Transcripts For CSPAN 25th Anniversary Election Of Bill Clinton 20171126

It is not too late to enter. To chooseing students a provision of the u. S. Constitution and create a video demonstrating why it is important to you. Our competition is open to all middle school and high school students, grades six through 12. 100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. Of 5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. For more information, go to our website, studentcam. Org. Next, former resident bill clinton and former first lady 25thry clinton mark the anniversary of when he was elected. Mrs. Clinton also talked about her new book and losing 32016 president ial election. This is about an hour and 40 minutes. Please give a big hand. Will you stand up so we can recognize you . James, stand out. They are right here in the front. [applause] i would also like to say a the special thanks to sponsors for a long this 25th anniversary to take place. Thank you, sponsors. [applause] before we begin what will be a lively conversation, i would like to thank you for joining us today. This is the largest crowd we have ever had for a lecture. As you can imagine with this giant group, it would be nearly impossible to recognize all of the distinguished guests individually. So i am going to ask groups of people to please raise your hand when called. If you are current official ratio hand. Raise your hand. Served in the campaign, raise your hand. Hand if youup your also served or volunteer during the 1996 campaign. [applause] if you served in the clintongore administration, please raise your hand. [applause] or are partu were of the Clinton Foundation, the clinton library, or the Clinton School of public service, please raise your hand. [applause] and for those who we have lost since 1992 lets all take a brief moment to honor their memory. We celebrate a, pivotal time in our history, where americans year and a for a history who put people first. On november 3, they got one. [applause] today, as a look back at the 1992 campaign, what made it so groundbreaking and special, not only to those of us who were part of it, but for the American People who were energized and enthusiastic about what this campaign stood for. 1991 as a started in volunteer for the clinton president ial Exploratory Committee at an old paint store. Early assignments, i was asked to help Senior Campaign advisers with the necessities like finding a place to live, a dry cleaners, and perhaps more importantly a liquor store. [laughter] had a very high honor of driving perus lyndsay and governor bill clinton back and forth and back and forth. I took orders, as many of you in the audience have come from the general. I dropped off David Wilhelms laundry at the sun wash. I made coffee, and lots and lots of coffee. I wouldnt trade any of it for a second. [applause] that was pretty exciting. That first trip really confirms what i already knew about our states first lady. She was dynamic, highly organized, a little unconventional, and selfsufficient. She didnt really need a staffer. She did not just listen to the people she met, she really absorbed what they said. I would watch her as she listened and i knew that in addition to her concern, she was thinking about real solutions. Like resident clinton, i grew up in a small town here in arkansas. My dream was to work in politics like my dad and many before me. When i was 24 years old, bill clinton gave me that chance. I worked in the 1992 campaign. I served eight glorious years in the Clinton White house and now i am back in my home state running the clinton president ial center. [applause] yes, thank you. I can never really thank president clinton and up for the amazing opportunity he has given me. I pinch myself every day and feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with both of these Public Servants while dean being a wife, mother, and raising my three daughters with my wonderful husband in arkansas. A place president clinton and i will always call home. We all share similar stories about the 1992 campaign. That is why we are here, to reflect, to celebrate, and to reconnect. I cannot think of a better person to lead this conversation than a one and only ragin cajin James Carville. [applause] his infectious enthusiasm, unlimited supply of energy, keen ability to coin a phrase like it is the economy, stupid, and that genuine cajun accent, James Carville is a force of nature and it was his ability to keep the campaign focused and determined to win every step of the way. Will you please turn your attention to the screens and enjoy the video we have made to commemorate the campaign that works tirelessly to put people first. Thank you. [applause] lintonilliam jefferson do solemnly swear i will execute , the office of president of the United States. This election is about change, change in our party, change in our leadership, change in our nation. [applause] and that is why today, i proudly announce my candidacy for president of the United States of america. Dont stop thinking about tomorrow governor clinton and white wife, hillary, took the campaign outdoors this cold New Hampshire day. They went door to door and passed out videotapes of candidate clinton. I want you to send a message of what kind of future you want, what kind of leadership you believe in and how we can win again. What is your name . Calvin. How old are you . Eight. How does it feel to be president . I do not know. I have not won yet. I hope it will feel good. Will you tell them to vote for me . I think we know enough to say with some certainty that New Hampshire tonight has made bill clinton the comeback kid. [applause] i am proud to say to all of you here and United States this is the next Vice President of the United States of america, senator al gore from tennessee. [applause] people are hearing bill clintons message, they are deciding to help change this country and get our country moving forward. [cheering] bill clinton wants to put people first. People are responding to the message of putting people first. We will make the government work for the average families. It is time to put the American People first to invest and grow this economy. People tell him things they do not tell anybody else. This is not unusual. Part of it is, they recognized somebody who has had honest struggles in his own life. When somebody says something to him, he does not brush them off. He does not look beyond them. He listens to them. He will listen, and he will care. He will try to help. It is time for a change. It is time for someone smart enough to do, Strong Enough to lead. The comeback kid. A new voice for a new america. I nominate for the office of the president of the United States the man from hope, arkansas. Arkansas proudly casts out 48 votes for our favorite son, bill clinton. Ohio casts 144 votes for the next president. [applause] gov. Clinton i still believe in a place called hope. God bless you. God bless america. Number one. The next president , bill clinton. We are going to get on these buses in a minute and we are going to new jersey, and pennsylvania, and kentucky, and ohio, illinois, and missouri, and before we are through, we are going to go to the heartland of america and into the hearts of america. [applause] i will ask you one last time. Will you help me change the future of america . We want ill. We want bill. The next president , bill clinton. Tendencies, nine states 4100 , miles. I will throw in the used towel. Ofi also have 3000 feet construction fence. I think we are to win tomorrow. I think many of you will go on and help him. People will tell you you are lucky, you are not. The harder you work, the luckier you get. The sticker i have fun says i voted. [indiscernible] thank you. The sticker i have on says i voted. I voted for bill clinton and al gore. I was the first person this point to vote for bill clinton. I have been smiling so much, so broadly that my jaws hurt. I went to work in the campaign of 1982. I have been home very little since. It is hard to believe. Where is elvis . He is always late. Excuse me. Hillary clinton, governor clinton, and a chelsea clinton. [cheers] and chelsea clinton. [cheers] gov. Clinton my fellow americans. On this day, with high hopes and the brave hearts in massive numbers, the American People have voted to make a new beginning. