Transcripts For CSPAN QA Caitriona Perry 20180129

Affinity for america and what goes on here, so people always want to hear about us and the correspondence left experience. I didnt intend to do that until i finished my time here, but given what happened with last years president ial election, there was such a massive interest both here and at home in ireland. So much interest in what had happened, what had gone on. The question a lot of americans i think are asking themselves, last year was extraordinary, and so has this year been. I was approached by a publisher to write about behindthescenes but also in explaining guide about what happened in the 2016 election campaign, and what led the campaign to be what it was and help people understand that it is not all black and white, red and blue. Brian how Many Americans in the u. S. Have irish roots . Caitriona census figures between 13 and 14 million, so million, so a massive figure. A vast deal is for him. Diaspora. You would be doing well to find a family in ireland that doesnt have family who have moved to this country. They often fall in love with an american and never come back to ireland. Historically, it was through our great famine and looking for employment that they came over here. There is a huge connection between the two countries into two peoples. Brian close to 5 Million People in the republic of ireland, 26 counties. What is the big difference you have noticed between living in ireland, being an irishman in the United States . Caitriona you need a five hour special for that one, brian. They are two totally different countries, you cant really compare them. Primarily starting from the point of view of scale. Im a very proud irish person, but it is a small country. Very sparsely populated. We just dont have the scale there would be here even with just Employment Opportunity or just diversity. I mean, purely in terms of climate in this country, you can have one part of the country bathing and sunshine and others buried under a fee of snow. We would not have that in an ireland, either. I suppose the people are quite similar in that so many have irish heritage. I have found americans to be extremely welcoming and friendly and open and polite. Very well mannered. Particularly here in washington, not, i mean i arrived really knowing anyone and i was very wrapped into the community. The irish community, but also the general community. Gosh, if we were to go into all the differences, we would be here all day. Brian you say in your books are some 44 Million Immigrants in the United States, making it the largest immigrant country in the world. What about in ireland . Is there a lot of diversity . Caitriona in recent times. You have heard of the celtic tigers. When we were booming, that point we had a lot of immigrants coming to ireland from other countries, mostly from africa and eastern europe. Many have made ireland their home. We went through a recession, and during that time many people wouldve gone back to where they were from or from a third auntry but we have turned corner. Things are improving in ireland. Our economy is back in a healthy position again. But we would have a much narrower history with emigration. Weve traditionally been a nation of immigrants and so were only now sort of seeing youcycling through where have people are born in ireland that have parents from somewhere else. That is a relatively new phenomenon. The scale that is on that the moment. Brian can you explain this to americans, that the Prime Minister in ireland is a gay man . Given the nature of the Catholic Church and their attitude in some places toward homosexuals, how did that happen and what impact has it had . Caitriona firstly, i think that maybe the view that people have of ireland in america, particularly in some parts of the irishamerican community more conservative than the ireland i am from actually is. We were the first country in the world to approve samesex marriage by a vote of the people, i referendum. That shows you something. I think the fact that he is a gay man is irrelevant. He was elected through a system within his own party, not by the people as such. People elected him for the party based on him as an individual and what they viewed his policies to be, again from within that Political Party. So, you know, it made headlines all around the world, including here. It was in many of the newspapers and Television Networks. A gay man and one of his parents is also in immigrant, his father is from india. I think in a modern ireland, that is kind of irrelevant. He is just an irishman who happened to make his way to the top of his Political Party. Brian who did you write this book for . Caitriona this book was written primarily for i suppose an outside of america audience, and or western european audience who traditionally would probably align maybe with the them accredit party. Many of home would have been Hillary Clintons borders in just really struggled to understand how someone like donald trump, not a traditional politician, could have really caused as a christ in the way he did and what was going on in American Life and an american politics to result in what we have seen. But it is also i think useful for people in america as well who may be are used to living with certain