My father, being the entrepreneur and hard worker he is, teaching his kids their values, he started working as a carpenter and electrician. He made ends meet for his family. It was those lessons around the table with my father in particular, who would constantly remind me of the importance of freedom and democracy in america, and how we have a responsibility to preserve these values. Taughts something i have to my kids about as well. Steve your parents are still alive . Mercedes they are. In my family, he was one of the earliest supporters of President Trump. He would tell us, you know, he just speak his mind, and i respect my command have to say what this man has to say and the direction he wants to take this country. For a long time, this country is going in the wrong direction. He says that our freedoms are being constrained and that it is important for us to make sure we have the ability to freely speak our minds, encouraged debate and discussion. The topics that we used to discuss all the time in our family. Steve how many brothers and sisters did you have . Mercedes i have an older brother here in virginia, and a younger sister in miami. We wear a very tightknit family. I did not learn to speak english until i learned it at seven, actually. Spanish was my first language. My mother was a stay at home mom, very traditional. My father worked endless hours to ensure that he could provide for his family. This whole thing was, no government handouts. I will work hard, and i will do what i can to try and provide. He stressed the importance of education. My father could not finish the university of havana because the government in cuba took it over. So my father was not able to finish college. So for my parents, it was, we want you to go to a good school and go to college and do the best you can. It was because of their sacrifices and their love of country and their love of their children and family that they pushed us to do these things. To move ahead and speak and figure out our passions. Steve tell us his story. Why was he in prison . Six years in a cuban jail . What was it like . Mercedes my father was a Small Business owner. He was very successful at building several businesses in cuba when fidel castro came into power. Basically, the government started taking over private companies. They took away my fathers company. They would basically assign him to work in a particular position. This is the over expansion of what you would see in a dictatorship, a nationalization of industry. My father sensed that this was going in the wrong direction at that moment. So he joined a group of men to basically overthrow the cuban government. In an attempt to assassinate castro, they were caught. In the planning stages. They executed several of his closest friends, and imprisoned several others my father being one of them. He tells the story of the one man who came up to him, and the man looked at my father and asked what would happen. My father knew exactly what would happen to him. He said, they are going to execute you. And they did. They put him against the wall and shot him. Those are the atrocities of what we see in dictatorships. The atrocity of where democracy does not flourish. And so, i think those lessons in a life, my father was a quiet man and he would not talk about what they did to him in the jails. He was basically in solitary confinement for months. They would put him in a room naked, very little food or water. Those are the Untold Stories of many of the cubans who suffered under castros regime. One thing it taught my father is complete and utter strength, the power of faith, and believing in god that you will persevere and survive. When he came out of the jail, he never looked back. The always said one of the lines he always used on me is that every time he would get stuck, he would Say Something that means go forward. Move forward, do not get stuck. There is always tomorrow. You have to find a solution to the obstacle or whatever the problem is. That was my father, that is my father and to this day he does , not look back. Even as he is grown older he , helps us to see what tomorrow will bring. But he always reminds us very clearly that democracy is fragile, america is great, and you always need to fight for your country. That is why for me as a young girl, i knew i would go into Public Service. I knew that it was my calling, because it was something i wanted to do to ensure that i could remind americans of how fragile our democracy is and how important it is that we value the freedoms we have in this country that do not exist in many places across the world. The opportunities that men and women and children have in america, that is something that is so unique to america and what is special about this nation. Important it is that we value steve did he talk about that growing up . All that he went through . Mercedes no. He did not start sharing his stories. My father was quiet and he would not share stories about the human rights abuses and what he suffered in the jail. I think that as we got older, he opened up more. I think it was because he thought we were ready to understand the pain he went through. But he made a very strong commitment to the virgin of the mercedes in the catholic faith, promising that he would name his daughter mercedes and always have a statue of her in his office, if you made it out alive. I am the product of that. First daughter, mercedes. And he still has the same of the virgin and he has had it for over 40 years. In my office, i have the statute i have a small statue of the Virgin Mercedes because she is , the overseer of Political Prisoners. He was liberated, in most cases they would stay in jail for 2025 years, women and men. Steve what does that mean to you . Being named after that figure . Mercedes . Mercedes mercy means compassion. Mercedes. There is a part of me that carries this sense of duty. Duty to my nation. Duty to helping my generation to understand why we are here. Why we are in america and we have to preserve its greatness. It sounds similar to why it asked easy yes when i was to join the Trump Administration because it was the sense of , understanding the exceptional nature of our country and preserving that. So i feel that my sense of duty is to ensure that we do preserve these freedoms, and that we go back to the constitution and the bill of rights. Just think about what our founding mothers Founding Fathers thought for. That we are able to continue these traditions. And also, to debate