permanent representative to the uned nations educational, scientific and cultural organizations. on c-span3 at 4:30 p.m., a hearing to examine the 2025 budget request for the v.a.'s office of infoatn and technology. you can watch our coverage on e c-span now video app or online at c-span over. >> they want to come here and collect welfare instead. so no asylum cases. >> most people come here to make a better life if not for them than their kids. my grandparents never spoke english. i never had a conversation with them and yet they made america great. >> friday, author and coulter and columnists or of amari -- and a columnist discuss the question should the u.s. shut its borders? the debate is moderated by journalist barry weiss.

what friday 9 p.m. eastern on c-span or c-span.org. >> next, 2024 independent presidenti candidate robert f. kennedy, jr. and his vice presidential running mate nicole shanahan campaigning in austin, texas. ey focus on several topics, including putting an end to chronic diseases, reducing the national debt and protecting constitutional rights. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the next vice president of the united states, nicole shanahan. >> hi, everyone. thank you to you all, take you to the brave and innovative

minds today, thank you to those who are feeling -- feeling this country and healing american soil. i want to talk about soil. [applause] >> soil is not much of a political issue. when they surveyed the public and ask what issue do you care about, you can choose things like immigration, abortion, inflation, guns, the deficit, the warriors. but there has never been a checkbox for soil. i love soil. i important issue but it is part of something much bigger. i would like to talk about that

bigger thing today. healing the soil says we're going to heal this country from the ground up. yes. the foundation. a nation's health is its soil. it is also the air and the water , the economic infrastructure that's of life itself. it has to be treated and respected as a public good. that is the most basic responsibility. moms, you get this. you know that health comes first and then we can do other things. for too long our nation has neglected its foundation. we've spent trillions on foreign wars while domestic

infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. we have propped up wall street while businesses shuttered their windows. we have funneled wealth to billionaires. i know them all. and i can tell you most of them do not care that millions have fallen into poverty while they have fallen into wealth. it is not just that our soil is depleted, people are too. americans whose finances are depleted and they are drowning in debt, americans whose health is depleted and you are barely getting through the day without pain. americans whose hope is depleted and they struggle with depression and despair.

but what i have seen is everyone of those conditions can be healed. but healing starts when you get serious. healing starts when you make it a priority. healing starts when you stop deceiving yourself that everything is fine. when you are willing to look at the root of a problem and work. that is what we're going to do. our politicians have been more concerned with slandering each other, they have a nord warning signs, turned their gaze away from national health and they delude themselves with vain ambition and lose themselves to the temptation of power and

money. i am sick of it. it is not just soil absent from the issues that have taken over political discourse. you will not see chronic disease even though it affects have of americans. you will not see decaying infrastructure. you will not see corporate capture of federal agencies. you might see climate change, but not the root causes of forever chemicals in water and food. where is that? you will never see fentanyl mentioned. or skyrocketing depression, the childcare affordability crisis.

we have to talk about these things, open our hearts to them. well, robert f kennedy and i are going to look where the politicians have failed. yes. we are to do something. honestly this movement of people has made a difference. has anyone noticed new talking points from democrats and republicans? i heard donald trump talking about blockchain. in biden saying the epa is taking feedback in drinking water -- deep bass in drinking water seriously. and i'm counting each and every one of these as a win and i hope you will. the pressure we are putting on

them to work on this is working for all of us, let's keep gawain. yeah. we care about what the establishment has neglected. that is one big reason why i have entered politics. until last year, i was a heavy democratic party donor because i believe that if i could get the ear of party leaders they would implement commonsense policies. when i got there ear -- when i got their ear, nothing seemed to get done and their efforts were laden with distortion.

in my cynical moments i wonder if they were after my money. but i am not a cynical person so i supported them because i trusted they were sincere in wanting to make positive change. i think many of them want to, they cannot. they cannot because they are beholden to party politics and the insider games of washington, d.c., they cannot do anything entangled in these corporate interests, stuck in hammerlock in congress and aral agencies. most politicians are trapped and we are trapped. or we were trapped there until now.

