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Ted Cruz Announces Presidential Run. 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 23, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He took over $100,000 in school loans, loans I suspect a lot of ya'll can relate to, loans that I'll point out I just paid off a few years ago.

[10:30:00] (APPLAUSE)

These are all of our stories. These are who we are as Americans.

And yet, for so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant. What is the promise of America? The idea that -- the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights don't come from man. They come from God Almighty.

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And that the purpose of the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, is to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government.

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The incredible opportunity of the American dream, what has enabled millions of people from all over the world to come to America with nothing and to achieve anything. And then the American exceptionalism that has made this nation a clarion voice for freedom in the world, a shining city on a hill.

That's the promise of America. That is what makes this nation an indispensable nation, a unique nation in the history of the world.

And yet, so many fear that that promise is today unattainable. So many fear it is slipping away from our hands.

I want to talk to you this morning about reigniting the promise of America: 240 years ago on this very day, a 38-year-old lawyer named Patrick Henry...

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... stood up just a hundred miles from here in Richmond, Virginia...

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... and said, "Give me liberty or give me death."

(APPLAUSE) I want to ask each of you to imagine, imagine millions of courageous conservatives, all across America, rising up together to say in unison "we demand our liberty."

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Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren't voting. They're staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.

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Today millions of young people are scared, worried about the future, worried about what the future will hold. Imagine millions of young people coming together and standing together, saying "we will stand for liberty."

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Think just how different the world would be. Imagine instead of economic stagnation, booming economic growth.

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Instead of small businesses going out of business in record numbers, imagine small businesses growing and prospering. Imagine young people coming out of school with four, five, six job offers.

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Imagine innovation thriving on the Internet as government regulators and tax collectors are kept at bay and more and more opportunity is created.

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Imagine America finally becoming energy self-sufficient as millions and millions of high-paying jobs are created.

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Five years ago today, the president signed Obamacare into law.

AUDIENCE: Boo.

CRUZ: Within hours, Liberty University went to court filing a lawsuit to stop that failed law.

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Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who've lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare.

(APPLAUSE) Imagine health care reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable and affordable.

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Instead of a tax code that crushes innovation, that imposes burdens on families struggling to make ends met, imagine a simple flat tax...

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... that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.

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Imagine abolishing the IRS.

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Instead of the lawlessness and the president's unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders.

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And imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.

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Instead of a federal government that wages an assault on our religious liberty, that goes after Hobby Lobby, that goes after the Little Sisters of the Poor, that goes after Liberty University, imagine a federal government that stands for the First Amendment rights of every American.

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Instead of a federal government that works to undermine our values, imagine a federal government that works to defend the sanctity of human life...

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... and to uphold the sacrament of marriage.

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Instead of a government that works to undermine our Second Amendment rights, that seeks to ban our ammunition...

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... imagine a federal government that protects the right to keep and bear arms of all law-abiding Americans.

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CRUZ: Instead of a government that seizes your e-mails and your cell phones, imagine a federal government that protected the privacy rights of every American.

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Instead of a federal government that seeks to dictate school curriculum through Common Core...

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... imagine repealing every word of Common Core.

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Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation...

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... that every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or ZIP Code, every child in America has the right to a quality education.

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And that's true from all of the above, whether is public schools, or charter schools, or private schools, or Christian schools, or parochial schools, or home schools, every child.

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Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel.

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Instead of a president who seeks to go to the United Nations to end-run Congress and the American people...

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's horrible.

CRUZ: ... imagine a president who says "I will honor the Constitution, and under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon."

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Imagine a president who says "We will stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism..."

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"... and we will call it by its name."

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AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right.

CRUZ: "We will defend the United States of America."

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Now, all of these seem difficult, indeed to some they may seem unimaginable, and yet if you look in the history of our country, imagine it's 1775, and you and I were sitting there in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry say give me liberty or give me death.

Imagine it's 1776 and we were watching the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence stand together and pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to igniting the promise of America.

Imagine it was 1777 and we were watching General Washington as he lost battle, after battle, after battle in the freezing cold as his soldiers with no shoes were dying, fighting for freedom against the most powerful army in the world. That, too, seemed unimaginable.

Imagine it's 1933 and we were listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tell America at a time of crushing depression, at a time of a gathering storm abroad, that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Imagine it's 1979 and you and I were listening to Ronald Reagan.