communities. Of course, the media here is quite polarized at the moment, so people are in a selfconfirming media bubble. This may set out a different viewpoint the people have not seen before. Brian it is in your book that the United States media does not operate like it does in ireland or europe because of a code of conduct. What is the difference . Caitriona in ireland, we are the public broadcasters, it is funded by a license fee that everyone in ireland has to pay. If you own a television, you have to pay the fee. We also get some commercial funding, but that is the primary income. That means you have to be neutral and objective, you cannot Favor One Party or another when it is an election season, literally the amount of time a candidate gets is monitored on a stopwatch to make sure everything is fair and no one is biased and taking one agenda or another. For me, that has been very different to notice here in america, particularly the Television Networks are so to the left or right. Whatever anyone from the other side does is almost automatically bad and and whatever anyone does on their site is automatically good. We dont do that, we leave it to the voters to come to their own conclusion. Rte, that is actually regulated by law. We would have the National Union of journalists code of ethics, you cannot have a partisan opinion on things, particularly elections. Brian four years in the United States and you obviously traveled for this book, where did you go . Caitriona all over the place. I was trying to hit all 50 states, i got to about 44. This book specifically focuses mostly on the Appalachian Region and continuing up into wisconsin, michigan, including texas as well because obviously the border with such a big issue in the campaign. It mostly focuses on the states that donald trump specifically targeted, the swing states that maybe people thought were going to lean democratic, and as we know didnt. Its about meeting the people in those states. We are well aware of the sort of core donald trump photo we see all the time, that this is about more of the swing voter, middleoftheroad, independent voter, and what made them perhaps after decades voting democratic, to vote donald trump as an individual. Brian you wrote at the end of the book, meeting some of those voters, realizing they have justifiable reasons for being attracted to trump and remaining attracted to him despite actions of others consider intolerable or scandalous is key to understanding the trump phenomena a little better. How long did it take you to get that conclusion . Caitriona lots of traveling. Caitriona lots of traveling. As a journalist, you cant come to conclusions based on meeting for five people. It takes a long time. What struck me was people view donald trump almost as an all cart a la carte candidate, there were certain things he said that they did not like, there were certain things he said or did that they really loved it they were prepared to ignore parts and focus on the things that really matter to them. Around feeling listened to and cared about. I thought it was interesting, it otherstructive for politicians not just here but around the world, you ignore voter needs at your peril and you cannot take anything for granted. Brian you wrote this, it was the one and only time in my life possession in soul of all of the fact in the story and see how it played out across the media from that vantage point. Explain that. Caitriona youre talking about that breakfast. The preface. Brian in the preface. Caitriona that is about my interaction in the oval office with President Trump, which happened last june, when the president was making the call to our new p. M. To congratulate him and he called me up to the desk and said a few words. Brian let me interrupt. Lets run this and then you can further explain it. [video clip] we have a lot of your irish friends watching us. Where are you from . Go ahead. Come here. Come here. Where are you from. You are the irish press. I am from rte news. President trump Katrina Perry caitriona perry. She has a nice smile on her face. I bet she treats you well. Clip and end video clip] caitriona ive seen the video so many times. That incident as it happened at the time, 15 or 20 seconds, and i went on about my business as a journalist, but it was in the next 2448 hours that it went completely viral around the world. That was extraordinary. The moment itself, i described at the time and still describe it as a bizarre moment. It was not a protocol, perhaps, but we know that this president does things his way and rips the rulebook. He did it in the campaign and the presidency, he does it his way. I have been in the oval Office Plenty of times, and usually when the president is on a call with a foreign leader like that, they are engaged in the call, not involving anyone else, particularly a member of the media. It was a surprise when he called me over, but he is the president of the United States and you are in the oval office, so when he says, who are you, come over here, you sort of do not have any option but to do that. Brian what was it like . I think you said you had over 100 requests for interviews . Caitriona probably more. I had requests from all of the Major Networks and newspapers and magazines in this country, in ireland, in