and discuss, even if you do not agree with the other side. Something that i think gets lost in our political environment right now. We have to have room for individuals to disagree and find a better solution in terms of policies and better ways to do things to help americans have opportunities. Steve have your parents or you been to cuba . Mercedes i went as a little girl of seven years old. You do not remember a lot of things when you are seven years old but i do remember being at the boardwalk in cuba. All of my family is in the united states. What i remember clearly was a sense of family, although there was a sense of fears a child because i remember my father saying to be careful, that there will be soldiers at the airport. There was definitely a sense of just being able to be with your cousins that you have never met before, of going to these special places such as the church where your parents get married and the town where they basically grew up. So i have positive memories of going to cuba when i was a child and being with my cousin and eating frijoles negros. And rice. For the cubans, they understand what they lost. It is a special committee to be a part of. They lost everything. My father told me that you pretty much leave everything behind. Just think about it, all of your belongings. If you are lucky, you may be able to. Take your wedding ring it is something we do not understand that much because we are so blessed in this nation. Having families be split apart is difficult as well. My father tells the story that when he left to come to the united states, the one thing he carried with him was an atlas. It is one of those moments in your life when you realize that so many people have had to leave their homeland, millions of them, whether because of war or for their evil government, and they have tos tart again and , they do not know what tomorrow may bring. But it talks about the greatness of america that it opens its arms to individuals who are coming here legally, to get through a process to ensure that they can contribute and be part of this wonderful culture we live in. Steve when and why was your father released . Mercedes in cuba, they would want to get Political Prisoners out of the country. They do not necessarily want to reorganize in cuba to cause a Resistance Movement or to try and take down the government again. My father was a prisoner who worked hard. He worked in the sugarcane fields and he ended up becoming a mini project manager in the jail, because he is a very talented man, very smart. He was able to help the prison guards. He decided that he needed to use his time productively, so why not be helpful instead of not being helpful. So he brought in organized groups and basically led them in many ways, the prisoners. There was definitely the sense that they did not want these Political Prisoners back in their society. Because it would be able to reorganize of them again. Steve we are in the Eisenhower Executive Office building, one of the more magnificent buildings in washington, d. C. Adjacent to the white house. You were no stranger to this building during the george w. Bush administration. Mercedes i had the honor of serving as director of Specialty Office of Media Affairs. I was basically has spokesperson spanishlanguage media, religious media, trade publications, and i love my time here under president bush. I made lifelong friends and that my husband in this building, so it is a special place to come back to. The memories you share here, and it was obviously a united team. To push the president s message out to these outlets that, you know, back in the day we did not have twitter or facebook, so it is amazing how it is revolutionized, but at the name time, being able to serve one of the resident serve as one of the president spokes people. The president s spokespeople. Steve different president , different role. Mercedes the roles are all unique and special in their own way. My blessing has been to meet a whole new group of individuals and to really form a team. And again, the same directive in terms of pushing the president s agenda and working together to ensure that the message is amplified where it needs to go across the country. A different set of experiences that you bring to the table. I did tell one of my colleagues, she asked how the transition was, and i said it was like i never left the place. I came right back in and said here is where the offices, here is where the so it was familiar to me. What i find is that both times, it is about the honor of being able to work with talented people and do great things for this country. Steve your husband matt is no stranger to the cspan audience. How did you meet . Mercedes we met in Richard Nixons old office, which is eob180. Steve Hideaway Office . Mercedes i think so. [laughter]. We used to have these meetings, and matt was sitting in the back. He had these great cowboy boots and a suit. I said, who is that after dresser . That dapper dresser . He has to be from texas. In typical matt form, full of sarcastic remarks to make thesae place a little less fell with tension, we had an opportunity to talk at that moment. It took a while for him to realize there was this sweet girl over in Media Affairs who cared for him. [applause] [laughter] if you would ask her on a date but eventually he did we hit it off instantly. It was really 9 11 that changed both of our lives. We were both in the white house, and obviously when the planes hit the twin towers and we got word that another plane had hit the pentagon, it was obviously a terrifying moment. Secret Service Started running down the hallway saying we need you to leave immediately. Really, they were screaming. And we were exiting the building. Matt could not find me, i could we could not reach each other because we did not have cell phone reception. Matt told one of the guards, have you found mercy . He said i cannot find her. He said you look for her everywhere, until you find her. And it was a really sad moment when late at night connected again. He drives me into this city and it looked like we had been invaded. There was military everywhere, we had to come in to pick up my car, the pentagon was on fire we just knew that we first of all at that moment when you that we loved each other and the second thing is that we need that we needed to spend the rest of our lives together. We did not wait too long after that. So eight months later, we got married. We have five children. Five girls. They range from 14 