CSPAN - Mike Pence Lecture at Susquehanna University
Aired: 2026-02-23
Duration: 01:10:56


=== Republican Views on Taxes (14:59) ===

[00:00:00]  It doesn't.
[00:00:02]  That avenue is available under the treaty.
[00:00:05]  It requires nine members to be on board in order to move forward.
[00:00:10]  So, no treaty change required, political momentum and determination.
[00:00:16]  I see quite a bit of that.
[00:00:21]  I'm seeing here and there little laboratory experiences.
[00:00:25]  For example, at the finance minister's level, the Spanish finance minister took the initiative to bring together the six largest European European European Union, because Poland is one of them.
[00:00:41]  So you have France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland all together, forming a group.
[00:00:47]  They're not necessarily on the same page.
[00:00:48]  And live this evening, former Vice President Mike Pence talking about religious liberty at Susquehanna University here on C-SPAN.
[00:01:04]  Welcome to our campus.
[00:01:07]  It's a pleasure to have you here this evening.
[00:01:09]  I hope the weather wasn't too much of a deterrent in getting you here from Indiana this morning.
[00:01:14]  No, we didn't get the two feet of snow that we got two weeks ago.
[00:01:18]  So I was able to make it.
[00:01:20]  And let me just begin by saying it's a great honor to be here at Susquehanna University.
[00:01:26]  And I'm very humbled to be a part of the Alice Bopeshade lecture series, which is literally known across the country.
[00:01:32]  And allow me to also add my voice of thanks not only to President Green, to you, Dr. Mann, but I just had a delightful dinner with Rebecca Migno, the patron who has made this extraordinary tradition possible along with her late husband.
[00:01:50]  So Rebecca, wherever you are seated, thank you so much for all you've meant to Susquehanna and to broadening the public debate in America.
[00:02:00]  God bless you.
[00:02:04]  So people often say that we should steer away from discussions of religion and politics while in polite company.
[00:02:10]  But what do you say?
[00:02:11]  We dive right in.
[00:02:15]  You've been very forthright about the importance of prayer in your life.
[00:02:18]  In your autobiography, you write about praying for others, praying for strength, and praying for guidance.
[00:02:23]  When it comes to praying for guidance, asking God what to do in a difficult situation, how do we know an answer is truly from God and not perhaps just our own subconscious desires?
[00:02:34]  Well, Jeff, thanks for starting with an easy question.
[00:02:40]  It's a profound one, and one I would have expected from a professor of religious studies.
[00:02:48]  Let me just say, I appreciate you acknowledging my faith.
[00:02:54]  For me, I hope people that know me and know my family know that my faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life.
[00:03:05]  Then comes my family, then comes my values and my call to public service.
[00:03:12]  It It wasn't always true, though.
[00:03:13]  I actually started in politics at a very young age, but as a freshman in college, I'd really lost interest in religion altogether.
[00:03:27]  I'd had a little bit of social success in high school, and I decided that religion was just a crutch that some people needed.
[00:03:35]  I wasn't going to put them down for it, but it wasn't something that I really needed in my life.
[00:03:40]  But it was at that time at a school not too different from Susquehanna University, a small liberal arts college on the Ohio River in southern Indiana, that I began to meet some young people who just talked to me, not about their denomination, but they just talked to me about being Christian, having a personal relationship with God.
[00:04:05]  And over the course of my freshman year, I began, for the first time in my life, to begin to open the Bible and to really read it for myself.
[00:04:15]  And it was in that time that I felt drawn to not just the truths of the scriptures, but also to a great sense in my life that I was missing something.
[00:04:33]  And it was in the spring at a Christian music festival at Asbury University in 1978 that it's like I heard the words for the first time that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whoever might believe in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.
[00:04:51]  And I remember I stood up on that rainy night, a Saturday night, and I walked down and I prayed a prayer to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
[00:05:02]  And I hope in the course of my life, where I've often described myself as a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican in that order, I hope mostly the way that my faith has impacted me is the way that I have aspired to treat others.
[00:05:18]  You know, politics too often is not so much do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
[00:05:26]  In politics, it's more like do unto others before they do unto you.
[00:05:31]  And I went through that season myself, even though as a young man, still young in my faith.
[00:05:37]  When my career started out, I ran some campaigns that I ultimately regretted.
[00:05:42]  But when it came back around, we just determined that we would try and carry ourselves in the public square in a way, first, that honored God, second, that stood for things more important than our election.
[00:05:57]  And finally, it was about winning.
[00:05:59]  And over the course of our 20-year career as a congressman, as a governor, and ultimately as vice president, we sought to live that out to the best of our ability.
[00:06:09]  And by God's grace, I believe we largely did.
[00:06:17]  Today in our country, there's a lot of concern about Christian nationalism.
[00:06:22]  And that's a hard group to define.
[00:06:24]  I think often, and quite unfairly, in my opinion, run-of-the-mill conservative Christians get lumped in with them.
[00:06:30]  Nevertheless, there does seem to be a distinct group rising in influence that can be called Christian nationalists.
[00:06:36]  How do you differentiate this group from others?
[00:06:39]  And are you concerned about their growing influence?
[00:06:42]  Well, I see the term in the media and to some extent online.
[00:06:49]  But I must tell you, as I've traveled around the country over the last five years, I think there are different cross-currents at work.
[00:06:58]  I think the Christian community in America is strong and vibrant and growing as our other faith communities in the country.
[00:07:08]  But I can't tell you that I've had much experience or apart from reading online words of that type of thinking.