the u. K. Come in nigeria,tralia, japan, all across europe. We much any country you can name. Pretty much any country you could name. Which was bizarre. What was interesting for me as a journalist, to be inside the story like that and see what it feels like for someone inside a story when you have all of these requests for interviews and people you are not a very good journalist if people dont have your phone number, so i have to turn my phone off for a while. People were reaching out through twitter, instagram, facebook, any possible way they could get hold of me. I have the time decided i was not actually doing any interviews about it because i was amazed at how polarized the event became. It was claimed by antitrump people as meaning that one thing, and it was claimed by protrump people as meaning something else. I thought as a working journalist, someone who has to be objective and neutral at all times, anything i would say about that would be taken to feed one narrative or another and ultimately i would be the loser in that situation because it is so divided in this country right now that you are going to Say Something that would upset and of and massive amounts of people. So definitely one of the most extraordinary times in my life i have to say. To be sitting in your office and look up at all of the tv screens, cnn, fox news, whatever. They are all playing that video on a loop and having panels of people discussing high must have felt. What was going through my mind. The left on the clip there is actually not me, it is someone else in the room. Itll just said, i should not have been wearing a red dress. I. E. Did not know how to take a compliment. I should have said thank you. Other people saying, the president is mean to the media, he is being nice to this person, he was being sexist or demeaning to this person. It seemed to bring out the full range of opinions and emotions of people around the world. Brian how often when you watch what people were saying, was in your mind that you were thinking it is not true . Caitriona almost all of it. I have been around the president and candidates for a long time, and he makes his own rules, he does his own thing. For something out of the ordinary to happen in the oval office, i do not pass too much heed of it at the time, i was more concerned about my deadline, the fact that the president was on the phone with our new p. M. What would they be discussing, a between theopics two countries. Tax reform, immigration and so on. The mere fact of the phone call was a big deal in ireland. That was all i was concerned about. Upon leaving the oval office with other members of the press pack and aids, we were kind of like, that was odd, that was bizarre. Ha ha ha, and off we went. The phone call was a big deal in ireland, that was all i was concerned about. Upon leaving the oval office with the other members of the press and aides, we were kind of like, that was odd, that was bizarre, and off we went. I went to a national came that i went to a game that night. I was engrossed in the game and not looking at your phone, and i came out into an area with a good phone signal, and my phone almost exploded. I thought, this is a bigger deal than i initially anticipated. Brian when did you know that you were going to be called back to ireland to rte to be an anchor . Caitriona just about maybe november, end of october . We do for your terms as foreign correspondents. My term was coming to an end, and the question was what i would do next. I hadnt considered being an anchor before, i love being in the field. I got a phone call from the boss one day saying we needed to come home and take over the main evening news in ireland, which ill become anchoring with another woman, the first time there will be two female anchors on rte news bulletin. People can tune in online and watch it, 1 00 p. M. Eastern. It will be very different from what i have been doing in the u. S. For the last four years. Brian we are recording this at the end of 2017. When is your first day as coanchor . Caitriona the eighth of january. I am leaving here and two days later i start my new job in ireland. No rest for the wicked, as they say. Brian i count in your book, you wrote about 11 states you went to the item know if you could do this, but i would like to go through the list, we can come back to any of it, but if us something you remember from each of those states, starting with ohio. Caitriona wow. Ok. Ohio i remember being a beautiful, actually. Which is not something you usually hear about ohio. It was a stunning vista, but i remember being surprised, not unique to ohio, but at the levels of poverty in some areas of the United States, and in ohio, how drugs have run rampant in parts of the state. I really liked ohio and had great food there. Great chili, actually. But i think if you dont travel through the United States as an outsider, if you just go to the big cities on your holidays, you dont see what is really going on in the middle and dont fully understand the United States and you see small communities in ohio and heroin and fentanyl has taken hold there. It is mindboggling. There was a story on the front of the Washington Post one day about having to bring in a shipping container that was refrigerated because of the number