Family Research Council
2014 Values Voter Summit
Remarks by Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Time: 11:50 a.m. EDT
Date: Friday, September 26, 2014
Transcript by
Federal News Service
Washington, D.C.
(Applause.)
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): Hi, everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you. I love you too.
Thank you so much for that warm introduction. And as you know, I’m not running again for my seat in the United States Congress. And so the first question everyone asks me is this: Michele, what is it you’re going to do when you leave office?
Well, I have to tell you the most important thing I need to do is take a vacation. (Laughter.) And so I am planning to find the most secluded spot I possibly can to rest, and that’s I’ve decided I’m going to MSNBC prime time. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)
It has been an absolute incredible privilege for me to serve in the United States Congress. It really has been the thrill of a lifetime. And it’s why I am so grateful for that opportunity.
And when I came to Congress, I took the dice, and I rolled them for everything that there was because I was a normal, real person when I came to Congress -- I am still a normal, real person today -- (applause) -- because you see, when I came here and was sworn in in 2007, I decided I was going to give it absolutely everything I had, and that’s what I did, because I think, why else come? Why come here? Why else serve the public in office if you’re not going to put absolutely everything on the line? Because I absolutely believe, as everyone in this room does, in the greatness of the United States of America.
And what do I mean by that greatness? You see, it is an idea. It’s the idea that the nation was founded upon. I talked about it before from this podium, and I’m in love with this idea, the fact that there was a creator, God, who thought so much of the individual, he created us in his image and likeness, and he created us equal. That’s what the Declaration of Independence says.
And so it isn’t the government or some ne’er do well politician that gives us our rights; it’s the Creator who gives us our rights, so basic, so foundational. Never, ever forget it. (Applause.) And since it’s the Creator who gave us our inalienable right, the good news is, no man can touch them. They can never take them away. (Applause.)
It is the phenomenal philosophy upon which the nation was founded: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Those aren’t just nice-sounding words. It is the ultimate social contract that governments were instituted (among ?) then. Why? To secure life, to secure liberty, and to secure your rights to the fruits of your own labor. Not a bad deal. What a concept. (Applause.)
That’s why I decided whatever issue made -- came my way, I was going to stand for those founding principles. And I did. I kept the faith during these last eight years. And so that’s why I don’t know whether Nancy Pelosi is going to miss me more or John Boehner -- one of the two, I don’t know.
But along the way came the Wall Street bailout. And I helped put together a rump group that said no to the Wall Street bailout. And we brought down that very first vote. It passed, but we brought it down the first time. Then the automobile bailout. I gave a speech. It was viewed 2 million times. I called is “gangster government” because it’s gangster government when your government issues 3,400 pink slips to privately owned automobile dealerships.
Then there was the trillion dollar stimulus. I guess that didn’t work so well. And of course, “Obamacare.” And I introduced the very first repeal bill the next morning. The bill passes at midnight, and at 9:00 o’clock in the morning, I’m in there introducing the repeal bill. (Applause.)
And then four years into my term I was privileged to be appointed to serve on the Select House Committee on Intelligence. We deal with the classified secrets of the (nation ?), and we also deal with terrorism. And during the course of these last four years, I did a deep dive into the leading foreign policy and national security issues of our day. And during my time on the Intelligence Committee, I had a front row seat to the world set on fire from Islamic jihad, and what we’ve seen is one disaster after another from the Obama-Clinton foreign policy team. And in their fantasy world, a smaller, diminished, less powerful United States is somehow supposed to bring about global tranquility. Well, Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, we want our 1980s foreign policy back. Peace through strength! (Cheers, applause.)
We don’t want your failed Russian reset, we don’t want four Americans dead in Benghazi. It was a tragedy to release the five top Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay. (Cheers.) Perhaps nothing will change the world more than your foolish lifting of sanctions on Iran as they are racing toward completing nuclear weapons. And they will if we stay the course as President Obama and Hillary Clinton have laid forward.
And unthinkably, we have the first anti-Israel president in American history? That’s the Obama-Clinton legacy. It’s no wonder that Hillary Clinton couldn’t think of an answer when asked on her book tour to name her accomplishments as secretary of State. I have one: permanent retirement. (Cheers, applause.) Quite simply, because she basically fails to inspire in anything, and never forget, she will be Barack Obama’s third and fourth term as president of the United States.
Stay the course. What an exciting message for her 2016 campaign. But one slogan that she won’t be able to use, al-Qaida is on the run. (Laughter.) Remember that one in 2012? As the rise of radical Islamic jihad -- although that’s redundant -- dominates the headlines, we are seeing this enemy as pure evil as they are cutting off the heads of innocent people; that in August buried literally women and children alive. These are Christian brothers and sisters. These are Yazidis tonight -- tonight -- who are on Mount Sinjar and they are continuing to suffer.
I recently got an email from a pastor this week who told me there’s a missionary working with the Yazidis who are barely clinging to life. They’re sleeping in the cold mountains, they don’t have blankets, it’s a whole different world now, and we can’t forget them.
We can’t forget the others who are persecuted around the world just because of their religious beliefs. And why is that? It’s because we have jihadists who are subscribing to this radical ideology that believes that dying in the name of Islam gets them to heaven. This is spiritual warfare, and what we need to do is defeat Islamic jihad. (Cheers, applause.)
Sadly, our president has the wrong prescription. He even failed to acknowledge their motivations for bringing about jihad. Yes, Mr. President, it is about Islam. (Cheers, applause.) And I believe that if you have an evil the order of this magnitude, you take it seriously. You declare war on it, you don’t dance around it, just like the Islamic State has declared war on the United States of America. You kill their leader, you kill their council, you kill their army until they wave the white flag of surrender. That’s how you win a war. (Cheers, applause.)
