Over the last four years, my family has had the immense honour of being able to call the “People’s House” our home. We were welcomed and supported in this personal journey by a team whose dedication to the house in which they serve transcends administrations and serves as the living legacy of a building that remains the symbolic epicentre of our national life.
As First Lady, and as the temporary custodian of this national treasure, I was inspired by the example of my predecessors. Their reverence for the White House, and their love of history ensured the long-term preservation of the building in which they both served and lived. In a similar fashion, the projects that I have overseen during the last four years are ones which I believe will not only preserve the house’s heritage but enhance the experience of its beauty and solemnity for generations to come.
Through a team of dedicated advisors whose passion rose above mere cosmetic alterations, my attention was brought to areas of the house which were in great need of structural restoration and preservation. In 2018, we completed the first full renovation of the Queen’s Bathroom since the 1950s. Our goal of updating and restoring “The President’s Elevator,” which is used by the First Family, visiting dignitaries, and White House staff, was accomplished in the same year. In 2019 we embarked on a several months-long restorations of the East Room floor, which brought to life the true magnificence of this historic space. This was done in tandem with work performed on the marble floors of the State Entrance and Hallway. These are the first areas to greet all visitors to the White House, and the impact of the painstaking work of re-grouting, restoring and then re-polishing them has been profound.
The Bowling Alley also underwent a full renovation in 2019, and I hope it will be a space that is enjoyed by all who use it. The restoration and conservation of the priceless Zuber wallpaper in the Family Dining Room, perhaps the most ambitious project of the Administration, remains to be completed, and will be, I hope, admired by all who see its beauty. The advice and input of the White House curatorial team was critical to the success of such endeavors, and it was with great pride that I was able to work with them directly to renovate their offices and ensure they had the necessary archival and curatorial infrastructure to enable the continuation of their invaluable work on the collection.
Throughout, our goal has been to balance the needs of the present with the continuity of the overall architectural tradition of the White House. This aim could not have been realized without the group of American craftsman whose knowledge and enthusiasm ensured the work was completed through the application of traditional methods that keep with the long history of the building itself.
Over the course of 2020, our country has suffered the devastating and unexpected loss of life due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic impact of the pandemic, which has been felt by so many in this country, has profoundly shaped our shared experience of American life. As a result, it was with a great sensitivity to the wider national backdrop that I unveiled two long-planned projects on the White House grounds. In November 2020, we publicly marked the installation of “Floor Frame” by Isamu Noguchi in the newly restored Rose Garden. The Rose Garden celebrates the history of many previous First Ladies, and it was my privilege to introduce into its design the first work completed by an Asian-American artist to enter the White House collection. The simplicity and beauty of Nogochi’s sculpture provides an enduring message of strength, which felt particularly relevant at the moment of its unveiling.
Shortly thereafter, in December 2020, I had the great privilege to announce the completion of the refurbishment of the Children’s Garden and the construction of the new White House Tennis Pavilion. This project planning began in 2018 and was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission in June 2019. The Tennis Pavilion was constructed in partnership with the Trust for the National Mall and the National Park Service, and funded entirely through private donation. The team of American designers, builders, and artisans, who relied on locally sourced materials, created for the Nation a monumental addition to this historic home that I know will be part of its enduring legacy. Their achievement was made all the more notable as it was accomplished despite the many challenges they faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As this chapter comes to a close, it is important to acknowledge the many people and departments without whom my role as First Lady would not have been possible. Both the White House Office of the Curator and the White House Historical Association have worked tirelessly to ensure these projects met their standards of preservation, conservation, and scholarly excellence. I am grateful for those who in a private capacity have so generously donated to my initiatives and to the collection as a whole.
THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans: Four years ago, we launched a great national effort to rebuild our country, to renew its spirit, and to restore the allegiance of this government to its citizens. In short, we embarked on a mission to make America great again — for all Americans.
As I conclude my term as the 45th President of the United States, I stand before you truly proud of what we have achieved together. We did what we came here to do — and so much more.
This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous. We extend our best wishes, and we also want them to have luck — a very important word.
I’d like to begin by thanking just a few of the amazing people who made our remarkable journey possible.
First, let me express my overwhelming gratitude for the love and support of our spectacular First Lady, Melania. Let me also share my deepest appreciation to my daughter Ivanka, my son-in-law Jared, and to Barron, Don, Eric, Tiffany, and Lara. You fill my world with light and with joy.
I also want to thank Vice President Mike Pence, his wonderful wife Karen, and the entire Pence family.
Thank you as well to my Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows; the dedicated members of the White House Staff and the Cabinet; and all the incredible people across our administration who poured out their heart and soul to fight for America.
I also want to take a moment to thank a truly exceptional group of people: the United States Secret Service. My family and I will forever be in your debt. My profound gratitude as well to everyone in the White House Military Office, the teams of Marine One and Air Force One, every member of the Armed Forces, and state and local law enforcement all across our country.
Most of all, I want to thank the American people. To serve as your President has been an honour beyond description. Thank you for this extraordinary privilege. And that’s what it is — a great privilege and a great honour.
We must never forget that while Americans will always have our disagreements, we are a nation of incredible, decent, faithful, and peace-loving citizens who all want our country to thrive and flourish and be very, very successful and good. We are a truly magnificent nation.
All Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated.
Now more than ever, we must unify around our shared values and rise above the partisan rancor, and forge our common destiny.
Four years ago, I came to Washington as the only true outsider ever to win the presidency. I had not spent my career as a politician, but as a builder looking at open skylines and imagining infinite possibilities. I ran for President because I knew there were towering new summits for America just waiting to be scaled. I knew the potential for our nation was boundless as long as we put America first.
So I left behind my former life and stepped into a very difficult arena, but an arena nevertheless, with all sorts of potential if properly done. America had given me so much, and I wanted to give something back.
Together with millions of hardworking patriots across this land, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country. We also built the greatest economy in the history of the world. It was about “America First” because we all wanted to make America great again. We restored the principle that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Our agenda was not about right or left, it wasn’t about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation, and that means the whole nation.
With the support and prayers of the American people, we achieved more than anyone thought possible. Nobody thought we could even come close.
We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. We fixed our broken trade deals, withdrew from the horrible Trans-Pacific Partnership and the impossible Paris Climate Accord, renegotiated the one-sided South Korea deal, and we replaced NAFTA with the groundbreaking USMCA — that’s Mexico and Canada — a deal that’s worked out very, very well.
Also, and very importantly, we imposed historic and monumental tariffs on China; made a great new deal with China. But before the ink was even dry, we and the whole world got hit with the China virus. Our trade relationship was rapidly changing, billions and billions of dollars were pouring into the U.S., but the virus forced us to go in a different direction.
The whole world suffered, but America outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built. Without the foundations and footings, it wouldn’t have worked out this way. We wouldn’t have some of the best numbers we’ve ever had.
We also unlocked our energy resources and became the world’s number-one producer of oil and natural gas by far. Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We reignited America’s job creation and achieved record-low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women — almost everyone.
Incomes soared, wages boomed, the American Dream was restored, and millions were lifted from poverty in just a few short years. It was a miracle. The stock market set one record after another, with 148 stock market highs during this short period of time, and boosted the retirements and pensions of hardworking citizens all across our nation. 401(k)s are at a level they’ve never been at before. We’ve never seen numbers like we’ve seen, and that’s before the pandemic and after the pandemic.
