I was not in favor of U.S. troops in Lebanon. And I voted against it.
Never in my lifetime have I been called boring. But I think I was a boring candidate for president because I tried to be responsible. And one of the greatest problems I had is that I was governor.
[Donald] Trump is touching a nerve because people want the wall to be built. They want to see an end to illegal immigration. They want to see it, and we all do. But we all have different ways of getting there.
I don't want to get into an argument with somebody about how they ought to vote.
There is no way they should walk out of that place [Wells Fargo] with millions, tens of millions, tens and tens of millions of dollars, when innocent people who actually flagged this culture of conceit and culture of rip off should've been fired while the people who were doing it somehow are able to just resign and reap the big reward. It's just an outrage. It's people who have forgotten decent values towards other people.
I have never worshipped at the altar of free trade, but I've always been an advocate of free trade.
We're now going to develop the standards on transparency, data collection for police, but the whole goal is to fully integrate the police into the community because everybody has the same goals.
Guess what? I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay.
I think if there's anything that's important today, it's credibility with the voter, because the voter is tired of being sold a bill of goods.
I don't look at polls, I pay no attention to them. I pay attention to the public, and the sense of where the public is on certain things, but you have to lead.
I don't want to comment on media outlets, but I will tell you that if the Republican Party does not evolve, the Republican Party is going to die.
God gives me unconditional love. I'm going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around me.
The Pentagon needs precious resources to build the strength of America, and we can't say, 'this is really important to this community, and it's really not vital to the national security, but we ought to do it anyway.' So, I think we have to have a discipline on this
You cannot build a little guy up by tearing a big guy down. Abraham Lincoln said it...
What people really want to know from their doctor is, are you going to make me feel better? And what they really want to know from a president are, are you going to give me some security when it comes to my work? Because if I'm not working, my family is in trouble. And when I am working, the fact of the matter is, my whole family is doing better.
When you ask people, do they believe that we ought to have trade, I think people understand it's important.
America is a miracle country.
There were 16 people in the race, including a number of governors, and there's only one left. And I think that at the end we have to make sure that we have somebody that can go to that town, change that system, grow employment, change the whole way in which it works and ship power money and influence back to the states. So I'm optimistic about it.
There is a growing sense in America that being disconnected is not good. And there's also some people that are staying in their silos and not coming out, but we have to pull them out, and we have to pull ourselves together at some point, I think.
We have to solve the encryption problem. It is not easy.
Do you think that I like to have to fight the leaders in my own party over this or that? Of course not. There's no joy in that. But John Kennedy may have said it best - sometimes my party asks too much.
We will strengthen our country when we come together.
There is a big problem. It's called encryption. And the people in San Bernardino were communicating with people who the FBI had been watching. But because their phone was encrypted, because the intelligence officials could not see who they were talking to, it was lost.
I've always been underestimated. It's happened throughout my entire career.
I'm not sure I want to sound like a candidate. I just want to sound like an American who's trying to make this country a heck of a lot stronger. Not a politician typical, but somebody that's going to go and do the job, not pay attention to all the special interest groups, change the status quo, shift power out of Washington and get America on the track again with strengthening our military as well.
I'm an old-fashioned person and I happen to believe in traditional marriage.
We've got to unite our country again, because we're stronger when we are united and we are weaker when we are divided.
The foreign policy, you have to know how to pick and choose. There's no way, if Saddam [Hussein] had not had weapons of mass destruction, I would have gone, because I don't believe that the U.S. should be involved directly in civil wars.
Leaders have to lead.
I've always been a reformer all the time I served in public office, and remain a reformer in Ohio, but I also know how to get things done. And I think it's important that, while we acknowledge the anxieties that Americans have, I think it's also important we realize at the end of the day, we need to have somebody who knows how to land a plane, and I've landed quite a few planes.
The Republican Party cannot be anti-trade, anti-immigrant, not out there practicing the politics of people, you know, the issues surrounding drug addiction and mental illness and the cost of prescription drugs and healthcare and student debt and all of these things are very personal to people now.
I try to keep what I say. And I - I'm not deviated from this position at all.
The republican party is my vehicle, not my master.
