Mike Pence Speech Randy Feenstra Event Transcript Iowa July 16

Mike Pence: (00:00) It is great to be back in the great state of Iowa for the first ever Feenstra Family Picnic. Thank you for kicking off what I know is going to be a great tradition. And I'm really here for one reason and one reason only, and that is that Iowa and America need Randy Feenstra back in a Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives. Now more on that in a minute because I'm just as optimistic as Randy is about the '22 elections, but thank you all for coming out. Thank you for that wonderful, warm welcome. Mike Pence: (00:43) It's so great to share the podium today with people I deeply admire, Senator Joni Ernst, an incredible champion of the conservative agenda in Washington, DC. And she's a new force in Washington, but not a new force in Iowa, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who's with us here today. I want to thank Senator Jeff Taylor and State Representative Megan Jones for being with us as well. And let me also say it is always a privilege, while he's not here with us today, a man who I remember being in the Oval Office once, and he looked across the Resolute Desk and said, "I'm not yelling. That's just the way I talk." I love Senator Chuck Grassley Mike Pence: (01:36) And finally, it's a real joy to be on the road today with someone who has been at my side now for 36 years. She's a Christian school teacher. She's a Marine Corps mom. She's been a champion of the families of this country throughout our career through Indiana and in our nation's capital. And I think she's the best Second Lady of the United States this country's ever had. Would you join me in welcoming my incredible wife, Karen Pence back to Iowa? Mike Pence: (02:13) Thank you all for being here today, but I really am here first and foremost because Feenstra delivers. I heard that somewhere. But he really has, in a very short period of time, Randy Feenstra, I can tell you firsthand, has won the respect of members of Congress because of his strong commitment to his faith, to the conservative agenda. But it was yesterday, I was talking to your former governor Terry Branstad, and he told me he wasn't surprised about the impact that your congressman has made in Washington DC, because he said, you know, he said, "I would never pass the largest state tax cut in Iowa history without the author, then Senator Randy Feenstra carrying that belt." Incredible. Now he's arrived in Washington DC. And I got to tell you, Randy, you and I are the same thing. When I arrived in Washington in the year 2001, the first committee I asked to be on was the Agriculture Committee and landing at that little airport today, looking around, I just felt like I was back home again in Indiana. It was just glorious. And thank you for stepping up and fighting for Iowa farmers. Mike Pence: (03:24) But he's stepped in and he's done an incredible job already. And it's all because of the character that he's shown. And it's what I saw in him firsthand. I can honestly say I was for Randy Feenstra before it was cool. And now people all across Washington and all across America are seeing the quality of this good man, but it's great to be with all of you today. And I have to tell you, when I think of the past four years, I think what we demonstrated under the leadership of President Donald Trump and with great partners on Capitol Hill like Randy Feenstra was what you can accomplish if you stand firm and don't back down for conservative principles. It's incredible. Mike Pence: (04:08) I mean think about it. Under the Trump-Pence administration, we achieved the lowest unemployment, the highest household incomes, the most energy production, the most pro-American trade deals, the most secure border and the strongest military in the history of the world, in just four years. Mike Pence: (04:30) So really I wanted to deliver two messages today, other than my unbridled endorsement of this good man and his wonderful family. First and foremost, I wanted on behalf of my wife and our family, simply to say, thank you. I want to thank the people of Iowa for your support. And I want to thank you for the privilege of serving as Vice President with President Donald Trump. It was the greatest honor of my life. And secondly, after 177 days of the Biden-Harris administration and Washington Democrats pushing open borders, higher taxes, runaway spending, defunding the police, abortion on demand, censoring free speech, canceling our most cherished liberties, I came here to say enough is enough. And the time has come for all of us to come alongside great leaders like these two congressmen and men and women like them all over the country. The time has come in the next 16 months to win back the House of Representatives, win back the Senate. And in three more years, we're going to win back America. I promise you. Mike Pence: (05:55) The truth of the matter is we've got the record to prove it. For years I was involved in the conservative movement, Randy, and we'd always talk about what we could do if we put our ideas into practice, but over the last four years, we proved what Republicans can accomplish. And it was four years of consequence, four years of results