We rebuilt the American manufacturing base, opened up thousands of new factories, and brought back the beautiful phrase: “Made in the USA.”
To make life better for working families, we doubled the child tax credit and signed the largest-ever expansion of funding for childcare and development. We joined with the private sector to secure commitments to train more than 16 million American workers for the jobs of tomorrow.
When our nation was hit with the terrible pandemic, we produced not one, but two vaccines with record-breaking speed, and more will quickly follow. They said it couldn’t be done but we did it. They call it a “medical miracle,” and that’s what they’re calling it right now: a “medical miracle.”
Another administration would have taken 3, 4, 5, maybe even up to 10 years to develop a vaccine. We did in nine months.
We grieve for every life lost, and we pledge in their memory to wipe out this horrible pandemic once and for all.
When the virus took its brutal toll on the world’s economy, we launched the fastest economic recovery our country has ever seen. We passed nearly $4 trillion in economic relief, saved or supported over 50 million jobs, and slashed the unemployment rate in half. These are numbers that our country has never seen before.
We created choice and transparency in healthcare, stood up to big pharma in so many ways, but especially in our effort to get favored-nations clauses added, which will give us the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world.
We passed VA Choice, VA Accountability, Right to Try, and landmark criminal justice reform.
We confirmed three new justices of the United States Supreme Court. We appointed nearly 300 federal judges to interpret our Constitution as written.
For years, the American people pleaded with Washington to finally secure the nation’s borders. I am pleased to say we answered that plea and achieved the most secure border in U.S. history. We have given our brave border agents and heroic ICE officers the tools they need to do their jobs better than they have ever done before, and to enforce our laws and keep America safe.
We proudly leave the next administration with the strongest and most robust border security measures ever put into place. This includes historic agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, along with more than 450 miles of powerful new wall.
We restored American strength at home and American leadership abroad. The world respects us again. Please don’t lose that respect.
We reclaimed our sovereignty by standing up for America at the United Nations and withdrawing from the one-sided global deals that never served our interests. And NATO countries are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars more than when I arrived just a few years ago. It was very unfair. We were paying the cost for the world. Now the world is helping us.
And perhaps most importantly of all, with nearly $3 trillion, we fully rebuilt the American military — all made in the USA. We launched the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in 75 years: the Space Force. And last spring, I stood at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and watched as American astronauts returned to space on American rockets for the first time in many, many years.
We revitalized our alliances and rallied the nations of the world to stand up to China like never before.
We obliterated the ISIS caliphate and ended the wretched life of its founder and leader, al Baghdadi. We stood up to the oppressive Iranian regime and killed the world’s top terrorist, Iranian butcher Qasem Soleimani.
We recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
As a result of our bold diplomacy and principled realism, we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East. Nobody believed it could happen. The Abraham Accords opened the doors to a future of peace and harmony, not violence and bloodshed. It is the dawn of a new Middle East, and we are bringing our soldiers home.
I am especially proud to be the first President in decades who has started no new wars.
Above all, we have reasserted the sacred idea that, in America, the government answers to the people. Our guiding light, our North Star, our unwavering conviction has been that we are here to serve the noble everyday citizens of America. Our allegiance is not to the special interests, corporations, or global entities; it’s to our children, our citizens, and to our nation itself.
As President, my top priority, my constant concern, has always been the best interests of American workers and American families. I did not seek the easiest course; by far, it was actually the most difficult. I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism. I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices because that’s what you elected me to do. Your needs were my first and last unyielding focus.
This, I hope, will be our greatest legacy: Together, we put the American people back in charge of our country. We restored self-government. We restored the idea that in America no one is forgotten because everyone matters and everyone has a voice. We fought for the principle that every citizen is entitled to equal dignity, equal treatment, and equal rights because we are all made equal by God. Everyone is entitled to be treated with respect, to have their voice heard, and to have their government listen. You are loyal to your country, and my administration was always loyal to you.
We worked to build a country in which every citizen could find a great job and support their wonderful families. We fought for the communities where every American could be safe and schools where every child could learn. We promoted a culture where our laws would be upheld, our heroes honoured, our history preserved, and law-abiding citizens are never taken for granted. Americans should take tremendous satisfaction in all that we have achieved together. It’s incredible.
Now, as I leave the White House, I have been reflecting on the dangers that threaten the priceless inheritance we all share. As the world’s most powerful nation, America faces constant threats and challenges from abroad. But the greatest danger we face is a loss of confidence in ourselves, a loss of confidence in our national greatness. A nation is only as strong as its spirit. We are only as dynamic as our pride. We are only as vibrant as the faith that beats in the hearts of our people.
No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes, for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality.
What has always allowed America to prevail and triumph over the great challenges of the past has been an unyielding and unashamed conviction in the nobility of our country and its unique purpose in history. We must never lose this conviction. We must never forsake our belief in America.
The key to national greatness lies in sustaining and instilling our shared national identity. That means focusing on what we have in common: the heritage that we all share.
At the centre of this heritage is also a robust belief in free expression, free speech, and open debate. Only if we forget who we are, and how we got here, could we ever allow political censorship and blacklisting to take place in America? It’s not even thinkable. Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions. In America, we don’t insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just don’t do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree. That’s not who we are. It will never be who we are.
For nearly 250 years, in the face of every challenge, Americans have always summoned our unmatched courage, confidence, and fierce independence. These are the miraculous traits that once led millions of everyday citizens to set out across a wild continent and carve out a new life in the great West. It was the same profound love of our God-given freedom that willed our soldiers into battle and our astronauts into space.
As I think back on the past four years, one image rises in my mind above all others. Whenever I travelled all along the motorcade route, there were thousands and thousands of people. They came out with their families so that they could stand as we passed, and proudly wave our great American flag. It never failed to deeply move me. I knew that they did not just come out to show their support of me; they came out to show me their support and love for our country.
This is a republic of proud citizens who are united by our common conviction that America is the greatest nation in all of history. We are, and must always be, a land of hope, of light, and of glory to all the world. This is the precious inheritance that we must safeguard at every single turn.
For the past four years, I have worked to do just that. From a great hall of Muslim leaders in Riyadh to a great square of Polish people in Warsaw; from the floor of the Korean Assembly to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly; and from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the shadow of Mount Rushmore, I fought for you, I fought for your family, I fought for our country. Above all, I fought for America and all it stands for — and that is safe, strong, proud, and free.
Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. There’s never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle but instead only grow stronger by the day.
As long as the American people hold in their hearts deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing that this nation cannot achieve. Our communities will flourish. Our people will be prosperous. Our traditions will be cherished. Our faith will be strong. And our future will be brighter than ever before.
I go from this majestic place with a loyal and joyful heart, an optimistic spirit, and a supreme confidence that for our country and for our children, the best is yet to come.
Thank you, and farewell. God bless you. God bless the United States of America.
President Trump: As we mark National School Choice Week, my Administration reaffirms its commitment to solving the civil rights issue of our time: educational inequity. We have made substantial progress on this front, but we must continue our efforts to ensure that each and every family in America has the freedom to choose an education that best meets their needs and values.
Our Nation currently spends more money per pupil than almost every other industrialized country in the world, yet nearly two-thirds of our youth are not proficient readers, and students across all age groups continue to struggle in math. These failures are largely the result of a one-size-fits-all, industrial-style approach to education. Currently, students are assigned to schools based on where they live, so only those whose families can afford to move to a better-performing school district or can afford private school tuition have a choice in the learning environment that best fits their child’s needs. That is fundamentally unfair and unjust. All Americans, no matter their family income, deserve the opportunity to choose the best educational option for them.
