[applause] President Trump thats a nice group behind me. The seats are no good but youll become very famous tomorrow. [applause] President Trump well make their seat very good. Theyre happy. Theyre happy because of what weve donald because of how well our country is doing and our economy is doing. As a result of our action, e15 sales are projected to more than double this year. Think of that. More than double. Do you agree with that . More than double. [applause] President Trump more american ethanol production also means less dependence on foreign suppliers, by fully embracing e 15, we will reduce dependence on foreign oil by up to 250 million additional barrels every single year. I mean, quite simply, it means more energy and what can be wrong with that and its very good energy. That means our farmers are not only promoting our prosperity, you are protecting our security as a nation. [applause] President Trump america must never again be held hostage to foreign suppliers of energy, as we were under the obama biden sleepy joe group. Sleepy joe. He was some place in iowa today and he said my name so many times that people couldnt stand it any more. No, dont keep saying it. Sleepy guy, with the help of energy grown and produced at home, weve increased annual ethanol exports by 550 million gallons. Last year, we exported a record breaking 1. 7 billiongallons of ethanol, thats a big number, and separately the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere on the planet were the biggest in the world in energy, production, and now, ethanol is playing a bigger and bigger part , so congratulations. [applause] President Trump and this isnt political season quite for me. Itll start next week but just remember the democrats were totally opposed to this folks. They didnt have a clue. After decades of being held down and held back, we are now a net exporter of energy to the world with a tremendous increase of jobs of the energy industry. We are securing our nations future through American Energy independence, and American Energy dominance and thats what it is. Its become dominant. At the same time the fuel you produce brings down prices at the pump for millions of american drivers. Those savings go straight into the pockets of hard working families all across our land. Here with us today are several americans at the center of our Nations Energy revolution, who want to share why ethanol is so important to them. Kevin ross is a sixth generation former from the nearby town of m inden. Kevin please come up and share your story. Kevin . [applause] thank you. Welcome, mr. President , to the great state of iowa. Governor reynolds, governor rick etts, senator fisher, administrator wheeler and secretary purdue. Thank you all for being here. Its my privilege to host to you near my home and represent farmers all across the midwest today. Im kevin ross a sixth generation farmer, and first Vice President of the National Corn growers association. My wife sarah and i grow corn, soybeans, cat l and are raising our four boys, hudson, axeon, carver and hollis. Also in this large crowd are family and a few hundred friends and neighbors. We farm just 20 miles up the road near underwood, but we are steps away from land that migrate grandfather cleared on this very Missouri River bottom. Mr. President , secretary purdue and administrator wheeler i want to thank you for sending direction to the epa and making 15 ethanol blends available year around, bridging a gap to higher blends. You see folks im well aware of the conversations that the president held at the white house with colleagues farmers and my iowa senators almost a year ago. I especially want to thank you, senator ernst. In those conversations, sir you heard of the benefits of e15 and best of all you listened. Thank you. [applause] just a couple months later you gave direction to epa to finalize the e15 rules and here we are today, done. [applause] mr. President you delivered on e15 but we have more work to do. Epas Oil Refinery Waivers threaten to undo your good works i ask that you listen again, because the pain the ethanol and Biodiesel Industries have endured is holding back a farm economy that has further capacity to produce more clean air and clean liquid fuels for this country. Mr. President , around here, we have acres of clean air, growing in rows 30,000 plants at a time. This is the corn state and here in the greater midwest, while this is corn country. [applause] i also know you have long term goals for a bill to get on your desk on infrastructure. The needs for this were evident before but with the destructive spring that this area and so many places across the nation have endured as well this needed more glaring. I am for you, to next tackle this with the same ten as it and vigor, that you have with Border Security and other issues. I work in the greatest, thank you, yes. [applause] President Trump thank you, too. I work in the greatest industry we have in this country and thats agriculture. Were blessed by god to have soils and the science that have let us achieve new heights and production whether thats yield of corn, the efficiency of this ethanol plant or gains in my cattle, agriculture continues to do more with less. Sir, i was just a 4 her and a f f a farm kid that grew up with my dream to farm. My background is not unique in Rural America because every one of these proud americans could have gotten up here and told their own similar story. These boys of mine may grow up to farm, possibly be a future president and economics play a healthy role in america is what will give them that opportunity. Agriculture gives back more than its weight in fuel, fuel, fiber and people that