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President Trump Addresses Values Voters Summit. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 13, 2017 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How times have changed, but, you know what, now they're changing back again. Just remember that.

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Benjamin Franklin reminded his colleagues at the constitutional convention to begin by bowing their heads in prayer. Religious liberty is enshrined in the very First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and we all pledge allegiance to -- very, very beautifully -- one nation under God.

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This is America's heritage, a country that never forgets that we are all, all, every one of us, made by the same God in Heaven.

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When I came to speak with you last year, I made you a promise. Well, one of the promises I made you was that I'd come back. See?

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And I don't even need your vote this year, right? That's even nicer.

(LAUGHTER)

But I pledged that, in a Trump administration, our nation's religious heritage would be cherished, protected and defended like you have never seen before. That's what's happening.

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That's what's happening. You see it every day. You're reading it.

So, this morning, I am honored and thrilled to return as the first sitting president to address this incredible gathering of friends -- so many friends.

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So many friends. And I'll ask Tony and all of our people that do such a great job in putting this event together, can I take next year off, or not? Or do I have to be back? I don't know. AUDIENCE: No.

He's saying -- they're saying no. LaJuana's (ph) saying no. So that means no.

(LAUGHTER)

So I'm here to thank you for your support, and to share with you how we are delivering on that promise, defending our shared values, and in so doing, how we are renewing the America we love. In the last 10 months, we have followed through on one promise after another.

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I didn't have a schedule, but if I did have a schedule, I would say we are substantially ahead of schedule.

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Some of those promises are to support and defend the Constitution. I appointed and confirmed a Supreme Court justice in the mold of the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch.

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To protect the unborn, I have reinstated a policy first put in place by President Ronald Reagan, the Mexico City Policy.

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To protect religious liberty, including protecting groups like this one, I signed a new executive action in a beautiful ceremony at the White House on our National Day of Prayer--

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-- which day we made official.

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Among many historic steps, the executive order followed through on one of my most important campaign promises to so many of you, to prevent the horrendous Johnson Amendment from interfering with your First Amendment rights.

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Thank you.

We will not allow government workers to censor sermons or target our pastors, our ministers--

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-- our rabbis. These are the people we want to hear from, and they're not going to be silenced any longer.

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Just last week, based on this executive action, the Department of Justice issued a new guidance to all federal agencies to ensure that no religious group is ever targeted under my administration. Won't happen.

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We have also taken action to protect the conscience rights of groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. You know what they went through.

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What they went through -- they were going through hell. And then, all of a sudden, they won. They said, "How did that happen?"

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We want to really point that the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith live by a beautiful calling. And we will not let bureaucrats take away that calling or take away their rights.

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We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values.

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Thank you. Thank you very much. It's something I said so much during the last two years, but I'll say it again as we approach the end of the year. You know, we're getting near that beautiful Christmas season that people don't talk about any more. (LAUGHTER)

They don't use the word "Christmas," because it's not politically correct. You go to department stores and they'll say "Happy New Year" and they'll say other things. And it'll be red. They'll have it painted, but they don't say -- well, guess what. We're saying "Merry Christmas" again.

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And, as a Christmas gift to all of our hardworking families, we hope Congress will pass massive tax cuts for the American people.

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That includes increasing the child tax credit and expanding it to eliminate the marriage penalty.

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Because we know that the American family is the true bedrock of American life -- so true.

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This is such an exciting event, because we are really working very hard, and hopefully Congress will come through. You saw what we did yesterday with respect to health care. It's step by step by step.

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And that was a very big step yesterday. Another big step was taken the day before yesterday. And one by one, it's going to come down, and we're going to have great health care in our country. We're going to have great health care in our country.

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We're taking a little different route than we had hoped, because getting Congress -- they forgot what their pledges were.

(LAUGHTER)

So we're going a little different route. But you know what? In the end, it's going to be just as effective, and maybe it'll even be better.

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For too long, politicians have tried to centralize the authority among the hands of a small few in our nation's capital. Bureaucrats think they can run your lives, overrule your values, meddle in your faith and tell you how to live, what to say and how to pray. But we know that parents, not bureaucrats, know best how to raise their children and create a thriving society.

