- 2 days ago
DNI Tulsi Gabbard speaks at Turning Point USA's "Student Action Summit" in Tampa, Florida.
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00:00I love you too, man. Wherever you are. Thank you. Thank you. It is truly awesome and energizing
00:11to be here with all of you. I hope that you are feeling energized and inspired by
00:17all of the incredible speakers, Brett Cooper, Riley Gaines, everyone coming through here.
00:22But I just want to tell you that you inspire me. Seriously. You know, D.C., there are some good
00:31days and there are some dark days. But what keeps me going are people like you. People like you who
00:39made it possible for President Trump to get elected and create this truly transformational
00:46and historic moment that we are living in here today. We are here because thousands of young
00:52leaders like you, great Americans all across the country, they put partisan politics aside
00:59and recognize the opportunity to bring in a president who would fight for every single
01:04American. And that's exactly what we're doing in Washington every day.
01:08When we look back, and I feel like, you know, it's been, what, six months-ish since President
01:19Trump has been in office, not even six months, hardly. What happened in that year leading up
01:25to the election? It feels like such a long time ago, but I want to spend just a moment on
01:29this because it's important for us to recognize what Steve Bannon was just talking about, the
01:34deep state. We go back and look at all of those days that President Trump had to spend
01:39in a courtroom because of the constant lawfare that was being waged against him by his political
01:45opponents and the deep state who were terrified that the American people might choose to elect
01:50him once again. You look at all the propaganda that was thrown his way, the lies, the smears,
01:56the attacks that were thrown his way, how many times they actually tried to throw him in
02:01jail. And even at that, man, that mug shot will go down in history as one of the best
02:07pictures ever.
02:11All of their attempts to take him off the ballot, as we were going through that, I often reflected
02:16at really what was behind it. They were there thinking, okay, we have all this power, we
02:21need to silence him, undermining our democratic republic as they claim to be doing so to save
02:27democracy. But when we really take a step back, we recognize that they were acting out of fear.
02:34They were terrified of losing their perceived power. They were terrified of their own personal
02:41position or fame or profit or whatever the thing was. They were terrified, ultimately afraid of us.
02:48Terrified that in the United States of America, that was built on the foundation
02:54of these ideals of freedom and liberty for every single American. Terrified that we may actually
03:02use our freedom. That we may lift up our voices and stand up for and work hard to bring about the vision
03:12that our founding fathers had for us. A government that is truly of, by, and for the people.
03:19To me, that is what President Trump's America First agenda is all about. That's why the deep state fought
03:26so hard to try to stop us from even having the freedom to choose who we wanted as our president
03:34and commander-in-chief. And despite their best efforts, we, the people, prevailed.
03:40And this, this memory of this, which every one of us played our own role in, in bringing about,
03:55is so important to keep at the forefront because the deep state has not gone away.
04:03They exist within every single agency of the federal government, in the national security state,
04:09in the propaganda media. They are continuing to fight hard every single day, in spite of the fact
04:17that the voices of the people delivered this resounding victory for President Trump and to our country.
04:26Saying unequivocally, we are coming together, Americans from all different backgrounds and
04:31different walks of life saying, we choose freedom. We choose peace. We choose to come together
04:41for truth. Not my truth or your truth or their truth, but fundamental objective truth. We come together for common sense.
04:50And with President Trump's election, we, the people, have brought about this revolution
05:01that brings us back to our founding principles, that brings us back to our founding documents,
05:08our constitution.
05:09This is the oath that we all swore, the oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies,
05:17foreign and domestic. And by the way, it is the same oath that every person who goes and works within
05:23the intelligence community takes. Every employee swears this oath. It's important for us to keep it
05:31front and center because it is foundational to who we are. That we remember what we are fighting for.
05:38When we talk about freedom, we are talking about freedom of speech. Remembering that it wasn't that long
05:43ago that we had parents speaking up for the safety and well-being of their children at Board of Education
05:49meetings who under the Biden administration were then targeted as domestic violent extremists.
05:56We have to remember how, and these are documents that we will be declassifying and releasing
06:02very soon, very soon about how on day one, day one of the Biden administration, meaning January 21st of 2021,
06:15his national security adviser issued a memo essentially laying the groundwork for who they would be targeting
06:22as domestic violent extremists. And one of the documents that was ordered, one of the directives that was
06:29given in this memo was to the director of national intelligence to come up with a document that went into
06:39very specific descriptions of what to look out for when we are looking for domestic violent extremists.