to 5. They keep us incredibly busy and they are a blessing. So i have to say that my work is my escape sometimes, but it has been a blessing to raise them. I remind them that they do not live the normal life because their parents talk politics all the time. In fact one of our girls has restricted us to sometimes saying it is a nopolitics zone. We engage them in having these discussions and having the debates and talking about issues that matter to our country, and really informing and educating our children to let them know they have a responsibility to contribute to our nation and the economy and be part of this amazing american fabric. Steve with regard to 9 11, did your then boyfriend understand how fundamentally this would change america . Mercedes we both understood. And i will tell you why. When a remember the night of 9 11, i remember being very scared. I remember asking matt, what are we going to do . And he9 11, i remember being veo , the white house tomorrow and show the terrorists we are not backing down. And we knew at that moment, the severity of what had just happened to our country, the grave threat we were facing. We had two options. Back away, or say we are going back into the battle and be there. That was a powerful moment for us, and under president bushs leadership, there were critical moments during that time when we knew we had to provide support that he needed to lead us. In a critical moment of our nation. Steve where did you go to college . Mercedes i got my masters at George Washington university. Steve why did you come to washington . Mercedes i felt i had outgrown miami in a lot of ways. I need that i wanted to work in politics, it was clear that that , at 21re i wanted to the years old i was managing a state and that her campaign in florida. I always loved working on campaigns. It was one of my favorite activities to do both during and after college. I worked on the bushquayle campaign. I just loved the grassroots work, making calls, going out and knocking on doors, i just grew up wanting to continue doing that. Coming here to washington with the ability to get into Public Service and be able to work on what i love, my passion was. My passion from early on in life was Public Service and politics and having discussions on issues that mattered to me and my family. It was natural that washington would be the next step. It has been a wonderful decision, because of course meeting my husband came out of it. Steve what was your first job here . Mercedes i work with congressman lincoln diazbalart. School i didduate consulting for some time for about two years than i got pulled back into working in Governmental Relations for Florida International university. Then i got pulled into the president ial campaign in that 2000. Was a launching pad to working on the inaugural committee, then coming over into the white house and working in Media Affairs. It was a wonderful i loved working on the president ial campaign, and i knew this was what i wanted to do. It was interesting i always , thought i would be a policy person, but i ended up falling into the communication world. That is when you take complicated policy and simplify it so that we can all understand it. So i think that has been a wonderful trek so far. Steve bank as we speak to you it , has been 17 years since the 36 day recount in your home state of florida. What do you remember about that . What were you thinking . Mercedes those are the moments that that is a great question. I was down in miami during the recount, so i remember there being a lot of organization happening around that time in terms of counting the chads. Do you remember that . Can you believe it . You have a greater appreciation of the fact that in the united states, there is what we call the peaceful transition of government. During the time, Vice President al gore conceded. It is something you do not necessarily see and all governments, so i think it is an appreciation of how strong our constitution is, how strong the government can be in terms of ensuring that we could have a peaceful transition of power. And i think that that sends a powerful message to the world, and it was a trying time for our country to find a healing moment and say, ok, president bush is president and this is how it ended up. Steve will we ever see Mercedes Schlapps name on the ballot . Mercedes not anytime soon. I take it day by day. I feel fortunate that i can serve for President Trump and be part of his team. It is an honor to serve as president. I think President Trump has a clear vision of where he wants to take america, and he spends every day ensuring that he is listening to americans and can talk about issues that matter. Of ensuring that we create opportunities for all americans. Bringing our economy back for , the forgotten man, woman and child to be uplifted. What he is doing in terms of unleashing our economy is so powerful and so strong. It is something i am so proud to be a part of. Steve with five girls, there are five different personalities. Amy budding politicians in the family . Mercedes my oldest is very involved with matt in the cpac world. I have a lot of artists in the family. The American Conservative Union world she is starting a , Constitution Club at her high school. She is very engaged in political discussion. Many a time i have driven in the car and she is writing up my talking points while im in the car. There is definitely an interest there. My third i have convinced that my third she will join the opposite party, but i will love her anyways. [laughter] steve what does that mean . Your job as an advisor of Strategic Communications . Mercedes i get to work on the longterm Strategic Planning for the president. We are looking deep into 2018 already. We are rolling out and defining the roles for his initiatives for next year. This takes into account policy discussions that are happening here in the white house. Legislative discussions are also happening here, as well as the Communications Component of it. Being able to build our messages around key president ial initiative. We work our way towards state of the union, and what inspiring message the president will give. I have enjoyed it greatly because i am able to pull message the president will give. Together different talents from offices, to work with them to help look into the president s vision for 2018 and beyond. Steve we know that infrastructure is going to be a big part of the state of the union and his agenda in 2018. It will be a very