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We know that faith and prayer, not federal regulation -- and, by the way, we are cutting regulations at a clip that nobody has ever seen before.

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Nobody. In nine months, we have cut more regulation than any president has cut during their term in office. So we are doing the job.

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And that is one of the major reasons, in addition to the enthusiasm for manufacturing and business and jobs -- and the jobs are coming back -- that's one of the major reasons -- regulation, what we've done -- that the stock market has just hit an all-time, historic high--

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-- that, just on the public markets, we've made, since Election Day, $5.2 trillion in value. Think of that: $5.2 trillion.

(APPLAUSE) And, as you've seen, the level of enthusiasm is the highest its ever been, and we have a 17-year low in unemployment. So, we're doing, really, some work.

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We know that it's the family and the church, not government officials that know best how to create strong and loving communities.

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And above all else, we know this: In America, we don't worship government; we worship God.

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Inspired by that conviction, we are returning moral clarity to our view of the world and the many grave challenges we face. This afternoon, in a little while, I'll be giving a speech on Iran, a terrorist nation like few others, and I think you're going to find it very interesting.

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Yesterday, things happened with Pakistan. And I have openly said Pakistan took tremendous advantage of our country for many years, but we're starting to have a real relationship with Pakistan, and they're to respect us as a nation again, and so are other nations. They are starting to respect the United States of America again.

And I appreciate that. And I want to thank the leaders of Pakistan for what they've been doing. In this administration, we will call evil by its name.

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We stand with our friends and allies, we forge new partnerships in pursuit of peace, and we take decisive action against those who would threaten our people with harm.

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We will be decisive, because we know that the first duty of government is to serve its citizens. We are defending our borders, protecting our workers, and enforcing our laws. You see it every single day like you haven't seen it in many, many years -- if you've seen it at all.

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In protecting America's interests abroad, we will always support our cherished friend and partner, the state of Israel.

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We will confront the dangers that imperil our nation, our allies and world, including the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.

(APPLAUSE) We have made great strides against ISIS, tremendous strides. I don't know if you've seen what's going on, but tremendous strides against ISIS. They never got hit like this before.

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Stand up -- stand up. He is a rough guy, I can see it.

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But they've been just ruthless and they've ruthlessly slaughtered innocent Christians along with the vicious killing of innocent Muslims and other religious minorities, and we have made their lives very, very difficult.

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We've done more against ISIS in nine months than the previous administration has done during its whole administration by far, by far. And ISIS is now being dealt one defeat after another. We're confronting rogue regimes from Iran to North Korea and we are challenging the communist dictatorship of Cuba and the socialist oppression of Venezuela and we will not lift the sanctions on these repressive regimes until they restore political and religious freedom for their people.

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All of these bad actors share a common enemy. The one force they cannot stop, the force deep within our souls, and that is the power of hope. That is why, in addition to our great military might, our enemies truly fear the United States because our people never lose faith, never give in, and always hope for a better tomorrow.

Last week, Melania and I were reminded of this in a powerful way when we traveled to Las Vegas. We visited a hospital where some of the survivors were recovering from absolutely horrific wounds. We met a young man named Brady Cook. He's 22, and a brand new police officer. That night was Brady's second day in field training, his second day as a policeman. Can you believe that? But when the shooting began, he did not hesitate. He acted with incredible courage, rushing into the hail of bullets, and he was badly shot in his shoulder.

This is what Brady said: "I didn't expect it, but it's what I signed up for. When stuff goes down, I want to be there to face evil, and to protect the good, innocent people that need it." And here's a young guy, great guy, and -- second day. I said, "Brady, don't worry about it. It's going to be easier from here."

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Brady's a hero, and he can't wait to get back on the job.

Several weeks before, when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, a local furniture store owner, who's known in Texas as "Mattress Mack," decided he had to help. When the rain began to flood the streets of the city, he sent out his furniture trucks to rescue the stranded. He brought them back to his stores and gave them food and a clean, dry place to stay, even if it meant ruining countless dollars' worth of furniture.

As Mattress Mack put it, "My faith defines me. It's who I am. We can afford the cost. We can't afford -- what we can't" -- and he said this strongly -- "What we can't afford is to cause people to lose hope."