What is often forgotten is that the failures of this rigid arrangement disproportionately affect racial minorities and distressed communities, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. We can no longer allow America’s classrooms to be an exception to our Nation’s promise of equal opportunity for all. Instead, we must provide equal access to a quality education for every American student, no matter where they reside. In the land of the free, a child’s zip code should never determine their future.
That is why, I recently issued an Executive Order on Expanding Educational Opportunity through School Choice that provides in-person options for low-income parents forced to send their children to virtual school during the pandemic. But we must continue this progress. Therefore, I renew my call to Congress to pass the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, so we can finally take a giant step towards true liberty for students. This landmark legislation would give more than 1 million children the freedom to attend the school that best fits their needs, and would create more than $5 billion in annual tax credits for those who donate to local scholarship funds, empowering more families to choose the best educational setting for their children.
I also call on the Congress to pass the School Choice Now Act, which will ensure every State can fund elementary and high school scholarship programs, so that students do not lose access to their school of choice because of economic disruptions. As too many school districts across the country refuse to open, these scholarships are needed now more than ever so that families unable to afford private tutors or who work during the day can still provide an education for their children.
Education will always be one of the most important factors in a child’s future success. That is why I am fighting to empower all families — of all races, backgrounds, and incomes — with the freedom and the resources they need to make the best decisions for their children. In America, more freedom leads to more opportunity — especially in the classroom. By embracing my Administration’s school choice policy, we will make sure that every American student is able to fulfill their God‑given potential.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 24 to January 30, 2021, as National School Choice Week.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
Adviser to the President and Special Presidential Representative on Climate Issues Russian Edelgeriyev held the 33rd meeting of the Presidential Executive Office interdepartmental working group on climate change and sustainable development.
The meeting participants discussed, in particular, creating a unified system for monitoring the emission and absorption of greenhouse gases on the territory of Russia. The development of such a system is contemplated as part of the Comprehensive Information System of Environmental Monitoring in Russia.
There was also a discussion on posting information updates on the websites of federal executive authorities regarding progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the work of the expert group on information and statistical support for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals under the interdepartmental working group.
The expert group has prepared a draft list of national indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals, which includes 160 indicators for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Russia. Most indicators have been agreed for the goals Good Health and Well-being (36 indicators) and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (28 indicators). The second edition of the statistical yearbook Sustainable Development Goals in the Russian Federation 2020 is being prepared for release, which for the first time includes individual indicators for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the regions of the Russian Federation.
During the meeting, the interdepartmental working group adopted its work plan for 2021.
Applications are now open for grants under the Andrews Labor Government’s Building Safer Communities Program.
There are three categories of grants available which cover a wide range of sectors and projects, with each focused on delivering grassroots and community focused projects to prevent crime.
The Creating Safer Places category offers grants of $25,000 to $300,000 for councils to fund urban design projects that apply an inclusive environmental design approach to deter crime, increase safety and activate public places.
The Crime Prevention Innovation Fund awards grants of $25,000 to $300,000 for councils and not-for-profit organisations to deliver and evaluate innovative community safety and crime prevention initiatives.
This can include projects that engage diverse communities or specific groups, or which establish or strengthen partnerships across community, business, sport and other sectors to address causes of crime.
A third grant category, Empowering Communities, will also support community-designed and delivered projects that take an evidence-informed, innovative approach to address issues impacting on crime and perceptions of safety in specific communities.
The Building Safer Communities grants are part of the government’s Community Crime Prevention Program, which has invested more than $45 million in almost 800 projects across Victoria since 2015.
Applications for the Creating Safer Places and Crime Prevention Innovation Fund grants close at 4pm on 15 March 2021.
Bill Gates was listed in 2019 as the number one carbon footprint of all the celebrities. He beat Liar Al Gore, Jennifer Lopez. He beat Bernie Sanders and a bunch of others [including] Hollywood Harrison Ford. He came out number one, Bill Gates. He has a new book coming out about the climate crisis; what we can all do. He spoke to the World Economic Forum and claimed we have to change every aspect of our lives to fight global warming but Bill Gates is not willing to do it. The last estimate in 2010 he paid $30,000 a month in his electricity bill at his home. Since he…recently bought a 43 million-dollar oceanfront property, [he’s] not very worried about sea-level rise apparently.”
Marc reports that Gates and the rest of the climate elite want us to refrain from flying unless we can come up with a “morally justifiable” reason to do so. Of course they expect their moral justification travel visas to be permanently stamped.
“Gates just said we need to continue lockdowns on bars, restaurants, small businesses. Meanwhile, the billionaire class is reaping benefits of lockdowns — his pals from Amazon, Walmart, all other big box stores. What is interesting [is that] climate activists are calling for flying only when it is ‘morally justifiable’ as the new normal post-pandemic. Bill Gates is in on that. He is saying, well business travel – he expects a 50% reduction. So now if you want to fly commercial, if you’re not Bill Gates or Leonardo DiCaprio or Al Gore, you need to come up with a ‘morally justifiable’ reason. This is what the climate activists are doing. Crushing the airline industry, by boosting private planes. They’re living one way for themselves and imposing…another set of austerity on the rest of us.”
Maybe Bill Gates and the rest of the carbon elite will shock us all someday and lead by example.
The large social media and search companies, a.k.a., “Big Tech,” have long been out of the closet when it comes to censorship, as CFACT has documented. I first wrote about this 19 months ago, and it well predated my analysis.
Big Tech is now abandoning any masquerade of standards or objectivity when they censor those with whom they dislike or disagree. In fact, they are blaring it with the increased backing of many politicians who swore an oath to the Constitution; the document that guarantees free speech as an inalienable right.
The names of Big Tech moguls are increasingly familiar, including Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook (which owns Instagram), Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google (which owns YouTube).
None of these individuals has yet reached the comparative wealth of 19th century “robber barons,” John D. Rockefeller (oil), Andrew Carnegie (steel) or J.P. Morgan (finance). However, the 21st century robber barons are no less powerful.
The 19th century economic titans controlled industries and crushed competition from other businesses. They had disproportionate control over the economy and people’s livelihoods, even though America’s standard of living improved during this industrial age. Thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt and other courageous politicians and judges in the early 20th century, the monopolies were declared illegal and broken up.
The 21st century tech giants are similarly crushing their competition, the latest flagrant example being the information platform, Parler. More insidious than the 19th century monopolies is Big Tech’s control of information. Controlling what the public knows is ultimate power—as any dictatorship understands—since it influences behavior of the populace, stifles opposition, and increases political and economic power. Just because Big Tech consists of private companies rather than government does not make their abridgments legal, much less acceptable. As with their 19th century predecessors’ threat to economic freedom, the power and control over the masses by today’s monopolistic few are a threat to constitutional freedom and more.
Examples of information control abound. Last spring, President Trump suggested that hydroxychloroquine could help treat the coronavirus, a view held by countless physicians. Youtube and Facebook censored such people. Twitter refuses to permit discussion of evidence of irregularities in the last presidential election, but allowed years of rampant falsehoods about the one prior. Twitter and Facebook just banned President Trump from their platforms, which were criticized by the senior legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union. But, the Jew-hating Ayatollah Khamenei, dictator of Iran, the world’s leading terrorist nation, can still tweet, along with tyrants throughout the world. One need not agree with or like the outgoing President of the United States to find that twisted and hypocritical.
