That is a great thing in this country. [applause] and i want to tell you, teachers feel very underappreciated. This is how crazy the campaign is. I was up in New Hampshire and i made a statement, if i were king i would close down all the teachers lounges. And all the teachers went crazy. You know what i meant by that . Sometimes the teachers will gather and they will hear these inks about, the public doesnt like them, they are going to lose their jobs, we are going to take their benefits, and this other stuff. What is more important in our society than the teachers . All of us remember those teachers who changed our lives. So, we honor you for your lives as a future and keep it going. [applause] chris, you are going to pick the last two. I have to go all over the place come on chris. Pick the last two. Who are you going to . Then we are going to probably have to get three. [laughter] stand on theou protection of religious liberty . John kasich here is what i feel about religious liberty because this came up in the last debate. I think churches and these beigious institutions should no one should tell them what to do is they are a religious institution and you should not impose things on them that they dont support. Friend of mine is starting a church and we are now up to 70, maybe 70 members. So, my faith is important to me. I have also said, if you are a cupcake maker, make a cupcake. That is what you do in your life and somebody said, well, there are all these lawsuits going on. Look, if you want somebody to do something they dont feel good about, then have a Little Common sense. Dont go and haul them into court. That is not the way we live in this society. If somebody doesnt want to be a photographer at your wedding, find another photographer. Dont be so when the photographer. What are we just suing each other common sense. If this gets out of control, if it does get out of control in my state, it is not. If he gets out of control, we are going to have to figure it out and pass some law with constitutional lawyers and that is what we will have to do. In the meantime, until it rises to a point where people just cant respect peoples conscience it does not happen in my state. Maybe it is happening in massachusetts, but i dont believe you just pass a law because there are three or four or five things that happened. But if we have to have one, we will. Who else . My question to you, mr. Case are what are your opinions on rebuilding the military . John kasich how old are you, kiddo . I am 14. John kasich how about that . [applause] just 16 or 17, maybe i was a senior in high school. We had had a race riot in our high school. I did not even remember this until a reporter digging into our life, he went to an old hometown. During a know School Board Meeting i stood up and lectured everybody in my town. My father came home and i did not think much of it. I got up and yelled everybody for what we were we werent solving problems. I went home to bed. My dad came home the next day. He said, johnny come in here. He said, what did you do last night . It is all over town. I said, i just made a little talk, dad. When i see a 14yearold stand with a microphone and the speak, that is a good thing. Isnt it, folks . [applause] perfect onetwo finish on. Perfect one to finish on. I want to say a couple things about our military. The military has been really rundown and we are going to have to spend more money. Let me also tell you that the pentagon itself is a place where they waste lots of money. There are 800,000 people inside the department of defense performing bureaucratic functions. 800,000 people. Never heard that before, did you . I was one of the guys who found the hammers and screwdrivers that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I limited the production of the b2 bomber, which had a mission to fly into the soviet union and drop more nuclear weapons. How many do you have to drop in one day to have a bad day . [laughter] we limited the production of that. The military needs to be rebuilt. While needs to be rebuilt making sure we also reform the way in which they spend money so the money gets to the people on the front line. Lets talk a little bit about the world, very quickly. So, we face this group isis. T of death. Old oul women are nothing but objects. Women are to be degraded in the minds of the people who operate under isis. Young ladies, are you aware of this . I mean, it is a horrific, evil philosophy. And you cant negotiate with them. You can sit down and try to work it out. They have to be destroyed and they will get destroyed if i am there with the combination of western forces. America, andrope, also with the muslim countries. The arabs at risk today. And who might they be. Egypt, saudi arabia, jordan, the gulf states they are all at risk and they know it. We have an opportunity to unite people and accomplish this mission. Once we have destroyed them and things settle, we come home. I dont believe in being policeman of the world, i dont believe in nationbuilding, i dont believe in converting people to vote the way we do. Just get things settled