[00:07:21]  I do think, and it's the topic of my forthcoming book, I do think that the Republican Party today is going through a bit of an internal debate over whether we're going to stay true to a traditional conservative agenda that's defined our party since the days of Ronald Reagan, or whether, as I like to say, whether we're going to follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principle.
[00:07:50]  And whether it falls in the category of the groups or the label that you described or not, I think there is a populist movement afoot within Republican ranks that embraces more isolationist thinking, really questions whether America should continue to be the leader of the free world.
[00:08:13]  There's an embrace of policies that are in many ways antithetical to the Republican Party's long-term commitment to free enterprise and free market economics.
[00:08:25]  And there's also the marginalizing of the right to life and other traditional values that have been very central to our movement.
[00:08:33]  So I tend to think looking forward in the party, I think 2028 is going to be more about what we're for rather than who we're for.
[00:08:42]  And I think there's very similar tension and fissures are forming in Democrat ranks as well, as there are many that embrace a socialist worldview and the politics of the left, while there are still many Americans who would describe themselves as traditional Democrats.
[00:09:03]  So I think it's a dynamic time in the life of American politics.
[00:09:07]  But for my part, you know, I actually started in politics as a Democrat.
[00:09:13]  I was the youth Democrat Party coordinator in Bartholomew County, Indiana, in 1975.
[00:09:23]  I remember sometimes I tell my conservative friends that I voted for Jimmy Carter.
[00:09:30]  And they say, well, everybody voted for Carter in 1976.
[00:09:34]  I say, no, I voted for him in 1980.
[00:09:37]  So when I told President Carter that when we met, he was a little surprised by that.
[00:09:45]  But in Ronald Reagan, I identified with the kind of principles and kind of southern Indiana conservatism that I'd been raised in, and I joined the Republican Party.
[00:09:56]  But I joined because of principles.
[00:09:59]  I didn't join because of any deep heritage.
[00:10:02]  My family wasn't particularly political.
[00:10:06]  So I think for either political party in America, we always do well when we make it more about principles than about personality.
[00:10:15]  You spoke earlier today with students about this division within the Republican Party of classic conservatism versus more of a populist movement.
[00:10:24]  Do you think that's mostly about economics, or is there a social aspect of that division as well?
[00:10:30]  Well, I think a lot of it has to do with size and scope of government, but I think that chiefly it gives its expression in a willingness to kind of think in more isolationist terms.
[00:10:47]  I mean, for my part, we have now marked four years since Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion in Ukraine.
[00:10:56]  And I've been unwavering in my belief that the United States and Western nations need to continue to give Ukraine the resources that they need to defeat the Russian military and reclaim their sovereignty.
[00:11:12]  Now, there are those in Republican ranks who've questioned that, who actually advocated cutting off all funding to Ukraine.
[00:11:26]  But I've met Vladimir Putin, and I can tell you, I have no doubt in my mind, if Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, it's just going to be a matter of time before he crosses a country that our military is going to have to deal with it.
[00:11:40]  And so there's even those that are questioning our historic support and our relationship with Israel.
[00:11:47]  Sometimes there are even some voices on the fringes that speak in very dark terms about American support for Israel and the role of Jewish Americans in the life of our nation.
[00:12:00]  And so I think it begins with the isolationists, but I also think the principles of limited government, it seems like the Republican Party doesn't talk very much anymore about a $38 trillion national debt and the need to bring common sense reforms to spare our kids and our grandkids of the consequences of a mountain range of debt.
[00:12:26]  And lastly, while our administration in our four years, you cut taxes, rolled back regulations, you know, we've seen in this administration expansion of border taxes in the form of tariffs, nationalizing American companies, I think more than a dozen companies now that the government's taken a public position in.
[00:12:51]  And so it's that isolationism, big government republicanism that I think are the largest departures.
[00:13:01]  I will say, though, during our administration, we used tariffs under existing statutory authority to really try and negotiate down trade barriers.
[00:13:13]  We actually, I'm proud to say, we used tariffs in the Trump Pence years and the threat of tariffs to bring trading partners to the table.
[00:13:22]  We imposed tariffs on China and ultimately achieved the first breakthrough in trade negotiations with China in a generation.
[00:13:32]  But I took great exception when a year ago President Trump announced tariffs against friend and foe alike under an emergency statute.
[00:13:42]  Our small foundation in Washington, D.C. was one of a handful of groups that labored in the courts in support of legal challenges.
[00:13:52]  I believe the Constitution is quite clear that when it comes to taxes and tariffs, those are originated in the Congress.
[00:14:00]  I don't need to tell people in Pennsylvania, we're coming up on a very memorable anniversary, 250 years since the American founding, the Declaration of Independence, crafted just down the road from here.
[00:14:14]  And you might remember that taxation without representation was a big part of that.
[00:14:19]  And as I reminded some of those students here at Susquehanna today, the tea that went into Boston Harbor was thrown into Boston Harbor because of tariffs that had been imposed on by one person.
[00:14:31]  And so when the founders ultimately crafted the form of government that's endured for 239 years, they said that the Congress, in Article I, controls taxation, including imposts that are, it's what they call tariffs in the day.
[00:14:46]  And I strongly and heartily welcome the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold the separation of powers and turn back President Trump's Liberation Day regime of tariffs.