I mean, I don't have any more words.I've tried to do the best I can to lead by my actions in an appropriate way without recrimination or anything like that, because I'm a very happy person. I don't think I need to say any more than what I've demonstrated.
If we intend to provide a better life, and a better world, for future generations, we can't ignore the quality of the environment we leave them.
If you go into a room of 100-plus people, and you want to be the prince of darkness, you can be it. But I don't operate in the dark, I operate in the light.
With all those fledgling countries in Asia, who really want to stand with us but they live under the shadow of China and the smaller shadow of Russia. So I just think Trans-Pacific Partnership is really important both economically and geopolitically.
Everybody has a right to their God-given purpose.
Sometimes people just don't understand the way that I work in politics.
I'm not a big guy that believes that you gain energy from demonizing other people. I think you gain energy from giving people hope.
I don't make promises, by and large, that I can't keep.
In faith, I'm a believer in the do's - you know, love your neighbor, love your enemy. I don't spend a lot of time thinking on the don'ts 'cause I can't get the do's right.
Furthermore, when there is cheating, the cheating needs to be called. And I see that the administration has become much more aggressive on that front [of retraining people who get displaced].
When I listen to candidates spend all their time attacking Barack Obama, I'm glad they're not driving this bus because they'd be looking through the rear-view mirror. I look through the windshield at the road ahead.
I'm not a plotter or a schemer. I'm a guy that looks at problems and tries to solve them, which I have done all of my career, creating jobs in Washington, creating jobs in Ohio.
I just don't see anybody that's particularly interested in fixing that.
Nothing is more important to me than my family, my faith, and my friends.
I was a member of the Armed Services Committee for 18 years. I spent a big chunk of my life studying national security issues and our role in the world.
I know that, you know, leaders have to lead. I don't read polls to decide what I'm going to do. But for the best interest of the people of our state [Ohio], having a big mix of technology, healthcare, IT, financial services, and manufacturing is the ticket.
People have now been absorbing only that they agree with. You know, part of it is if you're liberal, you consume liberal information. If you're a conservative, you consume conservative information. And there's a certain stridency in both that you know everything, and if somebody doesn't agree with you, you think they don't know what they're talking about, and you become intolerant.
People have accused me at times of having too big of a heart.But I have to also to say I must keep the people of my state safe. So we take a pause [in taking refugees].
We [americans] need to control our border just like people have to control who goes in and out of their house.
Well, it's not all Americans. But I understand those polls. But as a result of that, that's not going to change my position. I mean I don't think it is even practical and I don't think it's right. I mean just because somebody happens to be of the Muslim faith, doesn't make them a terrorist or make them a threat to America. And we've had relations with people all over the world of the Muslim faith.
I was discouraged when I read that [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell said that Trans-Pacific Partnership was dead, but then I was told he turned around and said, "No, it's not."
I do not support a civil war. I don't want to be policeman of the world. But we can't back off of this.
A leader has a sound program, has a good policy, and then brings people together to solve problems.
Every time I go to Washington, I break out in a cold sweat. So I try not to spend too much time there.
I don't want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington. And if people have an opinion, it's a religious opinion that is heartly felt, obviously they should be allowed to practice that and no government should interfere with them.
We all have to be, as consumers of information and news, we have to be a little more circumspect. And let's not take everything in that gets fed to us.
God is a compass. God is not about who you're sleeping with or, I mean, I don't care about that. It's about loving your neighbor. It's about living a life that's bigger than yourself. As time goes on, societies have a tendency to put themselves on the throne, and that leads to self-absorption and that leads to "life is all about me." And there's not a compass that sends you in a direction where life can't be just about you.
I would only go to Syria to destroy ISIS. I would not use U.S. troops to depose Assad. But I would support the rebels there. It's okay to support those people who share your view. But for the United States to be embroiled in a civil war in Syria against [Bashr] Assad I think is a big mistake.
Business people have a a good view of what's happening internally in countries, and they can be a positive force.
Everybody should have a chance to rise. That's our philosophy in Ohio and that's my philosophy for America.
How do you prevent people from doing inappropriate things? We can write laws. But at the end of the day, I actually wonder what the board was doing.
I remember when the Egyptian ambassador to the United States stood in the Rose Garden and pledged Arab commitment to removing Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.
