 Good evening everyone and welcome. My name is Mark Lawrence. I'm the director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum What a great sight it is to see so many people gathered here for Another in-person event one of the first in-person events. We've done since we reopened to the public Though I also want to hasten to welcome those who are joining us tonight via live stream wonderful to have all of you as Well Before introducing our special guest tonight I want to express our gratitude to the moody foundation for generously sponsoring this and so many events at the LBJ library I also want to call your attention to an upcoming event on the evening of May 11th we will host the author and Podcast host Julia Swig who will speak about her book Lady Bird Johnson Hiding in Plain Sight. I hope you all can join us for what promises to be a really interesting evening with Julia tonight's special guest is Will Hurd Who represented Texas's 23rd congressional district in the US House of Representatives? From 2015 to 2021 during those years he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and made especially important contributions in the area of cybersecurity Before winning his seat in Congress, Mr. Hurd served as an undercover officer in the CIA Will is a native of San Antonio in a graduate of Texas A&M He's a trustee of the German Marshall Fund and a board member of Open AI and managing director of Allen and company Will is also author of the book at the heart of our program tonight American reboot an idealist guide to getting big things done a book that has been widely and warmly praised by innumerable reviewers UT's own Admiral William McRaven spoke for many I think in writing Will Hurd is exactly the kind of public servant we need today and American reboot will show you why Moderating tonight's conversation is J. R. Jashizo the Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs here at UT Austin J. R. It's wonderful to have you and I appreciate your collaboration on this and so many projects In a little while there will be an opportunity for a few questions from the audience So please hold your questions until later and we'll pass around a handheld mic probably this one For your use also, please note that we'll continue to sell copies of American reboot at the end of the program So I encourage you to pick up a copy if you've not yet done so Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Will Hurd and J. R. Jashizo. Well, good evening everyone Will thank you so much for joining us this evening Let's start with What were you trying to accomplish in writing this book? Let's try this. Can you hear me now? So the question was what it was I trying to accomplish look 72% of Americans think the country's on the wrong track and this has been a feeling that has been growing for a number of years and And I want to say there's another way right there's that we don't have to accept the status quo and I Start the book off with a The a lesson I learned in the CIA is that it's literally the second Lesson you learn when you're at the farm The farm is what I used to call the super secret CIA training facility, but now it's on Google Maps and I Wish that was a joke. It really is it really is on Google Maps and And they tell you get off the X the X is a location where something's going down And the last place you want to be when something's going down is where it's going down Right and and so I tell a story about how almost got dragged out of a car and beaten to death And about how getting off the X helped there and that this is a the concept that we have to think about in our country Because we sometimes focus on we were focusing on some of the wrong issues sometimes And we're not putting the brain power and the attention to what I think are generational defining challenges that are going to affect whether America whether this century stays the American century and I want it to be in And it's not a fate of complete that the rest of this century is going to be the American century. So That's what I wanted to do and in the concept of the book came because I haven't always believed the way or Haven't always held some of these opinions and I tried to give the reader I tell a bunch of stories that led to those conclusions And so I wanted to take the reader on the same journey that I've been fortunate to have Whether it was in you know dangerous places in exotic locales overseas or the halls of Congress or in the Boardrooms of international businesses. Yeah, really captivating stories And you talk a lot about polarization and and where our country is today in terms of extreme polarization Could you describe a couple of? Strategies that you think would reduce that so structurally our Political system is designed and is and is is causing this polarization And what do I mean by that? Look, I do believe that two parties or it's important to have two parties I always tell people yes, I'm a Republican, but this book is not just for Republicans Democrats should care about it independent should care about it people that don't vote should care about this because this is about how We solve the big challenges that that we're facing and so What I learned in my district of Texas 23 29 counties two time zones 820 miles of the border it took 10 and a half hours to drive across to that 80 miles an hour Which was a speed limit in most of the district, but Justin Hollis my political consulieri who's here Learned it's not the speed limit in all of the district Sorry Justin, um and and it was I'm a black Republican and I ended up representing a 71% Latino district Nobody thought I had a chance and it was the only seat in Texas that would flip back and forth between Republican and Democrat and that happened for 10 years and So so I was able if every Republican voted for me when I first ran I would still lose I had to get independence. I had to get Democrats and but I also When I got elected and solve problems. I was rewarded For that when it came time for reelection and so so that experience really really hardened in my brain That's this is how we should solve problems now if I had a magic wand I Would create every political district no more than plus six in either direction Meaning 56% Democrat or 56% Republican to me a plus six in either direction is a jump ball Anybody can win that election in November. I don't have a magic wand