In Brady and Mack, we see the strength of the American spirit. This spirit of courage and compassion is all around us, every day. It is the heartbeat of our great nation. And, despite certain coverage, that beat is stronger than it's ever been before. You see right through it.

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That beat is stronger than it's ever been.

(APPLAUSE) We see this spirit in the men and women who selflessly (ph) enlist in our Armed Forces, and really, who go out and risk their lives for God and for country. And we see it in the mothers and the fathers who get up at the crack of dawn. They work two jobs, and sometimes, three jobs. They sacrifice every day for the furniture -- the future of their children.

They have to go out. They go out. They work. The future of their children is everything to them. They put it before everything, and they make sure that the future of their children has God involved in it. So important to them.

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We see it in the church communities that come together to care for one another, to pray for each other and to stand strong with each other in times of need. The people who grace our lives and fill our homes and build our communities are the true strength of our nation and the greatest hope for a better tomorrow.

As long as we have pride in our country, confidence in our future and faith in our God, then America will prevail. We will defeat every evil, overcome every threat and meet every single challenge. We will defend out faith and protect our traditions. We will find the best in each other and in ourselves. We will pass on the blessings of liberty and the glories of God to our children.

Our values will endure, our nation will thrive, our citizens will flourish and our freedom will triumph. Thank you to the Value Voter Summit. Such an incredible group of people you are. Thank you to all of the faithful here today and thank you to the people of faith all across our nation and all over the world.

May God bless you, may God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

[10:52:33] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The president of the United States there addressing the Values Voter Summit. The first sitting president to do so, though he was there as a candidate, he was there as a private citizen as well.

A lot to get through here. Let's bring back our panel.

And David Chalian, let me go to you first. A few things stood out to me. He talked about how -- in his words how times have changed from when the "Declaration of Independence" was penned, but they are changing back again. So he sort of talked about reversal of America which stood out to me, and then on health care, he nudged Congress, said they forgot their mandate, but we're doing this step by step by step.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Poppy, were you looking at my notes? I wrote down the same two things.

HARLOW: That's what I always do. Hello, I'm in your head.

(LAUGHTER)

CHALIAN: Yes -- no, he did get to his sort of core message here talking to, you know, a key constituency inside the base of his support with that whole notion of what he interprets it to mean to make America great again, that whole slogan was sort of on display in that section about returning to something.

HARLOW: Yes.

CHALIAN: It was a big applause line. People stood up on their feet for it, no doubt. And in the health care part you are right. I could not miss that needling of Congress, that they could not get this done, that they seem to have forgotten their pledges, and that he said he is going to do every bit of repeal and replace without them, perhaps even more effectively.

The problem with that, and this is where I think Donald Trump will face some political heat as he goes through this in an executive way, is the replace part. It's one thing to start chipping away at certain things by executive order.

HARLOW: Right.

CHALIAN: But you do need Congress to replace parts of what you're dismantling in terms of Obamacare.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And so if you are keeping score at home, the president says he's saving Christmas, but killing Obamacare.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean, I think honestly --

HARLOW: It's true.

BERMAN: That was one of the thrusts of the speech there. Margaret Talev, to you, when we are talking about Obamacare, again in

framing it with every other subject he brought up here, you do get the sense that he is speaking directly to his base and trying to deliver directly to them.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He certainly is focusing on his base. And when you look at the context of who is in that room today and who is going to be at that gathering throughout the day, it is not only the audience but some of the other speakers that I think are really important to note.

There's Steve Bannon, the president's ousted chief strategist, who now is working from the outside to challenge a lot of the Republican orthodoxy, primary some key lawmakers, challenged leadership, and President Trump wants to make sure Steve Bannon is not challenging him anymore beyond that Alabama race. Speaking of which Roy Moore also slated to be part of that summit today.

[10:55:08] Sebastian Gorka, the sort of Bannon ally who's part of the foreign policy program. So part of President Trump's appearance there is today to show that base that he is not part of the establishment problem, he is still kind of that outsider, not predictable, he is his own person. That's part of a lot of the messaging that you're seeing there today with his appearance.