(God) wants America to succeed. And he wants America to lead.
We need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let them share in this great American dream that we have.
A friend asked one of my daughters, "Do you like politics?" And my daughter said, "No, I don't. And the reason I don't like it is because there's too much fighting, too much yelling. It's so loud, I don't like it." You know, I turned to my friend and I said, "You know, she's really on to something."
Business has to have capital.I think Wall Street is a necessary ingredient of the global economy, you've just got to keep people realizing that helping clients is the most important thing, not helping yourself.
It's an individual morality in values that matters in these companies [like Wells Fargo]. I mean, they ought to clean house. And they ought to figure out how to claw back all this money. That is a given. In terms of additional laws, there are reasonable approaches to this, but I'd have to see what they are. I'm not a federal lawmaker.
We've just let too many things happen. And now, try to turn around and fix it. Getting involved in a [Syria] civil war directly was never something I thought made sense.
The role of money in politics is terrible, particularly when you're running for president. You get a handful of billionaires who can basically buy the White House.
If the B2 is invisible, just announce you've built 100 of them and don't build them.
First of all, we're not Rust Belt. I mean, that's an old term. We do have manufacturing. We have a half-a-billion-dollar investment from a Chinese individual, which brings a couple thousand jobs in Dayton.
No one ever expect me to get in the race. They didn't think I would get on the debate stage. I did. They didn't think I'd do well in New Hampshire. I finished second. And so we went to South Carolina. In a short period of time later, two weeks ago people in South Carolina had no clue who I was.
[President] needs to engage them in a very personal way. And he needs to tell them that this is something that America, the United States of America, needs. Not Republican. It's not Democrat. It's America.
You give up a lot to be in politics. And if you're not there to change the world I don't know what you're there for. I mean, it doesn't make any sense to me.
A lot of politicians now, here's what they're worried about. If you're a Democrat you're worried about your base on the left, and if you're a Republican you're worried about your base on the right.
If you look even at Pittsburgh, where I grew up, you've now replaced steel jobs with technology jobs, and they pay better.
You know, it's trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. Not only are there a lot of outsiders intervening but this also involves a vicious internal war. There are many who believe the Alawites will fight to the death because they believe that, should they lose power, the majority would take, would show no compassion for them. They ruled that country for a long time, ruthlessly. It is a vicious civil war that makes one want to cry every day.
We need a dramatic improvement in the way we train people who get displaced.
I don't accept that. I really don't care - I'm going to be like one of these deniers - I don't care what the polls say.
Politics can not only be drudgery and Captain Queeg with the balls in his hands.
Frankly, we should publicly increase them [ anti-Russian sanctions ].
And, frankly, what happens out of Washington is, it creates a wind in my face, uncertainty over Obamacare, uncertainty over their tax policy, uncertainty over the regulatory policy.
America is a miracle country. And we have to restore the sense that the Amiracle (ph) will apply to you. Each and every one of the people in this country who's watching tonight, lift everybody, unite everybody and build a stronger United States of America again. It will be and can be done.
I spent ten years in the private sector, actually learning how business works. I'm the governor of Ohio, and I inherited a state that was on the brink of dying. And we turned it all around with jobs and balanced budgets and rising credit and tax cuts, and the state is unified, and people have hope again in Ohio.
Everybody across this country knows that the tsunami of drugs is threatening their very families.
To have people believe in you and to believe that you can bring people together and strengthen our country, I have to thank the people from the great state of Ohio. I love you. Is it all right? I love you. And I want to remind you, again, tonight, that I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land.
Frankly, we are republicans and they're democrats but before all of that, we're Americans. And I believe we need to unify in so many ways to rebuild our country, to strengthen our country, to rebuild our defense, and for America to secure it's place it world; for us, for our children, and for the next generation.
Let's start off with my father being a mailman.
We've got to listen to other people's voices, respect them, but keep in mind, and I believe in terms of the things that I've read in my lifetime, the Lord is not picking us. But because of how we respect human rights, because that we are a good force in the world, he wants America to be strong.
You know, since the 6th century, Sunni and Shia have been fighting.
God created astrologers to make pollsters look accurate.
To put all of your eggs in one basket is silly. We did that for a long time and I don't think it's very smart.