That would require your 50 states to make decisions to do that and we all know that Redistricting is about incumbent protection Both sides do it So what can we do? We need more people voting in primaries? And and I go in through some of the math and in the book in the last non-presidential election There were only 34 Contested seats and I consider contested to be a party a District that votes for one party for president and another party for the house 34 That's 8% of House seats and that number for state state Raps state Senate across country city council. It's it's it's it's very In those seats, so that means 92 percent of seats are actually decided in the primary and The last not presidential election the average number of people that voted in a contested primary was 54,000 people That means yeah all the groans for those on TV as a whole huge groan in the audience that means 26,501 people decide Who 92% of the seats? That is about 3% of The voting population in that community now in a district like mine That was decided in in November. The average was north of 260,000 What would you rather have deciding? 260,000 people or 54,000 people actually divide both those numbers by half, right so We need more people voting in primaries Our state just went through a primary Only three million people vote We can have debates about what is it hard to vote is it not hard to vote I think it's it's we should make it easier for people to vote I think we should have online registration to vote. We should have same-day registration to vote But we can clap for that But we should also be able to confirm the identity of somebody vote Right all these things are true all these things are true and so so but When only three million people vote out of 30 million The majority of those people didn't vote because of voter apathy because they don't care about what either side is providing The first time I was here for South by Southwest and so that's a very long-winded answer Um The first time I see it South by Southwest I was on a panel with some YouTube stars The other four people had a combined one billion subscribers for YouTube. I had 60 Why am I here but what a hey? I'm here Let's go with it right and one of the one of the people on the stage was the digital director for the rock Dwayne Johnson mm-hmm and the movie Moana was coming up and She asked the crowd she says if Moana fails at the box office Are we gonna blame moviegoers for not going in the movie or are we gonna say it's a crummy movie? Now I'm not saying Moana's a crummy. I've seen it. I think it's a quite delightful movie And and it was a it was a box office success and her point was only in politics Do you blame? the Purchaser of the good of service rat when that when they when they don't like a good of service versus the person providing the good of service And so for me the broader problem is the reason we have I think this apathy is Because we don't have elected officials or people running for office that try to inspire people They're more interesting and fear-mongering And and that is why and guess what everything I'm saying and talking about it's hard It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. Yeah, the professional political class people like Justin They want to do the same thing in 12 different races They want to talk to the likely Republican primary voters or the likely Democratic primary voters And when you only talk to the state when you talk to the same people over and over You're gonna get the same results But the ability to get those people that are reliable voters, but don't vote in primaries It's probably two or three times harder to do Then it is traditionally and that's why people don't do it. But guess what if we're gonna get off the X We got to do things a little different. Right, right. So just building off of that, you know Leading up to this evening. I was talking to some friends about about your visit and they said oh, you know Is he gonna run for president? And I said well, I'm not gonna ask him that But but I just glad hanging out there I do I do want to I do want to ask you about leadership because you mentioned that there are some that that lead and motivate people By manipulating their fears channeling their anger and grievances What kind of a leader would you say you are or aspire to be I Try to inspire right how and and I do that by doing some things my dad taught me My dad's black my mom's white my dad's from from East Texas my mom's from Indiana They met in California in Los Angeles Got married moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1971 My dad is 89 years old He grew up in in Jim Crow South, you know He's Texas is really where like white primaries and Jim Crow Really, so he saw and he saw all those things when he was a traveling salesman He couldn't stay in any hotel or he couldn't go into any restaurant, right? Like all those things and And my dad always said to have a PMA a positive mental attitude Right, he had that even though when he was the first black salesman in every company He worked for that they would throw the inward atom scream atom do all these things He still kept a positive mental attitude, right? And if my dad could do that when that he was going through that and when my mom could have a PMA You know my mom would would you know have these three little dark babies, you know And and my mom she would get sunburned just walking out to the mailbox, right? and And people would look at her weird my parents today live in the house they live in because it was the only place in San Antonio that would sell to an interracial couple Right and so so for me, you know PMA is really at the core of who I am I learned it because I saw it from my parents and it's always worked for me The other thing my dad told me is the one person you can't fool There's a one person you're looking in the mirror, right when you're shaving he actually learned that lesson from a gangster in Atlanta Prior to being in jail with Jack Ruby long story Long story. It's in the book. You know look at that and and and so so for me it was always let's be honest, right? in and I've been lucky I've been lucky to Have experiences from you know my time at Texas A&M when bonfire collapsed and and and and being part of a community That was really grieving right the worst worst disasters ever helped had happened on a campus up to that point To