and come back home. Let me talk about a couple countries. Russia, vladimir. In means to understand russia, Vladimir Putin needs to understand that we are going to arm the ukrainians. Were going to tell putin, if in fact he want to invade a nato country where we have made a attack ont amn one is an attack on us. If you attack them, you are attacking us and we will not sit back. We dont need to threaten them. We just need to make it clear to him what we are willing to put up with and what we are not willing to put up with. The same goes with the chinese. O ourare hacking into systems and they must stop. They do not own the south china sea. The matter how much they build islands out there, which is what they are doing, they are not going to take it over and we will reunite our friends in asia. We dont need to threaten them either. They are a competitor, but they dont have to be an enemy. We have to be firm with them. The United States, if we are not the policeman of the world, we dont have to be in the position where we threaten war with somebody. Just say what we mean and mean what we say. If we do that, countries will have more confidence in us. Right now, they lack it. When people lack confidence in the United States, our friends dont know what to think and our enemies become more adventurous. That is not acceptable. In conclusion, these young people here are going to go to college. Inevitably, they will have a professor that talks about all the wrongs the United States has done. It is inevitable that they go there. And then we went home and talk to our parents ant thanksgiving and we know what happened when we got home. [laughter] i just want to say to you, folks. I love our country because we stand for human rights, equality of women, respect for science and civilization, the fact that everyone should have an opportunity to rise, and while at times we have to engage in military action, we are fundamentally a country of peace and hope. We need to rise again because when we dont, the world finds itself in a really bad place. We are seeing that today. With a little bit of assertiveness and an ability to lead, the world will be better. Let me also say, if the world is better, it means we are more proud of ourselves. Not braggers, but proud of ourselves and our destiny and who we are. So that our children and our grandchildren, and that little girls grandchildren someday, well live in a country that is new so much in the morning, youthful, spirited. That is what we want in america. Let me conclude by saying this to you. I need your help. If you did not like my presentation, tell no one. [laughter] but if you like who i am, please get on the phone and call a few of your friends and say, vote for john kasich in the primary. If you are a democrat, crossover. It is great to be with you and thank you and god bless you. [applause] he does look like your uncle george. [crowd shuffling] john kasich yes, we did really well in New Hampshire. Thank you. Tell everybody. I will. Three, two, one. Kayla. Sich hello, thank you. I dont think making more laws will help. John kasich if we have to pass a law, we pass a law. You. [simultaneous chatter] john kasich who wants to get in here . Lets get in all at once because im going to have to go prett y soon here. Thank you. You have my vote. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. John kasich maybe i will be, i dont know. Maybe i will see you there. [simultaneous chatter] john kasich it was an honor to meet you. Thank you for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Kasich thank you. As of a week ago, with the quinnipiac poll, you were up 11 . John kasich she is great. Thank you. You get it . Thank you for coming. Kasich i have to leave in a minute. Im sorry, there are other people waiting on me. Go. Ive got to oh, you know what . I do remember that [simultaneous chatter] john kasich yeah, weve got to go, im afraid. Thank you. Come on, boys. Already got one . We have to go that way. Sorry thank you, governor. Hes on his way out. Got it. John kasich congratulate the reporter. You know which one i mean . I will never forget it. Never, never. Alright, thank you. Heading into super tuesday, donald trump has the largest number of republican delegates with 82, followed by senator ted cruz with 17 and marco rubio with 16. John kasich has six and ben carson has four. Candidaterules, a needs 1237 delegates for the president ial nomination. Next, from nashville, tennessee senator ted cruz talks about the Supreme Court, immigration, and his gop rival donald trump. Tennessee is one of 12 super tuesday states and has 58 delegates at stake. This discussion was part of the National Religious broadcasters convention. It is just under one hour. [applause] welcome. You are wearing cowboy boots. Are you from texas . They actually check you at the border to make sure you are wearing them. An cruz you are in front of evangelical, christian audience. Dont be scared. Some of them are nice. We are evangelical christians and i think you might be one too. I met your dad yesterday, who is a pastor. Just a joy. This is nashville. We are