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00:00Wow, thanks guys. Thanks everybody. I want to thank y'all all. We just they called our race. We had
00:05a big victory tonight. I want to thank you for that. Thank you. I am so profoundly grateful to represent
00:14this incredible community and the greatest people in the world. And I've been all around the world. And I can
00:19tell you it's true. It's true. It really is. All the folks here.
00:23When I ran for Congress 10 years ago, I mean, Kelly and I, we could never have imagined that we'd
00:28be standing before you as the 56th Speaker of the House. I mean, I just wasn't in a.
00:38We wouldn't have imagined that we'd been here 10 years later. You know, we'd be thanking you again for your
00:42support. And we're truly, truly honored.
00:45Y'all know my story. I'm a Shreveport boy, a son of a Shreveport firefighter who was disabled and permanently
00:53burned, you know, in his line of duty. First person in my family to go to college.
00:57We've been blessed to raise our family here, our amazing kids and to be a part of the community. And
01:02we wouldn't have changed a single thing.
01:04This is the most amazing district. And I've seen them all around the country. The most amazing congressional district in
01:10America. I want to tell you that.
01:15I do want to thank my sweet bride of now 27 plus years, Kelly.
01:24It is a long suffering responsibility to be a Speaker of the House's spouse. And she's done an incredible job
01:31with grace and dignity and patience.
01:33And as I was traveling around the country during this campaign cycle, everybody, everywhere I go, where's Kelly?
01:38They want Kelly to be with me all the time. I do so much better when she is, but she's
01:43had to maintain the household and all of our,
01:44all of our big family and everything else going on. And I want to thank all that big family here.
01:49Here's Hannah and her husband, Cody. Hannah's our oldest, as you know, and Abby and her fiance, Aaron.
01:54They're getting married next August.
01:59And Will over here is our caboose.
02:10And his big brother, Jack, is at the Naval Academy today.
02:13And they, I don't know.
02:22Him and, oh, well, there we go. Okay.
02:25Sorry, Jack, it's the Russians. They don't like my son of the Navy.
02:30That's what happens.
02:32I also have to give out a big, big debt of gratitude that I have for my incredible staff.
02:39They're all around the room, everywhere.
02:47Our, our official staff in DC and the district staff, and of course the campaign team.
02:52It's just an incredible group of people.
02:53And we couldn't have gone one day without them.
02:56And I'm so, so grateful.
02:57I also want to acknowledge every one of my Republican colleagues all around this country
03:00who really left it all on the field in this cycle, as they do all the time.
03:04And it's a big commitment for every family.
03:06And I want to thank their families for their sacrifices as well.
03:10It takes a great deal to run for office.
03:12And that's the same is true for the local and state offices as well.
03:15All those who step forward.
03:16You know, we're on the 250th anniversary of the greatest nation in the history of the world.
03:20It's the most free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation it's ever been.
03:24But it's still a grand experiment in self-governance.
03:27And it's a government of, by, and for the people.
03:29We don't have a king.
03:30We don't have a monarch.
03:31We have to do this ourselves.
03:32And for all those who take that sacrifice to step up and serve, we're really, really
03:38grateful for them all.
03:40I also want to thank President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance and the whole cabinet.
03:44They ran with our Republican colleagues hand in hand alongside our candidates all around
03:49the country.
03:50And this was a team effort.
03:51It really was.
03:52Now, look, I just want to tell you what we face.
03:54Some real odds here, okay?
03:55From the first day of this election, we knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority,
04:00we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history, okay?
04:05It's only happened twice in 90 years that a sitting president has picked up or held seats
04:09for his party in that first two-year cycle.
04:11And there's a lot of reasons for it.
04:12It's very, very difficult to overcome.
04:14And it looks like history will be kept tonight.
04:19We went on offense early.
04:21We launched one of the most dynamic political operations in the history of Congress.
04:25I promise you that.
04:25We made our case in terms of language of common sense.
04:28We said this is a contrast election between common sense and crazy.
04:33And I will maintain that that is exactly what it was, all right?
04:36And I said from day one that I was going to leave everything on the field in this endeavor.
04:40And I'm proud to say that's exactly what we did.
04:42They gave me the stats tonight, okay?
04:44In this two-year cycle, I led almost 500 individual campaign events across 36 states.
04:52I broke every fundraising record there's ever been by God's grace.
04:55And because of the help of a lot of people in this room,
04:57we raised more than $526 million direct in Super PAC funds for this cycle.
05:03Yeah.
05:07So listen to this.
05:08And I'm telling you, because you're friends and family,
05:10and you've all been a big part of this.
05:12And since becoming speaker, I can't believe what I'm about to tell you,
05:15I've raised more than $870 million,
05:18which makes me, I think, the largest fundraiser in the history of the Republican Party,
05:22except for Donald J. Trump.
