Republican presidential candidate also tells the annual meeting of powerful lobbying network Alec that Isis is a greater security threat than climate change

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Scott Walker has vowed to unravel Barack Obama’s legacy, starting with the Iran nuclear deal, should he become president.



Scott Walker, first Alec president? Long ties to controversial lobby raise concern Read more

The Wisconsin governor said on Thursday he would cancel the deal “on day one” in the White House and pick apart other Obama achievements, including healthcare reform.

Walker laid out an ambitious conservative agenda in a keynote address to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) , one of the nation’s most controversial and powerful lobbying networks, in San Diego.

He promised to curb organised labour, slash taxes and regulations, and inject Ronald Reagan-style “steel” into US foreign policy, saying Islamic extremism, not climate change, was the leading security threat.

“We fight to win,” he said. “The rest of the world must know there is no greater friend and no worse enemy than the United States of America.”

The governor, a leading contender in a crowded GOP field, made numerous references to his religious faith and boasted of defunding Planned Parenthood, drawing cheers from the audience of legislators and lobbyists.

Walker, who has close ties to the lobbying network, also won applause vowing to dismantle the administration’s Iran deal – a deal secretary of state John Kerry and other senior officials were concurrently trying to sell on Capitol Hill.

The radical regime that took US embassy staff hostage in Tehran in 1979 remained a foe, said Walker: “Iran has not changed much since then. I will terminate the deal with Iran on my very first day.”

In a shot at Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, he said an “Obama-Clinton doctrine” had let Russia, China and terrorists threaten US security.

“I’m for true safety,” Walker said. “The commander in chief has a sacred duty to protect the American people.”

In one of four references to Reagan, he promised to “go back” to an era of strong American values and peace.

The governor mocked Obama’s focus on climate change as a security threat, eliciting guffaws from the audience. “The greatest threat is radical Islam,” he said. “I’d rather take the fight to them rather than wait for them to bring the fight to us.”

With Mexico just 20 miles away, Walker cited a “need to secure our borders”. But he otherwise steered clear of immigration, a fraught topic for Republicans which Donald Trump was due to stir anew on Thursday on a visit to the Texas border. Walker did not mention Trump or any of the 14 other GOP hopefuls.

San Diego is far from Wisconsin but Alec’s conference was home ground for Walker. He has maintained close ties with the group, and promoted its policy positions, since taking public office in 1993 as a state legislator.

Many of his most contentious actions – a tough-on-crime bill that sent incarceration rates soaring, stand-your-ground gun laws, protection of corporate interests, attacks on union rights and many more – have borne the Alec seal of approval.

As governor since 2011, Walker no longer officially belongs to Alec but according to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), in his first year as governor he signed into law 19 bills that reflected, to some degree, Alec thinking.

The CMD, which monitors the lobbying group, has speculated Walker could become the “first Alec president”.

The network matches state legislators – overwhelmingly Republican – with major US corporations, facilitating meetings behind closed doors and drafting business-friendly bills which often become law.

Hundreds of protestors marched on Wednesday to the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel in San Diego, where the three-day conference was being held. The mix of labour groups, Democrats and environmentalists chanted slogans and brandished banners against corruption and corporate money in US politics.

“They want to destroy labour unions,” Dolores Huerta, a veteran labour leader, told the Guardian. “If you don’t have labour unions you don’t have redistribution of wealth, and then you don’t have a middle class. And without a middle class you don’t have democracy.”

Huerta assailed Walker, saying he would roll back social progress.

“He’s a disaster for the country,” she said.

Jim Mickelson, 46, a firefighter and union leader, brought his wife and three daughters to the protest.

“We’re here to let them know they’re not welcome,” he said.

What might Scott Walker's America look like? Just see what he did to Wisconsin Read more

Addressing a packed ballroom, Walker joked that the protest was a mere “warm-up act” compared to the huge, raucous backlash he faced in Wisconsin after dismantling the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers. He said he had faced down death threats.

“We took on the unions and won,” he said. “They believed they could win by intimidating local officials.”

He talked up his controversial record in Wisconsin, saying “big, bold reforms” lowered taxes by $2bn and improved education standards.

“We can hire and fire based on merit,” he said.

Critics accuse him of wrecking the budget and gutting educational institutions.

Walker vowed to repeal Obamacare, saying the path to a greater America was transferring power from Washington to state level, moving people from welfare to work and slashing federal regulations, which he said were “out of control”.

He said the US should build the Keystone pipeline, and use the energy “abundance God has given us”.