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[10:45:00] And he was telling us that we would cut the top marginal tax rates from 70 percent all the way down to 28 percent, that we would go from crushing stagnation to booming economic growth, to millions being lifted out of poverty and into prosperity abundance. That the very day that he was sworn in, our hostages who were languishing in Iran would be released. And that within a decade we would win the Cold War and tear the Berlin Wall to the ground.

That would have seemed unimaginable, and yet, with the grace of God, that's exactly what happened.

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From the dawn of this country, at every stage America has enjoyed God's providential blessing. Over and over again, when we face impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. You know, compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain't all that tough.

(LAUGHTER) The power of the American people when we rise up and stand for liberty knows no bounds.

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If you're ready to join a grassroots army across this nation, coming together and standing for liberty, I'm going to ask you to break a rule here today and to take out your cell phones, and to text the word constitution to the number 33733. You can also text imagine. We're versatile.

Once again, text constitution to 33733. God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn't done with America yet.

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I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today I am announcing that I'm running for president of the United States.

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It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty. It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.

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I am honored to stand with each and every one of you courageous conservatives as we come together to reclaim the promise of America, to reclaim the mandate, the hope and opportunity for our children and our children's children. We stand together for liberty.

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CRUZ: This is our fight. The answer will not come from Washington.

[10:50:00] It will come only from the men and women across this country, from men and women, from people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the Constitution.

It will only come as it has come at every other time of challenge in this country, when the American people stand together and say we will get back to the principles that have made this country great. We will get back and restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.

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Thank you and God bless you.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to break away. You heard Ted Cruz. He is indeed running for president. He wants to be president of the United States in 2016.

Jeff Zeleny, our CNN senior Washington correspondent is at the speech. And Jeff, in many ways he was preaching to the choir here, correct? And most students sounded receptive. But when you -- when the camera panned to the audience, some students didn't seem all that interested. And call me a cynic but were these required to be here or did they come voluntarily?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. The students were required to be here. It's a weekly convocation that students have. So they routinely get many speakers passing through here. Some that I talked to were not even aware that he was coming actually.

But I can tell you Carol, talking to students as they came in and watching them waving flags during the speech, they certainly were interested in this. But Senator Cruz is more interested in the picture that this conveyed sent. The picture that young evangelicals, young conservatives -- he believes he can take that group of people to build this presidential movement. Of course that's very much an open question.

What struck me, Carol, was he was really going against the establishment lane. He didn't mention the word Jeb Bush but that was who he was going after. He was trying to appeal to the evangelical lane of this big Republican primary field. Some of the students may not have been that into it. They were required to be here. This is the country's largest -- the world's actually, largest Christian university. It's like attending class if you will.

But a long speech from Ted Cruz and we heard what his campaign is going to be all about.

COSTELLO: All right.

I want to go to Dan Holler now. He's the communications director for the Heritage Action for America. So did Ted Cruz accomplish what he set out to do?

DAN HOLLER, HERITAGE ACTION FOR AMERICA: I think so. I think what you saw from Ted Cruz and honestly what you'll see from somebody like Scott Walker or Marco Rubio and others is that they are trying to paint an optimistic vision for the future of the country. But even more than that, they are saying that the Republican Party is what the Republican Party has traditionally been about.

They're not throwing off the national security conservatives or the social conservatives or the economic conservatives. He's trying to bring the Republican Party back to where it has traditionally been the strongest and that has a whole lot of appeal not only in a Republican primary but heading into a general election as well.

COSTELLO: So John, you were mentioning before that Ted Cruz's support among Tea Party members has slipped. Will this help?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very powerful speech. He gave the conservative base, Carol, a long list of things they wanted to hear as Dan just noted. He tried to unite the evangelical wing of the party with the lower taxes wing of the party with the free and strong on national security wing of the party -- a very powerful presentation from Senator Cruz.

And as Jeff noted also after he talked about border security. There's a debate among Republicans about that and he went after common core, those education standards that Jeb Bush has supported. This was a rallying cry to the conservative base.

The challenge for Senator Cruz is it's a crowded space right now. Rick Santorum says he plans to run again. Governor Mike Huckabee says he's likely to run again. Dr. Ben Carson is in that space. Marco Rubio wants a piece of that space. Rick Perry wants a piece of that space. Even Jeb Bush wants a piece of it. He know he's not going to get a big piece of it. But he wants a little piece of it. Scott Walker, as Dan just showed.