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome James Carville, secretary hillary clinton, and president bill clinton. James i thank everybody. One of the things i vividly in New Hampshire, when our poll numbers are dropping faster than the thermometer. We had a group called arkansas travelers. How many travelers do we have here . And i wish that the two of you you could talk about what it meant to be in that environment and the things we were going through and to know you had so many people back in arkansas that loved you so much. Pres. Clinton first of all, thank you. Thank all of you for making this possible. It is true what james said. Our poll numbers were dropping faster than the temperature. It was cold. It was obviously part of a strategy. I had already been warned by the white house that if iran might i ran for president , my poll numbers would drop, quickly and in the primary. I was expecting it. I did not know how they were going to get it done, but i am sure it was organized, and it would have plenty of people obliging them. All of a sudden, all of this is going on, and then this full page ad appears in the Manchester Union leader with 600 arkansans, and young people will find this hard to believe, there were no cell phones, they weighed five pounds. 600 people from arkansas put their phone number in an ad in the Manchester Union leader, and said do not believe what they are telling you about our governor. Call us collect and we will tell you the truth. I will never forget it. In the arkansas tabloids that had been there, another 150 people dropped what they were doing, and most of them drove on their own to New Hampshire, and they put 100,000 drops on doors, and they turned it around. And the rest is history. If they had not been for the if it had not been for the people of arkansas there werent , enough of us to go around, we would not have made it. So, thank you. [applause] sec. Clinton New Hampshire in late 1991 and 1992, it was a much shorter campaign. Bill did not announce until early october. If you can imagine, october of 1991. It was not one of these endless, long, grueling campaigns. It started with a burst of energy. We flew to New Hampshire for the first time as a potential candidate, and his team. And we found a really receptive audience of people who understood that we needed change, and we needed the kind of energy and dynamism that bill was representing. We spent a lot of time between midand late october into january, early february in New Hampshire. What james is talking about, was a truly horrible moment. I had spent the day, bill was there as well, at the manchester mall. We had been greeting people there. Random people, whoever walked into the mall, i would say hello, introduce myself, say that i was campaigning for bill, ask for their vote. The primary was 48 hours away. I got a really good response. People seemed very interested and positive, and you just felt, hey, maybe it was turning around. Then we went back to the little hotel we were camped out in, and we had a meeting with our pollsters, and the pollsters said you are dropping like a rock. You may not stay even in double digits. I remember thinking that is not the way it felt. One of the big differences between 1992 and 2016 is you felt like you could connect better and more deeply, and more quickly with people. I thought, ok, that is what the poll is saying, but it is not what i feel. I said, i am going to bed because i did not see what else we could do. We did everything we need to do. When the primary came, and bill finished a surprising and high second, i was really hopeful. One of the brilliant Strategic Decisions that were made in the New Hampshire primary came when, as you saw in the movie, bill went out first and claimed victory even though we had finished second. [laughter] and it was just explosion because he had lost. [laughter] but compared to what we thought was going to happen, he had one big. He had won big. From that moment on, he had momentum and he had so much support. I know there are some people from New Hampshire who along the way have helped us in so many elections and primaries, and the people of New Hampshire really sent him forward into the remaining contests. Pres. Clinton i also think it is important to point out, it is true as hillary said, we finished second. Everybody thought we were going to finish fifth. And we went down and came back up, and my principal opponent paul tsongas beat me like your yard dog in the first 10 miles of New Hampshire next to massachusetts. The rest of New Hampshire, thanks to a lot of people in this room, we won. When they said, you lost anyway. I said, yes i did. And i congratulate senator tsongas, now lets see how he does when we get to memphis. [laughter] and it had the desired effect. It was great. It was unbelievable. New hampshire was one of the greatest experiences in our lives. The thing that i liked was, people talk to you about real problems, real dreams, and they wanted real answers. They were not interested in how well you could badmouth your opponent, or what you could say. They wanted to know, what were you going to do to help them with their lives . And i will never forget it as long as i live. James recently in politics we hear, politicians say one thing and do another. The night you campaigned, as i recall, putting people first. I think there was a sign that said, it is the economy, stupid. You were very clear to the American People that what you wanted to do was build an economy that worked across america. Nothing was any clearer. That was the promise you made. Talk about the eight years that you were president , and talk about the things that happened across america, so at the end of the day when we had this focused campaign, people call it sloganeering and soundbites, that you were really clear, that if you look back, and lets talk about what happened to the economy and to people all across america in the last eight years. I think that is important. In this moment of national cynicism we have. Pres. Clinton first of all, we were seeing things that people are upset about this time 25 years ago, which is very uneven levels of Economic Growth. Both by income, and also by region. There was growing income and equality, and lower mobility. What i said was, if you give me a chance, we will try to build an economy that puts you first, where you can all be a part of it. And you have got a responsibility to educate your children and train yourself to do what is available. I cannot repeal the laws of economics, but we can shape it so you can do better. Our theory was if we gave incentives to invest everywhere, we focused on the future, then trained people for jobs that we knew we could grow in number, we could drive down unemployment and get rid of the deficit at the same time, and grow the economy faster. After eight years, it was the only time in a long time that all quintiles of the economy grew together. The bottom 20 of our people actually have their incomes increase in percentage terms as much as the top 5 , and greater than the top 20 . [applause] because we grew the economy from the bottom up, africanamerican families incomes went up 32 . Hispanics, 24 . Overall, 17 . And there was no interracial tension because we grew it from the bottom up instead of the top down. So everybodys incomes went up. It is the only time it happened in a month of sundays. It was a hugely important thing. Obviously, that is what i was hoping would happen again this time. That is the only thing that works. We proved that growing the economy from the middle out and bottomup works, and try to grow it from the top down does not. I hate to see us go down that road again, because were going to reach the same deadend again. It works to do it the way we did. Put the people first, they will bring everybody else along. Sec. Clinton the other aspect of this, which i really thought was amazing, is in addition to growing the economy for everybody, by the end of bills eight years, the budget was balanced and we had a surplus. If we had continued those policies, we would have eliminated our national debt. [applause] secretary clinton that seems almost impossible to