love this country. The economic benefits and the clean air delivered through bio fuels are wins for the seven th generation on my family farm and wins for all u. S. Citizens. President trump, keep winning with stronger support for these policies and the agricultural sector, and in the United States , great United States of america. Thank you, mr. President. President trump thank you. [applause] thank you. President trump thanks, kevin. Wow, thank you, kevin. Great job. Id like also to invite kenny will cox up, he trains new employees here in southwest iowa , renewable energy. Kenny, where is kenny . Come on up here, kenny. [applause] President Trump great job youre doing, kenny. [applause] thank you. Its an honor. The fire and ethanol industry has meant to me, compared to my career in 2012 and move through companies in various positions to better myself in the company. Sire has a dedicated team to train individuals and give them opportunities for various work skills that doesnt necessarily pertain to just ethanol. Not only has the industry helped its helped my beautiful wife fulfill her dreams and its been amazing to see her excell in all aspects of her job and take on new jobs. David breaking tonight you are watching the president he is in a speech in iowa hes at a center for renewable energy, in essence its an Ethanol Center they turn corn and other stables , farm stables into energy, the economy, and its impact and the stance on china has had on farmers all of that is going to be discussed in iowa but guess who else is in iowa 2020 democrat hopeful and former Vice President joe biden with a very different perspective on the way this economy should work , does work, lets get right to our panel, for more we have Christina Christina partsinevelos, and John Layfield steve let me go to you first. This is an important time for farmers in america they just dodged a bullet on mexico. There are a lot of farmers in the u. S. Who sent their product to mexico they were worried about the tariffs that would have kicked in on monday had the president not reached a solution with mexico on friday night but they still have china looming. Are the farmers going to stick with the president . Well they better because trump needs to win those farm states, and he won them in 2016, but you know david these have been tough times for farmers no question about it with the flooding, with the flood being excessively tight and thats led to low commodities prices and then the tariffs, so its a difficult time for farmers, a lot of them have losses this year, and you know, so well see whether they stick with them but you know, farmers love trumps kind of populist appeal and you just heard that in the speech that he just gave so im going to answer your question and say yes despite the hardships on the farm, farmers are going to vote for trump in 2020. Melissa thats pretty much why were seeing this rally in iowa because theyre talking about bringing back e15 ethanol which was backed banned back in 2011 so this is pushing and helping farmers that are growers of corn, and winning them over. Why . Because of the tariffs that the president and the administration imposed in the first place that caused harm on a lot of these farmers so its almost a cycle where hes trying to, you know, mend what he started and i know usually we talked about this with jonathan in the past that tariffs are not necessarily the answer especially for the longhaul when its hurting these farmers so much, well maybe this could be a small win by getting the ethanol on board. David we also talked about government subsidiary of ethanol thats something a lot of free marketers arent too crazy about is it . As of march, david, i think its important to point out that the president had an 81 Approval Rating according to cnn in iowa and he mentioned the farmers saying that mexico and china will eventually buy a lot more from farmers in the end and the fact that were embarking on the second additional round of subsidies for the farmers. Melissa mexico never agreed to that and theres still no proof to that. Mexico didnt agree to . Buying Agricultural Products that was a third tweet by the president yesterday and theres still no proof in the pudding. David he kind of teased the audience today pointing to his pocket saying we have agreements were not going to mention until later on, so who knows what the final agreement really is. Hes saying hes expressing terror and the farmers saying i understand the tariffs are hurting you right now but im here for you in the long run and were going to sort this out with china and the tariffs right now on china have bipartisan support, christina, so whether or not mexico is buying more from the farmers i think hes just saying that he has their back, and they have not been forgotten. Well hes got to get their back, let them know that because right now farmers want to farm and youve already had two bail outs about 28 billion to these farmers because they cant sell the soybeans to china and this ethanol policy this thing is ridiculous and would never happen if we didnt have i o was as the first caucus. Youll have democrats and republicans go out and push a ethanol policy which makes zero economic sense for what we were doing, and because of iowa being first this is just something hes throwing the red meat out there and Steve Scalise right. As long as he can keep these guys on his side he throws all kinds of subsidies all kinds of ethanol everything out there to get him because right now the farmers i think are starting to lose a little bit of patience and the fact they want to farm, they dont want a bail out. David steve the other thing thats kind of strange in this