Politics. I want them to come away, hopefully, with an idea that Ronald Reagan was not inalienable dunst. But actually in intellectual who is very comfortable with ideas. I would like them to come away of billappreciation buckley. Sometimes we get caught up in his style, but he was also a very serious man who could have been the playboy of the western world, but chose, as a put it in the book, to be the st. Paul of the conservative movement. To evangelize on behalf of conservative drought his 60 years. Host you say in the book you are now designated as the longest living conservative and a country who has been active in politics. What year did it start for you that you were active in politics . In edwards it would started 1960 with the Republican National convention, which i attended. I was an editor of the young Republican National newspaper. That was the first of some 11 or 12 National Conventions i attended. That is when i got into it. That same year was when we founded Young Americans for freedom. That had a profound effect on politics in this country. Host lets go john the list quickly lets go down the list quickly everything you have done, without explanation. Besides helping to found Young Americans for freedom, what is next . At edwards i was also there the founding of the American Conservative Union, which was 1964, which occurred after the goldwater. Then i would say that i founded my own Public Affairs firm in 1965 because i had been in the Barry Goldwater president ial Campaign Starting in 1963 when i was working with the draft goldwater committee, then the goldwater for president committee. Host how long did you have your own firm . Mr. Edwards 20 years. Host what did you do other than that firm in 20 years . Mr. Edwards from time to time i was writing. I was writing a weekly column, which i syndicated myself. I wrote a couple of books, a good one called you can make a difference with my wife. It was the First Political handbook for conservatives. I also wrote a little book called rebel peddler, which was about a young millionaire salesman down in north carolina, and how he was motivated by positive latitude to become a billionaire and try to get the people working for him to become billionaires as well. After those 20 years in pr, your own firm, what was next . 1984, 1985, frankly, brian, i was burned out. I have been working hard and enjoying it very much. Working for political people bob dole, the white house, Republican National committee, then a whole bunch of conservative organizations. The American Conservative Union and so forth. I was just tired. I have been thinking and really anding to go back to school teach. I wanted to be a teacher at the college level. To do that i had to go back to school. Catholicsted at the university of america and it took me five years, that i got a phd in world politics. Was what enabled me to begin teaching at a Catholic University. I will be starting my 31st year of teaching at Catholic University in january of 2018. Host i want to put on the screen a photograph of something located very near where we are sitting right now. I ask you about it because you write a lot about it. This is a photograph of what . Mr. Edwards this is a bronze replica of the goddess of democracy statue, which was first corrected in the papiermache formed by prodemocracy chinese students. In june of 1989. It became a symbol of freedom, the desire for freedom, and a part of those young chinese. It also became a symbol of what a totalitarian regime would do out freedom, liberty and calls for democracy. True r was that sat that statue erected, the whennal one in 1989, then was that takes an troops killed under maybe thousands of students. Therefore, when we decided to build a memorial, a memorial to all the victims of communism, and that is 100 Million People. That is probably a conservative estimate. We take that estimate from the black book the conservative black but. It was published by harvard university. Would do this. But to do this, we had to overcome a really wide, wide variety of obstacles. Host where did it start, what year and was it your idea . Mr. Edwards as a matter of fact, a was not my idea. 1990, it wasy of some two months after the berlin wall had come down. I was having brunch with my wife and our daughter, elizabeth. People were forgetting about why we had fought the cold war. People are forgetting about the victims of communism and the crimes of communism under the soviets and the chinese, and many other countries and regimes. So i said, we have to do something. Said, you know what we need, we need a memorial to the victims of communism. Merely pickeda, i up a paper napkin and wrote on it, memorial victims of communism. An oldt day i called comrade in arms and said, would you join me in this great adventure to build a memorial for the victims of communism . That was 1990. It took us some 17 years. We had to negotiate the 24 steps which are called for by public you want to build a memorial in washington dc. Host who sets those 24 standards . Mr. Edwards that was done by the National Park service with congressional approval. Go by your statue and stand in one particular location, you could see the capital of the united states. What makes you think anybody pays any attention to this when they drive by . Mr. Edwards we know that they do because they stop, they will cause, there is a lot a foot traffic. This is mass avenue, new jersey avenue, two blocks from Union Station and four blocks from the u. S. Capitol. On the top of the capital is the statue of freedom. That