=== Supreme Court and Gay Marriage (06:55) ===

[00:14:59]  I think it's a relief for American businesses, American workers, and a great affirmation of our constitutional order.
[00:15:11]  So here's the no-holds-barred question that I know more than a few people may have on their minds.
[00:15:18]  During your political career, you opposed gay marriage, believing that marriage should only be a union between a man and a woman.
[00:15:24]  This conviction, if I'm not mistaken, arises from your faith and your belief in the authority of the scriptures.
[00:15:30]  How do you reply to those people who say that your opposition to gay marriage is a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment?
[00:15:37]  And for those in our audience who are trying to quickly remember what they learned in APUSH, the Establishment Clause reads, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
[00:15:49]  Well, you're right.
[00:15:50]  I'm someone I'll always believe that the marriage is between one man and one woman.
[00:15:58]  But the Supreme Court of the United States ruled otherwise about a decade ago.
[00:16:08]  And as I said at the time when I was governor of Indiana, we can disagree with the Supreme Court, but we can't disobey it.
[00:16:15]  And it's part of the supreme law of the land.
[00:16:17]  That being said, I'll always hold to those convictions myself.
[00:16:20]  And I think the issue actually is not the first part of the First Amendment, but it's the second part.
[00:16:27]  Because the First Amendment reads that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
[00:16:37]  And if you go back and you read that decision, the Oberfell decision, Justice Kennedy, who I know, wrote that opinion.
[00:16:47]  And in recognizing same-sex marriage, in the same opinion, he said, now future courts will have to make decisions to ensure that this ruling does not intrude upon the free exercise of religion of Americans who otherwise may hold a different view.
[00:17:05]  And I must tell you, having had our administration appoint three justices to that Supreme Court, I've been very encouraged over the last 10 years, Dr. Mann, in the ways that the Supreme Court has drawn that line to essentially ensure while respecting the decision that the court made with regard to gay marriage, at the same time,
[00:17:31]  you've seen one decision after another that really has recognized and respected the right of conscience of Americans to hold a different view and not to be placed in a position where they would have their religious convictions intruded upon.
[00:17:50]  So to me, the debate over gay marriage, I'll always hold the values that I hold and believe them from my heart as a Bible-believing Christian.
[00:18:01]  But I do think going forward, the key now in our society is to ensure that no one is ever discriminated against for who they are or who they love or what they believe.
[00:18:15]  And that's the balance, I think, that ultimately the Supreme Court has struck, that respect for belief and respect for people's individual lives ultimately is the result of that decision.
[00:18:30]  In your autobiography, you wrote about negative campaigning early in your career, and you talked about that earlier this afternoon.
[00:18:36]  You wrote after a campaign that was a little more vitriolic, you said, I had come to understand that negative campaigning is wrong for a number of reasons.
[00:18:46]  But first among them is the fact that it deprives voters of the opportunity to deliberate on the issues critical to their daily lives.
[00:18:53]  As I read that, and I and I know many others really appreciate that.
[00:18:57]  I wish we would see far more of that in our nation's politics and among our conversations with one another.
[00:19:04]  However, what do you say to those who agree with you fundamentally with respect to that decision, but then wonder why you partnered with someone who was known for not always taking the high road?
[00:19:18]  Not always.
[00:19:22]  Well, for me, and look, I believe that democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
[00:19:29]  And I think the American people long for us to restore a threshold of civility in public life.
[00:19:36]  And I intend to be a part of that, one way or the other.
[00:19:40]  The reason I joined the ticket in 2016 ultimately came down to the question for me and for my family was whether we thought we could help the country.
[00:19:52]  I mean, I was a member of Congress for 12 years, a number of years under the Obama administration, and then also I served as a governor in those years.
[00:20:04]  And I knew that we needed a change in the country.
[00:20:07]  I wanted to get back to pro-growth policies, a strong military appointments to the court that would respect our core values, especially the right to life.
[00:20:17]  And so sitting down with Donald Trump in the summer of 2016, we talked about the agenda that he had aspired to advance.
[00:20:27]  And hearing that and knowing the experience that I could bring to it, I joined the ticket without hesitation.
[00:20:34]  And, you know, some people think Donald Trump and I are a little bit different.
[00:20:43]  And I acknowledge that.
[00:20:45]  But look, I always had the view that the American people choose the American president.
[00:20:51]  And as vice president for four years, I saw it as my role to help President Trump be successful at advancing the agenda that he was elected to advance.
[00:21:07]  And where our styles and our approaches differed, I just yielded to the collective judgment of the American people that put him in that role.
[00:21:18]  And I must tell you, I'll say without hesitation, our administration didn't end the way I wanted it to.
[00:21:26]  But for the course of those first four years, up until a difficult day five years ago, I'm incredibly proud of the record of the Trump Pence administration.
[00:21:38]  And I will tell all of you, I just want to say that I want to thank you for the privilege of serving as your vice president.
[00:21:44]  And it was the greatest honor of my life.