narrow senate, with 51 republicans and 49 democrats. How does that fall in with what the president wants to achieve . Steve with trump, there is trump speed and washington speed. Trumbull once this the result. Trump wants to see results. He wants us to push the ball forward. Look at tax cut legislation. It is not only historic, but the mere fact that they got it done in what would be one cycle is impressive. It took president reagan beyond a year to get that done. Infrastructure is more complex in the sense that you had that legislation that would go through nine committees in the house and senate. Obviously, it would require bipartisan support. President trump wants to continue to work with both parties and ensure that infrastructure is something that crosses party lines. It provides an opportunity to talk about these Critical Issues for state and local communities. We are talking about building roads and bridges and railways. Ensuring that we modernize our airports and railways. There is an opportunity here to build upon the economic agenda that we are already pushing for. For the president it is clear that with the tax cut, we are going to see relief for middleclass families come up we are going to bring investments back to the united states. That is critical, and with infrastructure, this is just ensuring that it has economic growth. As to that, deregulation, something the president has focused on with cabinets in ensuring that we have an historic number of dereg in terms of pushing that agenda as well which i think also adds to the economic growth. So this is about making america prosperous, rebuilding in this case american infrastructure, something weve have not seen for a long time. Steve when you try to roll out that agenda methodically and that message and you have that president ial tweets, does not complicate your job . Mercedes it makes the job exciting. [laughter] steve how so . Mercedes he is very transparent. Hes very direct. People understand and appreciate him, the fact he goes straight directly to them to tell what hes thinking. And i think that President Trump is going to be President Trump. One of the things he really values is the fact that if we can continue working on his agenda, working on his issues, what we are going to focus on. When he gets frustrated, hes going to let you know he is not happy with that. And thats how he expresses himself. But the American People voted for that and at the same time, a they voted for his very visionary legislative agenda. Not only to make America Great again, but this idea of building our economy and into a point where we are globally competitive but that it is investing in our American Workers and companies and Small Businesses and our communities, putting americans act to work. Back to work. In the case of individuals that did not have job opportunities, if we can provide that job training and get them to the next level, thats what we want to see. We want to see americans prosper and have hope and be able to build up their lives and provide better lives for the children. Steve let me take this one step further. Conclude with this line of questioning. There may be a different perception of what life is like inside the white house other than what americans see in television and news coverage. For you, what is it like . And is there a misconception about how the white house is run . Mercedes i have deep appreciation for the tough work Sarah Sanders does through every day, our press secretary. There is definitely a sense from some of these outlets that they have been very aggressive about this president with a particular agenda. Anybody who has spent time with the president knows that he he wants to get the policy done. He wants to see these results happen. This is what he wants the staff to do and focus on and the administration to focus on. Its unfortunate the President Trump we get to see doesnt necessarily get seen to the public because they are so skewed on some of the coverage is. Thats incredibly frustrating because it gets to the point that we end up talking less about issues and more about palace intrigue or about the president , of him personally and his family members, as opposed to the issues that matter to americans. The pocketbook issues. Having more health care choices, having more job opportunities, making sure their kids getting the right education. Those are the issues we need to be talking about instead of all the drama that so many of these Media Outlets push. I think it is very unfortunate, i think, especially being a woman, so many women working in strong positions here at the white house, its incredibly frustrating to see that the abuse hes gone under. Mercedes your husband steve your husband predicted in september of last year that donald trump would win. When did you know . Mercedes i get great advice from him. He is my own political director. I think we both felt at the time there was this undercurrent that mercedes i get great advice , was not being reported, that there was a sense of that he does have a chance of being the winner. But to actually be it roll out and layout away that it did on election day, i think it was amazing to watch. We were both in new york and we went to trump tower and there was definitely this sense of, this is really happening i think it was an amazing moment for all of us at that moment. Steve when you have time with nothing to do, what does city Mercedes Schlapp do . Mercedes i spent time with my children. That is the key, that means a lot of basketball game lacrosse , games. And whenever i can, i read. Although i do read a lot of political and history books, so that kind of sounds dark. [applause] steve we thank you very much for your time. Mercedes thank you. Announcer cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, Ellen Mitchell discusses the future of defense spending and what was included in the National Defense authorization act that was signed by President Trump earlier this week. And in our spotlight on magazine segment, we feature specific Pacific Standard country reading writer andrew kroll as he talks about the secondary market for retail goods. Then Senior Research fellow brian knight shares his view on bitcoin and the future of crypto currency. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at seven eastern on saturday morning. Join the discussion. As President Trump to part of the white house to speak at the fbi Academy Graduation ceremony, he took questions from reporters for about five minutes