WEBVTT - Into the Lion's Den-Debating School Choice, Abortion, Second Amendment & Border Crisis with Austin Liberals 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:01.520 Center. 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:03.160 Nice to be with you in person. I love it 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:04.760 when we get to do this once a week. You 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.639 had a very interesting weekend, and I think this conversation 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.360 what people are about to see is very foreshadowing of 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.360 the presidential election and the conversation that many Americans are 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.239 going to be having. There's this thing called Tripfest down 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.759 in Austin. It's a bunch of lefties in a room, 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:20.960 a bunch of young people. 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:22.520 I love what I. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.479 Get to watch you do these things because I know 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.720 how much you enjoy it. But there was real dialogue 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.600 and a real conversation that's important for the country. And 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:32.760 one of the things about this was you got to 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.480 talk about issues like school choice, which was incredible. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:36.839 Well that's right. 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.159 So on Saturday, I was up in Austin and the 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.000 event Tripfest they do every year. It's hosted by the 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.920 Texas Tribune, which is a Texas political and news organization, 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.280 and they have lots of different elected officials. They have 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:53.000 predominantly Democrats. They get media, they get reporters from all 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:53.680 over the country. 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:55.640 National media comes down. 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.000 They've had Hillary Clinton down there, they had they had 0:00:58.120 --> 0:00:59.360 Joe Manchin this year. 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.800 They bring in it's sort of a nickname. 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:08.280 The Weekend has his Libfest instead of trip Fest because 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.920 it's accurate. It skews heavily left, and most of the 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:18.360 attendees are either left wing reporters or their UT students 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:22.000 who lean heavily left. And so this event was an 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:26.480 hour long where I'm up on stage being interviewed by 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.880 a reporter, Patrick Fetech, who's their political reporter, very smart, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.479 capable guy. I know Patrick well, and so he interviewed 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.759 me for forty five minutes and then the audience said 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.240 fifteen minutes of questions. And as I said, I've done 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.039 it year after year after year, and the crowd are 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.880 always these like woke lefties. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.040 From UT know everything who. 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:55.240 Are are frankly horrified to see someone right a center. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:56.600 But it gives you a chance. 0:01:57.560 --> 0:01:59.760 And actually, while I was there, I took the point 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:04.639 of thanking them, the folks who were booing me, to say. 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.880 Hey, listen, thank you for coming. Yeah. You know, I 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:08.600 talked about. 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.600 At the outset how we don't talk to each other enough, 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.600 how we do too much screaming and yelling, and the 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.320 right talks to the right and the left talks to 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.200 the left. And in fact I told them I said, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.680 all right, it'll kill you to do this, but subscribe 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.040 to the podcast. You ought to actually listen to a 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:26.720 view that that that you don't ordinarily hear. But it 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.000 was it was a good chance to talk about a 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.880 lot of issues. And here's the first where I brought 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.040 up school choice. And they all had their minds made 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.280 up to begin with. But here's the exchange. I think 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.840 this year is the best opportunity of your in my 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.320 lifetime for the state legislature to pass a real and 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:51.000 serious school choice program to provide every child in Texas 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:56.760 with with hope and access to an excellent education. Texas 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.840 unfortunately lags behind on school choice. I'm a passionate defender 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.880 of school choice. I've spent thirty years fighting for school choice. 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.160 I think it is the civil rights issue of the 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.960 twenty first century. And you know, people who have gotten 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.080 a good education can laugh at that. But you know, 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.000 it's interesting if you go into the inner cities and 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.040 you ask African American parents, you ask Hispanic parents, do. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:20.280 They support school choice? 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.160 Sixty seventy eighty percent of them support it. So I 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.720 get in Austin when folks have money and they feel 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.120 quite comfortable that they can oppost choice. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.280 Well, my view is, don't trap kids. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.960 I gotta say, I really do believe school choice is 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.960 an issue that is changing, and I think a lot 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.120 of it is because of COVID, but especially among African 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.640 American Hispanic Americans, single mothers. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.800 Yes, they want their kids out of these. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.080 Failing schools, and they see the damage that these teachers 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.120 are doing their kids' future, and they saw it at home. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.320 During the time of COVID, the lid came off. I 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.200 don't think you put this GUNI back in this bottle. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.920 Look, I agree. I think the momentum behind choice is mass. 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.960 If you're seeing growing numbers, you're seeing state after state 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:07.640 after state across the country passing school choice programs. For me, 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.040 it's been an issue that it's been a thirty year passion. 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.240 I think it is the single most important domestic issue 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.800 in this country. Education is the gateway. It's antecedent to 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.440 every other social problem. So you think about it, whether 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.600 you're dealing with poverty or crime, or health. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.080 Care issues or substance abuse. 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.520 If kids get an education, many of those problems largely 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.800 take care of themselves. On the other hand, if kids 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.359 don't get a good education, if they drop out, if 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.080 they don't learn to read and write. We know that 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.520 those problems crime and poverty, and healthcare issues and substance 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:49.120 abuse issues, they follow like night follows day, and so 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.360 allowing kids to be trapped in failing schools is consigning 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.440 them to be shut out of the American dream. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.880 And it's There are a lot of issues in public life. 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.240 You take an issue like affirmative action, you take an 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:08.640 issue like abortion, where people of good faith can disagree. 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.600 You and I have strong views on both of those topics, 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.359 but I understand the people who disagree with us. I 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.160 understand how someone can look at that same issue and 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.960 come to a different conclusion. And there are real arguments 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.800 on both sides of that issue. School choice is the 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.479 only issue I know of in public policy on which 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.800 there is literally not a good argument on the other side. 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:34.360 The only argument is one of venal self interests. The 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.080 only argument is the teachers' unions bingo, who for whom 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.719 Democrat politicians are bought and paid for, and they view 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.880 it as maintaining power. Because look a point I make 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.360 all the time, the rich and middle class. 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:50.520 Have always had school choice. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.080 If you're at a wealthy jurisdiction. An example I use. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.520 Let's say you live in Bethesda, Maryland. All right, so Bethesda, 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:02.040 Maryland is a very nice rink, which she shi neighborhood 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.000 outside of Washington. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:05.640 If the Bethesda public. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.440 Schools had a fifty percent dropout rate, if among those 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:15.400 kids who remained in school, only thirty percent graduated reading 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.479 at grade level, if you had drug dealers roaming the 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.280 hallways and you had little girls getting sexually assaulted in 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:28.080 the bathrooms, the Bethesda public schools would be empty. Why 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.920 because the parents there have money, and so they would 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.599 do one of two things. They would either move, they'd 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.680 move to another home in a different district that had 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.400 a better public school. Or because they have the resources, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.640 they would pay tuition to send their kid to a 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.520 private school. But they would not send their child to 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.040 a school that was failing. What happens is low income parents, 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.200 often in the inner city, are trapped. They're facing schools 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.080 exactly what I just described, but if they're not rich, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.600 they don't have the option to change it. And you 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:02.640 see democrats who are are blocking children. And it is 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.760 predominantly African American and Hispanic children in inner cities who 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.240 are trapped in these failing schools. And by the way, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.480 the Democrats like to like to consider themselves the champions 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.920 for the minority community, and on the single most important 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.920 civil rights issue in the country, which is giving those 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.640 kids a chance at the American dream, the Democrats are 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.080 adamantly opposed. And you listen to all of those left 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.240 wingers at ut laughing, Oh, how funny little children that 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.520 can't get an education, ha ha. And there's an arrogance 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.200 on the left that I think is really disturbing. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:40.120 What is your. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.400 Advice for those that are running in this presidential election 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.960 on this issue, because when I when I worked in 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.000 the Bush campaign of four, there was this was a 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:50.040 third rail issue. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.480 It was a do not touch issue. It was leave 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.960 it alone. It was that's fascinating it. It was a 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:56.520 grand debate. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:58.160 It was two debates that we had on that campaign, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.520 so secure reform, don't talk about it till after we win. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.560 And then the second one was school choice in school vouchers. 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.480 It was like, we don't go there, that's third rail. 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.280 And I remember fighting, going, this is something we should 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.440 take to the people because people that are stuck in 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.360 failing schools. I was from Memphis, had a different perspective. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.400 Majority of schools there. Public schools are failing schools year 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.800 after year. They're failing schools like this. You guys don't understand. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.840 If you take this idea to the community that has 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.120 it and needs it, they will side with you. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:26.400 You just have to explain it. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:28.880 Are we winning now where this is no longer that 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.040 fear of that third rail. Don't touch it, don't mention it. 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.000 Democrats will beat you over the head with it. 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.040 So I got to say, I'm you and I have 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.160 never talked about this topic before, so I didn't know 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.120 that story. You were on the two thousand and four 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.239 Bush Cheney reelect. I was on the two thousand campaign, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.040 the first Bush Cheney campaign, and my job was domestic 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:49.920 policy advisor. 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.199 I was twenty eight twenty nine years old. I was 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:53.680 a young lawyer, and. 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.040 I essentially covered any issue that touched on law, and 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.880 so education and school choice was not in my portfolio, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.839 but I cared about it passionately, and so on the 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.400 two thousand campaign, I actually wrote a memo. I wrote 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.640 a memo to Karl Robe and Josh Bolden, all the 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.840 senior people on the campaign, arguing and arguing that George W. 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.400 Bush should have come out and promised scholarships for one 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.800 million kids across the country to go to any school 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:20.520 of their choice. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.080 Lean in and own school choice. And I put the 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:23.839 polling data. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.760 I put the polling data that showed that African Americans 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.360 and Hispanics, even back then, that was twenty three years ago, 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.600 were consistently sixty seventy eighty percent in support a school choice. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.880 They also at the time ranked education is their number 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.720 one issue, as did as did white parents, but Black 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.679 parents and Hispanic parents, they all put education at their 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.400 top issue in ninety nine and two thousand and I said, look, 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.400 you've got the issue that is the top issue for 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.360 minority parents. They have an overwhelming view, and the Democrat 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.400 Party has bought and paid for by the teachers union, 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.920 so they are adamantly fighting them. And then I ran 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.640 a series of electoral hypotheticals. Sadly, I knew I was 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:06.920 not going to persuade the campaign on the merits we 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.960 should have but but but I didn't even bother to 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.720 make that argument. I just tried to make a simple 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.240 political argument. I ran the numbers, looking at the last 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.160 three presidential races, and I ran a couple of hypotheticals. 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.640 I said, what would have happened if the Republican nominee 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:27.360 got five percent more, ten percent more, or fifteen percent 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.440 more of the black and Hispanic vote. So I didn't 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:35.360 assume suddenly you get fifty percent more. I ran three 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.640 reasonable scenarios five percent more, ten and fifteen. The one 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.559 that really stood out to my mind was nineteen ninety 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.800 six Bob Dole versus Bill Clinton. If Bob Dole had 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.280 gotten fifteen percent more of the black and Hispanic vote, 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:55.120 he would have won an additional ninety six electoral votes. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.240 Wow, it was stunning. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.679 And I still remember that debate when Bob Dole was 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.920 asked at education and his answer he said the word 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:07.920 school choice. But they were so painful. I remember screaming 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.120 at the television. I was so mad at this old 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.000 man who knew nothing about choice and didn't care about it, 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.000 and was reading a talking point that he didn't give 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:17.720 a flip about. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.760 And it was horrible. 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.760 Well, this memo that I submitted, it got filed in 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.120 the circular file because the education advisors on that campaign 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.640 very much were sympathetic to the blob, to the teachers' 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.560 unions and the education bureaucracy, and so I was never 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.360 able to get them to embrace choice. And actually the 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.640 memo I wrote was co signed. I wrote it, but 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.280 I asked the chief Economic Advisor who was on the 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:48.080 policy staff. 