believe. I was in the senate in 2001. All of a sudden, the new Republican Administration said, we have got a surplus, we need to give it back to the people, meaning the very richest of americans. And so lets cut taxes, and we will go back and show you. Maybe it did not work before, but we will show you we can trickle down and have Economic Growth. And a number of us said, why would we undermine the hard work of eight years . Remember, when bill became president , he inherited an economy that had a growing deficit and debt. The prior 12 years had quadrupled the debt of america, more than at any time in our entire previous history. And he was determined to try to reverse that because he believed, number one, it was good for the economy, and it was responsible, and it was what we should be doing for our children and grandchildren. It was really, really hard. Economic plans, the deficit Reduction Plan passed in each house by one vote. And not a single republican voted for it. Instead, they beat the drum day after day about how this policy of raising taxes on the wealthy, of getting more revenue to be able to invest in our people, putting people first was going to wreck the economy. And they were dead wrong. Now we are hearing the same baloney today, right . [applause] i know we live in a really speeded up world. It is important to learn that lessons of history, not revisionist phony history, but real history. We know how to grow the economy in a modern globalized world. It is heartbreaking, when you saw the results, when you saw will people getting ahead for the first time, more people were lifted out of poverty in bills eight years than at any time and time in previous history. Go time in previous history. [applause] clinton believe me, it is frustrating. If you try to live in the realitybased world which is where we should live, making these points and not being able to get them across, or have them believed, it is the fairytale of economics that it is going to trickle down. We are going to make everything and great. We may be cutting medicare and medicaid and health care, make it more expensive to go to school, and all the stuff they are trying to do in washington, but it is all going to work out. It is such nonsense. The tough budget that bill fought for, that he passed that was really, really difficult, it did not immediately kick in, so people did not see results quickly enough. In the 1994 midterm elections were disastrous. Then they shut the government down. And he had to fight against them on every front to save medicaid and medicare and the rest of it. But eventually the facts were proven. And the results were seen. And the results were seen. And i think there is a lot of as you important lessons to learn in those eight years about how to get the economy going, how to have inclusive prosperity, that we should not forget. If we do, we are back in the soup again. Pres. Clinton since it is a you are little bit of a retrospective, i owe a thank you order will to al gore. He did a great job. He loved to cut this joke about a a a breaking the tie in the senate on the budget. He said, nobody else can say a this, whenever i vote, we win. [laughter] clinton ident peasant clinton president clinton he only voted when there was a tie. Everybody is for change in general. And against it in particular. And people like it when it works out, but if it requires effort, you have to be prepared for a payment of a shortterm political price. I grieved, literally grieved for years that so many people lost their seats in congress in 1994, because we were seeing the beginning of a pattern. A which was broken only in a 1998 and 2006, thank you, mayor emanuel, but the truth is, a it worked out pretty well for the American People. Last night, i was a you watching cnn, and the trailer came on and said, after a they killed all these members will of congress because they voted for the budget, but for will the brady bill background checks and the assault weapons will will checks and the assault weapons ban, that now 95 of the country supports comprehensive background checks, and 65 would support an assault weapons ban. [applause] ]il president clinton that still does not mean you could survive voting for it. It all depends on who shows up. One of the great challenges we both face is in National Campaigns and governance in the white house, is to realize that between you and the people you are trying to put first, the further you move away up the totem pole, the more layers there are between you and the people. And the more difficult and challenging it can be to communicate. So, you cannot be undisciplined, and you cannot be weakkneed. You have to keep trying to break through. Never stop trying to explain. Never stop trying to reach people. It is a big part of the job. Frankly, one that after i got in, i underestimated it. I was governor of a small southern state. The idea of being in touch with all of your people was natural and inevitable. When you are president or running for president , or when you are secretary of state, it requires strenuous effort against forces determined to see that you cannot communicate with people. That was all very exciting. Will will will it worked out great for you, but change is not easy. Will a lot of people checked their careers at the door to make america stronger, safer, and a more fair place. In addition to economic will progress, a 25 year low in the crime rate, a 33 year low in the murder rate, a 47 year low as a in the illegal deaths by gun rate of all kinds. A a i thank all of you who a a made that possible. James mrs. Clinton, i want to go to one of your areas of expertise. You the economic success is what you people remember. I was going in the library and i waterboard noticed this mandela exhibit, i wish you could talk for a few minutes about the foreignpolicy successes we had. A little bit about that and other things because i think there were some real foreignpolicy achievements that tend to get overshadowed by the economic achievements. Sec. Clinton thats right. Thank you for raising it. If you look at the eight years, the United States played a major role in some significant foreignpolicy successes. Let me name a couple. First, the irish peace process. [applause] that it would never have happened without bill deciding that United States was going to back it. That happened because of the campaign. When he was trying to get support, and people were still try to figure out who he was, and what he had done in arkansas, he had a meeting with you irishamericans led by a man command we both knew from law school. One of the requests was, if you get elected, would you be willing to play a more active role in trying to end the troubles . And bill said he would. In it was a risky decision. I remember well he decided to give gerry adams, the head of weigh to give gerry adams, the head of sinn fein, which was seen as the equivalent of the ira, a visa to come to the United States, and there was an enormous uproar in opposition from the government and our own ambassador in london, and people saying, no, do not do this. You bill said, you have to dont make peace with people you have serious differences. He asked George Mitchell to be the negotiator. It went on for years. There was nothing fast and easy about it. He did not tweet about it. He got to work about it. And he actually got it done. [applause] another important action that was taken involved europe, and involved the balkans. You remember the horrific war in bosnia, where it was almost a precursor of some of what we see in the world today, where disinformation and the media are used to sew discord. And set people against each other, and you had serbs and croats and bosniaks living peacefully together. Sarajevo hosted the olympics a few years before. And all of a sudden, there was this intense effort to blame different groups and individuals within those groups. And a war started. And it was very difficult for the europeans to figure out what to do about it alone. And again, bill said the United States, with others, not on our own, would try to end the war in bosnia. The late Richard Holbrook was the chief negotiator, and he did an extraordinary job in a really cornering milosevic, and they were able to craft a