I think President Trump was the right president at the right time. I think his policies were good. [laughter] i had a great working relationship with him. I told him the truth. When he was doing something right, i supported him. When he was doing something wrong, i showed up in his office, pick up the phone, and said you cannot do this. We had a very Good Relationship in terms of that. Having said that, i think we need a new leader. I dont think he will be good going forward. [laughter] [applause] when you ask a president ial candidate was the first thing you would do, some tend to go with what they would do with congress. I will tell you that a president should always control what you can control first. That is your agencies. The first thing i would do is what i did in South Carolina. You do not put in a politician. You and people who know their constituencies. No other challenges. We sent people from every agency to clean it up. Pull down any sort of bureaucracy and make it more efficient so it is working for the people again. Pull out problem children. You always have to do that along the way. Some of my agencies we tweaked, some of them we got it. Gutted. Look at justice, intelligence, those are agencies will probably have to gut because i think they have become so weaponized and political. After we did those things, each of the agencies had to do goals every 90 days to show the taxpayers what they were doing. Then we looked at their budget. And the spending the agencies would do. They would spend out of the simple fact that they did not think they would get the same amount of money in the budget next year. What we did was put all of their spending online. We called them out for that spending. You could open up closets with towers of computers and enters that were never being used. We started incentivizing them to give money back to the taxpayers. And then they started competing with each other. I would do that with our agencies as well. I would give you an example of my style. The accountant in me is unmeasurable. I believe that you as a taxpayer need to see your return on investment. You need to know the Government Works for you. When i was at the u. N. , my very first week there, you know youre trying to find your feet, there is a lot going on. There was a person that the u. S. Who got on the phone with the press and told them everything i was going to do. It was none of the things i was going to. I did not know who this person was. I told my staff, find out who that person is. I want them gone. You are never going to get to them. It was john kerrys sister. She worked at the u. S. Mission of the u. N. I said, she has to go. They say, you cant. She is here for six more months. I said you get her keypad at her computer, i will pay her for six months to sit at home. We did not let her back in the doors. You have to make examples of people. You have to set the tone of your agencies to let them know youre not going to up with any of that. [applause] i will leave you with this. You can look at all of the candidates. I am the only one who has been a twotime governor who took a double digit unemployment state and turned it into an economic powerhouse. I was at the u. N. I negotiated across from china, russia, and all of those countries. I dealt with 193 countries. We have to have someone who is used to doing all of that. I focus on results and that is what i will continue to do. When i told you i ran against the longestserving legislator at a high merry. When i did that, people laughed at me. And i got to work and i earned their support and we won. When i ran for governor, i ran against an attorney general, lieutenant governor, a very popular congressman, and a state senator. I had 3 in the polls. The least amount of money. I worked South Carolina like nobody else and we won. When i got to the u. N. , they said i did not have enough experience. I got to work and i took the take me kick me sign off of our back. I have been underestimated in everything ive ever done. It is a blessing, because it makes me scrappy. No one will outwork me in this race. No one will outsmart me in this race. We have a country to save. We have to hit a few benchmarks in this race. We wanted to have a good march we had thousands of people show up in charleston, South Carolina, and send us off. That is the third primary in the country. I have done over 30 events in iowa. Im going to keep on coming back to earn your support. [applause] you notice were not doing any shortcuts, we are doing as many townhalls, answering as many questions. We will state to make sure you feel heard. 160,000 donations from all 50 states. 91 of them were less than 200. We dont throw money away. I am not flying private like the rest of the guys. I am doing jetblue and spirit airlines. We are staying in a lot of resident inns. We are going to make sure the money goes to commercials and tv where we can hit the masses. You will see me finish this, we are about to take kick into full gear. So what i will tell you is if you liked what i had to say today, go tell 10 people, go tell them to go to nikki haley. Com. Go tell them to invest in our campaign targeting if you dont like what ive had to say today, shhh, dont say anything and dont tell anyone you were here. God bless you, thank you very much. Announcer Congress Returns from its summer recess in septeer with the busy legislivfloor schedule ahead. Both the housendenate are expected to cut federal spending bills, funnghe government through next year to prevent governnthutdown. Current government funding expires oseember 30. Lawmakers are facing end of the month headlines to reauthorize the faa and pandemic preparedness for the program the senate will continue work on more of a binds nominations including for the federal reserve. Watch live coverage of 1000 cspan, presented onspan 2, and a reminder that you can watch all of our congressional coverage with our free video at cspan now app cspan n app or online at cspan. Org. Announcer in 1848 husbandandwife william and ellen craft went on the mission of emancipation. They left georgia, avoiding slave traders, Law Enforcement all while trying to conceal their identities. The author of master slave husbandwife recounts their hearing journey north and the impact of the fugitive slave law passed earlier. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on q a. Listen to all of our podcast on our free cspan now app. Announcer cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including contest. You think this is just a Community Center . It is more than that. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Announcer comcast support cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Announcer coming up next, a discussion about three women from the afghan female tactical mattoon who trained and worked alongside special forces facing deportation. Current and retired military officials assess what went wrong during the u. S. Withdrawal from afghanistan in august 2021. Later treasury secretary janet yellen and the irs commissioner on modernizing the irs, and they comment on the downgrading of the United States credit rating. Coming up, a discussion about three women from the afghan female tactical platoon who trained along u. S. Special forces and are now facing deportation. The discussion is hosted by the womens Foreign Policy group. Welcome. I am the executive director of the womens Foreign Policy group. On behalf of our board and our staff, and importantly, our value coorganizers, as i call your name, please stand. Composed of 68 afghan women trained by the military embarked on dangerous, highprofile missions and pursuits against the taliban. With the distinct ability to communicateertise, these women exercise relentless spirit and unabashed strength during hardship. They worked alongside the Cultural Support Team, consisting of highly trained american female soldiers to interact with women and children during u. S. Special operations missions. Over the harrowing first days after the fall of kabul in 2021, 41 members of the female tactical 10 were evacuated to the u. S. Now, following their service and sacrifice it face a new set of challenges in this country. From citizenship and economic inclusion, to ensuring the survival of their families still living in afghanistan under taliban rule. They continue working alongside their American Partners to bring the remaining 27 ftps and family members to safety. We are deeply honored to have here this evening with us as our keynote to begin the conversation a leader who is integral to supporting these brave women Freedom Fighters who served alongside our u. S. Servicemen and women, including our green berets, navy seals, and army rangers. General joseph is a retired u. S. Army fourstar officer and a former commander of the u. S. Central command, u. S. Special operations command, and joint special operations command. During his 39 years in the military, he commanded special operations and conventional military forces at every level. His career included combat in panama, afghanistan, and iraq. During his extensive time in afghanistan, the general made a personal impact on the afghan female tactical platoon. His steadfast leadership empowered female soldiers both afghan and american to succeed at all levels. In january of 2022, he became president and ceo of Business Executives for National Security. Bens. During the afghanistan evacuation in 2021, he advocated for numerous afghan partners and their families, including the female tactical platoon. His support and his advocacy are major reasons why over 40 members of the female tactical platoon are safely in the u. S. And here with us in person this evening. Thank you for your leadership. We are so incredibly grateful to you for sharing your time with us this evening. The floor is yours. [applause] good evening to everyone. Over the course of my career, i served multiple tours with both conventional and special operations organizations across the country of afghanistan. Over 18 years of Service Since 9 11 before i retired. I helped orchestrate the plan to dismantle al qaeda. And other organizations like them or supporting them to include the taliban who were operating across the region. Along the way, i gained a great appreciation for the goodness of the Afghan People and their our aggressive. And required us to confront terrorist organizations where they operated. Which was often in villages and especially among the Afghan People. Over time, we understood that our ability to have the impact we wanted against these networks required a temple and a mode of operations that was unprecedented when compared to other military experiences. This resulted in dozens of operations every day almost exclusively conducted at night. It brought undesirable impacts for the Afghan People. Exposure to the hazards of combat, tactical mistakes, segregation of families during our operations. And the wrath of violent extremist organizations imposing their will on peaceful afghans who were seen to be actively or passively supporting our american and naval operations. We worked very hard to reduce these impacts using technology to keep people safe, information approaches to inform people and eventually altering tactics on the ground. One of the impacts we were most keen to mitigate was the effect of our operations on women and children who were often on the objectives where we were operating. While our principal focus was always on safeguarding civilians, we recognized there could be practical military advantages to that approach as well. Once