was a deliberate choice on our part to put our democracy of freedom there, so you can also see the statue of freedom on top of the u. S. Capitol. Know also that National Leaders from all over the world, the baltics, eastern and central newark, taiwan and many other countries come to that place. They lay a wreath, they say it prayer. Not only that, but every year in june, on the anniversary of Ronald Reagans famous mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall speech, we have a public event. Some 22t june industries came with representatives, laid a wreath and were joined by some 25 ethnic groups, chinese, korean, cambodian, laos and so forth, cuban and also laid wreaths. This is become for foreign leaders, our memorial port of call. I think it will go to the state department and very often they will come to our statue. Len from . E was was born in he america but his parents were ukrainian. We worked with the national captive committee for a number of years. It was very natural but i would go to him. He would help and made a significant contribution. Host right after john adams book by David Mccullough was written, he led a group to find a place to put a john Adams Memorial somewhere near the mall. It is not happening, it is not there, so, there are hundreds of statues around washington how much did it cost . Mr. Edwards it cost about 1 million to build it, to lay the to do the bronze replica, to lay the marble for the space there and so forth. It does not sound like very much, but believe me, trying to raise 1 million for a memorial to the victims of communism is no easy task. The government, by congressional resolution, gave us the land. About one third of it. Host who led that and the congress . Mr. Edwards it was bipartisan, it was jesse helms in the senate, Dana Rohrabacher in the house, bob torricelli, who was a liberal democrat and the house. Dana rohrabacher furry conservative republican. Byse helms was held off liberal democrats. It was bipartisan from the very beginning. That was something we always insisted upon. Host what was the first step . Mr. Edwards the first step was to get a congressional resolution think they should be built. We had to go to that, drawing upon the support and the help of someone like tom lantos, a marvelous liberal democrat from california, holocaust survivor, the only one ever to serve in congress and later chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Having his support was important. There we have Dana Rohrabacher and tom lantos together for this project. That helped us to get it approved. It was approved unanimously by the u. S. Congress. Host by that time had you raised money . Mr. Edwards we had begun raising money. Host where did the first money come from . Moneywards the first came from ethnic americans, vietnamese americans, lithuanian americans, hungarian americans. Host how did you get them to give you money . Mr. Edwards we went to them through the context that we had made through the national captive nations committee. Foundations, we knew individuals who would be interested in our project. Frankly, also, we went through various lists which were ofumulated over the years conservatives, who were not only conservative, but anticommunist. Stepbystep, year by year, we were able to do it. Example, our, for design approved by three different commissions. Host three different commissions under what mr. Edwards these were three federal commissions dealing with monuments in washington dc. Host three federal commissions. Mr. Edwards yes, they had to sign off on the fact of the design and the existence of it. We had to convince them that this was really an american, as international and global memorial. We had to point out to them that we fought the cold against communism for 47 years. Coming out of that were all kinds of victims. We had to point out to them how many people had died under mao, under stalin, under fidel castro. All of these facts and figures had to be brought together to convince these commissions that there was a reason to have a memorial to the victims of communism. How did you decide, or try to decide where your spot would be . Mr. Edwards we had several different places. Finally, glenn with the National Park service jova us by massachusetts avenue and new jersey writer of the corner from the georgetown law center. He said, this is something, what about this . Love it because there were thousands of cars going by. Not a lot of residential people there around. To worry aboutad getting people who lived in an apartment to approve the site. Finally we discovered it was not good enough. All of these various commissions had signed off. We had to get the approval of a Neighborhood Commission. 6c. To get in. Have he is directly responsible for this plot of land. I said, where is he. Home. Ursing we called up, made an appointment on a sunday afternoon. Mobile is ourcon chief architect, visited mr. Thomas. Will chair and he was africanamerican. We did not know that before we arrived. I am thinking, how can i africanamerican politician to sign off on this . We began talking. Host why were you suspicious that he would not sign off . Was hisrds just, what background. Did he even know what communism was. Did he know who stalin was or mao was . It was a sure thing he knew who dr. Martin luther king was, but did he know who Joseph Stalin was . Mr. Edwards for two and a half hours we sat there, we stood and he sat, talking. We developed he had walked with Martin Luther king, a critical ally of mary m barry here in washington dc. At the end of