Censorship is not a new reality to those in the climate change debate, especially for questioning mankind’s impact on the temperature. Media figures like NBC’s Chuck Todd and activists such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have advocated censorship and imprisonment for dissenters from their dogma.
Censorship to squash opposing voices is now metastasizing on many issues like a societal cancer. As with other parts of the Constitution, the right to free speech is becoming a truism in America, i.e., it exists on paper but less and less in reality. This is because powerful tech monopolies are more brazen with the support of the political party they help elect to control the federal government.
U.S. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and the indefatigable Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the tip of the iceberg of politicians overtly in support of censorship. Last fall, Sen. Coons urged Twitter to clamp down on “climate denialism,” (i.e., anyone who challenges his view of climate Armageddon). AOC now wants to “figure out how we rein in our media environment so you just can’t spew disinformation and misinformation.”
Beware of any politician, Left or Right, wanting to “clamp down” viewpoints or “rein in” the media under the guise of stopping hate or preventing falsehoods. Rather, it is about quelling disagreement and opposition.
The answer to hate speech and disinformation is more speech and more information, not censorship or a cancel culture to threaten one’s job and livelihood. Rioting and pillaging also are no excuse to war against the First Amendment since there already are laws that should be enforced against what occurred last week at the U.S. Capitol and last summer in cities across the country.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is no Theodore Roosevelt, though few presidents were at his level. Mr. Biden will be the oldest president the moment he says, “So help me God” next week, and likely serves one term. He also could be a courageous and historic figure if he followed the example of T.R. and lead a break-up of the tech monopolies. Unfortunately, Biden is a huge beneficiary of Big Tech and nothing in his 48 years as a D.C fixture suggests he has political valor for reform.
I wish President Joe Biden well, and hope he can get beyond the present-day acrimony and his comfort zone to build a positive legacy. That won’t come from expanding “Green energy,” but by reaffirming and strengthening speech and other threatened liberties that are the birthright of every American.
Author
Peter Murphy Peter Murphy is Senior Fellow at CFACT. He has researched and advocated for a variety of policy issues, including education reform and fiscal policy, both in the non-profit sector and in government in the administration of former New York Governor George Pataki. He previously wrote and edited The Chalkboard weblog for the NY Charter Schools Association, and has been published in numerous media outlets, including The Hill, New York Post, Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal. Twitter: @PeterMurphy26 Website: https://www.petermurphylgs.com/
Articles on this site may be republished without modification and with an attribution of the author and a link to CFACT.org within the body of the article.
The Palaszczuk Government has announced $200,000 in new funding to support Indigenous festivals, events and jobs for the Year of Indigenous Tourism.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said applications for event funding were now open.
“This is an excellent opportunity to develop existing and new Indigenous tourism experiences and encourage even more visitors to make Queensland their destination of choice,” Mr Hinchliffe said.
“With COVID-19 disrupting tourism in 2020, the Palaszczuk Government has extended the Year of Indigenous Tourism to the end of 2021.
“The Year of Palaszczuk Government Indigenous tourism Festivals and Events Fund is putting $200,000 on the table to showcase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture to help tourism rebuild stronger.
“We’re looking to invest in innovative events and festivals that encourage off-season tourism and help local communities to thrive.”
Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Craig Crawford said over five years, Indigenous tourism had increased by 6.4 per cent.
“More than 472,000 visitors have immersed themselves in the world’s oldest living cultures, right here in Queensland,” Mr Crawford said.
Not only do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander festivals and events attract visitors seeking unique cultural experiences, they deliver jobs and boost local economies.
“As more visitors seek out cultural experiences, Queensland is in a great position to be Australia’s leading destination for Indigenous tourism.”
The $200,000 Year of Indigenous Tourism Festivals and Events Fund is coordinated by Tourism and Events Queensland.
For more information on enhancing your Indigenous festival event go to: www.teq.queensland.com
Source: Minister for Tourism Industry Development and Innovation and Minister for Sport The Honourable Stirling HinchliffeQueensland Government
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. A great honour to be here. We worked long and hard. Please sit down. We’ve worked long and hard to get this done. They said it couldn’t be done, and we got it done. One of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of our country.
I’m honoured to be here in the Rio Grande Valley with the courageous men and women of Customs and Border Patrol. These people are incredible. They’re really incredible. I’ve gotten to know you very well over the last four years. Many of you are friends from all of the work we did in designing the wall. We got it exactly as you wanted it — everything — including your protective plate on top. I’d say, “Why did we put that?” And they said, “We need it for extra protection.” Climb plate. And we have everything you want. It’s steel. It’s concrete inside the steel. And then it’s rebar — a lot of heavy rebar inside the concrete. And it’s as strong as you’re going to get and strong as you can have. But we gave you 100 per cent of what you wanted. So now you have no excuses. I didn’t want you to have any excuses. (Laughter.)
And you set records. And we can’t let the next administration even think about taking it down, if you can believe that. I don’t think that will happen. I think when you see what it does and how it’s so important for our country, nobody is going to be touching it. And you are very proud of it, and you’re proud of the work you did, because we really designed it together.
We’re joined together to celebrate a great achievement: the extraordinarily successful building of the wall on the southern border.
Before we begin, I’d like to say that free speech is under assault like never before. The 25th Amendment is of zero risks to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes: Be careful what you wish for. The impeachment hoax is a continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country, and it is causing tremendous anger and division and pain — far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.
And now I’d like to briefly address the events of last week. Millions of our citizens watched on Wednesday as a mob stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government. As I have consistently said throughout my administration, we believe in respecting America’s history and traditions, not tearing them down. We believe in the rule of law, not in violence or rioting.
Because of the pandemic — horrible, horrible invisible enemy — and despite our tremendous success developing a vaccine years before it was thought evenly remotely possible. Nobody thought it was going to be possible. They said would take five years. “Sir, it will take seven years.” All of our scientists were saying — our advisors, “It will take 7 years, 5 years, 10 years maybe.” Well, we did it just like I said we would. And we had it out years and years before they thought it was possible. And we’re now delivering it to states, including your state, where your governor and government are doing a terrific job in getting it administered in Texas. And Florida is doing great. Some of them are doing great. Some aren’t doing as well, but they have all they can handle. And we get it to them as fast as they need it, and even faster.
But they’re calling it a “medical miracle.” And this has been a difficult year and a very difficult election. The pandemic has made it a very, very difficult year for our country and virtually every country all over the world.
Now is the time for our nation to heal, and it’s time for peace and for calm. Respect for law enforcement and the great people within law enforcement — so many are here — is the foundation of the MAGA agenda. And we’re a nation of law, and we’re a nation of order. That is why we’re here today, to talk about what we must do to uphold the rule of law in America and how we must continue to support our law enforcement heroes, which is exactly what you are. Do you feel like a hero? Yeah, I think you do. Right? (Applause.) You do and you are.
I want to thank Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan, who’s been incredible. Where is Mark? Mark? Stand up, Mark. Great job. Fantastic. (Applause.)
Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings. Brian, thank you very much. Great job. (Applause.) He’s so happy with it. He said, “Sir, this really works.”
And most importantly, the brave law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to protect our families and our country.
I also want to thank a tremendous gentleman, a friend of mine, Tom Homan. He’s a great American patriot, and he was with us right from the beginning. (Applause.) Right, Tom? You knew exactly — he said, “We need a wall,” when they were saying, “No, no, we need drones. We need drones.” I said, “Why? So you can watch the people pour into our country illegally?” And I want to thank you very much, Tom. What a — what a professional job you’ve done.