and four years of promises made promises kept. In 48 months, it's amazing to think that we restored the might of the American military. When we took office, when we took office, I was actually told by leaders in the Air Force that there were aircraft on the ground being used as a source of spare parts to keep other aircraft in the air. Mike Pence: (06:37) Well, we came into office and changed all that. And the Trump-Pence administration, with the strong support of our conservative allies in Congress, we passed the largest investment in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan. We rebuilt our military. We revived the economy and created more than 7 million good paying jobs in just three short years. We passed the largest tax cuts and tax reform in American history, rolled back more federal regulations than any administration ever. We became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years. We held China accountable for years of trade abuses. And every single day, we stood without apology for the sanctity of human life. Mike Pence: (07:29) And in the face for the worst pandemic in a century, we launched the greatest national mobilization since World War II. On the day we left office, we were vaccinating 1 million Americans a day. I'll always be proud of the way the American people responded over the course of the last year and a half with courage and compassion. But as I said to them, just this week, back in the Hoosier state, I will always be grateful for the doctors and nurses and healthcare workers and first responders that saw our nation through this trial. Mike Pence: (08:12) But we stood for our values. We stood with our allies and stood up to our enemies. Four consecutive administrations had made a promise to the American people and our most cherished ally, but it was our administration that kept our promise when we moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel. Mike Pence: (08:37) With renewed American strength, we unleashed the full weight of our American military. We crushed the ISIS caliphate, took down their leader without one American casualty. It's extraordinary to think of it. And over the course of those four years, we stood up for 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, 300 federal judges appointed to our federal courts, including Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Mike Pence: (09:20) With the support of the people of Iowa and great partners like Randy Feenstra and Congresswoman Miller-Meeks and your prayers, we made history in four years. We made a difference. We made America greater than ever before, but I'm here today because we live in a time when more than ever, we need to roll our sleeves up and win America back because how times have changed? In just 177 days, the Biden administration has unleashed a tidal wave of left wing policies that threaten to wipe out all the progress we made for a safer, more prosperous America. Mike Pence: (10:01) I mean, Democrats have moved so fast to advance their liberal agenda, sometimes I feel like the left hand doesn't know what the far left hand is doing. Thank you for that. I mean, but in all seriousness, think about it. President Biden is launching an explosion of runaway spending, to the tune of $6 trillion and counting, proposed a budget this week that would be the largest spending increase in us history in a single year. He proposed the largest tax increase in 50 years and unleashed the worst inflation that we have seen in more than a decade. Mike Pence: (10:40) They've announced plans literally to cut funding to our military and use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. It's remarkable to think that throughout his career, President Biden was one of those Democrats that supported the Hyde Amendment authored by the famous Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois. It was one of the bipartisan agreements in the Congress that whatever you thought of the issue of abortion, that you recognize that it was simply wrong to ask Americans who considered abortion to be morally wrong, to use their taxpayer dollars to finance it. And there was broad bipartisan support, but when he was running for President and now his party has advocated legislation to do away with the Hyde Amendment, but we're not going to let it happen. We're going to stand for the right to life and we're going to protect pro life taxpayers by upholding the Hyde Amendment. Mike Pence: (11:45) And it just goes downhill from there. They ended construction on the border wall. We'd constructed more than 400 miles of border wall. We initiated policies that had literally reduced illegal immigration at our Southern border by 90%, and they turned the most secure border in our history into the worst border crisis America's ever seen. They formed a commission to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges, to rewrite our First Amendment, our Second Amendment. They rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and began negotiations with the Iran Nuclear Deal. And when literally, thousands of rockets were raining down on the state of Israel, they were silent. And actually, their administration restored millions of dollars to the Palestinian