close to the buckle of the bible belt. We are talking to the people for whom faith is obviously extremely important. People who understand faith is not just an interesting poppy. Interesting hobby. It is at the heart of what it means to be an american. Before we get into the question and answer period, we wanted to give you seven or eight minutes to tell us about yourself. If there is anything we dont already know, feel free to give us a few remarks before we ask you some very easy questions. Ted cruz let me say thank you to everyone for being here. [applause] and thank you for having me. I am honored and so grateful for what each of you does as religious broadcasters, as christians speaking through the medium of the radio, speaking through the medium of television, speaking to believers. You all are unbelievably important and going around the lens of Mainstream Media and going around the censorship that anyone for whom a relationship ith jesus, the media views as a strange thing, as almost otherworldly. And the voice you all collectively have, of speaking the truth, going around the filter is unbelievably important. There are many things we could talk about and i am sure we will get into a lot of topics, but i wanted to take a couple of minutes and focus on one issue. Which is the impact of Justice Scalias passing just over a week ago. As everyone knows, Justice Scalia was a lion of the law. He was someone i was privileged years and i was at his funeral this past weekend. The vacuum that is left by Justice Scalias passing cannot be overstated. And it really underscores the stakes of this next election. We are not just focusing on one branch of government. We are focusing on two. This Supreme Court, we are one liberal justice away from losing our fundamental rights. You know, before i was in the senate, i was the solicitor general for texas. Career my professional was litigating cases before the Supreme Court. For example, we defended the 10 commandments monument that stands on the State Capitol grounds in texas. We went all the way to the u. S. Supreme court and we won, five four. [applause] are one liberal justice away from the Supreme Court ordering 10 commandments monuments to be torn down in a state houses and courthouses and public parks all over this country. We brought to gather a coalition of states before the u. S. Supreme court, defending the federal ban on partialbirth abortion and we won, 54. Once again, 54. We are one liberal justice away from the Supreme Court striking down every state and federal restriction on abortions and mandating unlimited abortion on demand up to the moment of delivery, with partialbirth and no parental notifications and taxpayer funding. One justice away from that. The most significant majority opinion that Justice Scalia offered in his tenure was heller versus the district of columbia. I am very familiar with this because i represented 31 states in the heller case, defending the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. And we won 54. Once again, 54. Do you notice a pattern . We are one liberal justice away from the Supreme Court a racing the Second AmendmentSupreme Court erasing the Second Amendment from the bill of rights. Some would say, isnt that an exaggeration . The centers in heller was not that some gun control provisions are acceptable sometimes. He position was that the Second Amendment does not protect any individual rights to keep and bear arms whatsoever. That is only protects a collective right of the militia, which is fancy lawyer speak for a nonexistent right. The government could make it a criminal offense for every person in this room to own a firearm and none of us would have any individual right to challenge that under the Second Amendment in court. The Second Amendment effectively goes away. We are one justice away. Lets take another issue near and dear to everyone here. Free speech and religious liberty. Look at the hobby lobby case. The hobby lobby case where i filed an amicus brief supporting hobby lobby. 54 that thecluded government could not force a Christian Company to violate its faith in the belief of its founders. One liberal justice away from the Supreme Court saying, everyone of you, the government can force you to choose between violating your faith or succumbing to the mandate of the government. A similar case that many of you are familiar with. Little sisters of the poor, a devotes nuns that devote their lives to caring for the poor and elderly. Is Obama Administration litigating against the Little Sisters of the poor, trying to force the nuns to pay for abortion inducing drugs and others. I have often joked, here is a really good rule of thumn. If you are litigating against nuns, you have probably done something wrong. [applause] poor caseters of the is controlled by hobby lobby. We are one liberal justice away from the Supreme Court ordering the Little Sisters of the poor. You make your choice. Violate your commitment to protect life, or face millions of dollars of fines and be shut down as a christian charity. And by the way, to understand the scope of what is at stake, you