06:46And so what you'll see there are detailed descriptions of what we would later see the Biden administration
06:54target. Those who were complaining about or unhappy with COVID-19 mandates and policies.
07:03Parents who were afraid that their children might be forced to get the vaccine when they went to school
07:10against their parents' wishes. People who were expressing anti-authority views.
07:19I could go on in this list of people, groups, thoughts, free speech, they were labeled as domestic
07:28violent extremists, and then use that label to go and then force these tech companies, some of them were
07:35willing, some unwilling, to censor Americans free speech in the name of going after domestic violent extremists.
07:45We have to expose their tactics and the playbook of the deep state so that we the people can make sure
07:51we never allow this to happen again.
07:53By electing President Trump, we chose our Constitution. We chose freedom of speech. We chose freedom to worship
08:09so that we can know that as we go to our place of worship, or if we worship in the privacy of our own homes,
08:16that we won't have to worry about the FBI thinking that we were suspicious or had to be surveilled
08:22as they did to those they labeled as radical traditionalist Catholics, simply for attending Latin Mass.
08:35By electing President Trump, we chose freedom. Freedom to exercise our right to bear arms.
08:43There's already work being done and there's more to come there to undo the damage that has been done
08:53for so long that has undermined that fundamental right. By electing President Trump, we chose our right
09:01to privacy and the protection of our civil liberties as guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment. Under President Trump,
09:08we chose our Declaration of Independence.
09:16I'm smiling because I think it was on Thursday, I was there and delivering the intelligence brief to the
09:24President. Towards the end of it, he had a couple of guests who were coming in to join him for lunch.
09:28And just seeing the pride and excitement that he shared as he wanted to show them the
09:36Declaration of Independence that he put on the wall right next to the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
09:47That declaration that reminds us all that all men are created equal, endowed by our Creator.
09:54Not by anyone in government, but our Creator with certain inalienable rights among those,
10:01our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
10:14So the historic moment that we live in, it's important sometimes to step away from the noise,
10:19to recognize what happened in order to create this opportunity that we have and therefore to inform
10:29the great work that we have ahead of us. You think the campaign was hard, you think what President
10:36Trump went through was hard, and it was. The road ahead will not be easy. I can attest personally
10:45that in my work as the Director of National Intelligence, the deep state is fighting us
10:50every step of the way. And it exists within every single federal agency. And so I feel the same
10:58frustration that I see many of you expressing on X or in different platforms about why aren't things
11:04going faster? Why aren't we getting results more quickly? I feel this frustration every single day.
11:11We are pushing hard. Know that they are pushing hard back. It's okay. We're not going anywhere.
11:21We're here to fight for you and to fight for the red, white, and blue that's behind you.
11:26We can't do this alone. It will take all of us who love our country and who deeply cherish our freedoms
11:38to stand united in this fight.
11:41It's going to come with hardship and sacrifice. As you know, it comes with name-calling and smears
11:50and lies and attacks. But here's the beautiful thing, is the harder they push back,
11:58the more smears and lies that are published in the Washington Post and the New York Times and
12:03the Atlantic and many others, the more we know that we are exactly on the target.
12:11And on those days where you might feel a little tired and you might feel a little discouraged and
12:16we all get there at some point in time, I go back and think about what President Trump has been
12:21through. He has sacrificed more than anyone else. He has been attacked and targeted
12:26more than anyone else. And most significant, significantly, one year ago tomorrow
12:33was the day in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman tried to take his life missing
12:38by just a hair. And so on those days when you feel like you're not quite sure if you have any more
12:45fight left in you, think back to that day when he popped right up.
12:50He was not cowed. He was not afraid. He was not running away. What did he do? He raised his fist
12:59and looked at all of the people who were there just as you are here today. And he said, fight,
13:05fight, fight. And that's exactly what we have to continue to do. Not motivated by hate for those
13:17who are trying to take our freedoms away, but by love. I know President Trump is motivated deeply
13:23by his love for our country. This is where his strength and his resilience comes from. He is
13:28motivated deeply by his care for every one of you, every one of us, the American people,
13:34and his commitment to make the most of every single day that he has in the White House to bring about
13:40this reality of a country where we can live in peace with prosperity and security and freedom
13:46for all Americans. This is why I'm so grateful to be able to to have earned President Trump's trust
13:54and confidence to be able to serve as a member of his cabinet and the role that I am in, because we
13:59have a lot of work to do. So the the thing I want you to go home with is the knowledge that you,
14:12not a single one of you should underestimate the power of your voice and your energy and your work
14:18and your role in bringing about this historic change that we have all embarked on together.