two and a half hours we are just about exhausted. He looked up and said, i just want to tell you one thing, i dont my communism. Host could he have stopped it . Mr. Edwards yes, he could have. This was sunday, tuesday he introduced a resolution at that Neighborhood Commission approving the building of a memorial at that spot. Host was he there the day you there ands he was personally introduced the resolution. He made a commitment that i will never, never forget his contribution. Host is he alive . Mr. Edwards no. Host four are the other major steps in this process . Bookw from reading your that you thought you would get 500,000, you had one million. When did you realize it would cost more . Mr. Edwards i would say we incorporating the victims of Communism Memorial Foundation the cause you have to have an organization to be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the memorial. Host who pays for that . Mr. Edwards we did and we still are in perpetuity. Theyres service is looking on, but the direct responsibility for it is ours. Host but you had to give money to the National Park service which has no responsibility . Mr. Edwards this is for something major occurs, like an earthquake or a bolt of lightning, then they will step in. Week to weeky, seeing, making sure things are clean, polished and so forth, all of that is done by us. We thought we had raised enough, then all of a sudden another hundred thousand. A came down to the fact that we had to raise 75,000 more dollars. This was in 2006. Infounded and dedicated it 2007. I thought, where will we get the money. Helmsmber that jesse chief of staff was a man named Carl Anderson, and that carl had become the supreme knight of the knights of columbus. The largest Catholic Organization in america. Worked for jesse helms, a hardshell baptist. I thought maybe we could get jesse to write to carl to send us a check for 25,000, which we had asked for. Contacted the office and it turned out that senator helms had fallen on bad times in terms of his health and he was in a nursing home and was in taking visitors anymore. His daughter said ok, draft me a letter and i will see what i can do. She called a couple of days later, he approved it, mailed it to Carl Anderson. We heard nothing for a week. After two weeks i was getting very, very apprehensive about what was going to happen here. In the mail came a letter, wonderful letter from Carl Anderson and a check for 25,000. I would like to say that Divine Providence brought together a hardshell baptists and the most prominent catholic person in america to make this coming. To me that proves that this is something that is really part of what Ronald Reagan used to call, the divine plan. Was there anybody that oppose the idea of doing this in the congress . Mr. Edwards there were a couple of people who in the debate said, well, do we really need another memorial . Somebody even said, should we have memorials to the victims of capitalism . There was a little bit of kit act like that. When the kick back like that. This was a Democratic Congress. This was 1993, so it was a Democratic Congress and it was signed into law by bill clinton. Congressmocratic dominated, and a democratic president approved it and enabled it to move ahead. Host how much time do you think you spent on this . Mr. Edwards i think in years, probably about 14 years, which about theut was average time that it takes to build a memorial. That is the average. Other memorials in this town that have the same kind of situation as yours . Mr. Edwards they are all built by private money. That is part of the law. No federal funds. The Holocaust Memorial museum was built with private funds. Seeded toseated them by congress, by the government. But to build the incredible structure was done by private funds. Host their other ukrainian monuments around town that you cite in the book. Whyone down at 22nd and p, so much of that and does the average american coming here to visit ever Pay Attention to this stuff . Mr. Edwards i think the average american would not, but we did some polling and we found out there we found out that are about 30 million americans of an ethnic background from eastern and central europe, it even from europe, even from that represents a sizable percentage of the american population. Dc, they come to washington whether in high school, college or whatever, there are interested in visiting these kinds of memorials. This also represents what america is about. It is a nation of immigrants. It is a nation of many different backgrounds. Different social kinds of approaches to life. It seems to me that having memorial to the victims of communism, the 100 million victims, may be the most appropriate memorial that there is a washington, outside of the american why might the Washington Monument, jefferson and so forth. Videoi want to show you from opening day ceremony, this is president george w. Bush. Bush the mennt and women could chosen an image of repression for the it a replica of a wall that once to dividedrlin, berlin, or a field littered with schools. Instead they chose in image of hope. A Woman Holding a lamp of liberty. She reminds us of the victims of communism, and also of the power that overcame communism. Host what is the story of how you got the president to do this . Mr. Edwards it was a piece of cake [laughter] something a little more challenging than that. And about 2002, or 2003, we contacted carl growth who was a top political aide to president bush. We said, is there any chance mr. Bush becoming our honorary chairman . Very unusual