my time in the CIA learning from people where doing the right thing had consequences And if you did the wrong thing Lives were going to be lost right and so so for me it's it's do the right thing You know and and speak the truth always even if it leads to your death and and so those are the things that I've tried to do and I think that's why it resonates and and look my social media footprint Would be 10x what it is now if I said crazy things right The pressure is always there to say crazy things But you have to resist it because you got it and it's something I learned from President George HW Bush's model the way right model the behavior you want to see in others And so that's that's what that's what I try to do great. Okay. Thank you So Picking up on the the theme of race which you just touched on You know it feels like conservatism is is fracturing a little bit and and in writing your book Sometimes it feels like you're speaking to everyone. Sometimes it feels like you're speaking to Republicans and You know, there are Folks who feel like Racism doesn't occur anymore and they'll point back to LBJ's accomplishments right in the 60s and 60s 70s and JFK's and you know We have equality of opportunity. We don't have racially-injust policies they would claim How do you And one of the challenges I feel like with that group is even starting the conversation How do we have a conversation about racism racism in this country? And I can't think of a better person in the world to ask how do you suggest we talk about it? So The I was talking some specific people especially the title of the book that says the chapter that says don't be an a-hole don't be a misogynist don't be a homophobe, you know That was that was targeting very specific people. Yeah, that's chapter three. Yeah So a President of of an HBCU once once told me We have eliminated racism from our laws and our policies, but we haven't eliminated it from our hearts and our minds And and that's a harder that is a harder thing to deal with It's it's hard for some people to understand how Hundreds of years of something has an impact on a culture And and and I always use I use myself as an example My brother sister and I Were not able to go to the best public schools in San Antonio We weren't Because my parents weren't allowed to live in the neighborhoods that had the best public schools now I Got over that issue right I turned out okay, but when you look at Some of the folks in that and not and in in my broader neighborhood Haven't had the similar kind of success right and so that's just one example. I try to use people I'm during George Floyd and all the aftermath of George Floyd. I Would I I wrote I think I wrote an op-ed about about people ask like I went to the the march down in Houston And look most of my staff was like don't go Because they thought that it was gonna you know that potentially there'll be violence and it'll be like, you know Congressman heard was you know at some at some riots, right? but what I went because Again, one of the things I learned when I was at Texas A&M a community's got to grieve together Right and and I tried to tell people it's like you can be outraged Are they black man was killed in the custody of the police by a white officer? That someone who wears a uniform to protect and serve did not do their job. You can be outraged by that You can also be outraged by people looting and rioting and You can be thankful At the police is there allowing you to exercise exercise your first man. It's not an or it's an ant Right and so sometimes everybody wants to get into it's a it's an A or a B It's never it's never that simple, right? It's never that simple. And so when I was trying to explain to that Explain that in this op-ed. I talked about how the time my dad had to talk And I'm not talking about the birds and the bees it's When you get pulled over by the cops How you handle yourself, right? And it was keep your hands on the steering wheel turn the light on roll down your window Don't make a move always tell the officer what you're gonna do before you do it and make sure you get approval to do that Don't make sudden movements, right? This was only my dad was telling me and I would have a lot of people come up to me and say well I told that to my daughter and and we're white Well, you told that to your daughter, so she didn't freak out When she got pulled over by the cops my dad told me that because he was afraid I was gonna get killed by the cops And and so so that is a and again all of these things are true at the same time And so it starts with it starts with No one's attacking the other side It's about having a conversation and explaining a different perspective right and it's look it's empathy. It's compassion And and I learned this I learned this because I was the only kid that looked like me In school And then, you know look learning when I was in when I was in the ca being completely different cultures and learning and understanding How those cultures have an impact you can look at your own so so that's that's a it's a it's a rambling answer To a specific question and the specific question is it's okay to ask questions. It's okay to think about this like it's okay to say Slavery happen Jim crow happen We had a fight the civil rights and these things are still happening, right But it's okay to admit those things you're and but when you admit those things you're not saying that you're part of it Right, and I think that's a I think that's and no one by the way Don't use this as a political bludgeon Right, like actually let's have a conversation about it and not be like, hi you did something wrong or the you know the that You know the other sides would do the exact same right okay so building on this sort of theme of of maybe conversations with the republican party maybe conversations more broadly um I don't know what chapter it is Somewhere in the middle of the book You know you you define democratic socialism as ownership of the means of production by By workers or by consumers really appreciated as an academic that care you took to sort of define what socialism And then you talked about democratic capitalism and why it's it's superior and what it's done for us And then you close that chapter By citing Matthew 25 verse 40 And you know, I know I'm in Texas. It may be that everyone knows Matthew 25 verse 40, but We could back up to