need look no further than the oral arguments in the gay marriage case last year. The obamaito asked solicitor general, if your position prevails, if this court attempts to strike down the marriage laws of all 50 states, is of the next step for the irs to go after and target christian colleges that believe in the biblical teaching of marriage as the union between one man and one woman and deny them their tax exempt status. That question applies equally for christian k through 12 great schools, for christian charities, or to christian radio stations. , from the obama yes. Ce department was, that is a very real possibility that the irs will come after you , that if your hosts go on air and assay the bible teaches that marriage is not defined by a man and is defined by god as the union between one woman and one man to mirror the relationship between jesus christ and the church, that you risk of the federal government yanking your license. That is the threat we are facing. They are not hiding from this thread. They are saying in open court, we will use the power of government to go after and target those who speak against. , theieve this election entire direction of the country hangs in the balance. When you look at the supreme , democrats get Supreme Court nominees right, or hundred percent of the time. Almost 100 of the time. Almost every nominee they have on the court votes exactly the way they want. Truth of the matter is republicans have been unbelievably bad at Supreme Court nominees. [applause] many of the worst judicial s early warren, john paul stevens, harry blackmun, wade was aof roe v. Republican appointee. There is a reason for this. We should not just think, well gosh, republican president s are not very good at it. There is actually a reason. If you look at the justices who actually honor their of and for faithful to the constitution people like antonin scalia, like sam alito, like chief Justice William rehnquist everyone of those spent years and decades standing and fighting for conservative principles, standing and fighting for the constitution, and they endured criticism, harsh, Harsh Criticism and they did not waver. I am most interested in how someone behaves when they are taking heat. It is easy to say the right thing when there is no price to it. But when you are being hammered and the media is criticizing you, do you stand or do you fold . [applause] here is what happens. It is not that republican president s secretly want to put liberals on the court. I dont think that is the case. We keep electing republicans who dont give a flip about the court. It is not a priority for them; it is not important. If you nominate a principal proven conservative, the democrats get the joke. They will fight tooth and nail to stop a proven conservative from getting on the court. You will have a bloody confirmation battle because the democrats and the stakes. They are using the court to fundamentally change this country. Republicanppened is president s staff come in and say, mr. President we have the perfec candidate. He is a stealth nominee. He has never done anything in his life to prove a conservative, but secretly wink, wink, nudge, nudge he is. Ofyou have lived 50 years your life and never said or written or done anything to prove you are a conservative, you aint. [applause] and if i some miracle you might be, maybe the Supreme Court of the United States is not the best place to find out. So, what happens i think last night as people across this country were looking at that debate stage the stakes of this election, people are asking, who do i know . Who do i know beyond a shadow of a doubt is going to spend the Political Capital is going to go all in to nominate and confirm principled conservative constitutionalists that we can depend on to defend the bill of rights. That is one of the clearest distinctions among the candidates running. Nobody in the history of our country has ever grown a backbone after arriving at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. It does not work that way. [applause] and i give you my solemn commitment that if i am elected president i will announce every ounce of Political Capital to nominate and confirm principled constitutionalists to the u. S. Supreme court he will vigorously protect the bill of rights for my children and for yours. [applause] senator. You, thank you. Folks, it is not over. Lees take your seats. We are not really going to grill senator cruz on whether he read my book. I will not do that to you today. I will tell you ted cruz i will tell you, eric. Your book is wonderful. I will tell you, it was given to me first by a friend and i did what i do when a lot of people give me books. I put it on the bookshelf. It was given to me a second time by my mother. She told me, you need to read this. I took the fact that two people gave me the same book as a powerful message that i needed to read it. Es,it was teetering, but y now you have my vote. [laughter] ted cruz whatever it takes. No, no no. That is Donald Trumps line, be careful. Ted cruz true. Yesterday was a freeforall. We watched a debate. It was