05:29And I've also, listen to this,
05:31I've also traveled enough campaign miles to circle the globe more than 14 times, okay?
05:37I know, right?
05:38I know.
05:40I adopted a long time ago the motto of John Quincy Adams,
05:43one of our great, the sixth president, one of our great leaders in the history.
05:46And he said,
05:47Duty is ours, results are God's.
05:48And that's a family motto of all of ours, and we take it seriously.
05:51And I've tried my best every single day as speaker
05:55and as the campaign leader here to fulfill our duty.
05:57And I know before the Lord we have an honest heart for that.
06:01Now, look, we're going to continue to watch the results as they come in across the country tonight.
06:05It'll be a long night.
06:05You know, they haven't even closed the polls in some states out there in the West.
06:09We have a giant war room behind you.
06:11You don't even know what's going on.
06:11There's like 20 people in there with screens and metrics.
06:14It looks like the situation room.
06:16We're watching every race.
06:17I'm reaching out to all of my candidates and incumbents and encouraging them,
06:21the ones that won, and encouraging the ones that didn't tonight.
06:24And that's just part of the deal.
06:25But they've all worked so hard.
06:26They've overcome expectations, so many of them.
06:29They all left it all in the field and ran through the tape.
06:32Once we know the final results,
06:33I'll speak a lot more about the midterms in the coming days.
06:36But as we look at just the weeks ahead of us,
06:39we're going to be ready to build on our record of accomplishment.
06:41We still have a lame duck.
06:43They call it the lame duck, the November-December end of this Congress,
06:46two more months ahead of us.
06:48And I want to tell you, as we enter the final weeks of the 119th Congress,
06:52I am really proud of what we were able to do in this last two years.
06:56You know, the voters gave us control, unified government of Washington.
07:00We have the White House, the Senate, and the House.
07:02And even though we had the smallest margin since the Great Depression, okay,
07:07and even though we had obstructionist Democrats at every turn,
07:10I mean, they truly do have Trump derangement syndrome.
07:11It's a very real disease, okay?
07:13And they dug their heels in, and they shut the government down three times.
07:17In fact, they set the record.
07:18They had 120 days, the longest shutdown in history.
07:21That's what the Democrats did, because they refused to work.
07:24And in spite of all those things, my friends,
07:26we had one of the most productive Congresses in the history of the institution.
07:30We gave the largest tax cut in U.S. history just a few months back.
07:34That's exactly right.
07:39The largest middle- and working-class tax cut ever, $4.6 trillion.
07:44We also cut more spending than any Congress in history.
07:46In fact, any legislative body in the history of planet Earth.
07:49We cut $1.6 trillion in fraudulent and wasteful spending
07:52to make government work more efficiently and effectively for the people.
07:56We also secured the border.
07:58That was the biggest thing in 2024, everybody forgot.
08:04We've not had one single illegal alien released into the country in 17 straight months.
08:10That's promises made, promises kept.
08:12Exactly.
08:14And because we brought back the principle of the rule of law and law and order,
08:19because that's what Republicans do, we have brought the lowest crime rate.
08:22You have the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years across this country right now,
08:27because we did what we said we were going to do.
08:29We also have Trump accounts for every newborn.
08:31We have the first-ever nationwide school choice program that we codified,
08:36the biggest drop in prescription drug costs in over 60 years.
08:40Companies are reshoring production.
08:42We've added a million jobs in the private sector just in the last 19 months,
08:45and it goes on and on and on.
08:48Trillions have been invested in the country because we put the economic conditions in place to do that.
08:52It's an extraordinary record, and we did that with the smallest margin.
08:56But when it mattered most, Republicans stayed unified as one team, and we delivered.
09:01But our job is nowhere close to being finished yet,
09:04and the outcome of an election on one night doesn't change that a bit.
09:10Republicans have much more work to do to give every American a shot at a better life,
09:14and to ensure that the United States remains the freest and most prosperous,
09:18most powerful nation in the history of the world.
09:20We will never give up on that endeavor and that vision.
09:24A new Congress doesn't change that at all.
09:27Now, look, I'm not going to exaggerate when I tell you that there is not a single American,
09:31not a single American family anywhere that's going to be made better off
09:35if Democrats turn Congress into a circus.
09:38And I'm afraid that is what some of them want to do, okay?
09:42If they make the next two years about retribution and lawfare and partisan games,
09:47every American will suffer by that.
09:49And I'll tell you what we will do.
09:50We will put a firewall of House Republicans standing in their way to ensure that doesn't happen.
09:55Okay? All right?
10:01Now, to every American disappointed by tonight's results,
10:05I mean, I'm disappointed too, but we are never discouraged, okay?
10:09Because we live in the greatest nation in the world.
10:12Millions of Americans voted because they love their country.