for a sitting president to become the honorary chairman of an organization, even a Nonprofit Organization like ours. He said, that is interesting, let me look into it. It so happened that president bush did agree to do that. We established that relationship with him. We kept him informed with what were doing and moving ahead with building the memorial. Finally came the day, or the month when we were going to dedicated and we said, perhaps we can get the president to come and dedicate it and accepted for the american people. Incredible day when i got the phone call from the white house. Then she said, this is an outside event. I said yes. Well, it is going to be expensive, and that is all she said. Met with the secret service we found out that what that meant was, a special escape hatch an for the president in case there was an emergency. That cost 25,000. A special tent, reinforced tent so that when the president ial limo came up we could come in and could be concealed from people. That was a quick 5,000. And other security measures, and floral and black of him to block anybody taking and pack of him to block anybody from taking a look at him. Plus extra police and so forth, even though there was secret service there. 75,000. At cost about but it was worth it. It was worth every single dollar. Host did you let anybody who wanted to spend as much money as they want on this . Mr. Edwards no it we did not want to be accused of being the lapdog of any Foreign Government , foreign entity, corporation, or somebody here at home as well. Anticommunist. Thany could give more 75,000. Host how did you get the pew money . Mr. Edwards it turned out that mr. J howard pew was one of the great anticommunist of his day and died in the 1970s. So happened that he was very close to grow city college, i was there, i had written a biography of the history of the college. I met there the president of the Pew Charitable trust. Got along just fine. I said rebecca, i am doing this project right now, the victims of communism. She said very interesting. Mr. Pugh would have supported that. From that we managed to and tosh a relationship hopefully persuade them to support us. Host at one point did you think you would get a museum, and what happened in the end . I know there is a museum but it is virtual. Mr. Edwards right. From the beginning, going back 1994, 1995, we were talking a lot about a museum. We were impressed and inspired by the Holocaust Memorial museum. We wanted to do the same for the victims of communism. Board say,came on yes, the victims of communism deserve a museum just as much as the jews suffered under nazi of them under nazism. Not one million, two minor 5 million, that was 100 million project at the most. We kept waiting for a millionaire to walk through the door and senate because that check. We realized it would not happen. We reverse our goals and said we thendo the memorial first, we will do a virtual museum, which we have various exhibits. Eople can visit host how did they do that . Have constructed one electronically and they can tap into it and visited, and go into a barracks. We have dogs barking, we have guards coming through there. You can walk through this barracks and see what it was like to be in the gulags in the soviet union. Host had he find it on the web . Mr. Edwards go to victims of communism. Org. Namedyou will see a woman and appelbaum who was a writer for the washington post, a. Ommie a columnist why did she produce a pay and it . Mr. Edwards it was very important, at the beginning of our project to get outstanding academics. We were able to persuade robert and richard, the three great experts on soviet union and communism to join us and be on our advisory board. See thiser we could andelous book called gulags it struck us as being in the tradition of where alexander had written so many years before. We went to her and explained what we would like to do to have her write an essay for us. She agreed to do so and that was a reinforcing of the fact that we are not just some flybynight organization. Are serious about our research and our remembrance of the victims of communism. Here is video from an interview in 1999. I want you to put him in context. War frombeen in the in4 in bulgaria, then later the british political. When thet happened communist regime took over. The terror and oppression and ruin of the country. Host how did he fit in . Conquest wasrobert phdllow, did not have a like professor pipes or dr. Brzezinski, that had early on horrified byd and the communist suppression, as he explained there. He undertook to write a history of the socalled great terror that stalin and initiated in the soviet union and 1936, 1937 and 1938. Something like one Million People were executed at stalins direct order. They were challengers to his , to hiso his regime ability to do whatever he wanted to do with the soviet union. Using only secondary sources because you cannot go into the kremlin at that point, this is back in the 1970s. Bob conquest wrote this book, the great terror. It was dismissed by academics, but it was hailed, quietly, and the soviet union by dissidents who knew he was beginning truth. That there was this great terror initiated and carried out by stalin. He was so important to us, he subsequently wrote a history was the forced famine in ukraine in the 1930s. A famine initiated by Joseph Stalin, a monster if there ever one, because what hes what he did was to collect devise of the farms of ukraine and russia, the soviet union. Everybody had to take whatever they grew and give it