difficult resolution. Of course, it was hard, and there were still outstanding issues as we saw later in kosovo when milosevic begin to deport people. I went to the refugee camp and saw these people had been loaded onto freight trains. Too terribly reminiscent of what had happened in the europe in the 1940s and 1930s under hitler. Bill said, we are going to end this. And he ran a Bombing Campaign against serbia and forced them to end their deportation and kosovo is an independent country now. They still have a lot of problems in the balkans, lets not kid ourselves. These are difficult, terrible problems. He worked incredibly hard with his counterparts in israel to try to come up with a solution to that very challenging set of issues. He was at camp david with Prime Minister barack and yasser arafat. We remember the incredible photograph of the oslo accords being signed in 1993 on the white house lawn. From that moment forward, bill worked to try to find resolutions in ending conflict with jordan, and creating more support for israeli security, and recognizing the desires of the palestinians. Camp david got close, but not close enough. But it was a consistent, concerted effort. When you think about that time, one of the really bright spots i think for the world, was the election of mandela. [applause] mandela became a leader by whom i list as the most admired people i ever met. With my understanding of history, ranking right up there. He became a close personal friend, and advisor, a mentor, and his example of how to pursue truth and reconciliation is something that i wish more of the world would Pay Attention to. There are many other things, but those are the ones that i immediately think about, and maybe you would like to add some ideas as well. Pres. Clinton i want to make a couple of points. First of all, since there are so many people here who not only helped to elect us, but helped us to govern, the only thing that compensates for the president being of vulnerable to be blamed when the sun does not come up just about every day is that you get a fair amount of credit when all the people who work for you do something good. I want to thank everybody here. Hillary is talking about the balkans. One person who played a big role was wes clark. He was Richard Holbrooks aid when we were trying to do that. Everything we did over eight years, there were somewhere between one and 100 people who deserved a major credit for the good outcome. I want to point that out. Peoples willingness to serve in public office, which may go up or down depending on how they perceive it as a good or not good thing to do, is very important. And had a lot to do with it. Second thing, hillary made all these points then talked about mandela. Why do we love mandela . Because he is not like what we do not like about todays politics. In todays politics, conflict is more important than cooperation. Attacking people and demeaning them and debasing them and dividing them is more important than treating them with respect, and lifting them up. Mandela was in prison or house confinement for 27 years, and yet he always treated people with respect and tried to lift them up. He tried to bring them together, and succeeded in doing it. Instinctively, i think most americans who care about their country know that ever since the end of the cold war, when the bipolar world of the former soviet union and the u. S. Went away, and we could have fights without blowing each other to kingdom come, even with the rise of terror, it has been more profitable at home and around the world for many people to act like our differences are more important than our common humanity. Most people who say, oh, that is wrong, i want people to be reasonable and compromise, they may be, but they do not vote that way very much. Why . Because, sometimes we take our democracy for granted. We take our Public Servants for granted. We expect people to come, and election time comes, and we want somebody that can play into our fears or anger. Do not do that. Because, one of the things that everybody who has governed since the end of the cold war has learned, the world is interdependent. We have to find a way to share the future. That means we have to have shared responsibilities. We also have to bring the opportunity for Economic Growth to everyone, for personal opportunity for their kids, for mobility, for Social Security and cultural dignity, and so far there are a lot of ragged edges. Because we say one thing and vote another. We were navigating all of that. So, i want you to think about that. We worked like crazy to try to bridge all these divides. The final thing i would say, not necessarily in our interests, today while we are all celebrating, there is not much the United States can do to make peace if the leaders in the local region do not want to make you can help a lot if people are inclined to do the right thing. Then you can maximize the benefits and minimize the risks. , whichp to pave the way is what i tried to do in all of those situations. Have a greatve to american poet as the Great American poet said, you have to have a rich wanting. You have to want this to work out. Thats what i pray will happen for all of you and anybody you can reach. We cant let this country galway, we cant let our we can trash our democracy and rob children and grandchildren of the world the opportunity to do that. You have to want it. One of my favorite moments in the campaign took place at the Governors Mansion in arkansas when he introduced alan typical or and named him your running mate. That and i wish both of you to address this. You were identified with the aboutof the economy, talk the environmental record and al gore, also people in my family live in new orleans, very concerned about this. I think its important elevating was the economy and Foreign Policy. I think today, people dont think much about it. It was a groundbreaking toys, because we were the same age from the same part of the country, same wing of the democratic party. I picked him because he knew more about things that i did, certain things. I knew more about economics and education policy, and state federalisation. Hillary knew more about Child Development and education. Al gore knew more about nuclearion, technology, and other defense issues, and the environment. I read earth and the balance when it came out. I thought theres no point in having this job unless you make a difference in peoples lives to prepare for the future. Thats what we did. A lot of people thought it would be a big mistake politically. When president george w. Bush ran for president in 2000 cheney, he may have seemed to be taking a different path. He was part of that neoconservative group. The president and Vice President should be in sync , i think that pretty important. Theres a surprising number of president s since our country began who were unable to finish their terms. Therefore, you should pay a lot of attention to who the Vice President is. I thought hillary made a very of her Vice President ial running mate. Way saw the world the same things gotdid things done. I personally think we need more of that wanting. I wanted to add on about the environment. A persistenteen profit. About Climate Change, and about , i reallythat we face admire the work he started as a senator and then he tried to continue as Vice President. He still continues today, he has another movie out that is trying to change public opinion, and the decisionmaking of elected officials. Whens where we are now, kyoto was signed, and he represented the United States, out and bill had great hopes that they would be able to convince the senate to go along. It was a bipartisan dashing. 