pretty crazy. And it was entertaining. You have pointedly described donald trump as am entertainer. He is very pertaining, but he is a big question mark. The biggest question i have and a lot of people here they are not willing to admit it but, the hair. I know were not supposed to talk about that. We are supposed to be serious, but you have been up close, with inches, and i know we can count on you to launch an investigation into planned parenthood. I know that. But would you be willing to launch an investigation into ir . Ald trumps ha ted cruz there are some things that are really just too big to uncover. [laughter] i will confess that standing next to him you do feel an incredible urge to reach over and rubble his hair. It is a curious thing. It makes the Jfk Assassination conspiracy look like nothing, but someday we will unravel it all. Ted cruz well, i was told that donalds hair was on the grassy knoll. You are bringing this in a terrible direction. Let me just bring up more thing before we get too substantive. There was in his report this ning from telemundo that a a Police Report that they found they found the severed head of his chihuahua. Have you heard anything about that . Ted cruz i have not. A simple si or no. Ted cruz no, but i did find it rather priceless last night. S chiding thema for using strong language. Side because ie did not want to stand too close. They were moments yesterday that were a little bit surreal. A number of us were up. He and in those moments the sound got garbled. Has there ever been a president ial debate in your memory where the moderator has let it get that crazy . I was a little concerned in some ways. Ted cruz last night you started to see some sharp contrast. I think super tuesday will be the most important day in this entire election cycle. One of two things will happen. Right now donald trump has enormous momentum. He has won three of the first four states. If he continues with that momentum on super tuesday, he could easily be unstoppable. And i think that would be a grave mistake for the Republican Party and the country. I dont think he is the right candidate to go up against hillary clinton. [applause] idea what hes any would do as president , including donald. He does not know what he would do. I dont think we can will the dice with the future of our i dont think we can roll the dice with the future of our kids and grandkids. I hope and believe that super tuesday will be a very good night for us. If you look at this campaign, there is only one campaign that beat donaldnd will trump. 65 of republicans dont believe donald trump is the right candidate to go head to head with hillary clinton. If you are among them, i would urge everyone to come together behind our campaign. We are very strong in my home state of texas. We are running neck and neck with donald all throughout super tuesday, all throughout the south. And i hope and believe we are going to have a very strong night on super twos they. , if we comehe case out of super tuesday having a significant chunk of delegates, i think this race if actively becomes a two person race. In a two person race, we be , 5640. We have to get to the tw two person race. Here who likeolks other candidates there other candidates i like and respect if you think donald trump is the wrong candidate, there is only one campaign that can beat them up from on super tuesday and that is us. I would urge everyone to come together and lets get that done. [applause] will said. We were with then carson if you minutes ago we were with ben carson a few minutes ago. Kasich last night spoke directly to i cant remember the name of the host Chris Matthews and said, i am going to win this nomination. He said it with a confidence that is astounding. We have two outliers that are not getting out. It is obvious rubio is not getting out and it is obvious that trump has benefited from the fractured anybody but trump vote. In the meantime, let me ask my colleague to ask you the first question. Thank you and thank you, senator for gracing the nrb with your presence. Broadcasters come here to nashville so we can go out and meet the millions as christian leaders. You mentioned, and have mentioned since the passing of your friend, Justice Scalia, the 54 challenge that we have faced for a long time regarding the court. There is one challenge that has not been mentioned i would like to ask you about. That is Eminent Domain. Ted cruz yep. Defendedonin scalia the United States constitution. He descended in the 54 decision in 2005, where the Supreme Court interpreted the constitutions Eminent Domain provision to allow government to compensate private property and give it to other private owners to promote economic development. Justice scalia equated the decision to the dred scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks are not human, but property and cannot become american citizens. He also equated the decision to the roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion on demand. Decision,ing the kilo donald trump told fox news, i have been to agree with the decision 100 . According to the kato