Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) spoke at a press briefing held by the Wisconsin delegation to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
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00:00My favorite poem is by William Ernest Henley. It's Invictus. And Invictus rings true more today than I could ever imagine in my entire lifetime.
00:22He goes, out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.
00:36In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloodied but unbowed.
00:50Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horrors of the shade. But yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid.
01:02It matters not how straight the gate, nor how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
01:17President Trump is the master of his fate. And we as a country are the captains of our souls. And together, we marry that together.
01:28And that is the essence of what makes this country the greatest country in the entire world.
01:34I love weeks like this because I have the opportunity of being surrounded by all my fellow patriots. You see, I don't care which state you are from.
01:49I don't care what part of the country you are from. What I care about is the fact that we are all our fellow Americans.
01:57We have the opportunity here in November to save our country. But what makes our country so special is the idea of brave men and women that raise their hands and choose to defend this country against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
02:11Less than 1% of our population chooses to do that for everyone else. My family is a military family. My dad is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army.
02:24Served over 20 years in the Army. My sister went to West Point, my family first, class of 1993. She went on to serve 23 years active duty as a military intelligence officer.
02:37She's truly one of my heroes. She went on to get her master's degree in applied mathematics. And as a major in the Army, she was a professor at West Point while both my brother and I were cadets at West Point.
02:58Hold on, don't clap for that. I have to salute my sister every single day. It's a damn shame. She will forever outrank me. It's terrible.
03:13Went to West Point, second in my family, served eight years active duty as an Apache helicopter pilot, flew 55 combat air missions in Baghdad, two tours of duty in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic liaison officer, and then I had one more combat deployment left in my life, and it was at Cornell University for grad school.
03:37It's combat because it's really cold and it's really liberal. But my greatest accomplishment in my life is to leave Cornell University earning a master's in business, a master's in public administration, and a master's in industrial and labor relations.
03:55I did three master's degrees in four years. And the reason why I say it's my greatest accomplishment is because I left Cornell even more conservative than when I first got in.
04:09My brother is ten months and eight days my junior. He's also a West Point graduate, class of 2004, right after me. Unfortunately, he didn't follow the rules of the family. He's the black sheep of the house, and I'm black. He's literally the black, black sheep of the house.
04:30Because he got to West Point and he went into the Navy, unfortunately. See, we've got a Navy. There's one Navy guy in the room, of course.
04:41He went on to Harvard Business School to get his advanced degree, and there's 60, six zero years worth of military service just in my immediate family. I'm very proud of that.
04:55But it's not just my family. It's thousands of American families that lend their sons and daughters to defend this great nation.
05:08My great-great-grandfather was born on a plantation, Rosedown Plantation. Rosedown Plantation is 30 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Rosedown Plantation still exists today.
05:24Three, three of his great-great-grandchildren went to West Point and graduated. Three of his great-great-grandchildren served in the United States military. At one point, all three of us were deployed in Baghdad in 2006 at the same time for two months.
05:39One of his great-great-grandchildren, me, stands before you today as a Republican from the great state of Texas in a red district that President Trump would have won by 25 points. I won by almost 30 points in a white-majority district in a Houston suburb.
05:56The only place, the only nation in the entire world that can see that kind of progress in a very truncated period of time is this one.
06:11And it is our goal to continue this progress for the greatest time to be an American is right now. Even on our worst day. Even on our worst day.
06:25It's incumbent upon everybody in this room to understand one thing. We have to continue to fight for this nation and for every single generation because it only takes one generation to lose it all. And that's exactly what November is all about.
06:43Fourteen of my West Point classmates are no longer with us. They were killed in the Global War on Terror. These brave men did not see the age of 26 years old. They were white guys, too, by the way.
06:55And when they gave their last full measure, they didn't do it for black people. They didn't do it for white people or Hispanic people or for Asian people. They did it for all Americans.
07:05And that is why we are in this fight together. You see, I no longer see race, religion, color or creed in my life. The only thing I see is red, white and blue.
07:19You can imagine I have a lot of West Point stories, but my favorite is the story of Trophy Point, also known as Battle Monument.
07:36Trophy Point is a majestic piece of granite at West Point that overlooks the Hudson River as it makes a meandering southern bend toward New York City.
07:46Trophy Point is surrounded by Civil War era cannons that are buried into the ground muzzle first. And why might you ask?
07:57Imagine entering a country at Civil War. Imagine going to West Point and serving with your classmates and dining with your classmates and training with your classmates.
08:08But if you were from the North, you left West Point and you went and fought for the North. And if you were from the South, you left West Point and you went and fought for the South.
08:16You literally had West Point classmates that were killing each other because of Civil War.
