldn't waste money, look at what's going on down there right now. and look at the extraordinary waste that's going on and all that waste is being put on all of us. all of us. the idea that the biden administration wants to pay $1 million a family to families who came over the border illegally, when was it ever the case that hard-working american taxpayers who follow the rules, follow the law, have to pay for those who don't? and not pay for them to go to jail but to pay for them to relocate in the united states

with a $1 million gift from the american taxpayer. if you know nothing else about the craziness of about what joe biden is doing just remember that one. and that's what suburban, urban, rural, and other voters were talking about on tuesday night and why they voted for glen youngkin and almost voted for a new republican governor in new jersey. but added legislative seats. we need to understand that-- wet giving away money does not make them want to go to work. it penalizes the hard-working taxpayers that put that money in there for the first place. i don't think that is what the republican ever supported. we said that that did not matter.

the republican party has to stand for hard-working working-class taxpayers in this country. and work for everything you got. you should not have that taken away. [applause] inflation is getting higher and higher. everything is getting more expensive. the government's responses to make government more expensive. we need to stand for the idea that at times like this, the government has to be less expensive. they cannot continue to drive because. these are things we have to stand for.

we need to be clear eyed. a republican president should not be throwing bouquets at eight dictator in china. they are gathering people across china and putting them in concentration camps and killing them. he is doing it with american money. an american support. it kills manufacturing jobs here. we had an idea if we brought capitalism to china that would mean democracy would come to china. that was a bad idea.

all we have done is build their economy while they continue to remain authoritarian. you look at what happens every day to the chinese people. restrictions on where they can live. what profession they can practice. we have problems in the united states. but put that vision against the vision in china. we have to make sure the world understands there is a better choice. that is not just a choice between america and china. those choices are all over the world. there are good players and there are murderous players.

we must always stand with the righteous and good players and fight against the demagogues and murderers. forget russia. [applause] people want us to be direct with them. they want us to fight in a way that does not hurt them. you know what i mean by that. we cannot dismiss any aspect of our election. we have to listen. we have to speak to dreams, hopes, admiration for the future. if we do not do that, if we don't win back the voters, i had a political science professor in

college she told me if you ever run for office, remember one thing. -- commit suicide, don't commit murder. the democrats are handing us opportunities but we have to seize those opportunities. we have to be clear i'd know about -- clear eyed about how we do it. that includes it here -- here at home and abroad. what i made clear to people were things i stood for and that i was willing to fight against the hostile media and i don't care what any other speaker who comes up here and speaks to all of you today, if you spend every day for eight years standing in front of the new york media and philadelphia media, you know what hostile media is all about. we shouldn't be complaining about this. complaining gets us nowhere. would we need to do is continue to speak the truth.

this is where i want to end up with you all today. the truth matters. the truth matters very much. we all get into these interparty battles and we want to win every fight we can and i'm never somebody likes to lose any fight , but the biggest fight we can lose is the fight to stand for the truth. joe biden ran saying he was going to unite the country and be a moderate force for good. he came into office and he ran immediately to the left to put together some of the craziest policies will ever see on the domestic side and to embarrass and humiliate the american people in afghanistan. i was never ever more ashamed of

an american president that i was in watching joe biden, the steward over people in afghanistan clinging to the bottoms of planes to try and escape their own country because they knew the fate they were about to suffer. he sat there and told us that no american who wanted to leave would be left behind and as we sit here today, americans are being held hostage in afghanistan i the taliban. he tells us that is not true. yet we see the reports day after day. the truth matters. the truth matters here at home and around the world. we cannot compromise on truth anymore. we cannot say it is just something that works for us when it is convenient. it has to workforce all the time in the republican has always been the party after.