10:14They voted in this election,
10:16and they're alarmed about the direction the Democrats are taking
10:19and their embrace of this socialist Marxist platform that is a threat to people everywhere.
10:24And every single time it's been tried,
10:26it's ended in human suffering and misery and pain and even death.
10:30Remember, Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto,
10:32and he used socialism and communism interchangeably.
10:35He said socialism was just a step to get to communism,
10:39which they thought was the utopia of the perfect society.
10:41It's a dangerous fool's errand.
10:44You know why Marxism begins with the wrong premise and ends in death?
10:47In fact, the communists have been responsible for the murder of tens of millions of innocent people
10:50in the 20th century alone.
10:51You know why it always leads to that?
10:53Because it begins with the wrong premise.
10:55If you were all with us in D.C. tonight,
10:57I'd take you on a Capitol tour, and we could do this whole group.
10:59I don't know, a thousand people.
11:00We could do it. We could do it.
11:02I couldn't get you all on the floor at the same time,
11:04but we could go in a couple of groups, a few groups.
11:06But if you came on the floor with me,
11:07and you walked in with us, and we've done this with many of you,
11:10if you walk in at eye level, as members do,
11:12the first thing you see that you can't miss it,
11:14and when you walk down that center aisle, you see,
11:17In God We Trust, right above the speaker's head on the rostrum, okay?
11:20Yeah, exactly.
11:25And I know this speech is being covered nationwide,
11:28and I want everybody to listen to what I'm about to tell you.
11:30If we were there tonight with all my friends there,
11:32I'd show you in The Visitor's Guide to the People's House.
11:34It's a book about this thick.
11:35It talks about all the symbols in the chamber
11:37and why they're there and what it means.
11:38And if you turn to page 20, it talks about the national motto,
11:41and it says, in 1962, Congress voted to put the national motto
11:46above the speaker's head in the rostrum in the marble.
11:49It says in the book, quote,
11:50as a rebuke to the Soviet's philosophy during the Cold War.
11:55Now, what was the Soviet's philosophy during the Cold War?
11:57My friends, it's exactly what a bunch of Democrats right now are espousing, okay?
12:02And when they voted in 1962, it was a unanimous vote.
12:05Every Democrat voted with every Republican.
12:07I shudder to think what would happen if I put that resolution on the floor
12:10when we get back.
12:13I don't know where that would be, but I'll tell you what.
12:15The reason they rebuked the Soviet's philosophy
12:16is because it begins with the wrong premise.
12:19Marxism, socialism, communism begin with the premise
12:22that there is no God.
12:24That is not what America is about.
12:26We better remember that in the days ahead.
12:29Listen, this election was always about much more than just one policy
12:33and red team versus blue team.
12:35It was about whether we're going to preserve and strengthen
12:37the American experiment
12:38or we're going to hand our country over to far-left radicals
12:41who have captured the Democrat Party.
12:43The battle for our country,
12:45that battle against this insurgent socialist movement
12:48and the battle to restore American greatness,
12:51none of that is over in any way.
12:54In fact, I'm going to tell you right now,
12:55that fight has just begun for our generation, okay?
12:58We will win that fight for America.
13:01Yeah, that's right.
13:08I'll just close with this.
13:09Look, it has been the honor of my life
13:11to serve as the representative of the people
13:13of Louisiana's 4th District,
13:15the greatest people in the world.
13:16It's been the honor of my life to serve
13:17as the 56th Speaker of the House,
13:19not a position we ever aspired to or expected to have.
13:23We try to be good stewards of that.
13:25We're trying to steward the greatest nation
13:28in the history of the world,
13:29and I look forward to continuing the fight
13:30with my colleagues in the 120th Congress.
13:33Republicans will not be deterred
13:35by the outcome of one election.
13:37In fact, you know what we do?
13:38We double down.
13:39We double down, all right?
13:40We will continue pressing forward
13:42with our agenda of common sense
13:44and our vision to make America great again.
13:46And come 2028, we will take back the House
13:49and we will finish this job, all right?
14:00There have always been twists and turns
14:01in the last 250 years of this great nation, okay?
14:04There's been highs and lows,
14:05and there's been lots of challenges,
14:06but we do not lose faith.
14:07And I am absolutely convinced,
14:09in fact, I'm more convinced right now
14:11than I ever have been before,
14:12that God is not done with America yet, all right?
14:15No matter what the outcome of an election.
14:16That's right.
14:20So I want to thank you all sincerely
14:22for your faithful friendship
14:24and your constant support and encouragement.
14:26Of course, your prayers that has sustained us.
14:29This family is eternally grateful
14:31for the friends and everyone in this room.
14:33We have all done this together,
14:34and a government of, by, and for the people
14:36will continue to do it together.
14:38May God bless the great state of Louisiana,
14:40and may God bless the United States of America.
14:43Thank you so much.