So it's a very crowded field right now. The challenge for Senator Cruz and one of the reasons he decided to jump start and get in ahead of everyone else is to try to be the breakaway candidate, to try to raise more money. That's why he wanted those kids to text that number. Guess what -- you text that number, you're on his list. Then you get fund-raising appeals and the like.

So he's trying to break away in a crowded field where at the moment he's lagging. I mentioned one challenge is proving to people he's a president. Here's another one Carol. It's not just for Ted Cruz, Rand Paul gets in, in two weeks. Marco Rubio right after that, I'm told. All of these Republicans not just those three but Republicans for six years have said look at President Obama -- a freshman senator. He wasn't ready to be president. My question is will the Republican electorate when you have a Governor Walker, a Governor Bush, a Governor Perry, maybe a Governor Kasich, will the Republican electorate go to a freshman senator after many people in their party spent the last six years saying that was a mistake?

COSTELLO: Well, Peter, I wanted to ask you that very question. Cruz is a freshman senator. There were questions about his birth certificate, right, because he was born in Canada. It certainly does sound like familiar criticism.

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, he renounced his Canadian citizenship -- Carol, actually.

Look, we've been talking about this poll that only 4 percent of Republicans are supporting him in polls right now. Most of these poles right now are irrelevant. But there's been other polls that ask are you open to supporting him? That number climbs to 40 percent.

[10:55:02] Look, he's still in the game in the conservative lane for the Republican nomination. But it can't really be stressed enough though how many sort of structural challenges are facing Ted Cruz as he mounts this campaign.

Look, one thing working in his favor is that if you look at some of the primary states, the way the calendar is currently constructed, there are a lot of southern conservative states that are going to be voting in March and early in March including his home state of Texas and even though Rick Perry is in the race, Ted Cruz is the darling of Texas Republicans.

So if, if, if he can win Iowa, he could catch some early mojo but look, no Republican since Barry Goldwater, no insurgent has won the Republican nomination without the support of the party establishment. The party establishment puts its blessing on certain candidates and those that they don't like don't get to be the nominee. That's the way it's worked for the last 40 years. So that's a real problem for him.

There's something in the founding myth of Ted Cruz that he took on the GOP establishment in Texas and won when he ran for Senate in 2012. You know, running against David Dewhurst (ph), the lieutenant governor at the time in a Republican primary. But look, that's a different state. Texas Republican party is all in and no ego. David Dewhurst set all the political skills of piece of wheat toast. It was pretty easy for him to win.

Running against the national Republican establishment is a very, very different challenge -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ok. But let's talk about Independent voters because one of the things Ted Cruz said during his speech is our rights come from God, not man. If you head to Twitter this morning, you'll find that some people weren't so pleased with that. You'll also find tweets that read quote -- going to just going to just give you one.

I want to address this to you Karen so listen closely.

"Science, we don't need no stinking science. #TedCruzCampaignSlogan.

Here's another tweet from this morning. "I'll make government small enough to fit into your bedroom or a woman's uterus. #TedCruzCampaignSlogan." Are Democrats underestimating Cruz though possibly?

KAREN FINNEY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't think so. I mean look -- I think as Peter was just talking about, I think people recognize he was not the establishment candidate when he ran for the senate in Texas. He actually, you know, he didn't just win but he built his own base of support so that he was in the position where he didn't need the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee's money -- right.

And that was a key thing. He had his own base. He had his and own money for quite a good period of time. That I think makes him someone worth watching and paying attention to.

The challenge I think that he will have and we were talking about this a little bit. I think those tweets, you know, that certainly recognize where some of the questions will come and that is he will likely move the Republican Party farther to the right. He has said some very extreme things. Some of those statements I think A, he's going to have to answer for; and B, you know, as other Republicans get into the race, they're going to have to decide where are they on some of those issues and again that could move the party farther to the right, which in a primary that may work.

But again, knowing that you have to go to a general election, knowing that you have those Independent voters, I think that may be the place where it becomes problematic for him because he's also got to make an argument as John was saying can he be presidential? He doesn't have much of a record to run on. His record in Texas as solicitor general I think will become all the more important. Let's hope he has some answers for the things that he did there.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see. Jeff Zelany, John King, Peter Hamby, Karen Finney and Dan Holler -- thanks to all of you. I so appreciate you being here with me this morning.

And thanks to all of you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BALDWIN" after a break.

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