of bodies from drug overdoses. It is difficult to square that with the United States the one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet you have these small communities that just need help. Brian from ohio down to texas. I know you talked to a border agent. What did you learn from that . Caitriona talking to the border agent was very insightful, actually, because you see a different view of things when you talk to those guys that are patrolling the border every day and night. There is a humanitarian story there for sure. We have a similar situation in europe with refugees coming from syria and africa. The humanitarian situation in texas is heartbreaking. When people walk literally with the clothing on the back with small children for a month, sleeping on the sides of mountains to seek a better life thethey are coming across border and the conditions they are facing in all of that ahead of them, it is heartbreaking. Then you talk to the Border Agents who talk about the criminal element, that coyotes as they are called, smuggling in people and drugs and guns. Said it wasy, they a two way street, there are drugs and guns coming out of the u. S. Into mexico as well. They feel overwhelmed. I know President Trump has upped the number of funding and order guards this year, so it might be better than when i was there last her. But it is a scary situation down there at times. We were told not to be near the rio grande. Course, journalists of we had to get a good picture about the story we were telling about border crossings. We went to this one part of the rio grande and there were shell casings on the riverbank. There were flipflops in the mud. Their foot footprints of people who had come through. There was some kind of gun battle. Just as what is going on in a daily, nightly basis. It needs to be addressed. Brian what did the agents think about the idea of building a wall . Caitriona that it was absolutely bonkers. They said theres obviously a wall, a fence along one third of the border as it is. The agents i spoke to said it would not help at all. We sold general john kelly in his confirmation hearing, he was initially saying the same thing, that walls dont do anything because people are so determined to make a better life for themselves or these gangs smuggling in drugs and guns, they will funnel over them, build over them, find a way somehow. The Border Agents were not necessarily in favor of that. They were more in favor of a virtual wall, more funding for guards and immigration courts, the speeding up of that process, more equipment to patrol the border area. Very few people were in favor of actually building a wall, that they thought it would solve anything. Brian lets go back up north to massachusetts. That is the famous irishconnected state. Why did you write about that . Caitriona because people. Com wereople at home interested in knowing how irish americans voted. Because people back home were interested in knowing that, they would be lined up with democrats harkening back to the jfk era. That is actually not true of all irish americans. You learn from living here that irish americans are voters just like any others. Some are democrats, some are republicans. Many of them favored donald trump and many of them are still ande conservative voters they would favor the Republican Party and particular and in this instance, donald trump because of his positions on certain things like family, abortion, and so on. Smaller government, lower taxes, these kinds of things. That is why massachusetts was important, to understand how irishamerican voters think. Brian you quote a man named lewis murray, a proud irishamerican. Who is he . Caitriona i met him at the convention initially. He is a guy whose heritage is irish and american. He was not born in ireland himself, but he has plenty of family there and he goes back to visit. He was alland for donald trump and on the local organizing committee and all of that. Favor of this wider republican message of smaller government, lowered taxation, more conservative family viewpoints. Brian in the trial, they were described as homegrown terrorists who came to hate the United States. Who we are talking about . Caitriona the tsarnaev brothers. That was another story about that that i reported on. The Boston Marathon bombing. Boston is one of those cities that almost feels like it is part of ireland. I studied at Boston University myself back in the day, and the bombing of the marathon was something that really resonated with people. Brian there is a quote on that same chapter, youre talking about president obama, and you say he did not do anything for the irish. Caitriona so, there would be that viewpoint in terms of brian actually, that was lous quote. Caitriona right, it was not me. Brian did anyone expect him to do anything for the irish . Caitriona no, he was not the president of ireland. There would be some sense i think for immigration reform, that would be an issue we would care about. Reform,terms of tax many multinational u. S. Companies are based in ireland, creating a lot of jobs there. There are a lot of Irish Companies in america as well employing a lot of people here, too. I think his point there about obama not doing anything for the irish was about the immigration know . Ion, it