=== Dad's Influence (13:04) ===

[00:21:55]  At times in our lives, we find ourselves in a position where doing the right thing is going to be very difficult, with plenty of unpleasant consequences to follow.
[00:22:06]  And you know this as well as anyone.
[00:22:09]  How do we cultivate the necessary virtues in ourselves so that we have the strength to stand up and do what is right even in the face of tremendous opposition?
[00:22:20]  Well, Dr. Mann, I'm humbled to be associated with that in your question.
[00:22:27]  And I'll just say what I told young people here at Susquehanna earlier this afternoon.
[00:22:34]  You know, there's something going around in this generation.
[00:22:36]  I know I heard it from my kids who are all in their early 30s now, but it's this idea that adversity creates character.
[00:22:46]  I mean, the way the young people put it is they say, you know, whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger.
[00:22:53]  Right?
[00:22:54]  Well, I have a very different view.
[00:22:56]  I think whatever doesn't kill you just didn't kill you.
[00:23:01]  Adversity doesn't create character.
[00:23:05]  Adversity reveals character.
[00:23:09]  And when your time of testing comes, and it comes for all of us in big ways and in small ways, when your time of testing comes, you're going to be the man or woman you've been preparing to be in every quiet moment before that.
[00:23:24]  I really believe that.
[00:23:26]  And I appreciate so much you mentioned my autobiography.
[00:23:29]  It's entitled So Help Me God.
[00:23:33]  And it's available on Amazon.com and where all good books are sold.
[00:23:40]  But in the book, you could read, in those early days of my political life, even though I'd come to faith in Jesus Christ, even though I was a professing Christian, even though I believed you should treat others the way you want to be treated, I got caught up in negative politics in not one but two campaigns.
[00:23:59]  And it would basically exclude me from politics for a decade.
[00:24:04]  I was in the wilderness in Indiana for a decade, never thinking I'd go back to elective politics.
[00:24:13]  And so when Karen and I made the decision with three young children to step forward and run again in the year 2000, we just determined we're going to work every day to run and to carry ourselves in a way that honors God, informs the debate, and then worries about winning and losing after that.
[00:24:31]  And I think that the habits that we develop in our life, the habits of consistency to principle, whatever your principles are, the ability to have integrity to principle, I think, comes from developing the practice and the use of those principles.
[00:24:51]  And whatever we did in our career, particularly in that difficult time five years ago, I give, it was all due to God's grace, but also for me, it was owing to lessons learned along the way and hopefully the practice of trying to be a man of my word.
[00:25:17]  Along those lines, as I mentioned at dinner, the first thing I learned about you in opening up your autobiography is when I opened it up and saw a picture of your father who was wearing a Thunderbird patch on his shoulder.
[00:25:27]  It was 45th Infantry Division, and I was rather excited because my father was also 45th Infantry Division, also combat infantry, also bronze star medalist.
[00:25:40]  I hope that didn't.
[00:25:41]  Well, I'm sure my dad would be proud.
[00:25:43]  Our dads would both be proud of us.
[00:25:46]  But what struck me reading through your autobiography and reflecting on the similarity with my own father is you talked about how when you were going through some rather difficult times in life, as we all do, and you faced some rather difficult circumstances, reflecting on what your father had to deal with, his sacrifices, the sacrifices of the people around him.
[00:26:05]  I'm wondering if you could comment on the role that, as you talked about in your autobiography, the role that your father played in helping you remember the importance of standing strong in the face of adversity, given the different type of adversity that both of our fathers faced.
[00:26:22]  Well, Jeff, like your dad, my dad was a combat veteran.
[00:26:26]  Your dad was in World War II.
[00:26:28]  My dad was also in the Korean War.
[00:26:32]  And he raised me and my three brothers.
[00:26:34]  He was a drill instructor in the military, and that never changed.
[00:26:41]  Me and my three brothers, who are all very close to this day, were raised with pretty traditional discipline.
[00:26:50]  My mom, who's Rebecca Mino and I were chatting, my mom is 94 years young, second-generation Irish American.
[00:27:00]  She's a handful, I'm telling you.
[00:27:02]  I told Rebecca she'd like her.
[00:27:06]  But dad raised us with some basic principles.
[00:27:09]  One was dad said, you know, he wasn't much of a Bible quoter.
[00:27:15]  He's a man of deep faith, but he'd say something he learned in the foxholes in Korea was not my will but thine be done.
[00:27:23]  And he lived that throughout his life before he left us too young.
[00:27:29]  But the other one was just a deep sense of duty.
[00:27:34]  My dad really lived the American dream.
[00:27:37]  He came up from nothing.
[00:27:38]  He came back from the war and he ended up building up a gas station business in southern Indiana.
[00:27:44]  He married this immigrant daughter, Irish immigrant's daughter.
[00:27:48]  They followed work down to southern Indiana.
[00:27:50]  And dad also had one other verse that he always told us.
[00:27:56]  It was, to whom much is given, much will be required.
[00:28:00]  We felt like our family had been blessed in so many ways that we had a duty to do our part in our time.
[00:28:09]  And I'm very proud of the fact that while neither Karen nor I served in the military, my son's a major in the United States Marine Corps today.
[00:28:19]  And one of my unworthy son-in-laws, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy.
[00:28:33]  So I think somewhere along the way, duty got sewn into my family just like yours.
[00:28:44]  And I hope looking at my career in the ordinary times and in the challenging times that that was the core of what I tried to be and do.
[00:28:58]  You know, the title of my book, So Help Me God, comes from the end of my oath of office.
[00:29:03]  It's the same oath of office that any law enforcement personnel who are with us today take.
[00:29:09]  It's the same office every member of our military takes, the same oath that elected officials all the way up to the vice president and the president take.
[00:29:19]  It's to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
[00:29:25]  And it ends with a prayer, so help me God.
[00:29:29]  And in my most challenging moments, I kept coming back to that, to the fact that the people who take that oath, when your dad was with the 45th Infantry out in combat, he had taken the same oath.
[00:29:53]  And when he got an order, he didn't ask, how's that going to work out for me?
[00:30:01]  He didn't say, General, I understand that, but I don't think that's going to be good for my long-term future.
[00:30:09]  When my son, who's a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps, when he gets an order to go, he doesn't think about what it means to him.
[00:30:17]  He took an oath.
[00:30:18]  And I love where the Bible says he keeps his oath even when it hurts.
[00:30:22]  And I know something about that.
[00:30:25]  To me, the genius of the American experiment, the character of the American Constitution, is in the character of the American people.
[00:30:36]  And we are 239 years since the Constitution was adopted and counting of men and women who have kept their oath in good times and in bad.
[00:30:47]  And I believe that that's ultimately the strength and the hope of our nation for years to come.
[00:31:02]  At this point in the evening, we would like to turn the floor over to you, the students in our audience.
[00:31:07]  We have microphones in both aisles on the steps, I believe, ready to go.
[00:31:12]  And so feel free to form a line at each one.
[00:31:15]  I suspect that there may be many of you who want to ask questions, so please respect others by avoiding speeches at the microphones as well as follow-up questions.
[00:31:24]  But if the students who would like to ask a question would go ahead and approach either of those microphones, we can get started.
[00:31:43]  Okay.
[00:31:46]  Fernando, is that you?
[00:31:48]  Okay.
[00:31:49]  Looks like you got there first.
[00:31:53]  Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you, Mr. Pence, for coming here tonight.
[00:31:57]  Yeah, thank you.
[00:31:59]  So, yeah, this is just like a basic question that I was wondering.
[00:32:02]  But yeah, just throughout your entire political career, what would you say was the greatest thing that was motivating you to serving this country?
[00:32:14]  And what would you say is probably the best moment within your career?
[00:32:19]  The second part was.
[00:32:21]  Just what was your, what would you consider as the best moment in your political career?
[00:32:28]  Well, you've got to understand, I'm the grandson and the namesake of an Irish immigrant.
[00:32:33]  My grandfather got off a boat on Ellis Island in 1923, took a train to Chicago, Illinois, drove a bus for 40 years.
[00:32:42]  So, you know, putting my left hand on Ronald Reagan's Bible and raising my right hand, taking the oath of office to serve as Vice President of the United States was just an enormous privilege for me in a moment that I can't really adequately describe.
[00:33:08]  I remember thinking of people ask me sometimes, what were you thinking about on that inauguration, Cold Day, January 2017?
[00:33:14]  I was thinking a lot of my grandfather.
[00:33:17]  He and I were very close.
[00:33:19]  He passed away in my 18th year, but I still went on to Ireland and I met all my relations there.
[00:33:27]  I remember thinking grandpa was looking down from glory on that day and I think he was probably very surprised.
[00:33:38]  He knew me pretty well.
[00:33:40]  Is that Michael?
[00:33:43]  But then in another sense, I don't think he was surprised because my great-grandmother had apparently bought him a one-way ticket and told him he had to go to America.
[00:33:53]  Because the legend in our family is my great-grandmother told him there's a future there for you.
[00:33:59]  And I don't think she was talking about me or our family.
[00:34:03]  I think she was talking about in America anybody can be anybody.
[00:34:08]  And to think that in the sweep of just two generations, that 21-year-old kid getting off a boat onto Ellis Island without two nickels to rub together could have his namesake and his grandson taking the oath, the second highest office in the land.
[00:34:28]  Just tell you everything you need to know about America.
[00:34:32]  this is a great country really is fernando thank you thank you thank you We can go over to the sign.
[00:34:44]  Oh, hi.
[00:34:47]  Hi, Mr. Pence.
[00:34:48]  Thank you for being here.
[00:34:49]  My name is Sidney Runner.
[00:34:51]  I'm a senior marketing major here.
[00:34:53]  So it's cool that we're ending it with you.
[00:34:56]  But let me pull up my question.
[00:34:59]  Okay.