98 to nothing. It doesnt get more bipartisan than that. Idea which alhis was so committed to trying to disabuse people of, that somehow trying to deal with the very threats of Climate Change would be bad for the american economy. Both bill and all tried during the 90s to spike a big resistance to make that case. Then, in the years after that, there was a brief moment under george w. Bush when we thought we could make progress on Climate Change. I traveled around with john mccain, we went and looked at melting glaciers, we want to the northernmost inhabited place in the world to talk to their scientists. We went to point barrow in alaska. Mccain really tried to put republicansroup of to work with democrats on these issues. But heres the lesson, Climate Change is one of those issues that a lot of people care about, but its not the number one issue. Its like gun violence. A lot of people care about it, wish we could do something about it, but not everybody sees it as their number one issue. If you have a really determined, wellfunded minority view that does nothing but try to prevent you from taking action on Something Like Climate Change, its hard to make it a voting issue. President ned when obama came into office and i was honored to be secretary of state, we decided we were going to try to make it a voting issue. We were going to do something about it. I went to copenhagen and we made a commitment that the United States would be willing to help research,te science help fund mitigation efforts, the president joined me there. We had a really contentious meeting, it was incredibly difficult. The chinese, indians, russians, others were not interested. We eventually got an agreement, we got the First Agreement postkyoto, because everybody knew the developing countries were growing faster and they had to be part of the solution. We hammered out an agreement. In subsequent years, more and more agreement was reached until we finally got to the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement really was the culmination of some much of the work of some of you people, including al gore. And of course, along comes the new administration, and they pull us out of the agreement. We are now the only country in the world not in the paris assadent, even bashar decided he would join the Paris Agreement. We are the only one left. We are losing economic opportunities. This is what is most frustrating, even back in the 90s we try to green the white house, to do things that would demonstrate some personal leadership. We also, thanks to bill and al, made the case that this was an Economic Opportunity for america. Fuel guys, the fossil are supporting trump and the republican party, they are more than happy to prevent us from doing anything. Guess what . The chinese have decided they will dominate the renewable industry, they will be the primary exporter. All of these actions have consequences. I really do, as i said in the beginning, give al gore a lot of credit for not giving up and never throwing the towel in as frustrating as it must be for him. Bunch of, hes with a american governors and members of congress who are telling the world some of us still understand what the stakes are and we are not going to give up, either. The environment was unimportant flash point, often times people forget about the many struggles that the clintongore administration had. Things that always grabbed me is that you helped found the Childrens Fund in washington. I think more of the great under helm of congress to ministration, you are very bold in the chip. Right now as i understand it, there is a Funding Crisis that this program is going through. Can you please talk about children in the United States, and also chip and what it means, and why its so important that this Program Continues . To childrensnt health really took off here in arkansas when i got involved with arkansas children house. So proud of what happened with the hospital starting in the very first term theills governorship when hospital wanted to grow so every child in arkansas would be taken care of, regardless of ability to pay. We had the most sophisticated tertiary care that we could possibly provide. With bills leadership, the thereators leadership, was a Great Partnership between the state and Childrens Hospital. We watched it grow and flourish, and take of so many children. I saw firsthand the difference it made. Certainly with my own daughter, i saw how important it was to have the confidence and support you needed as a parent to make sure your child was taken care of. In 1993 if ied me would work on health care, i foolishly said i would love to. I cant imagine anything more important than taking care of Peoples Health care. I remember we had a governors meeting after that announcement was made and mario cuomo, came and looked at me and said your husband has put you in charge of health care, does that mean he loves you or hates you . We all know what happened. It was incredibly controversial, but it laid the groundwork for what we eventually were able to achieve both with chip and the Affordable Care act. [applause] unsuccessfulere with Health Care Reform at large, large, i was determined we would at least take care of kids, because during the time i was working on health care i traveled the country, met with so many parents. I was at the Childrens Hospital in cleveland and i was meeting with parents who have children with chronic diseases, but who were uninsured. We were sitting in a conference room, they were telling me the story. I got to a man who said i have two daughters with cystic fibrosis, im a successful businessman, i built my own business, i could afford insurance and nobody will sell me a policy. I said what did they say to you when you go and ask them to help you bear the cost of caring for your two daughters . You what thetell last Insurance Company i met with told me. He looked at me as i slain to him what were up against i explained to him what we were up against, he said i dont ensure burning houses. The man i was talking to had tears in his eyes, they called my little girls burning houses. I never got that image out of my head. Kennedy and talked with him about trying to figure out some way to cover kids. He, with the mastery of the senate that he always displayed, brought republicans on board, including orrin hatch. To create a bipartisan Childrens Health Insurance Program that was a partnership between the federal government and the state. It helps take care of 9 million kids a year. [applause] it primarily deals with families that are working reallys, or even successful families like the man i met in cleveland, whose employerbased health care doesnt insure them because of preexisting conditions, or because they hit their lifetime limit. They are certainly making more money than would make them eligible for medicaid, so they were in that no mans land. So we got it passed, and every year since bill signed it into law these 9,000,00010,000,000 kids have been taking care of. And i have probably done a lot of booksignings on this most recent trip, alter my Campaign People come to my booksignings, or my Campaign Events to thank me for chip. In austin, today in little rock, people came and said thank you. One young man said, i would not be alive if it were not for chip. I had cancer as a child, we ran out of money, ran out of insurance and thank goodness the chip program was enacted. So under george w. Bush, under president barack obama, chip was reauthorized. The program continued seamlessly. This congress and this white house have not reauthorized the program. States are starting to run out of money because it is a partnership and they rely on federal dollars. By the end of the year, unless it israel derived, unless the funding is provided, nine million children and their families will be facing some very, very dire circumstances. I can only hope that maybe at the end of the year, there will be some sort of a deal that will provide that continuity. It is a program i am very grateful for that i had some small role in because of the lives saved and the futures given to somebody kids. To so many kids. It is the kind of thing we should do to take care of each other and give every child a chance to live up to his godgiven potential. [applause] mr. President , 50 years from now the economic achievements, Foreign Policy achievements, i think the thing you will be remembered for more than anything else is the human genome project. I really believe it will happen. Talk a little bit about that. How was funded, what it is, what it could potentially mean to these young people here, and their children. Mr. Clinton i think one of the most important jobs is to keep america on the cuttingedge of Pioneering Research and development. I think while we were getting rid of the deficit, determining a balanced budget, i