to the collectives. Not leaving anything for those Little Farmers and stalin did not care because he wanted to wipe out what he called the kulaks, the more prosperous farmers. Know how many died, at least 56 money and people died. 56,000,000 people died. Mothers were reduced to cannibalism. Robert conquest wrote about this. It was dismissed by many, many academics and he has been proven by history with regard to the these thingsthat did happen. Justificationneed by themselves as to why there should be not only a memorial, but also a museum about the victims of communism. Part ofres some video, your political pass, july 16, 1964. Anybody that follows politics remembers this. I want you to give us the back story on how this happened. This is Barry Goldwater. Isi will remind you that it and the defense of liberty. [applause]. Thank you thank you. , that remind you also moderation and the pursuit of justice is no virtue. [applause] host why is it over the years just the first part of that is usually sound . Mr. Edwards people focus on the extremism line. It is understandable that the media would do that. But the second part, about the importance of pursuing justice is pretty important. Water, for whom i barrylearning ,oldwater, for whom i worked was a manned was a street shooter a man who was a straightooter shooter. Did not believe in holding back, would give you a black and white answer. Because of certain things which he said, recommended, for security whoocial said we need a voluntary option. People immediately said, he wants to do away with Social Security. Weapons could be used, but i do not think they would be, or should be. That was translated into goldwater recommends use of nuclear weapons. He was seen as an extremist throughout the president ial Campaign Leading up to this period we are talking about ray here. What would right here. What would be his response . Is he just going to sit back and try to be say, well, i am not really an extremist. Im really a good die, i am not really going to do away with Social Security or use nuclear arms. Or is he going to turn it around, flip it around, and directly challenge people and say, extremism and the defense. F liberty is no vice that was so typical of goldwater. Now, having said that, should that have been all that happen . No. Today, i would have called spin centers, so that after someone makes a speech like that, the media goes to this large room and there are spokesman for the person, ther the politician, and they will explain what he said, why he said it, put it into context. It was no such thing in 1964. We did not explain that, for example, that dr. Martin luther king and a letter from birmingham jail talked about extremism, did not talk about Patrick Henry give me liberty or give me trip to meet debt. The cross giving up his life, how much more extreme could you be . It was not done in those days. The media and the opposition was in the party and among the democrats to say that goldwater was an extremist. Host where were you in that speech was given . Mr. Edwards i was back at the had ourere we headquarters because i had given that night to somebody who worked very hard in the campaign. Thatted her to have opportunity. I was watching it on television. I did not see that speech ahead of time, nor that other people nor did other people. Cliff white was a delegate. Unter for the senator one of the most experienced and knowledgeable, and effective critical strategists in the country. He was the one who had obtained a nomination for us through a delegate hunt and search, which we had been exempting for a couple of years leading up to the convention. Cliff had not seen it, i had not seen it and others did not see it. As soon as the senator said that, and i recorded this in my diary, which it quoted in the book just right, i knew it was a mistake. Host who wrote that speech . Mr. Edwards before the convention began, the gentleman who is challenging us, they govern a governor named William Scranton sent out a letter to all the delegates at the convention saying, goldwater is extremism, it is ism and so forth. He was furious. We took the speech and drafted a car output it aside and said i want something stronger. Was a professor at Ohio State University had given some testimony at a Platform Committee meeting talking about extremism. The senator looked over at harry said, i wantng and you to write my acceptance speech. Carrie, who had never written a political speech in his life said, ok. Worn warren crafted that speech. They all loved it, including the senator. He relished the idea of taking the word extremism and pushing it into the face of nelson rockefeller, bill scranton and the other liberal republicans of the day. This is out of context, but it is in your book and i wanted to ask you about it. Lets go to some video of a man named martin a grunt ski margin grunt ski martin a gronski. Ets watch him i think he worked for all three networks at one point. They were talking about mccarthy calling reporters communist. It was the usual gimmick with mccarthy. I merely said something like, to mr. Hunt, i think you are mistaken when you equate orticism with this loyalty treason. Reporters are good americans like other americans. It is a great mistake to denounce us as traders. Traderse looking for and people doing damage to our country. Andook us on capitol hill there is senator mccarthy doing an anonymous damage to the country. Host what impact did he have on your life . In 1969 nixon had been elected. His Vice President was spiro agnew. Afterecided they would