FULL SPEECH: Reince Priebus address to Republican Convention

Thank you.

To the people of Cleveland, we say thank you for your hospitality. And to my wife Sally, and my son Jack and my daughter Grace, I love you. Thank you for everything you do for me.

I stand before this Convention tonight as the Chairman of a Party that is carrying the torch of liberty.

We are the Party of the open door.

To some people…and some presidents…America is just another country. To Republicans, America is the greatest nation on earth.

We don’t apologize for America. We celebrate America. 

At every level, Republicans stand for aspiration and achievement.

We stand for peace and prosperity.

We stand for freedom and fairness.

These values have inspired people the world-over, ever since we won our freedom over two centuries ago.

These values fueled the sacrifices for freedom at Gettysburg and Normandy and Fallujah.

These values spurred the fight for equality in Birmingham and Selma.

It is clear the Republican Party is the only party willing to fight for these values and lead America to greatness in the 21st century. 

You see, the dirty little secret Democrats don’t want you to know is that they are the party of the same old thing.

Next week they’re going to trot out the same old Democrats with the same old message running the same old candidate.

We are the party of new ideas in a world changing faster than ever before.

Democrats depend on super delegates and bureaucrats to sneak their agenda through the backdoor. 

We are the party of the grassroots. We honor what the voters say.

Democrats want to put labor union bosses in charge of our schools, limit our choices, and feed our kids a steady diet of their left-wing propaganda.

We know every child matters and the classroom is not an assembly line. It’s time to give the power back to parents, embrace school choice, and equip our children with the skills they need for college, career, and life.

Democrats want healthcare choices in the hands of politicians.

We want healthcare choices in the hands of patients.

Democrats want Washington to impose a one-size-fits-all policy on everybody.

We say an independent people deserves individual solutions.  

What separates Republicans from Democrats is our belief in better.

We believe in better schools. A better healthcare system.

A better economy which rewards hard work, no matter where or when you punch the clock. 

And most of all, we believe in a better chance at the American Dream for everyone.

The Republican Party will not stop until that becomes a reality.

And that’s why we need to stop Hillary Clinton.

A Clinton presidency only means more debt, more ObamaCare, and more hard-working families never seeing a raise.

If Hillary Clinton is given the chance, she’ll stack the Supreme Court with activist left-wing judges who will treat the Constitution like a doormat. You can kiss your gun rights goodbye if she ever finds her way into the White House.

In foreign policy, a Clinton presidency means forgetting our friends and enabling our enemies.

Just look, just look at her disastrous Iran nuclear deal, which lined the pockets of the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism with your money, while abandoning our greatest ally in the Middle East, the nation of Israel. 

It was on her watch ISIS began to spread its wings of evil over the Middle East.

And she has spent the last 16 months looking in the eyes of the American people and lying about how she recklessly jeopardized the American people and our national security with her secret email server.

She lied. And she lied over and over and over. She lied! She lied.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps worst of all, perhaps worst of all, Hillary Clinton has perfected the art of politics for personal gain.

She reads ethics rules as carefully as Americans read their junk mail.

Just look at her track record.

She used her post as Secretary of State to grease the wheels for Democrat lobbyists, special interests, and political insiders connected to the corrupt Clinton Machine.

Her family foundation took millions of dollars in donations from countries notorious for human rights abuses and funneling money to radical Islamic terrorists.

For Hillary Clinton, the Oval Office is just another cash cow. 

Well, I have one word for all this hypocrisy and corruption. Enough.

Americans have had enough of a government that plays favorites to the well-connected.

They’ve had enough of the Clintons’ excuses, cronyism and cover ups.

They’ve had enough of the corrupt deals.

Americans have had enough!

This election, this election is our chance to stop it, and Donald Trump is the right man to lead that charge.

You all know he’s brought millions of new voters into our Party because he’s listening to Americans who are anxious about a country which has lost its way.

Donald Trump wants to bring jobs back from overseas and hold companies who want to send them abroad accountable.

He’s finally going to stop illegal immigration and make sure our government puts American citizens first.

Working families are the lifeblood of our country, and we can’t thrive as a nation unless they are thriving. A lot of them haven’t seen a bigger paycheck in a long time.

Donald Trump wants to make sure you can pay the mortgage, put gas in the car, and buy new clothes for the first day of school.

Donald Trump is committed to hitting terrorists hard and making the safety of every man, woman, and child in America his number one priority.

No more negotiating with terrorists. If they want to take us down, we’re gonna take them down.

And, he will protect the Second Amendment, and every other right guaranteed in the Constitution, by approving and appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

And importantly, he’s going to protect the lives of the unborn.

So I have a message to America: hold on. Help is coming.

With Donald Trump and Mike Pence, America is ready for a comeback after almost a decade of Clinton-Obama failures.

I want to close by telling you a little-known story of American greatness.

William Nudesen was a Danish immigrant who started out working in a shipyard and living in a boardinghouse. He knew America promised limitless opportunity, and was determined to make the most of it. He developed his talents for industrial engineering and worked his way up at General Motors. By 1937, he had become the President of the company.

In 1940, the government asked him to get America’s factories on a wartime footing. Instead of cars and trucks, America’s great manufacturers were now proudly making tanks and planes. For this enormous responsibility, Nudesen was paid $1 per year.

He didn’t do it for the money. He was motivated by a duty to keep America free from tyranny. He set aside the job of leading one of the largest companies in America so he could help save the world.

At the end of the war, a war department official told him, “You have never done anything for yourself, only for your country. You have never spared yourself.”

Like William Nudesen, we cannot spare ourselves either.

Economic freedom. Belief in the American Dream. A strong defense. Putting country first.

Those values are under assault from Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democrat party.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not just a tagline for a bumper sticker.

It is our American legacy, and it is our responsibility to save it and strengthen it for our children and grandchildren.

Listen, God didn’t put us here by accident. This is our moment to set a new course for an America as strong and confident as we’ve ever been.

Let’s stand united as Republicans!

Let’s stop Hillary Clinton!

Let’s get to work, expand our Republican majorities, and elect Donald Trump president!

Thank you, and God Bless America!