verse 30 and You know just to set the stage Jesus is Is putting people on the right it's it's judgment day that are going judgment day going to heaven and on the left who aren't And um the folks on the right are sort of looking at him like how did we get here and he says For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink I was a stranger and you invited me in I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me I was in prison and you visited me And then he goes on, you know the culminating verse is whatever you did for one Of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me So what lessons Do you draw from that verse for designing public policies to address inequality? Not everybody has benefited right and and so so But and and the the I opened this section I'm talking about don't you know don't throw the baby out with the bath water Just get rid of the bath water. Yeah, right and and so so Then not everybody has benefited not everybody has been able to move up the economic ladder I'm not everybody has had the same opportunities to get access to education I think we have income inequality because we have education inequality And when we change that we're going to be able to see people be To to benefit from all these opportunities. And so those that haven't benefited. Let's pay Pay special attention To solving the things that's preventing that from happening It doesn't mean getting rid of the entire system And so I think that's the nuance. Look, it's hard in public policy that have nuance It's it's hey somebody didn't benefit. So it must be that thing But 80% of everybody else is benefiting from that thing So let's figure out how the rest of the folks can and so whether that's whether that's health care whether that's education That's where our focus and attention should be is how do you fix that problem for those individuals? And look one of the one of my favorite parts about being in congress There's only a few um I'm joking. That's that was a cheap joke. That was a cheap joke. Um Was helping people that Battle the federal bureaucracy that needed it and what I learned was When we would have a constituent with a problem We focus on solving that problem for that one person Because when we figure out how to solve for that one person We can figure out how to solve it for thousands of people And so let's start with let's find that person in an entity or that that individual that's having that problem solve that problem And then we're going to be able to and then and then put it into into a the macro system And then you can solve it for everyone else that's having that same problem And then you move on to the next one. And so so that's where I think You know how you apply this to public policy And guess what how do you how you deal with homelessness? In austin is different than how you deal with it in san francisco is different than how you deal with in midland Right and so so so let's focus on how do you what what that problem is that is preventing those people or that individual From getting access to something and fix it for them Right and and then guess what we have examples of how it's worked for other people So let's figure out how to adapt that and so so that is that is why I think You know this notion and and I try and thanks for recognizing I try to be very clear about What socialism actually means and and what i'm talking about And and and getting rid of What has worked And again We talk about a more perfect union. We're never perfect. It's like we're striving. It's constant, right? We're still learning. It's called an experiment for a reason because nobody did it right when we did it everyone was like nobody else in the rest of the world was like That ain't gonna work Another democracy didn't come into existence Until 60 years later switzerland. There are only 14 countries that have been a democracy for more than 100 years We assume It's always there. That's all we've ever known Right, but but it's it's democracy is fragile And it's hard And it's worked for a lot of people. It's not perfect And so when it's not working for someone let's focus on them and solve the problem for them And then we'll all be better off So let's let's talk for a minute about protecting democracy and foreign policy What do you see as the most? important foreign policy threats to the united states today And what do we need to change to get ready for those? well the the The most important policy Because the the the the issue That will prevent the american economy from being the most important economy and will prevent This century from being the the the rest of the century being the american century Is the chinese government And i say chinese governments It's not the chinese people It's definitely not chinese americans You know what our asian american brothers and sisters have been dealing with for the last couple years here in america is Unexceptible and it's wrong, but it's the chinese governments Is is what i try to be clear about the chinese government is trying to surpass the united states of america as the global superpower It's not my opinion This is not me laying awake and laying in bed at night pondering the universe, right? It's not me collecting intel when i was in the cia This is what the chinese government has said about themselves in english and their documents So that is the the broader issue and what i call the new cold war The u.s. And china can coexist We should and guess what i'm gonna put my money down on freedom Entrepreneurship openness civil rights i'm gonna put my money on that any day of the week But an authoritarian government can get somewhere first And so so we can coexist We can't compete with frenemies But china has to agree and and and and use the rules that they agree to they got to compete within the rules and the framework If you join the w the world trade organization, then you got to live by those rules You can't be cheating right that's where we can we can come and and i would take us any day of the week Even though the chinese economy is going to be bigger than ours the the population is bigger than ours We forget We were so much bigger than russia and the soviet union Right like like there's there's no comparison. I always say it's like you have like a basketball in a baseball Is the comparison of the u.s. And the soviet union now russia, but when it comes to China is two