[laughter] [applause] >> because robert f. kennedy, jr. is here. [laughter] he has taken charge for all of us and that can change. two years ago i really wanted change. i started two years ago to look outside the party for someone who has experienced the wisdom and the wherewithal to lead this kind of transformation. i could not find anyone until i was introduced to robert f. kennedy, jr.. yeah. since listening to those early interviews with him and seeing him out day after day, the selfie line is out of hand. he has got something special

that gets him out there day after day, pounding the pavement or the smooth and. he is in a class of his own, no comparison. hundreds of politicians, hundreds and i never met a candidate like this. this transcends politics. whoo! he is willing to look from the perspective of solving them with long-term, cohesive strategies and he understands national healing on a foundational level. want to know why he knows how to do this? the last 40 years of his life, that is what he was doing. he will keep on doing it. each and every day he is doing it. national healing is not only about policies, it is getting it done and doing it without

worrying about your corporate donors. since this is the objective leadership we have all been craving, words are weak. how nice would it be to put the trust in our leadership to put the health of the nation first? how nice to put resources from the war machine into the piece economy -- the peace economy. we need a department of transformation that is competent on fixing roads. we need actual, objective, un-conflicted people. not career politicians or corporate donors. we need to clean up our water supply and we cannot do it when our agencies are corrupted?

so robert f. kennedy, jr. will help us secure the integrity of our food supply because usda will be run by a real farmer. i cannot wait for that. we will restore the spirit of our educational system by allowing qualified teachers, not the government, to run the classroom. and you know what? we are going to tackle the mental health crisis with guidance from doctors who put health above pharmaceutical bonuses. it is only going to be that set up that will allow us to feel trapped in government. national healing is not just about policy, it is how we

communicate, love, trust, respect and a lot of people have been turned off not only because of failure, but because of the way political conversations are happening. the tone and how they talking to each other. you can barely call them conversations. it is a shouting match and each side agrees the people on the other side are abhorrent. we have to stop thinking of each other that way. we have to respect each other enough to actually listen, otherwise how will we restore semblance of coherent conversation. [applause] >> how will we remember how lucky we are to be protected by

the constitution of the united states? we are so lucky. we will remember how lucky we are when we stop taking each other out, realizing that the essence of our relationship is what makes us capable of appreciating this country. so, you know, when you actually have a conversation with someone on the other side, republican, democrat, you realize there is more in common than you think. even when you take on a wedge issue, you discovered that people, we are not monsters. guns, abortion, immigration, most of us are caring human beings.

our political culture tries to convince us otherwise. it divides us into warring opinion of tribes and how are we going to heal when we talk like that? how will we tackle problems if we are not speaking coherently? that is another reason why i have allied myself with robert f. kennedy, jr.. because nothing i have ever heard him say is designed to make you hate his opponents. there is no meanness, no mockery. this is not a campaign strategy, this is his nature. he always gives people the benefit of the doubt and listens carefully. that is the quality of leadership we need most right now. our independent candidacy is not

separate, it draws from left and right. it reaches outside of the left and the right. our most innovative solutions come from outside politics in the realm of alternative. yes, i know that sounds radical. i have seen the power of alternative ways of thinking, i have used alternative practices to restore my fertility and many of these practices have been used for centuries. i have seen alternative agricultural practices regenerate land and i've seen criminal justice restore ruined lives. i know what is possible when you think with an alternative and creative mindset, what is

possible when we step outside of frozen habits, when we become independent. [applause] >> so i am really happy right now to welcome this wonderful man on stage. let's welcome him now, please welcome our next president, robert. robert f kennedy junior. >> this is a day of affirmation, a celebration of liberty. experienced in the name of freedom. we are not on a chain. we must recognize the full human equality of all people, not any particular religion or race, not

just for the wealthy, but to all of the people. for the fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do. >> a new twist for the countries most famous clinical dynasty, robert. >> trying to heal a divided nation and return power to the people. [applause] >> we are told that our nation is hopelessly divided, but i found something different as i traveled the country.