go the media, that the media had been overly critical and unfairly critical of maxtor of mr. Makes interand the campaign. During themr. Nixon campaign. So they unleashed spiro agnew who went around talking about negativeism. Was, it wasf that possible for conservatives to enter into the mass media, which we had been denied before. Radio, television and so forth. Coming out of that, bill rusher became well known to a thing called the advocates. Commentator idio think with cbs and npr. Channel nine, i approach them and said i would like to be a commentator. Host was that owned by the post at that time . Mr. Edwards i dont recall if it was or not. There whosome people were in the news department. They knew me, and i have just done a rather big rally at the Washington Monument with some 25,000 people who came out in support of the war of Vietnam Veterans day rally. I guess i was fairly well known here in washington dc. So i did become a commentator for channel nine for several weeks. All of a sudden i heard it is off the air, you are done, its through. I was told, i was never approached directly, that he said, it is either me or edwards, one of us has to go. They gave me my walking papers. Host click take on your opinion of Joseph Mccarthy all these years later. Mr. Edwards i think stan evans did a very marvelous book called blacklisted by history. The various charges which joe mccarthy had made about whether there was ormunist in our government not. Stan evans was a very careful reporter. E was an fbi files he was able to prove that joe mccarthy was wrong. There wereg that more communist in the u. S. Government than joe mccarthy said. Stan evans proves that in blacklisted by history. Father,e mccarthy to my he was something of a confidant to him. He was a health alone a hail fellow well met. He liked to party and like to drink or two. As on his you did not asked talk about communism, he was fun. He was also someone who did not ticket price for a well. He consequently said things, and even did things that hurt the cause of anticommunism for some time. I would certainly not pick him a someone to lead the movement, but he made a contribution in , werenging the idea that there, and is in the government, there certainly were. Host ontime Chicago Tribune reporter, your father. Read back to what you wrote and get you to explain this. Why is it that liberals insist that a conservative historian cannot write an object to book about conservatism, but nether never question whether a liberal historian can write an objective book about liberalism . Mr. Edwards i have written 26 , number of biographies and histories, almost all of them about conservative individuals, or institutions. I would be challenged by this. People would say, i would love you arew your book, but a conservative writing about conservatism. I thought to myself, that just does not seem fair. I thought about it and i finally came up with this formulation. Partisan can no more or under factual in what i write about Ronald Arthur interwas arthur was when he wrote about fdr, or when william wrote about john f. Kennedy. A writingng, to project or to life, prejudices and biases. Vices. ,f you can challenge my works you cannot successfully do so when it comes to the facts, quotes, interviews. Very, veryys been careful in being a strict observer of the truth. I try to be as balanced as possible, but i make no tents of saying that i am not sympathetic of Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater or bill buckley. Back to 1962, a man named robert welsh. Lets watch him for 40 seconds and ill ask you to put him in context and what relationship you had with him. We are striving to set an example that dedication, which ournd purpose childrens children may follow without hesitation. It is this character, quality and caliber of our membership, which amazes everybody on first learning the truth, after having heard about us from reports in so much of the press and over the air. ,enator Barry Goldwater although he frequently criticizes me, has repeatedly stated that the finest people he knows in his state are members of the john burke society. Host what did robert welsh have to do with the society . Founder,ds he was the chairman, president , ceo, coo, and everything else. The John Birch Society is made americans, good terribly frustrated by what they saw as the direction of the country, too much of a soft approach to communism and a feeling that the government was getting too big. Mr. Welsh came along and capitalized upon those fears and apprehensions, and wondering set to form the society. To come up trying with a bottom line, for example, in a book called the politician, he said that, like David Eisenhower was either an captive of theg communist, or he was a communist himself. , a conservative historian, intellectual said, ike is not a communist, he is a golfer. Later in publication called american opinion, which became the monthly journal of the john decidedciety, mr. Welsh to start having a monthly muchlboard as to how communist were controlling america. Month by month that percentage went up your by your until finally, towards one of the last publications that i have looked we were allegedly 80 controlled by the communists, which is absurd, just nonsense. Anybody with any kind of logic would know that. Why bill buckley said that we must throw out right wing extremists out of the Movement Without any hesitation. Said, please, walk away. We do not need you, we dont want you, you dont recognize you dont represent what confronted what conservatism is all