All of you people, incredible. Everyone here today is part of an incredible success story. This is a real success story.
When I took office, we inherited a broken, dysfunctional, and open border. Everybody was pouring in at will.
Working alongside the heroes in this great outdoor space, looking at our wall, we reformed our immigration system and achieved the most secure southern border in U.S. history. It is at a level that it’s never been before.
We took on the cartels, the coyotes, and the special interests, and we restored the rule of law. For years, politicians ran for office promising to secure the border, only to get elected and to do the absolute exact opposite. They even promised a wall. If you remember, about 10 years ago, they promised a wall but they couldn’t get it built. It wasn’t easy getting it built. Getting it financed was tough. Getting it built was even tougher. All the different chains of title and all the different things we had to go through — very, very complex and very difficult, but we got it done. But they had it years ago. You remember that better than anybody. Right? And they never got it done. They never ever completed the task. And then, ultimately, the money was sent back to the federal government. Spent, but no wall was built.
But unlike those who came before me, I kept my promises. And today we celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the completion of the promised 450 miles of border wall. Four hundred and fifty miles. Nobody realizes how big that is. (Applause.)
I remember when I first came down, about a year and a half ago: We’re under construction, and I started walking, and I’m looking at the wall, and I’m walking and walking. And I’m used to, like, a development project where you could walk a wall. You know, 10 acres, 5 acres, 2 acres, 1 acre. Then I realized that’s a long time; that’s a big walk. A lot of it — a lot of the wall you have is incredibly natural. It’s — you have the mountains. You have the rivers. You have some very powerful water areas. You have some areas that are virtually impossible to get by. So we didn’t need walls everywhere, but where we needed them — because it’s been so successful that we’ve added nearly 300 miles. And that’s currently under construction. This was our original wish: to get these areas done where it was such trouble. And now we have it. It’s either in construction or pre-construction — an additional 300 miles.
In every region that we’ve built the wall, illegal crossings and drug smuggling have plummeted. Absolutely plummeted. In the Rio Grande Valley, crossings have dropped nearly 80 per cent. In Yuma, Arizona, illegal entries have been slashed by 90 per cent. Nationwide, ICE and Border Patrol have seized over 2 million pounds of fentanyl, heroin, meth, and other deadly narcotics, saving thousands and thousands of lives.
We’ve arrested nearly 500,000 illegal aliens with criminal records — some with very serious criminal records of the type you don’t want to know about, like murder.
We removed nearly 20,000 gang members from the United States, including 4,500 members of MS-13 — probably the worst gang of them all. Through the landmark reforms we’ve put into place, we have ended the immigration chaos and reestablished American sovereignty. Our most important reform was ending catch and release — not easy to do; you’re dealing with Congress; it’s very, very difficult — which is the functional equivalent of open borders, but even worse: It’s catch and release them. It means release into our country, not into another country.
This policy was exploited by vicious criminal organizations, who understood the laws better than our people understood them for years, to spread misery and suffering and drugs all across the hemisphere.
Now, instead of “catch and release,” we have “detain and remove.” It’s called “detain and remove.” Doesn’t that sound better? One of the biggest loopholes we closed was asylum fraud. Under the old, broken system, if you merely requested asylum, you were released into the country. The most ridiculous thing anyone has ever seen. And we were taking in some people that you didn’t want to have in your country.
We instituted a series of historic policy changes to shut down asylum fraud, and that’s what we did. This includes the groundbreaking agreement with Mexico known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols,” or MPP.
Under this agreement, if an illegal alien requests asylum, they have to wait in Mexico until their case is heard. They used to wait here. And when they were waiting, they would say “bye-bye,” and they’d disappear somewhere into our country, and essentially we’d never find them again, would never see them again.
This one measure alone ended a humanitarian crisis and saved countless lives, and especially, I have to say, lives from crime.
I want to thank the great President of Mexico. He is a great gentleman, a friend of mine. And President Obrador — he is a man who really knows what’s happening. And he loves his country, and he also loves the United States. But I want to thank for his friendship and his professional working relationship.
We actually had 27,000 Mexican soldiers guarding our borders over the last two years. Nobody thought that was possible. And they made it very, very difficult, and that’s why the numbers were able to plunge, even during the construction of the wall.
And, by the way, one of the big elements of the wall that make it so successful is we can have far fewer people working. Now, they can be working on other things — other things related to crime and drug prevention and a lot of other elements they’re working on, because we saved massive numbers of people. And included here we have the most sophisticated camera systems and most sophisticated electronic systems anywhere in the world.
We implemented three historic agreements with the Northern Triangle; that’s Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Under these critical asylum cooperation agreements, the burden of illegal immigration is now shared all across the region. Now, when an illegal immigrant is arrested at our border, they can be sent to a neighbouring country instead of into a U.S. community.
Prior to my getting here, countries wouldn’t accept them. They would say, “No, no, no.” I said, “Well, you got to take them.” First month — I’ll never forget — these gentlemen, right here, came to me. They said, “They won’t take them back.”
They came. They may be murderers. They may be cartel heads. They may be some really vicious people. The countries didn’t want them back. And I stopped all payments to those countries. I stopped everything going to those countries. And after it was stopped for about a month — you remember? — after it was stopped for about a month, they called. They said, “We’d love to have them back.” And I never gave them as much money as they were getting, by the way, but they got some. (Applause.) It was amazing.
And you people know better than anyone: They wouldn’t take them back. We’d have planes flying over, loaded up with people that we didn’t want here. And they’d say, “Don’t ever even think about landing that plane.” And they’d take them by boat, and they’d take them by bus, and they wouldn’t let them into their countries. And all of a sudden, they say, “Welcome back. We love having you.”
So it was a great thing. And now they do take them back. And the relationship with those countries — the Triangle — the relationship is a much better one than it was before.
In addition to our agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, we have systematically reformed the regulatory code to return asylum to its original legal meaning and purpose — not a free ticket for entry.
A recent comprehensive report by the Department of Homeland Security and Justice show how effective our reforms have been and how disastrous their removal would be. It would be a disaster for our country. I know they’re thinking about removing them. I hope they don’t do that. I hope they don’t do that. It’ll be a absolute travesty for our country.
The report conclusively proves, once and for all, that aliens released at the border remain at large in the country and do not return home. They won’t go home. And you rarely find them. It’s very tough to find them.
So we have aliens released in our country, many of whom are serious criminals. And we’ve stopped that. Don’t ever start that process again. By contrast, under our policies, 98 percent of aliens that remain in DHS custody are removed. Simply put, if you enter the United States illegally, you are apprehended and immediately safely removed from our country. Without this core principle, there is no border, there is no law, there is no order.
My administration also instituted vital public health measures on the border. In response to the China virus, under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, illegal immigrants are being promptly removed to protect the health of border agents, other migrants, and local communities, and the public at large. Removing these protections would invite a public health catastrophe of epic proportions.
As you probably know, in Tijuana, various parts of Mexico, the COVID — it’s got about 24 names I can call it, from “COVID” to “China virus.” I can call it the “plague.” I call it the “China plague.” A lot of different names. But we always call it the “invisible enemy.” But the invisible enemy has been very tough on Mexico, and we have areas along the border where we’re in great shape because right there, because of that, that we’re in great shape. But on the other side, in Mexico, they’re suffering greatly with the virus. It’s been incredible what we’ve achieved. And we didn’t do the wall because of COVID; we did the wall because of security and drugs and other things. But it turned out that, in the middle of it all, along came this horrible plague.