i witnessed optimism that i have never seen before. something is stirring in us that says it does not have to be this way. i am here to declare independence from corruption which robs us of affordable lives, belief in the future and respect for each other. to do that i must declare my own independence. independence from the democratic party. and from all other political parties. i have not made this decision lightly, it is painful for me to let go of the party of my uncles, father, ran father in both of my great-grandfathers. my sacrifice is nothing compared to the risk our founding fathers

took when they signed the declaration of independence. they knew if the revolution failed they would be killed. they placed everything on the line. when john adams put his pen down, he turned to those present in said sink or swim, live or die, survive or parish, from this day on, i am with my country. i'm going to make that same pledge to you today so that i can stand before you as every leader should stand before you, free of partisan allegiance, backroom deals, a servant to my conscience, creator and. every president enters office promising to unite the nation and work with people, none of

them ever does. they have already chosen a side. i will not have that problem, i will build coalitions from both sides. and except for the small minority of public officials who are corrupt, i'm going to tell you a secret, they want liberation from a system that has captured them. isn't that what we all want? liberation from a system that robs our wealth, health, patriotism, ideals, freedoms and sense of ourselves as a good and capable people. in healing our nation, is it possible? let's take back our country. god bless you and the united states of america.

[applause] ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome the next president of the united states, robert f kennedy junior. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. thank you, austin. what a start -- i want to start by thanking some of the people who appeared today. jonathan moody for his music, jessica, jp sears, who my

brother was side-by-side during the pandemic, one of the few people who remained funny. willie d, thank you for coming down from houston. and ryland englehart who gave his life to getting us better food. and texas volunteers. they were there, those are the champion signature gatherers. we have an historic day in texas, we ended at 267,000 signatures. [applause] mr. kennedy: that's more than any presidential candidacy in the history of texas and in the history of our country.

the texas legislature changed the rules in the last session to double the number of signatures collected because they thought no one would be able to do it. the pundits, you heard them from the beginning of the campaign, saying it would be impossible to get on the ballot and we got on the ballot in texas. if you can get on in texas, we can get on everywhere. [l applause -- applause] mr. kennedy: texas gave us 45 days to collect signatures, got more than double the amount we need. and i was just upstairs talking to the team, i was just

completing the signatures and they said we are on our way to new york tonight. new york is the next one, we have 10 days now to complete. 45 days, the hardest states are new york and texas. we have more than we need in new york already. and the dnc has done everything in their power to stop us and will continue to do that, but we are going to get on the ballot in every state. i want to thank all of you who are part of it. and i want to say a couple of words about nicole. when we chose nicole, we have

seen throughout our history that people who -- presidential candidates who chose unknown candidates for their vice president have historically run into a lot of problems because those people who are inexperienced in national politics, when they are exposed to it, they collapse. any kind of issues they have are amplified and they end up looking bad. and i have watched nicole since the day of our announcement. what she has been through has been extraordinary because she did not spend her lifetime thinking i am going to be vice president of the united states. i called her on the telephone and said do you want to be vice president of the united states? she said let me think about it and then we had dinner three nights later and she said i am

going to do it. and, you know, i'm worried about it. i know how people are going to hold up, but you are walking into a buzz saw where you are derided, defamed. i'm used to it, i've been going through this for most of my adult life. but to have that land on you in two weeks or three or four weeks, and to be able to withstand it and to come up and give a speech like that where every time -- every time i see her speak, i fall a little bit more in love with her because you do not see vice presidential candidates -- most candidates we have today,

they sound like they are doing a satire. in the stuff they are talking about is inane, cliched, simplifications, number sticker slogans. that is not what you hear from nicole. you hear a lecture about soil. there is no political scientist in the world that would tell you you've got to do a lecture on soil, they would love it. no one would tell her to do that, no one would advise her, yet she does it and we all love her because we see the integrity. we see the compassion for other people, for creatures with whom we share this planet and you do

not hear that from our political leaders. you don't hear we are part of a giant family and the soil is part of it, plants are part of it and that is what we need to heal this country. two days ago i did a podcast with a guy called john camp and he is a young -- he has a podcast himself, but he is a young farmer and he cannot have the camera on him because the amish can only use technology for certain purposes. i was able to see him through a camera, but he cannot use it. i had to promise i would never show the film. he is an extraordinary guy, a handsome, young, 35-year-old guy