HARLOW: Scott, what do you think? I mean, his words when he talked about health care and what he is doing on his own, of course no thanks to Congress in his words, but he said it is going to come down, we're going to have great health care in this country, and then he sort of qualified it by saying, like, at least as good as it was, maybe even better, which struck me. And the issue here, to David's point is, he can take it down, a lot of it down, but he can't put it back up alone.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. That is a real issue. And I think what he is trying to do here is prod Congress along to get back to the table. And look, he's on firm political ground. I mean, if you look inside the Republican Party, a lot more people in the party trust and believe in what President Trump has to say than what they're hearing out of Congress.

And so he is using that leverage. He's using that capital with Republicans to try to get their Republican representatives to get back to work on Obamacare. So signing these executive orders, making these speeches I think for him is a new strategy to try to put some -- you know, put some more energy back into the idea that the Republicans will fulfill this campaign promise.

And look, every single person sitting in that room wants them to fulfill the promise. They're very unhappy they have not done it.

BERMAN: You know, Paul Begala, you've been waiting patiently. I don't think you were the audience necessarily that the president was speaking to today, but I want your reaction to what he said and specifically to the health care moves and rhetoric.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. On the health care piece, I think it's particularly interesting. Just from a political point of view. Six to seven million Americans are going to see their deductibles go up -- Christine Romans reported before the speech -- to $3600. $3600.

Here's the deal. A lot of those folks voted for Donald Trump. Trump did extraordinarily well, he was able to sneak through the electoral college because of his remarkable appeal with white working class voters. A whole lot of them are going to see their deductible go up to $3600 with nothing to replace it.

This is a catastrophe politically for the Republicans and they know it. This is the old Pottery Barn rule that Colonel Colin Powell used to tell Scott Jennings or President Bush, you break it, you own it. This president and his party will own $3600 deductibles that are going to hit a lot of their own voters and frankly also some Democrats, too. You shouldn't be partisan about this.

And it's just to me it's going to be a catastrophe. I mean, I'm glad that folks at the Values Voters Summit enjoyed it. Of course he's such a Godly man, our president. He just embodies Christian values of faith and hope and charity and prudence and courage, compassion, all the things that we Christians believe in. Donald Trump is such an exemplar of that, but he's going to screw them on health care.

HARLOW: Scott, let me get to you because you're joining us from Kentucky today, aren't you?

JENNINGS: Yes, I'm in Louisville.

HARLOW: So let me ask you about -- let me ask you about Kentucky. You have in it a state that overwhelmingly voted for the president. It's also a state that back in 2008 had uninsured rate of over 13 percent. The uninsured rate last year because of the ACA, because of Obamacare, was 5.1 percent. So it just goes to Paul's point about a lot of the people that were helped through Obamacare -- it's not perfect, I have been to Kentucky, I've talked to folks who cannot afford Obamacare. But I'm saying in that state where you are, it brought down the uninsured level significantly.

JENNINGS: Yes, uninsured rate came down in Kentucky because basically what we did here was expanded Medicaid. I think 85 percent of everybody who got insurance because of Obamacare did so because of the expansion in Medicaid. So this wasn't a free market exercise in getting people private insurance, this was putting them on Medicaid. And now the state budget here, if you ask Governor (INAUDIBLE), he'll tell you, we're under a massive strain because of that Medicaid expansion so we're wrestling with that.

And that is what folks don't want to talk about. Everybody wants to talk about the fact that hey, everybody got insurance, great, but nobody wants to really discuss how is Kentucky going to pay for it when the federal government stops picking up 100 percent of the tab of the Medicaid expansion? So that's a real issue when you consider that a state like Kentucky and other states not only have that Medicaid expansion to pay for, but in our state's case has a crippling public pension, $40 billion pension shortfall on top of it. There's no money for this. States can't print money. The federal

government can, but states cannot.

BERMAN: We will see what the president pushes forward in the next few days.

Scott Jennings, Margaret, David Chalian, and Paul Begala, thanks to all of you.

That does it for us today. Kate Bolduan picks up our coverage right now with "AT THIS HOUR."

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, John. Thank you, Poppy. Hello, everyone. I am Kate Bolduan.