about. Host you talked about being a catholic. At a catholicars university, you are still catholic . Mr. Edwards yes. I try to be a good catholic. I want you as a catholic to put this in context. We have some video of someone i think played a role in your life. Seconds. Just 14 i had not seen this and i remembered him and he was still in the house. I want you to translate how it fits into your personal life. You read my biography, there is no reference to the fact that i am a former politician, i am an attorney, or that i served in the u. S. House of representatives for eight years. Three strikes and youre out. Host i assume he was your best man . Mr. Edwards he was my best man and i was his best man. Host re still in touch with him today . Mr. Edwards not as much as i would like to be, but i stay in touch. Host he ended up writing a book, conscience of a conservative. He was your best man, and your. Ife is catholic put that into context for folks today about how do you deal with this, and how do u. S. A catholic do with this . Mr. Edwards i think you have to deal with charity, with love, with forgiveness. That bob many a night we were at his home where he was at our home listening to records of old jazz and popular music, talking about politics, talking about goldwater, we had no idea that homosexualityhe was a serious drinking problem as well. Those two combined. We have a saying in the catholic church, and i am sure it is not just only in our church. Hate the sin but not the sinner. Accept, we dont believe that homosexuality is a natural thing, but at the same time we are not going to cast out into the darkness the person who may engage a map. That. Age in i still admire bob and the things he accomplished. Im proud to say he was there at our marriage and still kind of a friend. Host what would be the possibility given the change in environment that he would have survived this . Mr. Edwards i think he would have survived. Today there is much more acceptance of this kind of sexual preference. I think that the fact that he was gay would make not as much difference. Perhaps, when the final vote was taken as to whether or not in the house of representatives, whether he should be speaker, there might be some members of the house that might step back and say, do we really want to have a gay person is our speaker . Based upon his knowledge of the rules, his intelligence, i think he might for it will would be accepted as speaker of the house. Host how long have you been n stevens . An mr. Edwards 51 years. She has been a marvelous wife and mother and editor of mine. I make her read all of my stuff whether she wants to or not and she does a marvelous job. Host where are your two daughters . Mr. Edwards both of them are very close by. Elizabeth, with her two kids is just around the corner in arlington. Catherine, who has nine children is down in spotsylvania. We are looking forward we see them several times actually a month, not just a year. We have a wonderful family. The kids love each other, we love them, and i am a very fortunate and blessed man. Host will you write another book . Mr. Edwards i have a book in mine called the other stash called the other 60s called 60s. Her i think it might be a very needed book to get some balance. Host a man who has lived on this book on this earth since 1932. I dont see any change in you, what is the secret . Mr. Edwards i think the secret genes, being careful what you eat entering can might also be getting on the treadmill as often as you can. Also being responsive to gods plan for you. I really think god has a plan for all of us. Ist the name of the book just right a life in pursuit of liberty. Our guest has been lee edwards. Thank you very much. Mr. Edwards thank you, brian. For free transcripts or to give us your comments about the program, visit us at q a. Org. It is also available at cspan podcast. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] weeksou enjoyed this q a with lee edwards, here are other programs you might like. Her bookrize author on about Eastern Europe in the aftermath of world war ii. Of last act, the final years and legacies of Ronald Reagan. Talking about his biography of the russian revolutionary leon trotsky. You can watch these any time, or search our entire Video Library at cspan. Org. All this week washington journal features authors of key books. Popular books on christmas day, monday. Author henry was the workingclass republican. Tuesday, ken stern with republican like me, how i left the liberal bubble and learn to love the right. Wednesday, angela davis with her book, policing the black man. Former representative Cliff Stearns with his book. Also on friday, december 29, author and scholar with Digital World war. Then on saturday, december 30, no manswith her book, land surviving america in the 21st century. On sunday, december 31, the gatekeepers how the white house chief of staff to find every prelacy. Washington journals author series on cspan, cspan. Org and cspan radio. Her final question time of 20, british Prime Minister theresa may fields questions about wrecks it and its potential impacts on several british industries. She was also asked about an official exit the from the european union, telling members that that is set for march of 2019 and only under exceptional circumstances which she consider extending that date for it this is about one hour. Order questions for the Prime Minister. Question number one. The Prime Minister. Prime minister may thank you. Mr. Speaker, by wishing all members and staff at Merry Christmas and h