basketballs And there's probably a little bit bigger And so so so that's the real threat now The immediate problem Is russia i'm of the opinion The united states and nato is not doing enough To support ukraine I have a simple philosophy When it's i've been connected with national security for over two decades Your friends should love you and your enemies should fear you We have given a lot of support to the ukrainians. There's no question about that. I'm not debating that But there is more that we can be giving and there's more that the ukrainian government is asking for and we should be doing The russians are continuing to up On the scale of one to ten what the russians are doing in ukraine. I'd probably say it's somewhere between six and seven They still have a ways to go the level of death and destruction that they've leveled on maria poll They can do across the country They're continuing to execute on these things Because they're not afraid that anybody else is going to come to the to the ukrainians back People will say well, let's go to escalate Oh, like in 2015 we said when we gave the ukrainians javelins that would cause the russians to go into the country Or oh, we better not put sanctions on in december We better not put sanctions on the russians because that's going to cause them to go into ukraine We can't control what they're going to do But we can control A first principle and to me we got to prevent the unnecessary massacre of innocent people And then be prepared And be prepared for the consequences And I think we are We can be so so so and then why does ukraine matter? Before yeah, sure sure sure could you what would what more would you do? Specifically 20 migs is not going to cause like give those migs right? We should have had that like give the anti-aircraft craft missiles if we're like General breed love was a former i think nato commander and then Former ambassador to nato, um, i'm drawing a blank on on his name kurt volker They had a piece where they talked about a a humanitarian no flight zone with basically it says hey You can't fly in here. We're not going to attack stuff on the ground. We're just going to say we're just anything in the skies We're not seeing the kinds of of aerial dogfights That um, we saw in in syrievo or syria But having some anti-missile weaponry that the ukranians can do in order to defend their cities We should be doing those things. I I think all like that lists all of those things Do that tomorrow now. We also need a marshal plan for ukraine now I think everybody is saying we need a marshal plan for everything The marshal plan was there to rebuild europe We need another plan to rebuild europe specifically ukraine and we need to be helping the eastern european countries That are dealing with populations that are under the threat of war If the closer you are to russia the the more impactful sanctions are So you have a community dealing with that and then you have the growing humanitarian crisis of the refugees that are coming into these countries I think in in war saw In two months. They saw the population increase by 14 percent, right? Yeah, and I interrupt it. You were talking about why ukraine matters. Well, well ukraine matters The and and and i'm also the opinion that we shouldn't have pulled out of afghanistan 3500 people in afghanistan is a small footprint Two trillion dollars has been spent in afghanistan over 20 years We were there. We lost sight and our elected officials and our policy makers failed to remind the american people why we were there We were there To respond to our attack on our homeland and to prevent a place for the preconditions from from coming back To create that situation that caused The worst destruction in america even more so than pearl harbor and a small footprint Would have allowed the We would not have seen the afghan government fall now The pull out and the anger this is not just i'm not just criticizing the current administration I've criticized the last administration because beginning of the end was when the last administration Negotiated with the taliban without the afghan government there And when there was a change in power and that was continued by the current administration, that's when the taliban's like this is our chance so putin saw that He miscalculated he miscalculated the resolve of the ukrainian people But he also miscalculated what the western alliance would be willing to do miscalculated the the germans Heck like I always try to explain to people like what's going on in germany would be like Imagine if america went from ronald reagan to bernie sanders That's kind of what happened in in germany and then bernie was and that guy was like Cinema the weapons, you know Sorry, that was loud. Um, and so so so Putin misjudged that now the chinese government is watching this and seeing how the world is reacting because the chinese government is interested in Invading taiwan period full stop Xi Jinping is interested in recreating The the you know how china looked back in the fourth century And if they go into taiwan They're going to own the chinese government is going to own 70 percent of the semiconductor manufacturing in the world We think supply chain problems or supply chain issues are bad now Wait until the chinese government owns 70 percent and when we actually can't get something It's going to be super expensive And it's not just your fancy car Or your smartphone or your computer. It's things like your refrigerator And so so what is happening in ukraine? Is prelude to how things future conflicts potentially unfolds? And that's why Further support to ukraine because there is no diplomatic solution right now that the ukrainians are willing to give Or latin america putin's accept as a face-saving Mechanism that he can go back and explain. This is why we did all this right there. That doesn't exist right now I think the u.s. Could potentially do things like offer Nuclear de-escalation on the on the continent at the rush into the same thing I think you could have some of those conversations But but the environment doesn't exist For a third party to offer something in order to get other russians out Oh, and by the way, the ukrainians have to negotiate that the u.s. Europe can't negotiate that on behalf of the ukrainians so Give the ukrainians everything they can To try to defend themselves and push the russians back