authority. Well, let me say this. If the world knows nothing else, the world must know this. America stands with Israel. Mike Pence: (12:50) But perhaps, the most troubling developments of the past few months has been the Biden's administration's wholehearted embrace of the Radical Left's all encompassing assault on American culture and values. Under the Biden administration, patriotic education has been replaced with political indoctrination. They abolished our 1776 Commission and they've authorized teaching critical race theory in our schools. Instead of teaching all our children to be proud of their country, critical race theory actually teaches children as young as kindergarten to be ashamed of their skin color. Well, let me be clear. Critical race theory is nothing less than state supported racism, pure and simple, and it should be rejected by every American every day. Mike Pence: (13:45) It's far past time to push back on the left wing reflex to see systemic racism in every institution in our country. Let me say, as my friend Tim Scott said so well on the national stage, having traveled all across this nation as your vice-president, I can attest firsthand. America is not a racist country. America is the most just, noble and inclusive nation ever to exist on the face of the earth. Mike Pence: (14:16) And the United States military is the greatest force for good the world has ever known. And the men and women of law enforcement are heroes all, and they deserve the respect of every American every day. You know, at the Republican National Convention in 2020 at Fort McHenry, I said with a heavy heart that the American people wouldn't be safe in Joe Biden's America. And I was never so sad to be right. As we stand here today, murders have now increased by more than a third in America's largest cities. Democrats' efforts to defund the police has set off a violent crime wave that's wreaking havoc on families all across the nation. We need to affirm on behalf of every American of every race and creed and color, black lives are not endangered by police. Black lives are saved by police every single day, and we're going to stand with law enforcement. Mike Pence: (15:37) Now, in 2020, Joe Biden campaigned as a moderate, if you could call that campaigning. The truth is he's governed as the most liberal president in American history. I saw where even AOC said recently that the Biden administration had "exceeded Progressives' expectations." And as I told some friends before I came over to this picnic, the truth of the matter is Bernie Sanders lost the nomination, but he won the party. I served with Bernie Sanders in the House of Representatives, I did, before he went to the United States Senate. And Bernie Sanders has never made any bones about it. He is an unreconstructed European style socialist, and it's the socialist policies that Bernie Sanders has advocated through his life that are now in the saddle in the Democratic party in Washington DC. That's why we need to stand by leaders like Randy Feenstra. We need to win back the House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington, DC, and win back America in three more years. Mike Pence: (17:01) I mean, the truth is I believe we have a winning agenda. I mean I understand the disappointment of Election Day 2020. You might remember I was on the ballot. The truth of the matter is, as you look all across the country, 74 million Americans looked at that record that I just described and said yes, against a hailstorm of criticism by the national media, every single day that we were in office. It's extraordinary. We have the largest percentage of African-American votes in 60 years, the largest percentage of Hispanic votes in more than half a century. We added 15 seats in the United States House of Representatives. We added state house chambers around the country. I mean, men and women of Iowa, make no mistake about it, a commitment to a strong national defense, to less government and less taxes, free market economics, traditional moral values is the winning American agenda. And we're going to carry that agenda back to majorities in Washington, DC. Mike Pence: (18:07) And the truth is in some respects, we shouldn't be that surprised at what's happening, with the Left in the leadership in our nation's capital. We see this massive expansion of government being driven by the secular Radical Left. I couldn't help but think it was back a few weeks ago, I was taking a little bit of time in my devotions. And I read about this verse in the Bible, it was in I Samuel, where the people have gone to Samuel. And they said that they want to be like every other country. They wanted a king. And Samuel was obviously despondent about that. But the Bible tells us that God said to him, and I quote, "It's not you they've rejected, but it's me they've rejected." I mean, the truth is when people forget God, government grows. And so first and foremost, if we're going to turn this country around, we need to turn America back to God. Mike Pence: (19:39) Ronald Reagan said it well. He said, "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under." But we've got to reject every effort to marginalize Christians and conservatives in this country. We've