I'm very realistic about the challenges we face. OK? I have seen it up close in 2010. It's why I ran for the Senate five years ago. I have only been there five years, but it's been enough time to know the damage Barack Obama has done to this country.
But while I'm realistic about our challenges, I'm optimistic about our future. There are a few things, and if we do them, we're going to have the greatest era in our history. And I have detailed what those things are specifically.
If you're running to be president of the United States, you can't just tell people you're going to make America great again. I think you need to begin to explain exactly how you're going to do it policy-wise. We're not going to win a general election with a candidate that refuses to detail policy.
I think strong rhetoric and strong action are two separate things. Anyone can use tough words. Anyone can go over the top and say things that sound strong. But sounding strong is not enough. You have to know exactly how you're going to do it. And if you look at some of the policies he's talked about, they would not make America stronger.
I think, again, on issues of energy, how are we going to fully utilize our energy resources in this country? What is the role of the federal government in higher education? What kind of justices would you appoint to the Supreme Court, not just because we have a vacancy now, but at least one or two potentially in the next four to eight years?
I mean, on virtually every major issue before this country that is the natural purview of the federal government, it's important to have some specificity about what you're going to do if you want to be the president. And so I agree that, up until this point, it hasn't been a huge factor.
The children of the Reagan Revolution are ready to assume the mantle of leadership.
It was a very unusual year [2015]. You usually don't have five campaigns operating full time in a state this late into the process, three states in. But I feel great that now that the choices have become less and less, more and more that new voter or alternative to Donald Trump vote, is going to coalesce around us.
I'm not looking to be anyone's vice president. I looking to be the president of the United States. Or, I'll be a private citizen, there's nothing wrong with being a private citizen.
I'm not interested in being Donald Trump or anybody else's vice president, that's not what I'm aiming at.
People are really angry at Washington. And they have a right to be. It's why I ran in 2010, by the way.
The media coverage for Donald Trump has been almost cheerleading over the last couple weeks. And I'm convinced it's because many in the press want him to be the nominee.
I think media think it's going to be good for ratings, and, two, because they know they have a lot of material to work with. If Donald Trump were to ever become the nominee, immediately, the hounds of hell would descend on him. They're going to tear him apart, everything he's ever done, from not releasing his taxes, to all of his failed business dealings.
Donald Trump is pulling off a world-class scam here. I mean, he's telling people he's all these things that he's never been his entire life. He says he's fighting for the little guy, the working class. He has spent his entire business career sticking it to working people.
You have got to know what you're doing on your very first day there. So, look, this is not an attack or anything of that nature. It's just a very simple observation. If you want to be president, you have to start detailing some specific public policy. And I don't think from this point forward in the campaign, voters are going to be as tolerant of the lack of that as they have been up to now.
Immigration is not an issue that I read about in the newspaper or watch a documentary on PBS or CNN. It's an issues I've lived around my whole life. My family are immigrants. My wife's family are immigrants. All of my neighbors are immigrants.
Moammar Gadhafi is the man that killed those Americans over Lockerbie, Scotland. Moammar Gadhafi is also the man that bombed that cafe in Berlin and killed those Marines. And you want to know why Moammar Gadhafi started cooperating on his nuclear program? Because we got rid of Saddam Hussein. And so he got scared that he would be next, and that's why he started cooperating.
If a regular law enforcement agency wants your phone records, all they have to do is issue a subpoena. But now the intelligence agency is not able to quickly gather records and look at them to see who these terrorists are calling.
The air strikes are important [to fight ISIS], but we need to have an air force capable of it. And because of the budget cuts we are facing in this country, we are going to be left with the oldest and the smallest Air Force we have ever had. We have to reverse those cuts, in addition to the cuts to our Navy and in addition to the cuts to our Army, as well.
I would say we must win the information war against ISIS. Every war we have ever been involved in has had a propaganda informational aspect to it.
We have to show what life is really like in ISIS territory, and we have to show them why ISIS is not invincible, by going out and conducting these attacks and publicizing them to those who they recruit.
If you vote against the Defense Authorization Act in the Senate, you would also veto it as president.
ISIS is the most sophisticated terror threat we have ever faced. We are now at a time when we need more tools, not less tools. And that took we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's strategy is to lead from behind. It sounds like what he is outlining is not to lead at all. We cannot continue to outsource foreign policy. We must lead. We are the most powerful nation in the world. We need to begin to act like it, again.
[Bashar] Assad is one of the main reasons why ISIS even exists to begin with. Assad is a puppet of Iran.