=== Convicted By Christ (02:58) ===

[00:35:00]  So has there ever been a time while in office that Christ had convicted you?
[00:35:06]  And if you don't mind sharing what was that time and what was that conviction?
[00:35:11]  And how have you followed and been moved to follow Christ and Christ's heart over worldly political allegiances when those convictions hit?
[00:35:26]  Well, has there been a time in my career where I have been convicted by the Lord?
[00:35:31]  How much time do we have?
[00:35:34]  Well, sure, there has.
[00:35:36]  In fact, if you grab that book of mine, you'll see the early days of my political life.
[00:35:40]  I ended up writing after my second failed campaign, when I was not a whole lot older than you, Sidney, I wrote an essay entitled Confessions of a Negative Campaigner.
[00:35:53]  Because I felt deeply convicted that I hadn't just lost an election.
[00:35:57]  I'd failed to live up to what I professed to believe.
[00:36:04]  And that was that, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:36:11]  I hadn't allowed myself to be pulled into negative politics, which is real easy to happen.
[00:36:16]  Okay?
[00:36:17]  And on social media today, it's real easy, I know, for you to be pulled into the negative invective that takes place there so easily and so readily.
[00:36:27]  But it was a really formative time for me and a time that I just determined that if I ever had a chance to run for office again, that I'd run in a way that first would honor God.
[00:36:43]  And he gave us those opportunities, but it would be a long time later, be 10 years later, that those opportunities would come back around.
[00:36:52]  But in terms of our service overall, I really do think, you know, people have talked to me about how your Christian faith affects your views and policies.
[00:37:06]  And I must tell you, I'm pro-life.
[00:37:08]  I don't apologize for it.
[00:37:09]  I really believe that restoring the sanctity of life is the calling and opportunity of our time.
[00:37:17]  But I hope mostly the way my faith has impacted me is the way I've dealt with others.
[00:37:22]  You know, I tell people I'm a conservative, but I'm not in a bad mood about it, right?
[00:37:28]  And I think most of the people who I serve with in Congress, most of the governors in both parties I serve with, I, to this day, enjoy good relationships with.
[00:37:38]  Because in politics, nobody ever begrudges you holding the opinions you hold.
[00:37:43]  That's okay.
[00:37:45]  It's when you cross over into personal attacks that can create permanent separation from people.
[00:37:55]  It's one of the reasons why in Congress you have these arcane rules.

=== Moving to America, Becoming Something New (04:43) ===

[00:37:59]  You ever watch C-SPAN?
[00:38:00]  I know they may be recording tonight.
[00:38:03]  But you have people on the floor of the Congress that will say, well, the gentlelady from Pennsylvania or my good friend from Indiana, they got these arcane rules of debate, but it's because civility is essential to democracy.
[00:38:19]  And I hope when people look at my career that they might see a little bit of him just in the way that I've just tried to treat others the way that I want to be treated.
[00:38:33]  Please.
[00:38:39]  Hi, thank you for being here this evening.
[00:38:41]  My name's Emma Martz.
[00:38:42]  I'm a junior history major.
[00:38:43]  Hi, Emma.
[00:38:44]  Hi.
[00:38:45]  I wanted, you spoke earlier about the importance of defending the Constitution.
[00:38:49]  I wanted to ask, what are your thoughts and views of the current state of civic education in the country?
[00:38:59]  We could use a whole lot more.
[00:39:03]  I really could.
[00:39:04]  I was always struck by the fact that in his farewell address, President Reagan actually, of all the things he could talk about, one of the things he talked about was the importance of restoring civic education.
[00:39:16]  He also talked about going home for dinner and having a good debate with your family around the dinner table.
[00:39:26]  These are such warm and personal things that I just knew they had to come from the pen of our 40th president personally.
[00:39:36]  But actually, I think there's nothing more important, and maybe in this 250 years anniversary will reinvigorate our interest and commitment in it.
[00:39:48]  Because, you know, it's, as has been said, you know, you can move to France, with all due respect to Mrs. Mignon.
[00:39:58]  You can move to France and not become a Frenchman, right?
[00:40:04]  You can move to Italy and not become Italian.
[00:40:08]  You can move to Japan and not become Japanese.
[00:40:11]  But you move to America, you can become an American.
[00:40:15]  It's because in America, we're not defined by ethnicity or where we came from.
[00:40:24]  We are defined by a commitment to a set of principles and ideals.
[00:40:28]  And I think it's absolutely essential that in the next 250 years we ensure that our children and our children's children understand the unique and exceptional genius of the American experiment from the Revolution to the Constitution in everyday sense.
[00:40:55]  Hi, my name is Hannah Faust.
[00:40:57]  I'm going to be, hopefully be a first-generation law student.
[00:41:01]  My question doesn't pertain so much.
[00:41:03]  And she told me earlier she's applied to Indiana University.
[00:41:09]  Thank you.
[00:41:10]  Which I don't think I'd mention this evening won the National Football Championship in 2026.
[00:41:21]  We're just a little bit proud.
[00:41:22]  I'm sorry.
[00:41:23]  Go ahead.
[00:41:23]  No, you're fine.
[00:41:24]  I understand.
[00:41:28]  I come from a background very rural.
[00:41:30]  My grandparents were poor, and my parents were first-generation college students.
[00:41:34]  This pertains more so to education than it does religion.
[00:41:38]  You've been through it, you've gained status, you've been to law school.
[00:41:41]  What words of advice do you have for students who feel, and it seems as though, education is getting increasingly more expensive?
[00:41:50]  And you've mentioned the importance of education and how important it is to continue to climb that ladder.
[00:41:56]  How do we balance that and how do we achieve education while dealing with how expensive it is?
[00:42:04]  Well, look, we got three kids through college and a couple through grad school.
[00:42:13]  And Mrs. Pence and I can relate to that on a public salary.
[00:42:19]  But I just, I would encourage you to press on, press forward.
[00:42:26]  You're getting, I know you all have a great appreciation for this, and I know we've got members of the Board of Trustees here, but Susquehanna University is giving you an extraordinary world-class education.