with right eyes and a long beard down to hear. and i asked him about his life and he told me like most amish he has in eighth grade education. -- the amish leave school after eighth grade, but he had this extraordinary knowledge of the soils, plants, agricultural systems, immunology on which he has made himself a global expert. he said -- i said i spend a lot of time talking with scientists, with people who have a lot of letters behind their name. and i love listening to them talk because they have expertise, a grasp of a particular area of knowledge where you understand that you are listening to existential

truths that they have devoted their lives to understanding. i felt like i was again listening to a professor at harvard because he knew so much about it and about 10 or 15 years ago, he was a pesticide dealer. his father is one of the biggest pesticide and fertilizer dealers in ohio and in amish country. a few years ago they had pest problems on their farm and they found the more pesticides they lied, they were consulting with professors on how to kill this pest in the next and the next. the more they applied, the sicker plants got, the more pests came in they rented a piece of land parallel to the piece they had been treating. they grew balance on parallel --

they grew melons on parallel tracks without pesticides to see what would happen. the area that had been saturated for years, plants were overwhelmed. on the track that was untreated, not a single test appeared. he said it was like a knife line between the rows of crops. one was healthy, the other was decimated. he said that prompted him and his father to go to a conference on pesticides and listen to a speaker talk about it. his father took the boys out to lunch and they said you're done, we will never use it again and they have now become -- he pledged himself into a study of plant immunology. he did not plants had immune

systems, but they do. and now he is one of the world's experts. he has 4 million farmers who follow him. he has developed a way of using -- growing plants with productivity, without using pesticides. and he says that they treat the pests with nutrients because the nutrients will bolster the immune system and the native immune response of the plant. i told him about a study, a very important study years ago. it is called guier and was published in 2000 at the end of the 20th century. it was a cdc funded study, done by a scientist from johns

hopkins. they were looking at the decline in infectious disease mortalities between 1900 and 2000 when there was an 80% decline. people were getting measles, tetanus, cholera, all these other diseases, but they are not killing. the infectious mortality of measles was 10,000 people per year in 1900. but by 1963, it was 400 per year and almost all the people were malnourished, mainly black kids from the mississippi delta. what this study found is that all medical interventions, vaccines, antibiotics, and surgeries have almost nothing -- less than 3% impact in the

decline in mortalities. they attribute it the decline to immune systems that allowed -- and they allowed oranges to be brought so that people could eat them. refrigerators allowed fresh food peoples kitchens. sewage treatment and water plants, nutrition, sanitation. things that would give us good immune systems. it was the same lesson that we need to start bolstering our immune systems, the things god gave us. the soils. [applause] mr. kennedy: and good food does not come from chemical agriculture. good health does not come in a syringe.

and we are a sick country today. 6% of american kids had chronic disease when my uncle was president. it is the biggest issue, 4.3 trillion dollars, five times the beds budget. we are spending two or three times more than the europeans and yet, we have the worst health outcomes. the more we spent, the unhealthier we get. but what is it that is causing us not to see that? what causes us to feed the beast that makes us sick? it is the corrupt political system, this inversion of our democracy. don't you want a healthy country?

[applause] mr. kennedy: we have two presidents running today, one is the current president. they have had for years in office. they could not be more different. if you look at their personalities, dispositions, how they relate to the world, the ideology that drives them, they articulate all the time that they could not be more different. the issues they are disputing are a narrow window is what nicole was saying. guns, abortions, the border, trans rights. these issues are important, but none of them are existential. none of them are issues that really matter to you, to me, to our children.

the issues that matter they never talk about. nicole says they are starting to talk about it because our campaign is forcing them to do it. [applause] mr. kennedy: we have a $34 trillion debt. the service on the debt is costing more than our defense budget. within five years, $.50 out of every dollar will go to servicing the debt. within 10 years, 100 percent of every dollar in taxes will go to the debt. have you ever heard of president trump talking about ending the debt crisis? have you heard president biden talking about it? they cannot talk about it because they ran up the debt. half of that $34 trillion came from them.