you there are many, again, no one is counting this but there are estimated to be about 50,000 illegal laura undocumented irish people in the United States. There is the hope from family members back in ireland that there will be some sort of legislation to help normalize their status. Brian in the front and back of your book you have two photographs. I want to put them both on the screen. Here is the first one. Where is that and why is that on the back flap of the book . Caitriona the pictures on the book were put there by the publishing company. In terms of the production design. That is not meant to be in a particular place, it is just symbolic of Donald Trumps rallies, and particularly the fact there are so many women in the image, and as you can see, they are very excited to see the president. And that was, i suppose, one of the major discussion points during the candidacy of donald trump where these attitudes that he purports to left word women. The excess Hollywood Tape and all of that kind of thing. The access Hollywood Tape and all of that kind of thing. Brian what about the one at the beginning of the book . Caitriona that was to illustrate the fact that that was quite a bleak photograph but that is a gigantic poster of mr. Trump himself. To highlight that america is not all these wealthy cities. There are people in the suburbs and smaller communities where people felt they were not being listened to. They turned to him for salvation. Brian i wanted to go back to how you describe driving into cleveland. I want to read how you describe driving into cleveland. You said it driving in from the airport you see the rustbelt. There is graffiti, litter, feral cats and other cermin that are thankfully vermin that are thankfully not immediately apparent. You see that in ireland . Caitriona yes, but not to the extent that i saw it in parts of the u. S. It is noteworthy how desolate the edges of some cities are. You would not see that in ireland. What was insightful for me on that point was one time in pennsylvania where the mayor was afford to they cannot pull down crumbling buildings. They do not have enough money to tear down derelict buildings. So instead of a grassy area, you see the crumbling structures and that is not something you would see elsewhere. Brian the irish senator is oruden . A member of the labour party, what does that mean . Caitriona we have several Political Parties in ireland. We do not have republicans and democrats, two sides like this. The majority of our parties are mostly centrist. The labour party is tying itself into the working man and woman. Brian in november 2016, he made a speech and said strong things on the senate floor. I want you to put this in context. America is a land of the faccists and we need to call them up and ask them if it is a good idea to bring the shamrock on st. Patricks day i want to ask him how we are supposed to feel with this monster who has just been elected president of america. I do not think any of us should look back at this period and not say we did everything in our power to call it out for what it is. Brian how reflective is that of what the irish people think . Caitriona i have not lived in ireland in four years. I am probably not the best person to ask. There are probably a lot of people who are not favor of President Trump and a lot of people who are in favor of President Trump as well. Senator riordain has been vocal in his dislike for President Trump and others would share that same opinion as they would in the United States. The division of opinion would be the same as here in ireland. Brian what did you think about other media people here, covering the campaign, they would talk to you about their feelings. There is a different image about the media in this country than in years past. What were they saying privately . Caitriona if someone says something to me privately, i will not discuss it. Brian i do not mean their names. I mean what kind of things with a say to you . I mean what did they think of donald trump . Caitriona again, the range of opinion on President Trump here is extraordinary. There are people who are for him and people who do not like him and everything in between. Members of the media are human beings as well and are voters. I am not a voter in this country. They would have their own private opinions and it would run the range. Where i am from, as journalists, you cannot have an opinion like that. You cannot be a member of a Political Party and work for rte. But i would not be getting into what anyone who tells me over coffee, that is their own opinion. Brian you went to wisconsin. What did you learn about the butter . Caitriona i found it extraordinary that some people in wisconsin put butter in their tea. That is not something we would do in ireland even though we drink a lot of tea and eat a lot of butter. It was quite an odd situation whereby irish butter was banned in wisconsin because it is americas dairyland and they have very strict regulation in terms of regulating where things are processed. If irish butter had met the rigorous high standards in ireland and in line with eu regulations, it was not allowed in wisconsin. Irish products are so popular but it is another example of how states differ so much in this country and there are so