wanted to keep us doing that. So i spent 3 billion of your money to sequence the human genome. In a big multinational Scientific Research effort. Then we made a private partnership with craig banner, who was pursuing his own private sector. I felt that it would have a major impact on the quality and length of life for the next generation and for hundreds of years to come. So we can keep from blowing things up and so we did it. Genome can get a analysis for considerably less than 3 billion. And we know that there has been well over 200 billion of Economic Activity generated out of that. Rate of return on your tax dollars investment was about the highest we have ever gotten in the United States for that 3 billion. What do we know . We know that there are certain genetic variances which put women at high risk of breast cancer. So we know which women should start taking tests earlier. We know we can pretty soon we will have the capacity to say to to send every mother of a young female baby home with basic genetic information. Were close to unlocking the mysteries of alzheimers and parkinsons and other things. So it is very important and yes, i agree with you it matters a great deal. It is not the only thing. I also made in five minutes a decision to put gps in the public domain. That made a huge difference. A lot of people do not want to do that. 20 years ago we started the first Cyber Security unit and in the national government, we should have kept it going. Last year, israel got half of the investment of the world and private security. That should bother you. Even though they are our allies, the United States should be well ahead of them in Cyber Security investments. And the congress was not all that interested in it but this is a very big deal. We spent the first 500 million of your money and this was all bipartisan by the way, in nanotechnology. One of the most interesting days i had when i was out campaigning for hillary was in Eastern Kentucky in the middle of appalachia at morehead state. They asked me to take a wild to look at their nanotechnology program. They were doing with nasa. Million andst 500 its successors, we got appropriated. They are building in Eastern Kentucky in the middle of what used to be called country eight pound satellites for 1 million that will do most of what those 400 million satellites will do. So i went to see this young guy, who was clearly supporting her, probably at risk of life and limb where he was. He is putting all of the nanotechnology for the satellite into a little box about an inch cube and i said, what is that box made of . And this kid in his hillbilly twang looked at me and said, tungsten, it does real well in outer space. I said how old are you . 19. I said where you from . He said, right here. So we talked and he said, mr. President , he said can i tell you one more thing . I said sure. He said, tell hillary not to take it when people make fun of her for saying she is going to put up half a billion solar panels. He said, actually i think she is a little low. I said, why do you think shes a little low . He said, because before you know it we will be making solar panels with 3d printers just like i made this little tungsten container. And when we do, they will be as cheap as dirt and just as good and we will all be sitting we will all be free. And i thought to myself what why am i telling you this . Because that young man did not feel the walls closing in on him. He felt the walls opening up. So he voted for the person he thought would open the most doors, not the people who would build the most walls. [applause] mr. Clinton wait, why am i telling you this . Because i tried. I tried not to do anything in 1992, i try to find a way to say whatever i was going to say that i knew might be dangerously unpopular. But i did try to level with people and tell them we could not roll back the tides. We ought to be going with the future and building a future we can all share. We had to be both responsible and opportunistic if we wanted to build a future we can all share. But at the time, it was easier. I mean, we put out this little booklet. In fairness, both parties put out a little booklet. You had to be kind of a nerd to support. We got over 60 of votes between the two of us in a six person race. Why . People realized they were hiring people to do a job. It was a difference to do anything. That is very important. Iere not being hired went to a lot of these people from arkansas. We never, we had one month in the previous eight years. Only one where the unemployment was below the national average. We led the country in job growth every single year in 1995. Month of 1992. It takes a long time to turn the economy around. Same expert doesnt we have the were schooling systems in 1978, and 1992 one of the most improved School Systems in the country thanks to the nofault measure from hillary for that. [applause] mr. Clinton and the other state was South Carolina when i made the girly secretary of education. Andhought these were jobs our job was to create more kids everywhere without regard to race, gender, religion, or identity like that kid in kentucky making the nanotechnology satellites. So, i want you to think about that because they say that i felt like a great moral victory had been won. Twitter announced they were going from 140 up to 280 characters. Lacking, i want you to laugh, but i want you to think. Being president is a job. You hire somebody to do a job. You have to say, where our things, how do you want to go, how you propose to get from here to there and how are we going to do it together . You have to put people first. You have to have some idea how to get there. I consider with the greatest honor of my life first of all i had this laboratory of training as a governor here for all of those years in secondly for all of those years, and secondly that i got to start at a time when grassroots politics still mattered. When people listened to each other and they didnt just want to think of some new put down, and it wasnt a question of whose resentment was better than someone else was it was who had better answers. In the end, if you believe in putting people first, you have to have an otherdirected politics. It might not work for the people who are communicating for you and the political media, that might not be the most financially remunerative or emotionally successful strategy but in the end that is what counts. I am proud of her for putting people first for the rest of our lives together. [applause] [cheers] [cheers and applause] james so i think there is an elephant in the room. Knowing me, the elephant is this. We talked a lot about children. I think one of the real values that all of us who have been privileged to be associated with you is that we earnestly believe and earnestly taught our children that life was a struggle but at the end of the day, if you prepare, work hard, are willing to accept risk and if you understood that there were setbacks in life, that you would ultimately achieve your goals. This is been a hard year. A hard year for parents. So, try to help us and help these young people, how we talk about things in light of the events a little over a year ago. Mrs. Clinton well, i wrote a book what happened. Mr. Clinton its really a book about resilience. Personal resilience, as well as national resilience, because i do think everybody gets knocked down. Is are youl question going to get back up . Not everybody will lose the president ial election, but everybody will suffer loss. Camee core of the message that we were told and we try to tell our kids, it remains absolutely true. To have to find ways overcome disappointment, to find was myh and for me it family, my friends, my faith, a ,ot of long walks in the woods yielded. Alternate nostril breathing, i highly recommend it. [applause and laughter] mrs. Clinton it was also cleaning my closets. Beginning,ad a middle, and end. Reading a lot of mysteries because the bad guy always got it in the end. [applause] mrs. Clinton but trying to fall back on the consistent message that i certainly got from my parents and that, you know, i have tried to impart to my daughter and will likewise try to do the same with my grandchildren, life is not always fair. The struggle does