president trump spent $8 trillion, ran up $8 trillion during his term. it was more at that time then every president from george washington to george w. bush. 283 years of history. trump came into office and said current came into office. i'm going to run it like a business. -- i will read it like a business. i am a businessman. trust me. i'm going to run it like a business. -- exactly. then he closed [laughter] all of our businesses. 3 million businesses. who would do that? you want a president who will close down all our businesses? we have two presidents who have shown here willing to do this. he shifted $4 trillion from the american middle.

this is an existential issue for our country. we cannot keep running on this debt. we need to figure out a way to invest get things that will actually improve our economy rather than more wars. president trump and president biden former president trump did say he was going to end the war machine. but then he brought john bolton into run the n.s.a.. [crowd booing] he put a swamp creature in charge of draining the swamp. then two weeks ago, he gave a big bear hug to speaker johnson and president biden and they agreed to send $64 billion more over to ukraine. [crowd booing] wouldn't you rather that 64 billion dollars be spent here in the united states? [cheers and applause]

don't we need that country, don't we need that money here in our country to improve our schools? to improve our health care system? to figure out ways to end this mental health epidemic which is destroying our children? last year we had the highest suicide rate in our history. we have the highest cancer rate in our history. the highest heart disease rate. it's not just chronic disease or neurological disorders afflicting our kids. one in every 22 boys in my consideration, one in every 34 kids. it's not just the obesity epidemic. it's not just the food

allergies. the autoimmune disease. diabetes that is debilitating this generation. it is all of these other entries making our kids and our people sicker and sicker and sicker. have you ever had president trump talk about how he's going to end the chronic disease epidemic? no. don't you want a president who will be thinking about those things? [cheers and applause] when i get into office, i am going to end the chronic disease epidemic. [cheering] one of the reasons i asked nicole to be my vice president, because she spent a lifetime thinking about it and understands it. we need a government that is

making this our priority in this country, to give us a generation of healthy children. don't you want that for your country? [applause] and we want to end the lying by our government? don't you want a government that is going to tell you the truth? when i went skiing with kate, everyone tested the government. it may's death when i was a kid, everyone tested -- when i was a kid, everyone trusted the government. people actually were part of the fact that they pay their taxes. they considered it a civic duty because they trusted their government to spend it well and to tell them the truth about it. that is almost unimaginable today. the first time people understood

the government actually lies to us was five months before my uncles election. a cia spy plane was shot down over russia. it flew at 60,000 feet, invisible to the eye and invisible to the re-dock. it was a top secret program, nobody in the world knew about the program. the pilot was under orders to commit suicide. he had a shot he was supposed to give himself if he ever got shot down. he couldn't be shut down because it was so secret, but there was a russian spy at langley who told them how to do it. they excluded it, and alan dulles, the head of the caa, told the president to lie about it. it was illegal for us to be flying under pressure. and eisenhower went out there and he lied.

the next day the russians produced the final -- pilot. the holding was exposed and americans said, oh my god, the government lies to us. when my uncle was killed in 1963, the investigation of the warren commission, is that it was a lone gunman. 60% of americans that the government was lying again. in 1973, the pentagon papers released 26 volumes that showed 10 years, the government had been systematically -- hundreds of government officials had been systematically lying to us, and american symphony said, oh my god -- a majority of americans, the american government, a democracy, lies to its people. we all know every time we see a government official on tv whether it is a president, vice president or anybody else, our

assumption is, isn't it, that they are lying to us? if that is not your assumption, you are not paying attention. [laughter] [applause] a lot of times reporters will say to me, you are telling americans not to trust their government. if you get to the presidency and north american trusts you, how are you going to govern? i say to them, i am going to make the government trustworthy. [applause] the day that nicole and i get to office, we will issue, on day one, an executive order saying that if any government official who lies to the american public in conjunction with their official duties will immediately be fired. [cheers and applause]

don't you want a president who will not lie to you no matter what? that is the first thing we need to do to start healing the divide. the reason we all hate each other's because none of us trust any of the institutions that are supposed to be telling us the truth. we all think they have an agenda. either a democrat agenda or a republican agenda. we don't trust enough enforcement agencies anymore because they are lying to us and taking sides. we don't trust the press anymore. when i was a kid, the job of the press was to maintain a fierce skepticism towards government pronouncements. my father said to me when i was a little boy, people in authority lie. and our job in a democracy is