And you don’t preemptively take anything off the table. You don’t advance signal your enemy as to what your intention is. The president asked Congress to follow him in a Vietnam-style slow walk response, and I said no because either the United States chooses to decisively defeat this brutal evil with every resource we have or we’re going to have to answer to the next generation why we failed to defeat the totalitarian evil of our day.
And I also believe the president’s decision to train and arm the so-called vetted moderate Syrian rebels is a tragic mistake. (Applause.) Because here is the ugly truth. They will never be vetted, and they certainly aren’t all moderates.
There was a British intelligence service study called Jane’s, found nearly half of the Syrian rebels today that we’ve trained have already taken up the cause of Islamic jihad. Half! So why in the world are we giving them American weapons? It is complete madness.
But one thing we could do immediately to keep the American people safe is this. We could strip from the terrorists the passports of any U.S. citizen who joins the fight with the Islamic State or any other terror group. (Cheers, applause.)
I can’t believe that we aren’t doing this now. They shouldn’t be allowed – a terrorist should not be allowed to re-enter the United States once they have voluntarily chosen to be a terrorist. That’s about like a one hundred percent issue.
After we remove their passports, then I believe that we should begin the process of removing their American citizenship from them as well. (Applause.) The rise of the Islamic State seemed to be a shock to President Obama. It wasn’t to me. It wasn’t to those of us who sat on the Intelligence Committee. I watched the up tempo of Islamic jihad. I knew what was coming.
So earlier this summer, I asked the FBI for a classified briefing. I asked if there were any Minnesotans who are fighting with the Islamic State, because many of you know the tragic nexus that Minnesota has with terrorism. It was classified information earlier this summer. I couldn’t reveal it to anyone. But now everyone knows there are, including the first two Americans who died fighting for the Islamic State, both of whom were Minnesotans.
So what I asked is, once they’re done fighting with the Islamic State, what will happen. If they don’t blow themselves up, if they don’t get killed, what will happen if they try to return to the United States? I was floored when the FBI said to me, well, they can come into the United States. They’re still U.S. citizens. I said to the FBI, are you kidding me?
So that’s why I introduced the legislation to prevent them from coming into the United States. It’s just common sense. (Applause.) Because our first priority is national security. Every American has the right to feel secure in their own home. Every American deserves the right to feel secure in their own community.
But for all his leading from behind on the world stage, President Obama is also ignoring a national major security threat here at home. You know what it is. It is our open southern border. I was there for four days in August, and I will tell you, I was floored. I thought I knew a lot about this issue. I was floored to see how wide open, in the midst of all of the heighted terrorism and all the foreign nationals that are streaming across our border, just how porous it is. It is the understatement of the year that our border is not secure.
When I visited the U.S.-Mexico border, what I saw was people processing, not border security. You would be shocked to learn that virtually one hundred percent of foreign nationals who want to come into the United States do. They’re not stopped. When a foreign national illegally enters the United States, they’re taken to a processing facility -- I’ve seen them – where it’s determined whether or not they get to stay in the country. That’s the ones that we catch. In order to keep the American people safe, we have to secure the border! (Cheers, applause.) Build a fence! Deport on the spot! Don’t wait four years. Send them back on the spot! (Applause.)
We have to know who’s coming into our country. I was at Laredo, and they told me that so far this year, people from over 140 different countries tried to come in this year, including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran – I could go on. But the legislative battles that we're fighting are only part of this larger effort to revitalize American values. That’s why I’m so grateful for the Value Voter Summit, because we know we have to do more than move legislation; we have to move hearts. That’s what faith does. And why we have to remind our fellow citizens what it is that makes us so exceptional. We don’t apologize for that, we brag about it to the rest of the world! (Applause.)
You see, we have been such a force for good for about the last 100 years. The world was safeguarded by what was known as Pax Brittanica. England was the world’s military and economic superpower. But as we all know, things didn’t stay that way. Somewhere in the middle of the 1940s, we moved from what was called Pax Brittanica to Pax Americana. Why? Because in the mid-1940s, the United States of America became the economic superpower of the world. And when that happened, we also became the military superpower of the world, and we’re a force for good and brought peace to different regions of the world.
You see, I think it’s time that we wake up, because that mantle is slipping away. And I will tell you, sometimes it is absolutely despairing to serve here in Washington, D.C. But I’ll also tell you at the same time we are told, as believers, very clearly, we are not to despair; we are to look up, whether we feel it or not, we look up. Whether we want to or not, we look up. Whether it doesn’t seem like it on the evening news, we look up.
And that’s my charge to you today. We do not curse the darkness; we light a candle. That’s what believers do. (Applause.)
And while it’s true that I’m leaving Congress, I want you to know I am not leaving the fight. (Cheers, applause.) Because there is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines. None of us can sit it out. And so what I’m asking you today is to have your voice be heard. We are 39 days away from having our voice be heard. Our leaders need to hear from you. And that’s why it’s more important than ever that conservatives take control of the Senate away from Harry Reid in 2014. (Cheers, applause.)
And we need to expose Hillary Clinton’s record of failure, and we will defeat her in 2016. Of that I have no doubt. (Cheers, applause.)
And that’s why, together, we have to do something very important that every generation has had to figure out and do. We have to focus on returning this nation to what made it great, our founding principles – the Constitution, the Declaration – and understanding what those principles are. Because, you see, it is never too late to save the country. Don’t buy into defeatism. It is not too late. I am encouraged. Be encouraged. That’s what faith can do. You are like a phoenix that rises out of the ashes. I’m there with a smile on my face because I know we serve a God of the possible who can make it happen. (Cheers, applause.) And with people like yourselves, we cannot lose. (Applause.)
So thank you, Values Voters. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)
(END)