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.280 He signed it. I asked the Chief Education Advisor, who 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.720 was in the policy staff. She signed it. Wow. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.720 I asked the chief advisor on kind of urban and 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:57.800 inner city issues. 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.240 He signed it. And frankly, I could've gotten every. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.400 Single policy staffer they're about a dozen of us, to 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.240 sign it if I had asked them, I think, but 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.640 I didn't want. I thought that was sort of piling 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.400 on and to get. But the difference was we were 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.600 all twenty something or thirty something, and for the twenty 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.559 somethings and thirty somethings, we saw it as massively important. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.640 The senior people on the campaign were forty somethings and 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.080 fifty somethings, and they were not interested in taking it 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:26.600 on there. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.320 And they didn't Yeah, the same thing, you know. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.040 Four It was don't go there, great idea, great idea, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.200 young guys, and we're not gonna do it. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.920 We don't touch it. And I think it's inching now 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:37.559 in this in this cycle. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.520 How This could change Republican Party for the better for 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:42.560 decades to come. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.760 So Ben, something I told Heidi before I first ran 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.680 for Senate in twenty twelve, I said, if when I 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:55.679 am dead and buried, my tombstone says Ted played a 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.240 meaningful part in bringing about school choice to every child 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.079 in Texas and every child to America, I said, I 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:02.679 will die a happy man. I mean, I mean that 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.960 it is difficult to think of a more meaningful and 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:11.720 powerful legacy than giving kids hope and opportunity and a 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.959 real chance to achieve a better life for themselves and 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:16.480 their kids in the future. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:18.800 I want to tell you about our friends at Patriot Mobile. 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:20.920 If you are sick and tired of giving your money 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.320 to woke companies that are fighting against your values. 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You also 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.440 talked about something else that is really important at this event, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.240 and that was the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.040 an issue that some don't like to touch. I love 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.080 that you love to talk about it because it's something 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.200 you care about and you're willing to have a grand debate. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.320 And it got a little feisty, especially with the audience. 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:46.520 I want people to see what you had to. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.840 Say this is the basic divide. Every time there's a 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.880 mass shooting, you see elected Democrats. Their approach is they 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.200 want to take away the Second Amendment rights of law 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.840 abiding citizens. Here's the pronounce See this is what I mean. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.520 We just yell at each other. This is not that 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:08.040 there is zero evidence that doing so, There is zero 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:14.000 evidence that doing so protects any lives. And in fact, 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.800 if you look nationally, if you look at the jurisdictions 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:21.520 with the strictest gun control laws, almost without exception, they 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.760 have among the highest murder rates and among the highest 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.520 crime rates. The city of Chicago has some of the 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.840 toughest gun control laws in the country, and it consistently 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.280 has horrible murder rates. Because what happens if you pass 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:38.720 a law that disarms law abiding citizens. Law abiding citizens, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:43.160 by definition, they follow the law. The criminals don't, and 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.880 so what ends up happening is the criminals target the 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.960 law abiding citizens. So your question, there are proposals that say, listen, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.000 we want to raise the age to buy a firearm 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.520 to age twenty one. Well, you know what, I think 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.880 that a nineteen or twenty year old single mom living 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.360 in the inner city and huge Dallas, going to work 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.480 in a dangerous neighborhood has a right to protect yourself 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.760 as a right under the Second Amendment, to protect yourself 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.040 from someone who would commit violence against her. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:12.880 And I'll give a stat again. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.800 Look, this is an audience who I think has their 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.840 mind made up and doesn't want to hear actual data. 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.040 But let me give you. Let me give you data. 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.320 From a source that I suspect you would agree with 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.000 the Obama White House. You're gonna agree that's not a 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.320 right wing source. Here's what the Obama White House put out. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.640 They said, every year, firearms are used defensively to stop 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.480 a crime, to stop a murder, to stop a rape, 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.520 between five hundred thousand and a million times a year 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.360 every year in the United States of America. That is 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.760 a very simple reality. And so when you disarm people, 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.000 when you take that nineteen year old single mom and 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:56.200 you say you can no longer defend yourself, the data 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.960 show you see crime rates go up, you see murder 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.080 rates go up, you see sexual assault rates go up. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.400 And if you want to stop those crimes, and listen, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.760 I believe the people here want to stop those crimes. 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.400 But if you want to stop them, you should look 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.360 to the data of what actually works, and what works 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.640 is putting the criminals in jail. 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:17.600 And I'll point out and. 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.000 We got to move on to the next question, but 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.720 hold on a second. This is deeply connected. This is 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.159 deeply connected with the policies Democrats have championed defunding the 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:33.200 police and also George Soros prosecutors who release violent criminals. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.480 Because the same people who are all worked up about 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:40.480 gun control are also by and large supporting releasing criminals 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.800 from jail. And we see that pattern over and over 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:44.920 and over again and. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.600 When it happens. So I've sat down with. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:52.400 Texas police chiefs who said to me, we know who 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.080 the trigger pullers are, we know who the criminals are. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.879 We want to arrest them, and we can't because they 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.880 keep getting let go and they keep committee more murders. 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.840 If you want to stop crime, go after the criminals, 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:05.119 not law abiding citizens. 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:10.760 Let's talk about it. Another big issue. We got to 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.480 move on. You're making too much sense over your sinner. 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.480 We gotta with some mis move But we heard your answer. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.119 I can't believe that the audience couldn't even clap in 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.440 a basic idea that a single mother who's nineteen the 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.880 inner city should be able to defend yourself against someone 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.200 bring in your home, trying to kill a raper, whatever 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:27.200 it may be, not a clap in the room. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.720 That don't look Rich Liberals like school choice. If you're 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.400 a rich liberal, you live in a neighborhood where they haven't. 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.400 Abolished the police, You've got lots of police officers protecting 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.399 your home. You know, Actually, if you're wealthy enough, the 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:48.160 second Amendment is not necessarily life or death because you're 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.919 able to outsource protection. You're able to live in an 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.600 environment where you're not living next door to a crack 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:58.200 house at all likelihood. If you're low income, if you're 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.880 in the inner city, if you're a single, you're facing 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.680 the very real prospect of if you're taking the subway 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:06.720 at home at night, or the bus at home at night, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:13.600 at being robbed at gunpoint, at being assaulted, and you 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:15.080 often don't have a choice. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:17.840 You don't have another option. 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.360 You can't move to a safer place where the criminals 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:25.760 are not next to you. And liberals talk about compassion enormously, 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.200 but when you actually point out that the people who 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.960 are hurt by their policies are the most vulnerable, they 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.200 get very angry. They do not like you're not allowed 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.280 to defend an African American single mom in the inner 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.800 city because they're in charge of her, and damn it, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.600 if they disarmor and she gets killed, it was good 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:49.680 for it made them feel good to disarm her, even 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.360 though they also championed the policy that released the murderer 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.919 who killed her. They take no responsibility. You heard the 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.720 crowd howling when I brought up George Soros prosecutors. So 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:03.560 they all support, but they all contribute. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.840 They laugh, they act like you're making it up. The 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:07.080 data shows that you're not. 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.480 The numbers are staggering. George Soros has spent literally millions 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.280 of dollars electing DA's who let violent criminals out of 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.080 jail over and over and over again. And they commit 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.760 crimes over and over and over again. But you know what, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.280 they generally don't commit crimes against rich people living in rich, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.040 white liberal neighborhoods where they say, oh, I feel so 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.240 good emptying the prisons. Isn't that nice? No, it's the 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.720 inner cities. It's the people, and it's predominantly African Americans 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.159 and Hispanics whose lives are lost. All the people with 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.320 the yard signs out front of their house that say 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.880