this need was identified, our system swung into rapid response, acting on the direction of the then u. S. Commanding general, admiral eric olson. We identified, recruited, and trained female officers from all u. S. Military services, but predominantly from the army, to serve as Cultural Support Team members. Their job was to accompany our strike forces, to be on the objectives with them and use their skills to not only safeguard women and children, but where appropriate, gather information to support our military mission. The training was regress and comprehensive. Rigorous and comprehensive. They were required to meet every standard required of male counterparts on the strike forces, including carrying heavy loads and employing weapons to defend themselves when necessary and or special operators. And their special operators. The program was an immediate success and when combined with modified tactics and other approaches helped further minimize, but not completely eliminate civilian casualties. Information gathered by our team Cultural Support Team members and family members often aided our tactical ops and i personally witnessed this while accompanying our strike forces. As we have often heard, they enabled our ability to talk to the other 50 of the population and i personally witnessed an afghan woman after talking with one of our Cultural Team members, pointing directly to her husband and saying that is the man you want right there. Kind of a form of righteous there justice for her. Afghan women were also very surprised to see other american women on the objectives with them, and this had a huge impact on them and provided an example of empowerment. This approach was not without risk, and several support team members were killed or wounded in combat operations. Their stories are well told in the excellent book ashleys war. We see the pictures here. But overall, the program was so successful, that we continued to develop and expand the male units, we encouraged an afghan leadership listened them to and afghan leadership listened to them to create an afghan version of Cultural Support Teams known as the female tactical platoon who would especially serve with Afghan Special operations forces. As you can imagine, the introduction of this approach in a culture that held women in a particular role was a challenge to a particular role was a challenge, but one that was largely overcome by the perseverance and discipline and professional excellence of not only the afghan women assigned to the female tactical platoon, but also the professionalism of the u. S. Cultural support team members who trained and developed them, and leaders in the afghan army who not only believed in the program, but inherently appreciated that it was the right approach. Their impact was legend. It increased effectiveness, safeguarding afghan civilians, and breaking down cultural barriers. The female tactical platoon served as an example of the positive leading role women could and were already playing in modern Afghan Society. For me, the example of the Cultural Support Teams and the female tactical platoons were a significant factor in my 2015 recommendation to the then secretary of defense to open up all combat specialties to female Service Members and in doing that, we talked with our cst partners and they were the most influential factor in my recommendations to the secretary of defense. As if the example of courage and bravery was not enough, this Extraordinary Group of women of afghan and american women saved their greatest lesson for when the going was most difficult, during the evacuation of kabul nearly two years ago. In a lifetime of service, mostly in combat and around combat troops, i was never more inspired than by the efforts led by american women, military and civilian, to successfully evacuate their afghan counterparts under arduous, dangerous conditions, and of the sheer bravery and courage of the female tactical platoon members to get themselves and some of their family members out. Americans have no reasonable frame of reference for the fear absorbed and the tenacity demonstrated during that evacuation. We can never forget those who were lost or gave so much for their freedom, and we must tonight and on the upcoming second anniversary of this evacuation rededicate ourselves to helping them and their families. Their sacrifices cannot have been made in vain. We have no reasonable recourse but to do the right thing. Today, afghanistan is in a humanitarian political crisis that demands international attention. The taliban believes it is doing the will of god. Purifying Afghan Society to create a perfect islamic emirate. The combination of these efforts these taliban purification efforts along with poverty and extremism and lack of education is a toxic combination that is not good for the Afghan People or the region. The rollback in rights, Democratic Values and human rights is eye watering. Women and girls have officially been denied the opportunity to education. The taliban has issued over 60 decrees reducing space for women in Afghan Society, including most recently ordering the shutdown of hair salons across the country, denying an important cultural opportunity for women to gather among themselves and talk outside the home. Outside of their homes. Females previously served as military or Civil Servants are being deliberately targeted. Overall, freedom of expression and of the press is severely restricted. If even existence. Civil society is all but nonexistent. Exclusion is widespread. Minorities, not just women, are being persecuted. Across the country. There is a spike in Child Marriage and child labor. We cannot afford to turn our eyes away from the situation in afghanistan today. The fact is, the diminishment of human rights and Democratic V