not always go the way that you hoped or planned. But life is too short to give it life is too short to give in to the kind of disappointment or losing that comes with or with suffering some kind of setback. And so, for me, it was getting back up and taking stock of where i was and where i thought the country was because i think also in this particular case over the past year, the country at least a majority of the country has similarly felt that something went amiss. And what ive tried to do, i have a new Organization Called onward together to support individuals and groups that are really harnessing a lot of the grassroots activism and energy that is out there to try to push back against some of the changes that are being imposed from washington and ultimately win some elections. I was really heartened by what happened in virginia about 10 days ago. [applause] mrs. Clinton so i think the general message remains the same. But i also think we have to be willing to kind of take apart everything that led to the defeat in 2016 and i tried to do that in this book because obviously i talk about the shortcomings i had and that my campaign had and that ultimately, i am responsible because it was my name on the ballot but there were other forces at work and it was like a perfect storm. There was a lot that was happening that you know, was unprecedented, whether it was the intervention by the fbi at the last minute for no good reason or russia, which we are learning about more everything every single day, or suppressing the vote. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people across the country unfairly prevented from voting even though they are just as much a citizen and registered and tried as hard as they could but could not cross the barriers that have been erected since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights act. When i talk about what happened, i am very focused on making sure it does not happen again. So that is why i am speaking out and going to continue to beat out. I am going to do everything i i am going to continue to speak out. I am going to do everything i can to try to have an election in 2018 that is about real things. You know, this is one of the challenges for bill and me. I will be very clear about that, over the last several years. You have heard him talk about how much he loves getting out around arkansas listening to people. I was with him every step of the way when identity education when i did the education standards. We held hearings in every county of the state. We were so in touch with and able to listen to thousands and thousands of our arkansans and try to take that on board and figure out, ok. What are we going to do. We also had a clearer channel for communication. Unfortunately, our body politics immune system has been impaired. There has been an effort starting with the creation of it wasnttwork there when bill first ran. It was one of the reasons he probably survived. It was there when he ran the second time. It and all of its associated media outlets, who are by no means delivering news. They are delivering partisan advocacy positions irrespective of the truth, the fact, the evidence. And i think we have to stand up regardless of what party. Regardless of our own ideological beliefs. A democracy depends upon an informed citizenry that has access to Accurate Information and i will tell you that [applause] mrs. Clinton there is no such thing as alternative facts. It does not exist. In politics or in nature. And, it was astonishing to me the things people believed about me and this campaign. And, some of my arkansas traveler friends and some of my other friends from literally my childhood to adulthood and all of the places ive lived and worked, they were out there knocking on doors and calling people and they would run into folks and they would get somebody on the front porch and they would say, you know, i am here campaigning for hillary clinton, i have known her since sixth grade. I went to law school with her. I worked with her the childrens defense fund. Wherever they identified themselves. And i would like you to support her. More times than you could believe they would get an answer like, i cant support her. She killed somebody. I cant support her, she runs a child trafficking ring in the basement of a pizzeria. And my friends would be totally bewildered and they would say, no she didnt. I know her. I have known her for decades. No she did not. Oh yeah, i saw it on the internet. Now we know russia was sending a lot of those messages on the internet. They were weaponize in information, stealing information, providing phony news. So there is reason to be disappointed and reason to feel like, you know, we did not succeed and that is hard to live with. Very painful. But there is also a call to action. We cannot let our politics be turned into a fiction that benefits a very small minority of americans and [applause] mrs. Clinton and, you know, im going to keep speaking out. Apparently, you know, my former opponent is obsessed with my speaking out. Apparently there was another tweet today. Honestly, between tweeting and golfing, how does he get anything done . I do not understand it. So maybe that is the whole point. But, yes, resilience is the key and it is not only the key for individuals, it is the key for our country. Therefore, we have to take every election seriously. Not just residential elections. Not just president ial elections, we need to vote in every election. This 2018 election is going to be really important for our country and you know, the best antidote to disappointment is to keep fighting and keep working and be successful. That is what we intend to do on behalf of the country that we love and that, you know, we have tried in our own ways to serve over all these years. James one more time. The man from hope. The paddler of optimism, the man who is always looking. Dont stop thinking about tomorrow. Talking about tomorrow, tell us at this hour of our despair, why you believe americas best days are still ahead of it. I know you have always believed that. How do we make sure that happens . Mr. Clinton first of all, we are the best positioned country in the world for the future so if we screw this up, it will require a lot of willful blindness and look, in the last election she won the popular vote. And, if the voters, we have a slight disagreement about this, about what really happened. If the voters had not been told that the first female, the most important issue since the end of world war ii i doubt if the election couldve been thrown in the end. We all have to go back and harness here and try to get ourselves a basic framework beyond which we will not go in arguing the issue so we are just out there and la la land. I will tell you why you should be optimistic. Because having lost it, i can tell you, youth matters. We are one of the youngest big countries on earth. You should be optimistic because we have so many immigrants , because like every other wealthy country, the birth rate among our native born are going down to barely replacement level. In order for us to continue to grow and get active in new economic areas, we have to have more young people. You should be optimistic because notwithstanding what you were told, if you count the documented and the undocumented in the country, the crime rate is one half the rate of the nativeborn. You should be optimistic because we have people here from everywhere and if you count all of the terrible things that have been done by muslims expressing violent resentment about aspect of American Life in the modern world, their murder rate is one third that of the nativeborn. Now, we have got to stop this and get down to lake log. If you want to get the resentment, you can. The problem with the people who did not vote for her and dont listen to me anymore and think i am you know, gone over to the dark side, is that they live in places not with a lot of immigrants or a lot of muslims or people who have been transgender or anything else. They live in places where there is not enough mobility because there is not enough investment because theres not a National Network of broadband put that but everybody in the Global Economy because nobody will stand up there and say, yes, our differences matter but what we have in common is much more important. The genome that James Carville started with, he said this would be my greatest legacy. To know what everyone of you should know about it . It doesnt matter if you can figure out how we can live to be 120. Every nonagerelated difference in this vast crowd today, every single one, is rooted in one half of 1 of your genome. There are 3. 