14:25Don't let anyone ever tell you that this is not your time or that you're too young or maybe you'll go
14:31and do something in a few years or five or ten years or 20 years. The time is now. Electing President
14:38Trump was just the first step to be able to get to work, to do this important work.
14:45It is tough, but it is our purpose that drives us. I'm grateful to have experienced from a young age
14:56that I found I was happiest when I was doing things for others, when I was trying to be of service to
15:02others, trying my best to be pleasing to God with my life by making a positive impact and being of service
15:09to God's children. And that's really what motivated me to choose service as a path for my life. I didn't
15:15know what form it would take or where it would take me, but I knew that this is what I wanted to do.
15:20And it's taken me through elected office in different arenas and through the military
15:26now for over 20 years and now as director of national intelligence. But I first started when I was 21 years
15:33old. And so for any of you who are thinking of running for office, maybe you're being told some
15:40of the things I was told. I was 21 and people said, oh, okay, you have a bright future, but you're too
15:45young. Maybe you should go and take some more college classes and, uh, I don't know, wait around
15:50until somebody feels like you're, you're, uh, qualified to go. But I knew that the most important
15:55qualification was my desire to serve, to have that positive impact in my community. So I didn't
16:02listen to any of them and I ran and got elected at 21. They told me the same thing when I ran for
16:06Congress at 31. Tulsi, you're great. You got a bright future. It's not your time. Come back in 20 years.
16:13I had come back from multiple deployments at that point in time, understanding and feeling to my core
16:19the cost of war and knowing that I needed to be in a place to make a greater impact. Where better than at
16:26that time in Congress where I could help to influence some of these decisions about peace and war
16:31and share the experiences of, of my brothers and sisters who I served alongside my experience
16:38and honor the memories every single day as I continue to do as, as secretary Hegseth does. I
16:44know president Trump has the lives and wellbeing of our service members on his heart every day,
16:50knowing the sacrifice that's made.
17:04We must remain undeterred. For me, I have always turned to my faith in God in those difficult moments
17:13and these challenging times and finding that strength and that confidence and that peace and that
17:25shelter and that courage that can only come from having faith in God's unconditional love for me and
17:32knowing that all I have to do is do my very best every day to be pleasing to him and have faith that
17:40whatever the outcome, it will be his will that is done.
17:50So as we forge ahead together, I encourage you to stand strong, to be joyful warriors,
17:56to always remember that with God, all things are possible and knowing that we can change
18:03our mindset. Somebody brings me a problem happens on a daily basis. I say, thank you. Good. Now I can solve it.
18:14Hard challenge comes my way or maybe I am having a difficult day. Awesome. It's my opportunity to say,
18:23yes, Lord, here I am. Send me.
18:33It is inspired by God's unconditional love that we are charged to live and lead and serve
18:40in a reflection of his love for all of us with this eternal gratitude in our hearts for the blessings and
18:47the freedoms that he has and continues to bestow upon every one of us. When I was deployed to Iraq in 2005,
18:57I served in a medical unit where there was a sign at one of the main gates where our security patrols,
19:03infantry patrols went in and out of every day. And the first day that I saw it and many days thereafter,
19:09I was stopped in my tracks because that sign said in big block letters is today, the day.
19:18And it was this ever present reminder, certainly there in a war zone in 2005, during one of the,
19:26the height of that war in Iraq that any day could be our last. And it was an opportunity to reflect and
19:32to pray and to know that I needed to do my best to make every single day count. We look to the tragedy
19:43that just happened in Texas. We're at a camp where girls were going, families who were camping over a
19:51long holiday weekend in a moment. They lost their lives in this tragedy. Is today the day?
20:02Every single day that we wake up with breath in our bodies, we are blessed with the opportunity
20:14to take advantage and make the very most of that day. Today is the day. Today is the day for us to stand
20:23up for all that we believe in, stand up for each other, stand up for our country, stand up for our
20:29freedom and a future that truly realizes the vision that our founders had for this great country.
20:37I'm grateful to stand alongside you in this honorable and just fight. We will make this happen
20:44together. Thank you so much, everybody. It's great to see you. God bless you.
20:48God bless America. Aloha. Thank you so much.
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