08:23The reason why those cannons are buried into the ground muzzle first is to commemorate the notion or to commemorate the idea that we will never aim our cannons at our fellow countrymen again.
08:37Unfortunately, we live in times where the left has dubbed those cannons up and they're aiming them at you. They're aiming them at me. They're literally aiming them at President Trump.
08:55And what this week is all about is ripping those cannons away from the left and digging the ground and putting them right back where they belong muzzle first forever.
09:07I flew 55 combat air missions in Baghdad in an Apache helicopter. I've been shot at 55 times. I said the Lord's Prayer before I crawled into that helicopter because I wanted to be right with God in case I didn't make it back alive.
09:29I understand what it means to have that warrior spirit and that warrior ethos to know that I have to do my job because if I don't, even if it means my life, somebody else on the ground might not make it home alive.
09:42They might not live. And I took an oath to defend not just this country, but to defend my fellow soldiers.
09:49And that's what we saw from President Trump on Saturday. He got shot for this nation. He doesn't have to do this. He's doing this to protect all of us.
10:01Because again, they're not coming after him. They're coming after you. He's just standing in their way.
10:07And the resolve that we saw from him after he got shot, the first thing he wanted to do was make sure he had his shoes back on.
10:15So he can walk off that stage with dignity and strength.
10:19And then proceeded to fight off servicemen and women to make sure that he let the world know that he and this nation will continue to fight, fight, fight.
10:38Are y'all familiar with the senator from Louisiana, Senator Kennedy? Do y'all know who he is?
10:49Oh, this is a good group. I knew I liked this group when I walked in.
10:53As only he can do, he sums up this current administration in such an articulate and sophisticated way. I was watching one of his interviews.
11:03And it was brilliant, actually, what he said. I've never heard anything so eloquent. He said, and I quote,
11:09The Biden administration sucks.
11:24That's it.
11:27I've never heard something more articulated in my entire life.
11:34He's not wrong either.
11:37This is the definition of abject failure. I'm down in Texas. This is the worst border crisis that I've seen in my entire lifetime.
11:45Our economy is in shambles. We don't feel safe anymore. My wife is from Iowa, and I have three little kids.
11:53And I tell you what, every time she goes out, I am worried about her safety.
11:57This is not the America that we want to live in. This is not the America that we had under President Trump.
12:03Right now, Joe Biden is polling the worst of any incumbent in modern history going into an election.
12:11And Kamala Harris, his borders aren't faithful sidekick, has the worst approval rating of any vice president in the history of this country.
12:22And I want you to keep something in mind. While Dick Cheney was vice president, he shot somebody.
12:33I got it.
12:39You got to work pretty hard for that, don't you?
12:42It's a race to the bottom for that guy.
12:47But I have a very bold prediction, and I know that President Trump is going to win here in November, because we need him.
12:54And not just us, the world needs him.
13:02And my bold prediction is, when he shows back up, by the time he takes the oath of office in January, I want you to watch how fast the world straightens up.
13:11I want you to watch how fast our border straightens up. I want you to watch how fast Xi Jinping straightens up.
13:17I want you to watch how fast our economy snaps right back into shape.
13:21Because people don't want that smoke. They don't want to deal with this.
13:25And this is round two, and on day one, he knows exactly what he is doing, and the mission for him is to save America.
13:39I sat next to him the other night, and he has a reinvigorated spirit moving forward, especially after Saturday.
13:47You see, God spared his life for a reason, for God is not done with him, and God is not done with this country yet.
13:54And I could see it in his eyes as I sat next to him.
13:58He was paying attention, and he was hanging on every single word of every single speech, because he knows why he is here.
14:06He knows what he must do in the future to save this country.
14:11I've had the honor of traveling around with President Trump, I've had the honor of being a surrogate for him over the course of the past couple of years.
14:18And my favorite story is this. My wife is from Iowa, so you know Iowa is the first state that goes to the whole election process.
14:26And he offered to fly my wife and I and a few others from Bedminster, New Jersey to the Iowa State Fair.
14:32And this plane is really nice.
14:38Like, really nice.
14:42And you can imagine us arriving at the Iowa State Fair, and he was mobbed by thousands of people, I've never seen anything like it.
14:50He was an absolute, he is, and at the time was an absolute rock star.
14:56My five-year-old daughter loves President Trump.
15:01And it's actually in large part because of Home Alone 2, when he makes his cameo.
15:07You know, at this time, they watch that movie every single day, and they're like, Donald Trump's on TV, Donald Trump!
15:14But she never got the opportunity to meet him, and I really wanted to introduce her to him.
15:20At one point, there was a break in all the madness and all the chaos, and he was in full President Trump mode, shaking hands, full campaign mode, y'all know how he rolls.
