I have been proud to fight and stand for religious liberty, to stand against Planned Parenthood, to defend life for my entire career.
The Constitution is brilliant for accountability; for posing factions against each other, to fight amongst themselves in government, which protects our liberty. But also in ensuring that decision-making is made by those who the people can hold accountable.
I think too many politicians are not listening to the men and women they represent, and if we're going to change the path America is on, we have got to be fighting for policies not that benefit the giant corporations and the banks and the special interests and the lobbyists, which is what Washington focuses on every day, but instead every policy needs to focus on the working men and women, the truck drivers and the steelworkers, and the young people.
I have spent almost my entire adult life fighting to defend the religious liberty of every American to follow his or her faith and live according to his conscience.
I want to commend the men and women at CPAC. As activists fighting for liberty, fighting for the Constitution, y'all are incredibly important. You are incredibly important number one in shocking and terrifying the mainstream media.
I have never supported amnesty, and I led the fight against Chuck Schumer's gang of eight amnesty legislation in the Senate.
I've spent my whole life fighting for free-market principles and the Constitution. That's not going to change.
I will fight to defend liberty.
We need to learn from history. These same leaders - [Barack] Obama, [Hillary] Clinton, and far too many Republicans - want to topple [Bashar] Assad. Assad is a bad man. Gadhafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record. But they were assisting us - at least [Muammar] Gadhafi and [Hosni] Mubarak - in fighting radical Islamic terrorists.
Three of the last four [elections], '06, '08, and '12, were disastrous for Republicans. And they were years in which we just we stayed quiet, we went along the get-along, we didn't stand on principle. The only year that was a good year for Republicans was 2010, when we painted in bold colors, not in pale pastels. We stood for principle. I think winning this fight right now is the most important thing we can do to see significant victories in 2014.
I like Donald Trump. I appreciate that he's focusing on illegal immigration. It's an issue I've been fighting a long, long time. I think people are very concerned, for example, about the problems of sanctuary cities and - and that is something that's a - that people are finally turning their attention to.
I think that is why we're seeing conservatives uniting behind our campaign, because I have a proven record as a consistent conservative of standing up to Washington and fighting for the constitution.
We need to use overwhelming air power. We need to be arming the Kurds. We need to be fighting and killing ISIS where they are.
I'll fight with every breath in my body to stop the out of control spending and debt that are bankrupting our kids and grandkids.
My father fled Cuba, and I will fight to defend liberty because my family knows what it's like to lose it.
I think we need to be fighting for the working men and women of this country, not the moneyed New York interests.
If you want a candidate who is led the fight against Obamacare, who will lift the burdens on small businesses and bring back jobs, I'm the only candidate in the race with that proven record.
Marco Rubio was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border, I was fighting to secure the border. And this also goes to trust, listening on to campaign trails. Candidates all the time make promises. You know, Marco said," he learned that the American people didn't trust the federal government."
I'll tell you whose view on [Bashar] Assad is the same as mine. It's Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Israel doesn't have a dog in that fight because Assad is a puppet of Iran, a Shia radical Islamic terrorist, but at the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't want to see Syria governed by ISIS.