=== Choosing Faith Politically (10:05) ===

[00:42:42]  It is.
[00:42:44]  And I just encourage you to continue to build on that.
[00:42:50]  Best advice I ever got when I got out of college was somebody said, don't take your first job for the money.
[00:42:59]  Look for experience.
[00:43:01]  I mean, in your 20s, you ought to be looking for the widest range of experience to be able to sort out what your calling is in life.
[00:43:10]  And I think the same thing with regard, don't ever hesitate to pursue that next level of education to which you can attain because of the cost, because that will sort itself out in time.
[00:43:22]  Guaranteed student loans and Pell Grants, all the rest that's available.
[00:43:29]  But to seize this time in your life, which becomes much more difficult later in your life if you want to achieve more educational attainment.
[00:43:37]  But this time in your life, I just want to encourage you.
[00:43:40]  I promise you it'll pay off in the future.
[00:43:42]  And rest assured, your future is very bright.
[00:43:46]  Especially if you go to Indiana University School of Law, Indianapolis.
[00:43:52]  That's where you got to go.
[00:43:54]  Thank you.
[00:43:55]  Hi.
[00:43:56]  Hello, Mr. Pence.
[00:43:57]  I'm Seth Taube.
[00:43:58]  I'm a journalism and digital content major.
[00:44:00]  Yes, sir.
[00:44:01]  Matthews 25 says, love your neighbor as yourself, as soon as you know.
[00:44:07]  It's the second part of the Great Commandment.
[00:44:10]  In 2015, you signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana in a closed door ceremony.
[00:44:16]  You also supported HJR-3, a bill to add an amendment banning same-sex marriage in Indiana's Constitution in 2014.
[00:44:25]  Based on this verse and your views, how would you feel in the shoes of your LGBTQ neighbors?
[00:44:32]  And what would you do differently based on this verse?
[00:44:38]  Well, thank you for the question.
[00:44:41]  It's actually 2015 was the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana.
[00:44:49]  John F. Kennedy said once, to lead is to be misunderstood.
[00:44:54]  And while some 30 states in the Union, including the federal government, had adopted religious freedom restoration acts, including President Bill Clinton signed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the federal level in the 1990s, in those days leading up to the Supreme Court's decision about same-sex marriage, understandably, emotions were high.
[00:45:23]  And so when Indiana, like several other states, had passed the bill, it suddenly was characterized as a license to discriminate against people in same-sex relationships.
[00:45:35]  And nothing could have been further from the truth.
[00:45:39]  It's one of the reasons why I, against the hopes of some, we actually amended the bill just to make sure that people knew it could not be used as a license for discrimination.
[00:45:57]  But there were certainly lessons that we learned along the way.
[00:46:01]  And I think that understanding going forward now that while that constitutional decision is set,
[00:46:12]  As I said to Dr. Mann earlier, I think now it's extremely important that we make sure that people that hold a different view on the issue of marriage are not likewise intruded upon in terms of their religious practice and not just religious institutions and traditions but educational institutions and otherwise.
[00:46:40]  That's what a free society really looks like.
[00:46:43]  But for my part, my late father would have called that year a good learning experience.
[00:46:51]  And it certainly was for me.
[00:46:53]  But people that know the Pence's well know that we love everybody.
[00:47:01]  And I never want anybody to ever feel otherwise when it comes to us.
[00:47:06]  Thank you for the question.
[00:47:08]  Very thoughtful.
[00:47:13]  Hello, Mr. Pence.
[00:47:15]  My name is Max Brown.
[00:47:16]  I'm a first-year business analytics major.
[00:47:18]  And I have a question.
[00:47:19]  Hi, Max.
[00:47:20]  How are you?
[00:47:21]  It was a pleasure hearing you speak tonight.
[00:47:23]  And I was wondering if you can share a moment over the course of your time as vice president where choosing your faith has costed you something politically?
[00:47:40]  Well, it might be, Max, it might be a better question to ask others about what it's cost me.
[00:47:48]  But I think it's a good question.
[00:47:48]  But at the end of the day, I'm some of the beliefs if you're going to go into a leadership role, whether it's elected, appointed, whether it's in a business, you just do well just to let your yes be yes and your no be no, right?
[00:48:07]  And just trust people to know your heart, or at least learn a little bit better how to share your heart with people.
[00:48:16]  And, you know, there certainly were times in the course of my career where there was some cost to standing firm on a conviction.
[00:48:30]  But I have to tell you, someone said to me, you know, that stands that you've taken, you've paid a price for.
[00:48:41]  What's your advice?
[00:48:43]  And I said not long ago, pay the price.
[00:48:47]  I sleep great.
[00:48:50]  I really do.
[00:48:51]  I mean, there's always a temptation to be something different than what you are, whether it's in a conversation with some friends who may not think the way you do on everything, Max, or whether it's of a career decision or a relationship.
[00:49:10]  But I really hold the view in my experience through some trial and error, emphasis on error in my life, that peace will follow integrity to purpose.
[00:49:27]  If you just will stand on your convictions, trust God for the outcome, you can have a lot of peace about it.
[00:49:35]  So be encouraged.
[00:49:37]  I can tell you're a leader.
[00:49:45]  Hi, my name is Jake Navrocki, and I'm a junior music education major.
[00:49:50]  To me, there's no doubt in my mind that you're a man of deep faith.
[00:49:54]  Contrary to that, I think a lot of other people, including myself, might have seen your ex-counterpart as not as much of a man of deep faith.
[00:50:05]  And I know he's been seen, and people might think this too, that he's been seen touting the Bible and touting religion when it's convenient for him in order to gain voters or whatnot.
[00:50:19]  And most recently, in this new term, he's been seen selling Bibles for an extraordinary price and trying to make a profit on religion.
[00:50:29]  Did you ever see this side of President Trump when you worked with him during your guys' term together?
[00:50:37]  And if not, do you see it now, and how has it made you feel?
[00:50:45]  You know, I, as I stipulated before, some people think President Trump and I are a little bit different, right?
[00:50:56]  But I can honestly tell you, in our four years, up until those difficult final days, we had a good working relationship.
[00:51:05]  He was not just my president, he was my friend.
[00:51:10]  And I found in the years that we were together, virtually every day, I mean, I spent three and four hours a day, every day, in the Oval Office.
[00:51:19]  And when we were traveling either around the country or around the world, we'd speak in the morning by phone or speak in the evening by phone or speak in the morning and speak in the evening by phone.
[00:51:30]  So it was a continuous dialogue between the two of us.
[00:51:34]  And through all of that, I found him to be deeply respectful of my and my family's faith.
[00:51:44]  And I can tell you that no one knows a man's heart.
[00:51:50]  But I lost count of the number of times he'd look at me and say, Mike, I'm a believer.
[00:51:55]  You know I'm a believer.
[00:51:57]  And I know he has that heritage in his life.
[00:52:00]  Look, I just think the Bible admonishes us to pray for those in authority.
[00:52:11]  And I pray for the President.
[00:52:14]  We don't talk as often as we used to.
[00:52:17]  But I pray for him often.
[00:52:19]  And I pray for the Vice President and encourage you to do the same.
[00:52:25]  Style is otherwise.
[00:52:29]  Hearts matter between each one of us and God.
[00:52:34]  Thank you.
[00:52:36]  Thank you.
[00:52:37]  Hi.
[00:52:39]  Hi, I'm Sean.
[00:52:40]  Hi, Sean.
[00:52:41]  Thank you, Mr. Punts, for being here.
[00:52:43]  You've spoken about Ronald Reagan tonight several times, and I think it's fair to say with reverence.