We inherited a dangerously lawless border. The people that work here are unbelievably brave. I’ve seen what they have to endure, what they have to go through. They’re tough, they’re strong, and they’re great patriots, great Americans.
We fixed it and we secured it. We empowered our wonderful ICE and Border Patrol to fulfill their oaths and sworn officers. They became sworn officers of the law. And they love their job. It’s a tough job. It’s a nasty job. They’re not paid what they should be paid, to be honest, but we got you up. We got you up. But these are incredibly talented people that could probably do a lot better, in terms of economics, than they do here. But they love what they do, and they love their country.
We also put into place vital measures to protect American workers, keep out terrorists, and stop the abuse of our welfare system — where they’d come up, go on our welfare system, and live for years on American welfare without ever having a job.
We also have, and we had — but we have them all the time — we have terrorists from the Middle East coming into our country through the southern border. That was before what you see right here, because it was easier to come into our country through the southern border than it was through airports or any other means. So they’d land in South America, and they’d work their way up, and they’d come into our country. And these are not people from the countries that you would suspect. These are people from some very seriously dangerous places in the Middle East. And the numbers are far greater than anybody would understand. Really far greater.
Removing any of these measures would hamstring our workers, endanger our country, and cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
No matter our party, we should all agree on the need to protect our workers, our families, and our citizens of all backgrounds, no matter who they are. In particular, if our border security measures are reversed, it will trigger a tidal wave of illegal immigration — a wave like you’ve never seen before. And I can tell you that, already, waves are starting to come up from 2,000 and 1,000 and 500 miles away. We see what’s coming.
And they’re coming because they think that it’s gravy train at the end; it’s going to be a gravy train. Change the name from the “caravans,” which I think we came up with, to the “gravy train,” because that’s what they’re looking for — looking for the gravy.
This will be an unmitigated calamity for national security, public safety, and public health. It would destroy millions and millions of jobs and claim thousands of innocent lives. The policies I put into place are uniformly and strongly supported by the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol. We worked on them together, just like we did on the wall. We worked on the policies together because nobody knows this whole world better than the incredible people right in front of me. To terminate those policies is knowingly to put America in really serious danger and to override the great career experts that have worked so hard — those from DHS.
At this very moment, smugglers and coyotes are preparing to surge the border if our policies are loosened or removed. I mean, they’re literally waiting — big, big groups of people. Some of them very unsavory, I might add.
This is an entirely preventable tragedy. It’s waiting to happen. The safety of our nation must come before politics. We have many disagreements in the country, but we should all agree: the urgent need to secure our borders, protect our homeland, and allow law enforcement to fulfill its mission without political interference.
ICE and Border Patrol agents swore a sacred oath to uphold the law, and no political appointee should ever order them to violate that oath. These are real experts. They really get it.
And I’ll tell you who else gets it: The Hispanic population of our country gets it. Because not only did I win Texas in historic numbers, but I won border towns, which are largely Hispanic, and people were amazed to see that. And the numbers, they say, were — the Governor of Texas called — Greg — great guy, great governor — called. He said, “You had numbers that nobody has had since Reconstruction. “Reconstruction” means “Civil War.” And largely Hispanic. They understand it better than anybody, and they want law enforcement to help them — help them live safe lives.
The laws that Congress passed must be upheld. To the men and women of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and all across DHS, law enforcement in general: You have earned the everlasting gratitude of our nation. You have no idea how much our nation loves you and respects you. I don’t think you do have an idea, but it’s true. I only hope and pray that your voice will be heard, honored, heeded, and respected long into the future.
God bless you. God bless law enforcement. And God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great job. (Applause.)
Secretary Pompeo delivers remarks at Voice of America, in Washington, D.C. ————— Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo was sworn in as the 70th U.S. Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the warm welcome. Michael, thanks for your leadership of this incredibly important institution. And Bob, congratulations on returning to the helm of VOA. I am truly happy to be here. I’m honoured to have been requested, and it’s always fun to be with a fellow tanker too.
I want to acknowledge the other the network chiefs who is with us today – Steve Yates of Radio Free Asia. Steve, where are you at? Nice to see you.
And a note of appreciation too to the Voice of America journalists, staff, and to all those watching and listening. I’ve sat down for interviews with many of you in the far corners of the world. They have always been a joy.
And speaking of which too, I understand that this speech is being broadcast on TV, radio, on your website, social media, in more than 40 languages.
Hats off to the translators. I have no idea how anyone can translate my talking into Uzbek this quickly. That guy or gal deserves a bonus, Bob.
It’s great to have this opportunity. I’ve been following the work of Voice of America for decades.
And as Bob just mentioned, I started my career as an Army officer, patrolling the Iron Curtain – freedom’s frontier in the 1980s.
I couldn’t cross into East Germany. I was serving in a little town called Bindlach. West Germans couldn’t cross either. But your broadcasts, Voice of America broadcasts, could.
Millions of men and women whose names we’ll never know listened to you, often at their own peril. Their governments dealt only in lies, in propaganda. But VOA’s listeners wanted the truth, and that’s what you gave them.
VOA’s very first broadcast, in 1942 that Bob referred to, began with the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” along with this pledge, quote: “The news may be good. The news may be bad. But we’ll tell you the truth.”
I love that. I always told my son – I’ve told this story before – when he was growing up, I said, “Work hard, keep your faith, and tell the truth.” He mostly followed my advice, and it has served him and many of you, I know, well.
Your mandate here at Voice of America is unambiguous: to be “accurate, objective, and comprehensive,” and to “represent America.”
The mission of the USAGM is “to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”
That’s because expanding freedom and democracy are what America has always been about. You’re the voice of American exceptionalism. You should be proud of that.
The world needs VOA’s clarion call for freedom, now more than ever. I hear it wherever I go. That’s what I wanted to talk about today.
I tell audiences about American exceptionalism wherever and whenever I can, because it’s true and because it’s important.
America is good and great, and everyone who truly grabs our founding understands this.
Michael and Bob have made studying this history their life’s work.
Many of you have made it your life’s mission too. That’s why you work here at Voice of America.
We were indeed the first nation founded on the central belief that all human beings are endowed with certain unalienable rights and that governments are instituted to secure those God-given rights.
We have always striven for a more perfect union. And goodness knows we don’t always get it right. Therefore we need both pride and humility about our past and our present. We need the truth.
But it’s very clear that when Americans have united around our founding values, be it in Philadelphia, at Gettysburg, at Seneca Falls, or during Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, we have made good on our founding promise time and time again.
Now, our adversaries try and claim otherwise.
When the Chinese Communist Party attempted to exploit the tragic death of George Floyd to claim their authoritarian system was somehow superior to ours, I issued a statement, which read in part: “During the best of times, the People’s Republic of China ruthlessly imposes communism. But amid the most difficult challenge, the United States secures freedom.”
There is no moral equivalence. This is a self-evident truth.
It is not fake news for you to broadcast that this is the greatest nation in the history of the world and the greatest nation that civilization has ever known.
Indeed, I’m not saying this to ignore our faults. Indeed, just the opposite; it is to acknowledge them.
But this isn’t the Vice of America, focusing on everything that’s wrong with our great nation. It’s the Voice of America. It certainly isn’t the place to give authoritarian regimes in Beijing or Tehran a platform.
Your mission is to promote democracy, freedom, and American values all across the world. It’s a U.S. taxpayer-funded institution aimed squarely at that.