Economic growth is the key to everything. But once you have economic growth, it is important that we reach out to people who live in the shadows, the people who don't seem to ever think that they get a fair deal. And that includes people in our minority community; that includes people who feel as though they don't have a chance to move up.
You know, whatever it takes. It's very important obviously from an economic point of view because of the need for innovation, for progress, to improve the standard of living of people. But I also think it's a critical issue in geopolitics too.
I was the chairman of the Budget Committee and the lead architect the last time it happened in Washington, and when we did it we had great economic growth, we cut taxes, and we had a big surplus.
I am told that the Saudis have organized 34 countries who want to join in the battle against terrorism.
Manufacturing is still very important to us, but we are much more diversified state. And furthermore, anybody that says the steel mills are coming back to Youngstown is not telling the truth. They're not coming back. You could have some aspects of advanced manufacturing appear.
I worry about America. For the first time in my lifetime, I'm worried about us, i'm worried about how our values to some degree have been eroded, of personal responsibility and compassion and teamwork. I worry about it, I worry about the fact that we're so divided.
We're all hypocrites. We all say one thing and do another. But why don't we try to do what we say more than what we don't?
To allow the Russian activity to go unresponded to is not acceptable.
People would rather live in an area of poverty than in an area where there are no jobs, because if they live in poverty, they have a certain sense of hope they can get out of it. If there are no jobs, there's no hope. And bad things come from that.
To put all of your eggs in one basket is silly.
People are frustrated. They're fed up. They don't think the government is working for them.
I think in Washington we have bigger issues than people being outraged by somebody else's tweet. They need to look themselves in the mirror and figure out whether they're serving the country or they're serving their party or their own interests.
In this country, people are concerned about their economic future. They're very concerned about it. And they wonder whether somebody is getting something to - keeping them from getting it. That's not the America that I've ever known.
We have to go massively, like we did in the first Gulf War where we destroyed Saddam's ability to take Kuwait. We need to have a coalition that will stand for nothing less than the total destruction of ISIS and we have to be the leader.
The administration [of Barack Obama] is going to have to figure out, you know, a tough response on the basis of this [Russian] hacking.
I think it's too late. I think that there's been too much. This all started with the red line, walking away from it. The inability to arm the legitimate [Bashar] Assad opposition.
I've heard a lot of nasty rhetoric about the president. We're going to kick your rear end out of the White House and stuff. That's just not the way I behave.
When there is cheating, the cheating needs to be called.
Let me tell you what is interesting about the administration. We had Central American miners that were placed in Ohio, and we never knew a thing about it. We didn't know where they were. And, in fact, we know now that some of them, there is a case going on where some of them may have been human-trafficked.
I'm a change agent. And what we're beginning to see is a lot of the establish people, one more time, trying to stop me.
My father was a mailman. His father was a coal miner. My mother's mother could barely speak English. And their son today stands on this podium in the great state of Ohio not only as the governor, but a candidate for president of the United States.I do believe in miracles.I've had a lot of elections. But my elections are really not about campaigns. I tell my people that these are about a movement.A movement to do things like provide economic growth. And a movement not to let anybody be behind.
Here is the thing about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is hitting a nerve in this country.
We don't have to fight all the time. It can be done, and we will be great when we join together.
Mitt Romney has a history of being a great job creator. Secondly, he was a great governor. He went from billions of dollars in the hole when he became governor to billions of dollars in surplus when he left. And he went from the loss of tens of thousands jobs when he became governor to the creation of 40,000 new jobs when he left office.
My job is to try to figure out how to fix things, and I'm going to fix things as best as I can. I'm going to get a team together to fix things. And I can't sit around and worrying what the heck the chairman of the Republican Party thinks about what I'm doing.
Somebody tells me no, they're not going to keep telling me no, because I'm going to bother them to the point where it's a lot easier for them to say yes than keep saying no.
People intuitively know that trade is good for our country. We just have to get the right trade agreements.
For the Russians, frankly, it's time that we punched the Russians in the nose. They've gotten away with too much in this world and we need to stand up against them, not just there, but also in Eastern Europe where they threaten some of our most precious allies.
I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor - that if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy.
America needs somebody to restore the strength of this great land of ours.