election season is you have both parties divided on the issue of tariffs. A lot of republicans dont like what the president has done what hes threatening to do and yet a lot of democrats actually support the president on that. I mean, you had Chuck Schumer with that famous tweet he sent out, hang tough, mr. President , on tariffs against china. So the democrats are split on this. They dont to how to attack them on that. Its well put. When is the last time you saw Chuck Schumer say anything nice about donald trump and this is the only time i can think of when thats happened. So the democrats are pretty split on this. Look, im a freetrade guy, david ursino and i have known each other for decades but i happen to find myself in agreement with trump on china. I didnt like the mexico tariffs too much. David looks like he won on that. It does but look, i think getting back to the farmers, i think they kind of get it, that this is shortterm pain, you hear a lot from farmers saying look this is hurting us but we understand this is a gut shot moment of the United States against china, im willing to play my part but i just dont see the farmers desserting donald trump. And not just Chuck Schumer as well as bill clinton and Bernie Sanders in the past have stood up for pushing back hard on china for their unfair trading practices in the past. I dont remember bill clinton doing that. Yes, yes, yes he did so there is bipartisan support, and thats why i think that im not sure this is a great move for biden to attack the tariffs and President Trump is supposed to tonight say hes an existential threat to america . I think for biden it was a good strategy to distance himself from the far left socialistic agenda and that he was leading the polls because of that, so i dont know if hes caving in now but to the point of both of you talked about being free market capitalists and you have these subsidies being thrown, joe biden by the way 76 times he mentioned President Trump 76 times. David lets listen to the president. President trump well break out shortly but since the election weve created nearly 6 million jobs and frankly, if i would have said that during the election, the Fake News Media would not have believed it. They would not have found that acceptable. [applause] President Trump i ever use that numb they would have said theres no way. Nearly 900,000 fewer americans rely on parttime work right now because they have fulltime jobs [applause] President Trump and youve heard me say this before and im very proud of it. African american, Asian American , hispanic american, unemployment, have all reached their lowest levels in recorded history in this country. [applause] President Trump wages are growing and they are growing at the fastest rate for this is something so wonderful, for blue collar workers. The biggest percentage increase. Blue collar workers. And over the next three months, companies are expected to hire workers at the fastest pace in more than a decade, with the greatest gains for workers right here, in the midwest. We have the number one location for gain. You know that. [applause] President Trump past administrations did nothing while the farm income declined. In the last two years of the previous administration, farm income plummetted by more than 30 billion and agricultural exports dropped by over 22 billion. Did you know that . Did you know that . Youll be hearing it a lot over the next little while. Thats not a good number, but we are turning it all around and weve turned it all around and wait until you see the real numbers start coming in when it all comes together. Somebody had to do it. You knew we had to do it. We couldnt take it any longer, nations all over the world were ripping off the United States like never ever before, whether its china, or so many others that i wont mention, including our allies. Sometimes our allies did a better job of it than the enemies, but were changing it all around and you see it already and you see it by the kind of numbers that im talking about. By the end of this year, farm incomes are projected to rise by more than 10 billion from the day i was elected and under my administration, we will always protect and defend our Great American patriot farmer. [applause] President Trump always. Always. Thank you very much. Were reversing decades of failed trade policies, opening up new markets and fighting to give our farmers the fair and level Playing Field they deserve you never had a fair Playing Field for the last 1520 years. You were taken advantage of by stupidity, by in competence, by people that dont care, who knows. You were really treated very badly, but youre not being treated badly any more. You see whats happening. [applause] President Trump the brand new u. S. Americas canada agreement, the u. S. Mca will replace nafta, one of the worst deals ever made by any country on trade and expand Market Access for american Agricultural Products and very very substantially with that being said, you have to get out and push the democrats to put it up, because id rather see our country do badly than give us a victory and actually its going to be a victory for them too if they get it approved and they could use a victory, so go out and press the democrats, everyone in your area, press, we need the help of the democrats, press nancy pelosi, press them all, because if they dont put it up, its a tremendous opportunity, probably Something Like you wont see again. Got to get it done. Its incredible for the farmer, for the manufacturer, for virtually everybody. Its going to go down as one of the trade its trade deals already acknowledged to be one of the best negotiated trade deals but if you look at ca