Indeed, this is what sets VOA apart from MSNBC and Fox News and the like.
You can give voice to the voiceless in dark corners of the world.
Now look, like many government agencies after the Cold War ended, our international broadcasters – well, they lost their way. Many of you know this.
And there were, I am sure, many reasons.
The Soviet Union had collapsed. The Wall had come down. Names like Bin Laden and Zarqawi and Baghdadi weren’t widely known.
In fact, many wrote that history was over. We allowed security protocols to lapse, and VOA lost its commitment to its founding mission.
Its broadcasts had become less about telling the truth about America, and too often about demeaning America.
In 2013, one of my predecessors described the Broadcasting Board of Governors as, quote, “practically defunct,” end of quote.
Look, that’s in part why Congress created the role of CEO of the USAGM on a bipartisan basis.
And it is, again, why I am here today.
I read that some VOA employees didn’t want me to speak here today. I’m sure it was only a handful.
They didn’t want the voice of American diplomacy to be broadcast on the Voice of America.
Think about that for just a moment.
Look, we’re all parts of institutions with duties and responsibilities higher and bigger and more important than any one of us individually. But this kind of censorial instinct is dangerous. It’s morally wrong. Indeed, it’s against your statutory mandate here at VOA.
Censorship, wokeness, political correctness, it all points in one direction – authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness.
It’s similar to what we’re seeing at Twitter, and Facebook, and Apple, and on too many university campuses today.
It’s not who we are. It’s not who we are as Americans, and it’s not what Voice of America should be.
It’s time that we simply put woke-ism to sleep.
And you can lead the way. You all know. That’s why you came here. There is a new dawn here at Voice of America.
The American public doesn’t know this, but when Michael took office, some 1,500 employees – almost 40 percent of the workforce – had been improperly vetted, including many with high-level security clearances.
VOA was rubber-stamping J-1 visas for foreign nationals, including some from communist China. We shouldn’t be doing that.
We have plenty of Mandarin-language speakers here in America, and we are building, growing, teaching, educating more committed patriots, some of Chinese-American descent, who are amazing people.
The Trump administration team is working to fix these national security threats. We want to vet employees properly. We want to reorient VOA to its mission of truth and unbiased reporting. We want to depoliticize what takes place here. It’s too important for the American people and for the world. Returning this organization to its charter and its charge to spread the message of freedom, democracy, and American exceptionalism.
This isn’t about politicizing these institutions. We’re trying to take politics out.
That’s a pretty good feature story for whoever wants to write it up.
As Secretary of State, I am telling you all of this because I want the best for the people here and for this organization because you are vital to helping America shine light into the darkest places, with the power that only America can muster.
Governments like those in China, Iran, North Korea, they don’t have the respect for the universal dignity of every human being in the way that America does. Indeed, that is what America was founded upon.
Those regimes are anathema to everything that our nation stands for.
We – we know that government exists to serve people.
They – they believe that people exist to serve government.
And VOA’s work is vital. As I said before, you’re the tip of freedom’s spear. Every week, 278 million people listen to VOA in 47 languages.
There are Iranians who are listening to you, wondering if they’ll ever be able to shed their Islamist shackles.
There are Moldovans and Ukrainians who want truthful reporting, not Russian disinformation and propaganda.
There are Chinese citizens who are tired of a regime that’s done nothing but brutalize them since 1949.
There are Venezuelans who want to know the truth of the Maduro regime’s corruption.
There are oppressed people all over the globe who still turn to America for hope.
Now, I know many of you, especially those of you overseas, continue and have done heroic work. Thank you.
I want to commend VOA’s Hong Kong reporting team, which faced political intimidation, harassment, and attacks, but still got the job done. My highest praise. Well done.
You were behind the barricades with the freedom fighters, telling their stories. You’re upholding VOA’s finest traditions and continuing to be the voice of American exceptionalism.
I also want to pay tribute to members of the other radio services who are here and listening.
The only Uyghur-language news service in the world is run by RFA.
You’ve told everyone who will listen – indeed, some who didn’t want to – the truth about the CCP’s atrocities against its own people in Xinjiang – the stain of the century.
And you’ve done so despite the fact that the CCP has jailed the relatives of at least six RFA journalists in Xinjiang’s internment camps and continues to threaten you and your families simply for doing your jobs.
Your work takes courage.
Please keep telling everyone who will listen what’s happening in the toughest parts of the world. The world expects it, and America will be better off for it.
I want to leave you with a quote that conveys why VOA’s mission is so critical before I take some questions from Bob. This quote’s from a ways back. It’s from George Washington. He said, quote, “Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light,” end of quote.
When America brings truth to the world, we bring light.
Don’t forget that. It’s what you do.
May God bless you.
May God bless the Voice of America.
And God bless these United States. Thank you all. (Applause.)
MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Some of the questions I have for you were fielded from our division directors who wanted to also have their input —
SECRETARY POMPEO: You bet.
MODERATOR: — to get you to answer some of these. But let me begin with this one: “This isn’t a commercial media. We can afford to tell the full truth about America and the amplitude of American life and all of its facets. In your many travels in your recent years, what would you judge as those parts of America that are least known by foreign audiences that we need to tell them about?”
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, it’s a really good question. If I have a chance in a moment where we are away from the formal businesses, they’ll often ask ambassadors or foreign ministers, “When you were last in the States? What did you do? Where did you go see?” The answer is always – almost always, “I went to New York,” “I went to Washington,” “I went to San Francisco,” or “I went to Los Angeles.” The adventuresome may have travelled all the way to Boston. Boy, that’s not representative of all of who America is. I’m from Kansas. There’s a different – it’s a different place in so many ways. It’s engaged in different businesses. It’s engaged – its government is different. Its people think about the world in a different way.
I – these stories from places other than the coasts are important. And that extends to rural parts of South Carolina, to Appalachia, to folks who live up in Minnesota and along our northern border, along Canada. There are so many different facets of the United States that I think if you asked people around the world, they would only know this place we are here in Washington or maybe our financial center in New York. I hope that you all get a chance to tell those other stories.
And I’d add one last piece. It’s not just geographic. It’s not just where it is. You could find right here in Washington dozens and dozens of different stories about different pieces of the things, the institutions that make America so unique, so special, these things that our founders called the small platoons, our civic organizations, right. How many of you are members of the PTA, trying to help your kids’ school be just a little bit better? How many of you participate in a church group on Wednesday evenings where you have your chili feed or you just gather? Those are important parts of American life that have made us so unique and so special, and I want people all across the world to see those things because those institutions form bedrock of our nation, and they can help their countries too.
MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You’ve made some very eloquent speeches about the relationship between American founding principles and U.S. foreign policy. How would you prioritize those fundamental rights, some of which you referred to in your remarks, when you, with the limited time with foreign heads of state, want to have a clear message? You’ve been forthright on freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of – how do you prioritize those, or is the prioritization custom-made for the country you’re addressing?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Bob, it certainly does vary by where you are and the situation that you find that government in, and frankly the traditions of that country. The Unalienable Rights Commission led by Professor Mary Ann Glendon and Peter Berkowitz at the State Department was a great – it’s a great report. It’s 50 pages. I’d urge you to go read it. You’ll agree with some of it; some you may not. But what it tried to do was to take this human rights project from the 20th Century that has just fallen in – fallen away. It lost its capacity to understand the things that were contained in our founding about how human rights are formed. It had moved away even from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And what I wanted to do in that was to re-ground American foreign policy and how we thought about human rights, and I think the report captures it pretty well.