out of their country and and and and if we the soonest ends The less stability we're going to see in the in the european Less this de-escalation that we're going to see across the world So you you set up the the chinese threat potentially In terms of our response we can are we ready militarily for conflict Do we have the allies in place that we need to be successful against china and you talked about supply chains Some of which Much of which is currently controlled by either taiwan and or china What do we need to do to Be more resilient and prepared for that conflict because we can we can see it Growing on the horizon right every day The short answer to those three questions is no no no Right and that's what that's what's unfortunate. Um The future of conflict is going to be in cyberspace Can we operate in a Communication denied environment Can we actually operate in that Against a superior adversary That's the that's ultimately the question and we're going to have to ask which I mean is If we do get into a conflict and look it's a nobody's best interest The chinese government doesn't want to get into a shooting war We don't want to get into a shooting war. The rest of the world doesn't want to get into a shooting war However Are our ships or our planes going to be operate in the chow south china sea If the chinese government takes out satellites in space The defense and intelligence agency did a fascinating Review on overhead architecture. That's just a fancy way of saying satellites in space And how space is no longer it space is now a contested domain Because when the chinese government is putting up satellites it has a claw Right, there's only one reason you have a satellite with a claw It's going to damage something else Right, it's going to cut something else. It's going to push something out of the way right and so so It's fascinating how how much terrestrial activity happens from space So can we operate in an environment where our communication systems are denied? Can we as individuals operate? If we didn't have access to a phone system for a week Would we be able to communicate with our family? Will we be able to talk to our friends? Like would we how would we be able to do that? All right So so that is where when we think about Um, a military strength and power That is we have to be able to operate and and in that in that area and army's futures command here in san tony I was giving in austin is is is working on that second piece The chinese government is pushing a narrative and and this is the fact is correct Out of the 190 countries in the u.m 140 Have not supported The western sanctions against russia if you look at the map of who hasn't It's like basically everybody in the western hemisphere That's not good. No bueno as we say in south texas And and and so we should be working with our allies When when when I see a number of officials from the middle east They always say will Don't make us choose And they're implying don't make us choose between the u.s. And china because america is not going to like the option Which is another reason why again, I'm not trying to bring up all the controversial topics But this is why trying to negotiate In an oran deal Right now Is not the best time to be doing something when you're not only going to upset one of our most important Our most important ally in the region israel, but all of our suni air partners now a lot of things we got to work out with our suni air partners But but we need to be making sure that we're growing our posse And and I think sometimes we have failed to think about the importance of our soft power When you look at what the chinese government is doing with the belton road initiative When you look at the number of countries they're doing that and this is basically development efforts To improve infrastructure and all these things Now a lot of those lead to debt traps and problems in a lot of the countries that have participated in it don't like it Um, but they're not doing that in every everywhere And so we need to be thinking through how do we what is our national there are our national economic security plan? To counter what the what the chinese government is doing because because ultimately and I and I'll end with this If the future of conflict is in cyberspace It's going to be defined by a couple of technologies 5g ai quantum computing probably hypersonics space biotech and 5g matters Not look it's going to be awesome to download season three of ted lasso and two seconds All right. I'm looking forward to it. It's long time too. I can't wait. I can't wait and The but the latency That 5g gives us that so that means I do something on my phone And then that goes into the cloud and it comes back right that trip with proper 5g Is going to take one nanosecond Our thoughts Are in seven nanoseconds So we're going to have the entire power of the internet in our hands on the edge in a device In real time and that's going to be able to do powerful things and That's going to what is going to turn ai artificial intelligence from dumb. I say ai now is dumb to truly intelligent So whoever owns that 5g infrastructure Is going to own all the fangs that are built on top of that And right now huawei, this is the chinese company that builds All of the infrastructure needed for 5g owns 30 percent of the world's 5g infrastructure now Vladimir Putin said whoever masters ai is going to master the world Probably the only thing he and I agree on and so I want ai to be developed With our values and all principles Because it was developed by the principles of the chinese government. We know what that's going to look like Because they're they're doing it in xianjiang province against the Uighurs the ethnic minorities there They're trying to export that to other authoritarian regimes And that is where we have to be working together and this goes back to your first question or second question We got to have more friends, right? awesome, okay Why don't we open it up to questions from the audience and the way this will work is there's a microphone Mark currently owns it See if we were at Texas a&m. We would just have people yelling it out, you know y'all living more refined here You know, all right, sir. I'll let you decide who gets to speak in what order And and when you get the mic, please just briefly identify yourself and then ask your question Yeah, robert ha