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Heckler to Perry: "What About the Indictment?"

Joyce Russell/IPR
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry at the Iowa State Fair Des Moines Register Soapbox

  Former Texas Governor Rick Perry drew a crowd on the state fairground’s grand concourse today, taking his turn at the Des Moines Register’s Soapbox and making his case he should be the Republican nominee for President.     He drew cheers with a strong anti-Washington message.  

 “I think what this country needs is a proven leader day in and day out who will go to the Oval Office and make Washington D.C. as inconsequential as we can make it,” Perry says.   “I can do this.”     

He says Washington’s only role should be to secure the borders, and to build up the military:

“We’re down to one fighter in production,” Perry says.  “We’re down to ten carriers.   We should have at least 13 carriers. 

“Our Ohio class submarines, we’re down to the last years of their useful life and we don’t have a plan to replace them or refurbish them,” Perry adds.

Perry singled out education and health care, calling the federal government’s role nonsense.      

He touted his accomplishments improving education and the economy in Texas.  But one heckler, visiting from Texas, shouted, “What about the indictment?”  Perry still faces a charge of abuse of power for threatening to veto funding for a state anti-corruption unit.

It was Perry’s third time on the soapbox.   He spoke during the 2012 caucus season.  He also spoke last year, in anticipation of running for president again this time.