Your point about religious freedom and the capacity to speak freely, two core rights that if a nation gets it wrong it will be less secure, it will be less prosperous, it’s people will be less whole. And so we spent a lot of time talking about those issues around the world. We made progress in certain places; other places we’ve not. But it’s important that American leaders, not only the Secretary of State but all of us, acknowledge those shortcomings when we speak with foreign leaders and get them headed in that better direction for their people.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done in this regard. These principles matter. Their execution and implementation is complex because foreign policy always is. There are competing priorities. But America can never walk away from those central principles and understandings. And we know the difference between rights-respecting countries and those that aren’t, and we have an obligation to call each of them precisely what they are.
MODERATOR: Now as you well know, we’re at the cusp of a change in administrations. On certain foreign policy issues there seems to have formed a bipartisan consensus. For instance, perhaps China on both sides of the aisle is seen as the principle challenge to the United States today. Are there others – North Korea, Venezuela, Iran – on which of these do you expect some continuity with the new administration and where do you perhaps see what may come as the biggest changes?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Look, it’s an important question. Leaders always want to understand that when you make a commitment to them that it will survive. We have elections every two years here – federal elections. We have presidential elections every four years. Look, your point about the threat from the Chinese Communist Party I think is right. President Trump rightly identified this when he started campaigning back in 2015 as the singular threat to the centrality of Western thought in the world, the idea that we’re going to have a rules-based system that respected property rights and human dignity. China is singular in the threat it poses to those things, and I do think there’s a consensus there. I’ve worked with Democrats on many important issues, on issues in Hong Kong and issues as – I referred to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the atrocities taking place there. So I do hope that stays the same.
I hope too, even in the Middle East, even where the previous administration had a different approach with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran, it’s not 2015. What has taken place in the Middle East in these last four years, whether that’s the efforts we have put to constrain the theocracy, the kleptocrats in charge in Iran, the work we have done with the Abraham Accords, the work that we’ve done to recognize the fundamental understandings of Israel as a nation has a right to exist and its capital is in Jerusalem, it is the home of the Jewish people there. Now, those are things that I believe will be lasting because I think the people of those nations want them to last, and I hope that the next administration will continue to build on them in a way that continues to build out peace and prosperity among all the nations in the Middle East. I’m hopeful that that will take place.
MODERATOR: I noticed over the weekend you signed a joint declaration with four other foreign ministers – Australia, the UK, New Zealand – regarding the recent arrests in Hong Kong. You also removed the restraints on high-level diplomatic contacts between the United States and Taiwan. And apparently the UN – U.S. ambassador to the UN will be in Taiwan soon. What do you expect to accomplish with this flurry?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah – well, flurry, I find funny.
MODERATOR: I should have chosen another word. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yes – but no, I get it. Look, I wish these things had been done a long time ago. These weren’t rushed. These were considered efforts that we made and they’re an important part of the strategy that we’ve laid out with respect to how to protect and preserve American freedoms vis the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents. Look, one of the core problems – I gave some remarks where I talked about China and said no matter what it is they say, we must distrust and verify. And you referred to the arrest of the some 50 people in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party made a promise to the people of Hong Kong and they walked away from it. The Chinese Communist Party has a commitment, that set of understandings we have with respect to Taiwan. We need to hold the parties accountable to those commitments as well. The Chinese Communist Party promised President Obama they wouldn’t arm islands in the South China Sea, and they turned around and did it and there was almost no cost imposed.
We have attempted to deliver a clear understanding of the requirements that we have for the Chinese Communist Party and how it should behave that aren’t, frankly, very different from what we expect of any nation with respect to how they interact with the United States. And we do that because we have a responsibility to preserve and protect security and prosperity for the American people. Our policy with respect to the Chinese Communist Party has furthered that and this will be a long challenge. The Chinese Communist Party has a clear intent for hegemonic dominance and we have an obligation and responsibility to the American people, and frankly to freedom-loving people around the world, to make sure that that is not the world that our children and grandchildren live in.
MODERATOR: It’s interesting, in meeting with the division directors of Voice of America, how frequently in those meetings the name of China comes up. When I asked them what’s on the horizon, what are you noticing, it’s China. Latin America? China. East Africa? China. And it’s not simply the Belt and Road Initiative, it’s their information strategy, how they get affiliates in those regions of the world, how they feed them free stuff, and their – as you know, a whole-of-government approach. Now, the United States isn’t whole-of-government, but Voice of America is here to do our part through our bureaus and through our reporting. What do you think we can do better to help highlight the dangers these things represent when seen together, rather than as a separative series of approaches?
SECRETARY POMPEO: Bob, this challenge is, in fact, comprehensive. Our administration began by working on the economic side of this, right. The President placed tariffs on Chinese goods. He’s tried to stop intellectual property theft, denying tens of millions of jobs in the United States of America, because they would steal our information, take it back to China, build it, and then dump it here in the United States. It’s information; you talked about that. This is ongoing.
Take the issue of the Wuhan virus. It has now – I understand the Chinese Communist Party is now going to permit the World Health Organization to go in and find out where this all began. But it took months and months of effort to do that. We are now more than a year on and we still don’t have access to important information about how the virus began. It’s important for health and safety and to make sure that something like this doesn’t come out of China again.
Your team can report these things. report these facts. Your point about it being a global phenomenon – I have a bureau, I have a China desk, I have an East Asia Pacific Bureau, we have an Indo-Pacific Strategy. But every one of my ambassadors and chiefs of mission understands that China presents a challenge in their country, wherever they may be, in Africa and Latin America, in Southeast Asia for sure. And our team on the ground is working to protect American security from the Chinese Communist Party in the country that they have been assigned to. I hope your reporters, no matter where they find themselves, if they’re in South Africa or in Morocco, or wherever they are, observes the activities of the Chinese Communist Party inside of their country and how it impacts the people of those countries as well.
MODERATOR: If I may ask a last question, this one is more related to Russia: The United States seems to be shrinking its footprint in Africa. So is France. Russia is increasing its. Is this the result of a judgment on the part of the United States that disorder on the African continent is less of a problem or less of a threat to our interests, or how would you —
SECRETARY POMPEO: So the forces – the disposition that the DOD has made has really been about the counterterrorism fight more broadly. How is it that we allocate U.S. resources to keep the homeland safe? So the decisions the President has made with respect to Afghanistan and the Middle East broadly, Syria – you talk about North Africa as well – has been to allocate the capacity of the United States to preserve and protect the homeland.
I’m always mindful and it’s easy to write about if you just focus on troop numbers alone, if you say the United States used to have a thousand people, now they only have 800, or they used to have 800, now they only have 400, you may well be missing America’s capacity to preserve and protect itself. I was the director of the CIA. I know the other tools and capabilities that we can bring. They are unseen. They don’t get reported from the podium at the Department of Defense.
But the American people should know President Trump has been unambiguous about getting it right, making sure we put fewer of our young men and women in harm’s way, but never giving up the responsibility we have to ensure that terrorism, or at least the risk that a terror act takes place and hurts Americans, whether they’re here in the United States or elsewhere in the world as well.
QUESTION: Great. Mr. Secretary, I can’t thank you enough for gracing us with your presence today. It was very kind of you to make the trip and it’s deeply appreciated by me and by everyone else here.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
QUESTION: Please join me in a round of applause for the Secretary.