15:29And at one point, I was able to tap him on the shoulder, I said, Mr. President, I want you to meet my daughter.
15:34He goes, well, where is she? And he looks around.
15:38And I said, she's right here, she's five years old.
15:42He looked at her, and his whole demeanor shifted.
15:46Who he was changed in that very instant.
15:49He looked at her, and then he scooped her up and picked her up and gave her a big hug.
15:53And he said to her, your dad and I are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you have a future so you can be whatever you want to be.
16:04And it was in that moment that I realized, oh my God, that's why he's doing this.
16:18He's doing this for my Victoria, for my Olivia, and for our little boy Willie, and for your children, and for your grandchildren, and for Barron.
16:26That's why he's doing this.
16:34Because if he doesn't step into the breach right now, it's all lost.
16:40And that's the side that the media won't show you, and that's the side that this world doesn't necessarily understand.
16:46It's not about mean tweets. It's about fighting for our nation and fighting for our future.
16:52While I know we live in quite precarious times today, I'm going to tell you that this country has been in way worse shape.
17:06And although this might be the worst I've seen in my lifetime, especially after watching an assassination attempt that hasn't happened since before I was even born,
17:14I've got to tell you, we're going to be all right.
17:17And we're going to be all right because this is a nation that went through a civil war and ripped itself apart in the name of slavery.
17:26And yet we still stand strong as Americans, as a nation.
17:30This is a country that became back-to-back World War champions.
17:35And the reason why the international language is not German is because brave men stormed the beaches of Normandy
17:42in a barrage of machine gun fire to rid the world of fascism.
17:47You're welcome, world.
17:55And yet here we stand, still, as a nation, as Americans.
18:01This is a country that went through the Civil Rights Movement, that my parents were a part of.
18:06My parents are alive and well. My dad just turned 75 years old two weeks ago.
18:10My father grew up in a segregated South. He grew up in a segregated New Orleans.
18:17My dad never spent a day of school with a white person. Think about that.
18:23And in spite of all that, here we are standing strong as a country, as one.
18:30This is a country that went through the Vietnam War, where we had brave men and women that served this country.
18:36And I don't care what war it was, they served this country.
18:40And they came back to this country and they were spat on by fellow Americans.
18:45And I came back home to a hero's welcome.
18:48They never, they never got the welcome that they were due.
18:53In spite of it all, here we are standing strong as a country.
18:56This is a country that went through 9-11. I was a sophomore at West Point when that happened.
19:01When that happened, I knew my life would change forever because I knew I was going to go to war.
19:04Do you know that for the week after 9-11, you could not go online and buy an American flag because they were all sold out?
19:13Think about that. And here we stand strong together as a country.
19:19And if we as a country can't survive all of that, I can promise you we will survive Joe Biden.
19:26Roosevelt in his Manly Arena speech famously said, it is not the critic that counts, nor how the man points at how the strong man stumbles, nor how the doer of deeds could have done them better.
19:46But the credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
19:52who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming,
20:00but who actually strives to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms and the great devotions,
20:07who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
20:13and who at the worst, even if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls that neither know victory nor defeat.
20:29President Trump is the man in the arena. He is the man that we must coalesce around in order to save the very soul of what I know is the greatest country in the world.
20:40And when I am surrounded by my fellow patriots from all over this great country, regardless of what state you are from,
20:49I have a reinvigorated spirit in my own heart and in my own soul to support the man in the arena to save our nation.
21:00And that's exactly what we are going to do.
21:11I will end with this last story.
21:14At West Point, all of the statues and buildings are named after prominent West Point graduates that went on to do great and amazing things,
21:23like Eisenhower Barracks and MacArthur Barracks, and of course there's a General Patton statue that's prominently displayed in front of the library with his back facing the library
21:33because he graduated last in his class and apparently he never spent a day in the library.
21:39He's my favorite.
21:43And of course there's Robert E. Lee Barracks, where I lived for a semester.
21:49I know this is the greatest country in the world because every time I walked beneath that threshold I thought to myself,
21:56damn, this is one hell of a country, for only a black man can live in a building named after a Confederate general.
22:04And if it were named anything differently, then I wouldn't have this perspective.
22:10For we are not judged by the name of buildings or by the name of statues.
22:14We are judged by our hard work, grit, and determination.
22:18And if we judged every street and every building and every statue on perfection, then everything would be named Jesus Christ.
22:35But it is that very history that doesn't make me sad, it doesn't make me woke, it makes me glad that we as a country have come this far in such a short period of time.
22:48Don't ever forget that we are all in this boat together.
22:51Thank you so much for being here, thank you so much for having me, and may God bless the greatest country in the entire world.