robert howell Well, I would like to get your take on immigration I'm from south texas We see chaos down there Yet We have a severe labor shortage in this country, you know talking about the supply chain and our need to produce things We need low skill and high skill and everything in between What what would be your approach? Look, it's an important issue. It's why this is the largest chapter in my book um I was the only member of Congress. I think I'm in the history The only member of Congress who ever stamped visas All right, my my day job was to stamp visas and then at night I did my real job And then I also was responsible for Crisscrossing international boundaries Under a assumed name let's put it that way And and so this was some of the experience I brought to this issue What's happening on the border right now is an absolute crisis Department of Homeland Security is potentially predicting With um as it as the weather starts getting a little bit a little bit warmer Potentially up to over 400,000 people coming across our border illegally a month That's just like those are staggering numbers. Okay So and there's there's multiple problems that is causing this and there's multiple solutions to get out of us Number one, you can't treat everybody as they're an asylum seeker Asylum is very specific You have to be part of a protected class And the government has either got to be um Targeting you Or willingly not protecting you against being targeted because you are a member of that protected class Coming here for just a job is not a reason for for for asylum And taking advantage of this process is preventing actual people that need that are asylum seekers that need it So this was a policy that was started under the last administration And why it has continued on this administration? I do not know but everybody's treated as being treated as asylum seekers Stop that too It is very hard to get from Tegucigalpa To egopass There is infrastructure That is being used to move volumes of people And we're not and we know phone numbers License plates for buses people that are moving and stuff And we're not doing enough to dismantle The infrastructure that is moving people Throughout central south american and other parts of the world now is this is no longer Just a northern triangle issue. You have people coming from all over Now northern triangle is still an issue where we have to address The root causes that is causing people to leave those countries and that's extreme violence lack of economic opportunities In those in those countries. So we have to address that and then we need to streamline legal immigration because as you point out Every industry needs workers. Oh by the way When you're dealing with inflation and potentially going into a recession It would be beneficial to have a couple more people paying taxes So so streamlining legal immigration Um is something that also that also has to happen All those things can be done concurrently Um, we also need um immigration judges for the people that are already here and going through this process to have that have that deliberate Now what what is so um why I get so angry with this issue? Is all those things that outline 70 percent of democratic primary voters agree with it And 70 percent of republican primary voters agree And the reason we don't get anything done is because folks would prefer to use this as a political bludgeon against the other side Then solving the problem. I know it. I've seen it. I saw it when I was in congress I write about it in in the book and it went by the way We're better off for having the braingrain gain of every other country coming here If a kid is getting an advanced degree at the university of texas at austin And they want to start a business in the great state of texas Here's your visa If the chinese government wants to steal our ip steal our technology, let's steal their engineers All of these entrepreneurs saw what happened to jack maw And the the the woman who was like the first female billionaire in china Who basically got wiped off the internet one day, right? All those engineers and folks are seeing that and so so those are the things that we that we have to that we have to do and and and it's it and unfortunately I don't know if we're going to see moving on any of those things Next question I'm dale buehler if we think refugees are a problem in Ukraine wait till bangladesh is underwater from sea level rise. Yeah for sure Even coast even in the united states right now people are migrating from fire danger from climate change As well as extreme heat Someone said that vermont is having a huge influx of people leaving california and the west coast because of fear of climate change But nobody wants to talk about it. Yeah Look, I don't just agree with any of your premises. Um, I the the way I try to talk about this is I think to get more people to to I think we need folks to think about this slightly different and here's how I say it Mother earth is undefeated There has been five extinction events And and mother earth is always going to win This is about us preventing mother earth from doing something that wipes us off the planet And and and I think that's an important distinction for people to to understand about this issue my concern Is that the callousness that we look at this significant loss of life following covid? when you had a significant rise in deaths in a very quick period of time The deaths related to climate change is going to be is going to be over time and it's going to grow over time It's not going to necessarily be shocking like having, you know Several million people die in the span of a year and a half. That's my concern with it However, what I will say is if you're under the age of 35 They're demanding That elected official at every level. They're demanding businesses that that cohort Is so focused on this and are going to be the ones that want to come up with some of the solutions on how we can how get to get to carbon neutral and and so so That that that's that's where I see some of these young folks and regardless of political party That that care about this potential issue. And so yeah, look, it's it's going to get worse for it gets better, right? And and but I do believe that The some of the technologies that we're seeing we're seeing how energy companies are using ai To use less water To have to put less water