=== Free Trade with Free Nations (03:44) ===

[00:52:47]  And I was just curious, how you view some of Ronald Reagan's policies, such as the amnesty for illegal aliens in California, which has since turned the state blue, his national restriction on automatic firearms, and his free trade policies, which have been disastrous for American manufacturing.
[00:53:04]  How do you reconcile his brand of conservatism, which I think it's fair to say you ascribe to, with the modern brand of conservatism headed by Donald Trump?
[00:53:13]  Yeah.
[00:53:14]  Really good question.
[00:53:15]  I was with you on door number one and door number two, but not door number three.
[00:53:21]  Which is fair.
[00:53:22]  That's good.
[00:53:23]  You're very informed.
[00:53:25]  I'm impressed.
[00:53:27]  Look, I didn't agree with everything President Reagan did, but the way he committed to build up our military as the arsenal of democracy would ultimately cause the collapse of the Soviet Union two years after he left office.
[00:53:41]  The Reagan tax cuts launched the longest period of peacetime expansion in American history, and the Trump Pence tax cuts were modeled after those very tax cuts and literally created millions of American jobs as a result.
[00:53:57]  And of course, the President's commitment to the right to life, while he didn't make progress on that as we did, was inspiring to me.
[00:54:07]  But I take your point.
[00:54:07]  There were other policies.
[00:54:09]  I will take issue with you a little bit.
[00:54:11]  We should have a good debate about trade at some point.
[00:54:14]  I'm somebody that believes in free trade with free nations.
[00:54:19]  Now, I fully supported our administration's tough tariffs on China.
[00:54:25]  I mean, China's been stealing intellectual property, engaging in trade abuses, military provocations, human rights abuses.
[00:54:32]  China represents the greatest economic and strategic threat facing the United States in the 21st century.
[00:54:40]  Fact.
[00:54:41]  So I don't think we should ever hesitate to use access to our markets, which is what tariffs create, to essentially put pressure on China to reform.
[00:54:52]  That being said, I believe in free trade with free nations, which I think is what President Reagan advocated.
[00:54:59]  Because the reality is, and this has been at the center of conservative thought since the days of Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations back in 1776, is that when you recognize the freedom of this person to buy goods from this person, irrespective of whether there's a border, both ships rise.
[00:55:24]  I mean, it improves the quality of life on both sides of that exchange when you have free and open trade.
[00:55:31]  And coming from Indiana, which is the second leading exporting state in the country, I can tell you that trade means jobs, and I can assure you it means jobs here in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
[00:55:43]  What we ought to be doing is lowering trade barriers and non-tariff barriers with nations that respect the rule of law and are free nations.
[00:55:55]  But authoritarian regimes around the world, we ought to have a high threshold for them having access to the American economy.
[00:56:03]  And so you and I will continue that debate in the party in the months ahead.
[00:56:08]  Thank you.
[00:56:08]  No, thank you.
[00:56:09]  Great question.
[00:56:10]  I think we have time for one more question from each side.
[00:56:19]  Hi, my name's Kat Pasqua.
[00:56:22]  I'm a psychology major.
[00:56:23]  Hi.
[00:56:24]  Hi.
[00:56:28]  I just blanked.

=== Supporting Law Enforcement And Free Press (10:05) ===

[00:56:31]  Me too.
[00:56:31]  Okay, okay, I remember.
[00:56:34]  I had just gotten my citizenship over the summer, and I was wondering if you thought that the current administration's, like how they're handling immigration at the moment, do you think that that goes against Christian values of nonviolence and compassion?
[00:56:51]  Well, I wrote a piece in the free press that I'd recommend.
[00:56:54]  It was about two weeks ago, before the administration adjusted the situation in Minnesota.
[00:57:02]  And I heartily welcomed Tom Holman's deployment there.
[00:57:07]  I've known Tom a long time.
[00:57:09]  He's worked in Republican and Democrat administrations.
[00:57:12]  He is to know Tom Holman, he's a cop, and he's a good cop.
[00:57:20]  And I'm very encouraged at the progress they've made, facilitating cooperation with state and local law enforcement and in a very real sense, still making it possible to get dangerous people off the streets.
[00:57:38]  But look, the loss of not one but two American citizens' lives in police-involved shootings was a tragedy.
[00:57:48]  And I said that whenever there's a police-involved shooting, the first thing you do is recognize that you don't rush to judgment about law enforcement.
[00:58:02]  My uncle was a police officer in Chicago for 30 years.
[00:58:07]  Any police officer will tell you that the split-second decisions that they are faced to make ought not to be met with a rush to judgment by the public.
[00:58:20]  But when there is a tragedy with a police-involved shooting, there ought to be an immediate and transparent investigation.
[00:58:30]  And if there was wrongdoing, I mean, nobody hates bad cops more than good cops.
[00:58:37]  So if there's wrongdoing, then there ought to be accountability.
[00:58:41]  But in the same breath, it's to recognize that the presence of dangerous illegal immigrants on the street, people with violent criminal records, that the American people have every right, not only in the wake of tragedy, to get answers, but they have every right to have safe streets.
[00:59:03]  And that's where we have to continue to find ways to support law enforcement.
[00:59:07]  I will tell you, in my time as vice president, the immigrations and customs, the ICE officers I met, the border patrol officers I met, some of the best, most honorable men and women in uniform in this country.
[00:59:23]  And it doesn't mean that mistakes don't happen, but these are honorable people doing a really hard job and I think deserve our support.
[00:59:32]  And so to me, that's the balance, and that's what I wrote about in the Free Press Essay.
[00:59:39]  But as I said, I was very heartened when the President made the decision to change the guard up there, send Tom Holman up, and now you've got cooperation from city law enforcement in Minneapolis, state as well as federal.
[00:59:58]  Look, my last thought was I was very concerned at what was happening in Minneapolis because I saw what happened in Minneapolis in 2020.
[01:00:12]  Literally, the city was in the wake of George Floyd's killing.
[01:00:17]  The city was just virtually entire blocks were burned to the ground by rioters and protesters.
[01:00:24]  And I visited there with a wonderful African-American woman who had her own little beauty shop that was burned out by the rioters.
[01:00:36]  And so to me, it was extremely important that we lean into this moment, that we support law enforcement, but we also hear the concerns.
[01:00:45]  And I really believe that the decision, the decisions that have been made there have set that on a better path for law enforcement as well as accountability.
[01:00:57]  That's how it's supposed to work.
[01:00:59]  Thank you.
[01:01:03]  We have time for one more question.
[01:01:05]  I was also going to say, Cat, if you don't have the subscription to the free press, I can get you a copy of the article.
[01:01:12]  Hi.
[01:01:14]  Hi.
[01:01:15]  My name is Anya.
[01:01:17]  I just wanted to say how much of an honor it has been to hear you speak.
[01:01:20]  And I wanted to thank you for all the things you've done for this beautiful, beautiful country.
[01:01:26]  And I wanted to ask you this question, not just as a conservative, but as someone who always looks for harmony and improvement.
[01:01:38]  What advice do you have for students navigating increasingly polarized and even extreme opposing views on campus, and especially when support seems disproportionately distributed?
[01:02:00]  Well, I love that Bible verse.
[01:02:01]  It says, always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have.
[01:02:05]  But do so with gentleness and respect.
[01:02:11]  And that would go whatever perspective you're coming from.
[01:02:14]  I think recognizing the need to practice civility, to respect other people's rights, to hold the views that they have, is going to be reciprocated.
[01:02:27]  And look, I spent four years in college.
[01:02:32]  I worked at the college that I graduated from, and then I went to law school a few years down the road.
[01:02:37]  So I know this is a passionate time in your life if people have strong feelings.
[01:02:43]  But look, let me leave you with this thought, whether it applies on campus life or not.
[01:02:49]  I think our politics are more divided than ever before in my lifetime.
[01:02:55]  I'm just not convinced the American people are as divided as our politics.
[01:03:03]  I mean, my offices are in Washington, D.C., but I live in Indiana, right?
[01:03:12]  I've got five acres and a pond, a pickup truck, riding mower, right?
[01:03:18]  I mean, I have to tell you, traveling all across this country over the last five years, I always say to people, you know, you get 15 miles out of Washington, D.C., the people in this country actually get along pretty well.
[01:03:31]  It's just when you turn on the internet and you turn on cable TV, it looks like we're in a constant argument with each other.
[01:03:39]  But the truth is, the reason why communities work, the reason why businesses work, the reason why America works is because we all have an ingrained sense of respect for one another in a free society.
[01:03:54]  I really believe that.
[01:03:54]  I've seen it.
[01:03:56]  I mean, I really am very optimistic about the future, but it's this country.
[01:04:01]  And it's for two reasons.
[01:04:02]  And you've been very generous in referencing my faith.
[01:04:05]  I think I still consider myself a very young believer.
[01:04:09]  I'm an old guy, but I'm a young believer.
[01:04:12]  Got a lot to learn.
[01:04:14]  But my confidence about the future of America comes from my faith in God, who I think has ever had his hand on this nation since its founding.
[01:04:24]  I mean, we're the only nation on earth, with the exception of one other, perhaps, that has a different foundation.
[01:04:36]  But we're where a group of people came together and decided that we were going to organize a government around the principle that we were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.
[01:04:49]  Right?
[01:04:51]  I mean, Moses came down from the mountain with that message.
[01:04:53]  There was no mountain and no Moses.
[01:04:55]  It just, our people came together and said, we believe we're endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.
[01:05:03]  And so it's faith in him.
[01:05:04]  But also, lastly, I'll tell you, it's faith in the American people.
[01:05:07]  You know, when you're a vice president or a governor, sometimes a congressman, you end up finding yourself not only with people when things are going well, but sometimes if you're doing your job right, you're with people when the very worst things have happened.
[01:05:27]  Karen and I went to Texas after a mass shooting and met with families just days after a church shooting.
[01:05:36]  We visited sites where hurricanes had ravaged entire communities in Texas, wildfires in California, flooding and tornadoes in Indiana.
[01:05:48]  And I always tell people every time I see one of these natural disasters, and I expect this is true in New England today with two feet of snow.
[01:06:00]  I always tell people when the wind blows and beats against the house, when the flood waters rise, the only thing you can't find the next day in that neighborhood is a parking space.
[01:06:11]  Because people come from everywhere to help people they've never met and will never see again rebuild their lives.
[01:06:19]  I mean, I have to tell you, for all my years traveling this country, I am convinced the American people are the most idealistic, generous, caring, patriotic people the world has ever known.