got to expose religious persecution when it masquerades as a quest for equal rights. And we can never allow our schools, government agencies, or corporations to persecute American citizens based on their beliefs. We have to fight to ensure that every parent has the right to choose where their children go to school, whether that's a public, private, parochial or homeschool. And we have to ensure that every religious school has the right to teach and stand on the doctrines of their faith. Mike Pence: (20:31) And to that end, we also have to remember that we have to be a movement that cherishes our history, our heritage, and the heroes that made America great. Now the good book says, if the foundations crumble, how will the righteous stand? So we need to make it clear that we know that patriotic education is essential to the survival of liberty, and make sure our children understand the greatness of this nation and our history. Mike Pence: (21:13) That's a winning agenda. That's a winning agenda. And that's an agenda that will unite our movement and win back the Congress and win back America. I have no doubt in my mind. So today I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be encouraged that by doing what you're doing today, by coming out on this beautiful July day and having a hamburger at the Feenstra Family Picnic, that you're doing your part to set America back on a path to prosperity and security, because I'm more confident than ever that victory is right around the corner. Mike Pence: (21:54) First and foremost, it's because as I like to say, we've seen this movie before. I was in Congress in 2010. Let me describe it to you. It was a new Democrat President in the White House, fond over by the media. There was a Democrat majority in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. I was serving as conference chairman at the time, but I knew that if we rolled our sleeves up, if we stood unapologetically on a strong conservative agenda, if we offered the American people an alternate vision for the country, they'd rally to our cause. And come Election Day 2010, we won 63 seats in the House of Representatives and retired Nancy Pelosi. Two years later, we won the Senate. Two years later, we won the White House and we're going to do it all again in the next three and a half years. Mike Pence: (22:57) So buckle up, so buckle up and get ready and get ready to back these wonderful people. And finally, I just want to say to all of you as I get ready to go flip hamburgers, which I'm good at, is I want to encourage you to not only look at history, not only look with pride at our agenda, not only talk to your neighbors and friends about the Radical Left agenda that's driving Washington, DC, but I also want you to have faith. I want you to keep the faith, keep faith with Randy Feenstra and his wonderful family as they step forward now, a dozen years in the state Senate, and now in Washington, DC. Mike Pence: (23:45) You could give him another round of applause, because I couldn't be more grateful to have a man integrity in our nation's capital. But I want you to keep faith in three ways. I want you to keep faith with the founders of this country, the declaration and the constitution. And we know the other side wants to rewrite our constitution. They want to pack the courts. They want to do away with your Second Amendment. They want to rewrite your First Amendment. I really do believe they want to redo the whole vision of limited government enshrined by our founders. We've got to be the party of the constitution. We've got to be men and women who, as it says in Psalm 15, keep our oath. Even when it hurts, we've got to demonstrate to the American people that we will stand for the principles and liberties and ideals in the constitution of the United States of America. That's one, we've got to keep faith. Mike Pence: (25:01) Secondly, we got to keep faith with 74 million Americans, us among, who knew more than four years ago, that we could be strong again. We could be prosperous again. America could be respected again. We've got to keep faith with their vision. We can't let the national media or the other side diminish or demean our moment in any way, shape or form, because it's a movement that comes out of the heart of the American people. And finally, I want to encourage each one of you, as I can tell this group does and this community does to just keep faith with Him who has ever guided this great nation. Mike Pence: (25:43) And the truth of the matter is I have always believed that the source of American greatness is our faith in God, our freedom and our vast natural resources. So as we develop the resources of this land, what we grow, what we raise, what we make, as we stand with people like Randy Feenstra and Congresswoman Miller-Meeks and Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to defend our freedom, let's also keep faith, keep faith with the One who has ever been faithful to the people of this great nation, because I believe if we will renew our trust in Him, the best days for the greatest nation on earth are yet to come. Mike Pence: (26:40) Thank you very much. Thank you for supporting congressman Randy Feenstra. God bless you and God bless America.