we are the ones who stood up and called the soviets the evil empire. we are the ones who stood up over and over again in the middle east, for israel against those who want to destroy them. we're the ones who stood up all around the world against lying and against tyranny. we have to get back to basics here. those basics are pretty simple. we stand for a country that rewards entrepreneurism and rewards small businesses. remember the idea we will start taxing these people and giving huge benefits to big companies when a third of the small businesses in this country destroyed during covid is disgraceful. it is time to get back to helping the small business man and woman build those jobs through this country and we can do it. but all of that requires us to

tell the truth and to be honest and it has to be of the people we serve heard also people who get by these podiums like to talk about themselves. politics is a bit of sales. problems we face are too great for us to be talking about ourselves. we have to be talking about and listening to the people who are suffering right now. families who have suffered from covid, personally and economically, the families who suffer from an economy that's driving prices up while they cannot afford to pay their bills and all of those voters are crying out tuesday night. why do i come here and tell you that. i said look out of this room not only at you, but the people you represent. you represent hundreds of thousands of people across

america who are very much like all of you. this is a room full of leaders. you would not be here if you weren't a leader. the question becomes as we leave the to malt of the last few years and confront the very real assault on the capitalist system and our system of fairness is a country with what's happening in washington, d.c. right now. what is our responsibility as leaders in our community and states and country. the founders of this country made some things very clear to us over time and i will tell you i have a favorite founder, it's not george washington or thomas jefferson, not benjamin franklin. not even alexander hamilton.

my favorite founder is john adams. some say adams is my favorite founder because he is cranky and slightly overweight. i think those are wonderful attributes. but that's not why love adams. he was the heartbeat of the revolution. adams was this person who stood on the floor the continental congress day after day and said it would only be independence that brought the people of this continent true freedom, true liberty, true happiness. he was shouted down day after day by colleagues from all over the country. from pennsylvania and south carolina, from georgia and new york, he kept getting up every

day and saying it. it was because of the will of people like john adams and his wife abigail that this country came into being. four years later, after adams had served as an ambassador, after he served as vice president, he was back in retirement writing for his diary and he said he was writing this for posterity. he was writing it for us, for all of us, people he would never know. but the dream could exist in the country he formed. this is what he wrote. he wrote you shall never know the sacrifices that were made to secure for you your liberty. i pray you make a good use of it for if you do not, i shall repent in heaven forever having gave the sacrifice at all. as adams looks down on us in

this country today, what would he say our obligation is? what can we do to make sure that he does not repent in heaven for having made the sacrifices that laid the foundation for the greatest country the world has ever known. without -- we are not storming over the border in mexico because this is in the greatest place for opportunity. they not waiting in line in countries all across the world to come here legally because this isn't any longer the country where everyone has a chance to be great. we already have that. we are the luckiest people in the world. we have the birthright to be americans. many in this room a have immigrated legally. and worked to gain your citizenship. either way, we are now extraordinarily lucky class that adams is looking on in judging,

rightfully judging the kiss he made that sacrifice. i suggested to you that what you will need to do is in every way that you can demand more of the people who run this government. more the people -- demand more of the people who offer themselves for service. don't rationalize and accept anything less then truth telling and sincerity, honesty and integrity and a plan for tomorrow, not a grievance about yesterday. that's what we must demand. but you have to do it. if you do not, it won't happen. if you want any evidence of that, look around you. it hasn't happened. and it never happens in this country without people like you standing up and demanding it. and rewarding those who provide

it to you. we have an extraordinary opportunity over the next few years. our opponents have once again overreached, misunderstood the american people and we now have to work to lay out an alternate vision. one that is about tomorrow, not about yesterday. one that is about their hopes and dreams and not about someone else's hopes and dreams. not about the people who stand behind these podiums but the people out in this country working hard now. that's what we need to do. it is not flashy, but it is tough. and you need someone who is -- who needs to be able to do it and not fight for themselves first but fight for this country first because none of us would have the opportunities we already have in our fantastic american lives without others before us being willing to make exactly the same sacrifice.

start with john abigail adams and work it all the way through today. it become less vogue interrupting party to talk about ronald reagan. ronald reagan laid out clearly for us. about the way he saw this country is a shining city on a hill. we heard it before but we need to be reminded. we don't have to be a country that's pessimistic. we better be a country that's optimistic. we don't need to be yelling and screaming at each other all the time although we will yell and scream when we need to. but we need to be providing hope for the future. the democrats are the party of despondency. everything is bad and you need us to get you out of it. the republican party is the party of hope. and aspirations and the american dream. if you all are willing to join

with leaders all across this country to do that, then we are going to see a greater day not only for our republican party, not only for each other and our children and grandchildren, but everyone around the world who is dying once again to stand within america that stout -- that tells the truth and we can believe in. when we give them that we will once again be that shining city on a hill. thank you very much. [applause] this is just over 20 minutes. ♪