The challenges facing our country today, I think, have even more even to do with America's place in the world, with a struggling economy that isn't producing the jobs that Americans long to see, with the kind of economic policies that seem to have other countries winning and America losing.
We've just got to have American strength on the world stage. When Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, the Russians and other countries in the world will know they're dealing with a strong American president.
We really believe that we can bring about changes in the tax code that will make America more attractive for investment and job creation and business. But the president has also made it very clear that he wants to put - he wants to put new elements in the tax code that are going to have companies pay a price if they decide to take jobs out of the country and then sell their goods back into the United States.
Donald Trump has laid out a priority to remove criminal aliens, remove people that have overstayed their visas. And - and once we have accomplished all of that, which will - which will strengthen our economy, strengthen the rule of law in the country and make our communities safer once the criminal aliens are out, then we'll deal with those that remain.
Donald Trump has said we're going to move immigrants out, people who've overstayed their visas. We're going to enforce the law of this country. We're going to strengthen Immigrations and Customs Enforcements with more resources and more personnel to be able to do that. And then Donald Trump has made it clear, once we've done all of those things, that we're going to reform the immigration system that we have.
As I travel around the country, the American people are focused on the very same things that President Trump is focused on every day. And that is: How do we advance our national security? How do we make the world a safer and more peaceful place? How do we make America more prosperous? And the president's gonna continue to focus.
President Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. And he made it clear in this election, particularly in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris where individuals had used a refugee program to gain access to that country.
Donald Trump is a businessman, not a career politician. He actually built a business. Those tax returns that were - that came out publicly this week show that he faced some pretty tough times 20 years ago. But like virtually every other business, including the New York Times not too long ago, he used what's called net operating loss. We have a tax code that actually is designed to encourage entrepreneurship in this country.
I joined presidential campaign in the summer, and I can tell you that all the contact by the Donald Trump campaign and associates was with the American people. We were fully engaged with taking his message to make America great again all across this country. That's why he won in a landslide election.
People need to understand, we can come together as a nation. We can create a culture of life. More and more young people today are embracing life because we know we are - we're better for it. We can - like Mother Teresa said at that famous national prayer breakfast bring the - let's welcome the children into our world. There are so many families around the country who can't have children. We could improve adoption so that families that can't have children can adopt more readily those children from crisis pregnancies.
I worked when I was Congress on a second chance act. We have got to do a better job recognizing and correcting the errors in the system that do reflect on institutional bias in criminal justice. But what - what - what Donald Trump and I are saying is let's not have the reflex of assuming the worst of men and women in law enforcement. We truly do believe that law enforcement is not a force for racism or division in our country.
Having been a governor and now having the privilege to serve as vice president, it heartens me to know the passion that President Trump has for ensuring our system of immigration, the way people come into this country is operated in a way that puts safety and security and the well-being of every American, regardless of their race or creed, first and foremost.
Trump's vision for America parallels greatly with the vision that Ronald Reagan used and he implemented to revive the country during a very similar time where we had a president who told us that we were in a time of malaise in the American economy and that things are just gonna be that way for a while. Reagan steps up in that great first inaugural address and says, "And why shouldn't we dream great dreams? After all, we're Americans." And the American people came roaring back, the American economy came back.
I'm a small town boy from a place not too different from Farmville. I grew up with a corn field in my backyard. My grandfather had emigrated to this country when he was about my son's age. My mom and dad built everything that matters in a small town in southern Indiana. They built a family and a good name and a business, and they raised a family.
I just have a heart filled with gratitude for a wonderful family. My wife, Karen, is the love of my life, and she campaigned with me virtually every day of 130-some odd days of the campaign trail, as did our daughter, Charlotte, traveled all over the country with us. But my son, who just got married to his college sweetheart, and our youngest daughter - just am grateful for a family that has supported me in my calling to public service.
I really couldn't be more excited about the opportunity that we have with this new president [Donald Trump] to really turn this country around and get the economy moving again and have America standing tall again, home and abroad, to make America great again.
Then by the springtime, you'll see us moving an effort to cut taxes for working families, small businesses and family farms to reform our business taxes in this country so that American businesses can compete more effectively with businesses around the world.
The reality is, there is heartbreaking tragedy that has struck American families because people who came into this country illegally are now involved in criminal and reprise and activity, and we do not have the resources or the will to deport them systematically.
In fact, in Indiana we suspended the Syrian refugee program in the wake of the terrorist attack. We have no higher priority than the safety and security of the people of this country, and Donald Trump is right to articulate that view.
We will have a mechanism for dealing with people in this country that - you heard the word humanely again. It is going to be fair. It is going to be tough. But there will be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship unless people leave the country.
People in both parties are restless for change, ready to break free of old patterns in Washington. And Democrats are about to anoint someone who represents everything this country is tired of.
Hillary Clinton supports open borders, amnesty and even wants to increase Syrian refugees to this country by 550 percent.
[Donald Trump] has said that very consistently [about border], the contrast with Hillary Clinton, who supports amnesty, open borders, who wants to implement executive amnesty again on day one, even though the Supreme Court of the United States rejected it, and Hillary Clinton, who wants to increase refugees from the terrorist-torn country of Syria by 550 percent.
Enhanced interrogation gleaned information that saved American lives and - I was informed - prevented incoming terrorist attacks on this country from being successful.
[Donald Trump] will stand on the principles that have underpinned his commitment to end illegal immigration in this country. And that's what people will learn more about in the days ahead.