not to trust the experts. that is not a feature of democracy. our job is to respect people in power who are leading us, but to always question what they say to us. that is the job of a -- [applause] that's the job of a citizen in a democracy. nicole and i are going to give you a government that will not, under any conditions, it lied to the american people, if we -- [applause] we are going to tell americans think they don't want to hear. we are going to tell you whatever -- we will operate transparently because that's what we need in a democracy. we are going to put all of our

budget on blockchain so every american can read it 24 hours a day. [applause] if somebody is paying $4000 for a hammer or $6,000 for a toilet seat, he will be able to find that out right away. [applause] because it's your money. isn't it your money? [murmurs of approval] they forgot it your money. they are treating it like it's their own money and they can keep secrets from us and that is not what happens in a democracy. we are going to restore faith in the democracy that you need to have faith, but by earning that fate, earning that trust. i tell people the truth from day

one. we are going to heal the divide. president trump cannot heal the divide in the divide and cannot heal the divide. they both acknowledge the country divided in a way that is more toxic, more dangerous than at any time since the american civil war. but they are not able to do anything about it because they see that division. they are telling you to hate other people. you can't do that and end the divide. we have to find common ground. [applause] president trump president biden are the products of that toxicity, of that hatred. if we want to have more of the same, you should vote for president biden or president trump, because you overdid it what you're going to get. you're going to get more of the same. they have already shown you what

they're going to do in four years. if you want another four years of that, you should work for them. if nicole and i get into office, everything is going to change. everything. [applause] >> when you get into office! [laughter] mr. kennedy: when i get into office. and don't you want them to change? is there anything you want to keep the change? >> no! mr. kennedy: that is why we need to go out and get valid signatures in all these other states and then we will get the country back. we will get the country that you deserve, the country that is once again a moral authority around the world, that exemplifies democracy around the world. that is raising children that are healthy and showing the rest of the world. a lot of people say, we can't

overcome this stuff because we are already too far down the road. do you believe that? [crowd shouts "no!"] that is why you are here today, because you don't believe that from it at i'm pretty something, we have terrible problems in this country. we have economic crises. but we also have the greatest class of entrepreneurs of any country in the world. [applause] politicians only say that kind of thing about their country, we are the greatest, nobody has seen anything like us. and in fact, if you talk to people in europe or latin america or africa or asia, they will say, despite all of america's problems, we still have their entrepreneurial spirit and the entrepreneurial class like no other in the world . people really believe that they can achieve new things and that they are not locked into systems. we have that and we are seeing

it all over our country today. we have the capacity to rebuild our country. we have the sickest country in the world. the highest disease burden of any. in covid, we had 50% of the covid deaths. we only have 4.2% of the world's population. i don't know why people are getting awards for this. we literally had the worst record of any nation in the world. and the cdc said, well, it's not our fault, it's because americans are so sick. [applause] >> yeah. oh, [laughs] we have the highest neurological disorders. the cdc said the average american who died from covid had three point eight chronic diseases. they had obesity, they had asthma, they had -- give me

another one, diabetes -- right. and one other thing -- [laughter] and that is why they died. nobody has chronic disease like us. we are the sickest country in the world. but, we also have the best physicians in the world. these new alternative medicine physicians and functional medicine physicians. [cheers and applause] and holistic medicine and naturopaths, and all of these people doing things nobody else is doing. we have the capacity. we have a terrible illness problem, but we have a greater capacity to heal. all of these problems are solvable problems. when we need somebody. we need a leader who will be able to summon the best and

brightest of americans and put us in a direction, entirely new direction. if we vote for trump or biden, we will get the same thing. if we vote for shanahan, you will get something completely different. you'll get healing. [cheers and applause] we need to wind down the war machine. we need to bring that money home and invest it here. [cheers and applause] we have the corporations against us, all the institutions that they now control, the press, the regulatory agencies, congress, all against us. but we have people on our side. we will go up and take back our country. i want to thank all of you -- [applause] thank you all for your commitment to our country, to

this campaign. god bless you, and god bless america. thank you all very much! [cheers and applause]