6 billion genomes in the body. So even a half of a percent is peanuts compared to the 99 and a half percent we all share. Without regard to gender, race, body shape, skin color, eye color, you name it. Why must we obsess for 99. 5 of the time about the. 5 of ourselves that are different. Why should we spend a little more time. If we really put people first again, we would think about how we can share the future. I am optimistic about america because of our diversity and because of what we did with the genome, because where we are in science and technology. Because we were ranked and second in the world above all advanced countries in the ability to fight crime and fight Climate Change by Generating Energy from the sun, the wind, and other sources. Name me one single solitary thing we are leading the world still in all this other stuff. Weve got more than enough juice to get back in the front of the pack on, you know, it internet security, all of this Information Technology stuff. The only thing getting in our way is our stupid politics. Our insistence on putting special interest ahead of the general interest. On deciding when we will go and when we will not go to vote. And i feel, look, this i am unsympathetic. Stop griping when they take your votes away. Stop griping when they redistrict your Congressional District and your representative district. If you had showed up at midterm, it probably wouldnt have happened. So do i approve of it . No. I do not approve of it. I think it should be illegal and unconstitutional but we are getting in our own way. We could build the most modern infrastructure of any country in the world and Interest Rates are still low. We can build alliances around the world. We can tweak our trade agreements if they need improvement but we should not run away from the rest of the world. That is what i think. You should be optimistic. We are the best positioned country in the world. All you have to do is have politics that thinks about the future of the children here instead of whether you can when a cheap shot by driving a stake the between americans in the short run. Otherwise, i do not feel strongly about this. [applause] james two points i want to make before we leave and to me they are very important. The first one is, the way over here i got a call from my best friend. Who reminded me that they do, surveyy acer way a on the most admired women in the country and the person who has one that survey most often in all of its existence is one Hillary Rodham clinton. [cheers and applause] james so [cheers and applause] james i kind of thought you would like that. Just this morning, i was on the phone and happened to be doing research and i came in, i talked to the president. I think i am right. I will probably be fact checked on this but i think i am on really solid ground. In the last 35 years, 35 years, a clinton has run for public office, put themselves before the voters 18 times. President clinton, 11. Secretary clinton, seven times you have run. Do you know, of the 18 times, how many a clinton has gotten the most votes . That would be 18. Nick savin could not do that. And 35 years, you are 180. I have to tell you this, somebody somewhere out there really loves you guys. That is one heck of a record. Mrs. Clinton james, before we close i want to say a really heartfelt word of thank you to our team here at the president ial center in the library. I want to thank everybody but in particular i want to thank Bruce Lindsey and stephanie street and lena moore and everybody who works for them and with them. I want to thank skipped and the great team at the Clinton School. We are really, really proud of what the center in the library and the school are doing and we did not want time to pass without thanking and of course we want to thank the family that has been friends with us for a really long time for sponsoring the lecture series. Mr. Clinton and i want to say, you know, we are very reluctant to start recognizing but we have already recognize the arkansas travelers. Thank you for going not only to New Hampshire, but to georgia, florida, missouri, other places, there are a lot of people here who were in that 1992 campaign. David, frank, stephanie, thank you very much. Harry thomason from california. Everybody who is in that 1992 campaign. It is different now. But it one thing should not be different. We should still be able to talk to our friends and neighbors about things that are about their lives without having people whose sole goal is to gain power by discrediting, disabuse income a confusing disabuse them confusing , people and abolishing the line between fact and fiction and truth and lie. So if you want to think about something for next time, think about how to get people to vote at midterm and think about how the next generation can do a better job than i could anymore. Snapchat, twitter, creating space to remind people that my great uncle buddy used to say, when people make you mad they are trying to stop you from thinking, and there is something to be said for thinking. I want to thank you all. And just let you know that if you do not stop thinking about tomorrow and you never forget that we have to go together in and and you never forget our racial diversity makes it smarter and better. Our gender diversity makes it smarter and better. Our Ethnic Diversity makes it smarter and better and that diverse groups of people make better decisions than homogenous groups. Dont forget that. Now, i was thinking about all of the people here who would say, what is your crazy boss reading today and what in the hell does that mean excuse me but that is what i want for you. Ask yourself how youre going to keep score as we claw our way through this mess. Look at the young people here. All that matters. All that matters is whether people are better off if you quit than when you started and those kids future. It is better to come together than to be torn apart. As one of hillarys favorite phrases, all of the rest his background music. Play the main theme. Dont stop thinking about tomorrow. Thank you. Please welcome skip weatherford, dean of the university of Arkansas School of public service. [applause] thank you president clinton, secretary clinton, and james. It is always great having you back. I want to thank you clintons not only for your candor but for your inspiration. Thank you very much. That was a wonderful program. I want to thank the Clinton Foundation and at t and special thanks to the family whose generous gift honoring your parents made this lecture possible. Thank you very much. And secretary clinton, back to 1992, i want to say on behalf of arkansas advocates for holdren and families, one to say on behalf of the arkansas singleparent scholarship fund, and i want to say on behalf of the many families that you touched, we are bringing hippie to arkansas. From a personal perspective of serving on the board with you, for the thousands of children that are alive and thriving because of that intensive care nursery that you brought to arkansas at arkansas Childrens Hospital and tonight when you drive, drive by Childrens Hospital and see those lights on, the 30 plus children living because of Hillary Clintons work in arkansas. [applause] so from that paint store on 7th street, to 1200 president clinton avenue, 25 years has been one heck of a ride. For the next 25 years, mr. President , madam secretary, just know that it will be Clinton School graduates who will be putting people first all over arkansas, america, and the world. Thank you for joining us. Have a safe trip home. [cheers and applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] today on cspan, dr. Anthony ayden talks about the relationship you your zip code and your health. Heres a portion of his remarks. We have been looking at the data for over a decade, saying why are we spending so much