=== State of the Union Address (04:19) ===

[01:06:37]  We just need government as good as our people again.
[01:06:40]  And I think we'll have it.
[01:06:42]  Thank you so much.
[01:06:49]  I'm afraid that's all the time we have for this evening.
[01:06:52]  Before you all depart and we wrap up, I would ask that you please take a moment to thank both the Office of Events Management and our campus safety officers and actually law enforcement officers as well for the many hours of work that they do behind the scenes to make events like this one such a success.
[01:07:08]  So please join me in thanking them.
[01:07:21]  And thank you to all of you as well for being here this evening.
[01:07:24]  We enjoyed having all this time together and I look forward to seeing you next year at the 2027 Alice Pope Shade Lecture.
[01:07:32]  In the meantime, drive safely on your way home this evening and thank you again.
[01:07:37]  Good night.
[01:07:39]  Thanks everybody.
[01:07:40]  God bless you.
[01:07:49]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country.
[01:07:59]  Coming up Tuesday morning, we preview President Trump's State of the Union Address with Wall Street Journal White House reporter Meredith McGraw, then Tevi Troy of the Ronald Reagan Institute on the history and importance of the State of the Union, plus other political news.
[01:08:13]  Also, former CIA Russia analyst George Beebe talks about the fourth anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.
[01:08:20]  And later, more on the State of the Union Address with the Hills Emily Brooks.
[01:08:25]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
[01:08:26]  Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Tuesday morning on C-SPAN.
[01:08:31]  C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org.
[01:08:43]  Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
[01:08:46]  Democracy is worth dying for.
[01:08:48]  Democracy belongs to us all.
[01:08:51]  We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
[01:08:54]  Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
[01:08:58]  American democracy is bigger than any one person.
[01:09:01]  Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
[01:09:06]  We are still at our core, a democracy.
[01:09:10]  This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
[01:09:21]  Members of the United States Congress, thank you very much.
[01:09:26]  And to my fellow citizens, America is back.
[01:09:34]  Watch C-SPAN live Tuesday as President Donald Trump delivers the annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress.
[01:09:42]  Our coverage begins at 7 p.m. Eastern with a preview of the evening from political reporters.
[01:09:47]  Then, at 9, the President's address, followed by the Democratic response given by Virginia Governor Abigail Spanbergs, will also take your calls and bring you reaction from lawmakers.
[01:09:58]  Over on C-SPAN 2, experience the moments leading up to the speech and the address itself as if you're there, uninterrupted.
[01:10:06]  No commentary with unfiltered sights and sounds.
[01:10:10]  The State of the Union Address, live Tuesday, with coverage beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern on the C-SPAN Networks.
[01:10:17]  C-SPAN, bringing you democracy unfiltered.
[01:10:27]  Discover the heartbeat of democracy with C-SPAN's voices as we hear from you ahead of President Trump's State of the Union address.
[01:10:34]  We're asking what would you like to hear from the President during his State of the Union speech.
[01:10:39]  So I'm Faustino and um on Trump's upcoming speech I'm probably expecting that he'll talk about some um international policies, especially um his ties with the Philippines and with the current,