into the ground when they when they get when they extract hydrocarbons We're seeing how farming is able to use artificial intelligence to increase Crop yields while decreasing the amount of energy and land that's used for that And so I I think there are some some some examples of how Technology is going to help us solve this problem That we have ignored for way too long Hey will um first off, um, I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to just a great pair of boots that you have on Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, secondly One I asked you a question about your former institution the house representatives and specifically The current state of the house gop. I want to get your thoughts on that and also What advice you would give to uh kevin mccarthy and um leading the conference currently sure So The lessons of 2020 Was don't be a jerk And don't be a socialist That is how president biden had absolutely no coattails And you saw republicans winning in communities that nobody expected or you saw an increase and especially like latino communities along in in southwest texas however The party that was supposed to learn a lesson don't be a jerk became bigger jerks And the party that was trying to learn that supposed to learn a lesson don't be a socialist try to become bigger socialist and 2022 Republicans are taking the house back. There's there's there's almost no question about that and likely taking back the senate And it's and it's because The voters it's not because the voters are upset that the democrats haven't achieved some of the things that they thought they were gonna achieve It's because voters are upset with the direction that the democratic party was trying to go now Republicans are gonna take that as aha Everybody loves us No, they didn't like the other guys and gals and so so what I consider We always want to talk about trumpism to me trumpism is too narrow About talking about some of the problems that we have it's it's the authoritarian wing Of the republican party which i'm concerned my advice would be Don't rule as an authoritarian I firmly believe that the concentration of power in the hands of the few is a bad thing Whether you want to concentrate in a single individual Or in the governments Right, and so so that's what I would say is um, look, I've never played hockey Right, but I always use a hockey reference because all my friends that played hockey skates where the puck is going We always want to we always want to fight battles whether it's in the military or in politics the last battle not the next battle And so we're going to learn along the wrong lesson Oh, and by the way One of the reasons why we kept having these swings every two years for literally the last 30 years and and you know correct me if i'm wrong The parties in power try to win by driving out their base a little bit more Instead of building coalitions and different coalitions And so for me my advice of the republican party is let's grow the coalitions when we have the chance And so that we can govern for 10 12 16 years And create a level of momentum that is necessary to solve some of these problems Right, that's that now get everything I just said. It's really hard to do And it's going to be hard because most elected officials only care about the extremes Rather than the middle Right, and so so my thing is don't be afraid of constituents talk to the middle. Yeah, I mean for that for that We have time for one more question Sorry, sorry, I take too long in answering questions. Yeah I know that guy so all right. That was not my intention. Um Uh So hi, my name is jenna. Um, we spoke earlier And I am a student at the lbj school and I think there's a group of us here That are future policymakers and future politicians What advice would you give to us to try to undo some of the damage that has happened maybe in the last Force eight ten years How do we How do we build those coalitions? How do we Solve some of these policy problems In a way that is actually effective for the communities that we know and we love and we want to serve Thanks for the question. Um I call it pragmatic idealism How do you help the greatest number of people possible based on the realities on the ground right now? And that requires people that want to inspire like you got to inspire through the work that you're doing Not for your monker. You got to have that positive mental attitude You got to make sure your audio and your video match Right, you got to make sure that the things that you do are reflective in the things that you say The lack of ideological consistency Is what is partly fueling some of this Feelings and concern and lack and erosion of trust that the american public has at all institutions from government at all levels To academia to the media It's because people are not doing the things that they say that that they're doing and I would I would I would say It's that lack of of ideological consistency. All right, so be ideologically consistent Recognize that way more unites us than divides us All right, look, I am I am firming that I saw that Whether I was in the colonias in in um in in el paso Or in the fancy neighborhood. We're all the santanio spurs live I would talk about the same thing People care and are interested in putting food on the table or roof over the head And making sure that people they love are healthy happy and safe Focus on those things And that's what's going to make sure that we're ready. And then we also and I went in with this America became an exceptional nation not because of what we have taken but because of what we have given We were willing after world war two to give a helping hand to rebuild europe that helped us We are at our best When we are showing leadership when we were engaged Right when we are living up to these values that we have enshrined in all of our foundational documents And this is not this and this is always This is an imperfect system And the goal is to always strive to be a more perfect union and as long as we're continuing to move forward on those things Then you and your colleagues and your friends are going to make sure That america you're going to help us make sure america Stays the most important economy in the world and that this century continues to be the american century American reboot is available In the in the back right corner and join me in thanking you