many regulations to have to get around in each place. Brian where do you see more regulation, ireland or here . Caitriona im not the regulation expert but it depends on the sector and on the industry. When it comes to Food Products and that kind of thing, we have very different standards there in terms of the use of antibiotics and hormones. Those regulations are a lot higher in the european union. I do not think i am the best person to answer that one. Brian in wisconsin you met a man named professor mordechai who is he . Caitriona i had a very interesting chat with him. I had a very interesting talk with him. Obviously, donald trump won wisconsin. It was one of three states that gave him the white house, including michigan and pennsylvania. Hillary never campaigned in wisconsin at all. She did not go there once. I thought that was interesting given that if you are asking the people of a state to vote for you, you probably go there at least once. Mordecai, he disagrees with that theory. He was an interesting guy in terms of charting through a different election swing in wisconsin. The people there had not voted for a republican since the 1980s in a president ial election and yet they did this time. Brian in the Wisconsin Chapter you talk about how farmers view washington, d. C. As totally disconnected from their lives. For them they have to actually work to make a living work as an hard, physical and manual labor and second, referring to them as fancy people. Washington dc, the average wages 25. 13 an hour and it is a majority black city. 44 of the population is white. Here in wisconsin, the average wages 17. 43. 87 of the population is white. The disconnect was already there and draining the swamp made it more real. Caitriona this is an argument i heard everywhere i went. The slogan that President Trump reallydraining the swamp resonated with people. It is not a tale unique to the United States. And ireland, people would say those people over in dublin or if the european union, you say those people over in brussels. There is that common thing that legislators are disconnected with the people they represent. The president was effective in that Campaign Messaging and it seemed to strike with the people who saw their representatives and senators going off on the train to washington dc in a fancy suit and whatever they were doing was not helping them get jobs. And that they were not in touch with what was happening in their lives. Brian specifically you write that statement reflects another part of Donald Trumps messaging that was borderline genius. If cartoonish in content, during drain the swamp. Caitriona he is a marketing guru, reality tvs star and he knows how to use the media and get messages across. He has done that throughout his career. Drain the swamp, three words that are incredibly evocative. You get immediately what he is talking about. Playing on that notion that washington dc was built on a swamp and draining it means taking out the horrible people who live there and replacing it with better people. Whether voters believed that he could fulfill that are not, they were prepared to take a chance on it. That was something that came up time and time again. His message was extremely powerful and resonated with people. You go to a donald trump rally and he might talk for 45 minutes , he often spoke for a long time, and you talk with voters and they did not remember everything he said that they remembered those chants and that struck a chord with them to something they wanted to hear and take a chance on. Maybe if that was true, things would be better. Brian what is your reaction to the actual vote talley on Election Night . Caitriona i was working through the night. In ireland, there is a five hour time difference. You are broadcasting nonstop and we had to stop and say Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote by 3 Million People and donald trump won the Electoral College based on 70 voters in three states. I remember broadcasting back home and i can hear the panelists saying Hillary Clinton might have a chance and i was doing the math going, no. He had a hill to run up and he ran up the hill. The electoral map was stacked against him. The polls were trending in one direction. But he succeeded. Brian were you surprised . Caitriona i was not remotely surprised. I had been saying do not discount donald trump winning. It is not a clearcut victory for clinton. Even the polling it was all trending in her favor but by the time you got to a few days out from polling day, the margin of error in certain places was 3 or 4 . The poll was not reliable. A lot of the sample sizes in the polling is 1000 people. In ireland, a much smaller country, it is also 1000 people. How reliable is a poll of 1000 people in a country this large . And then you get into this idea of is polling being done on landlines and what native language they speak when the poolster calls. The Polling Industry got a bit of a lag last year. But i was not remotely surprised. Brian let me ask you about being an anchor in ireland. Katie couric, when she had been an anchor for five years she was paid 75 million reportedly. Is that the kind of money they pay in ireland . Caitriona no. There is no one working in the irish media that is even paid 1 million. It is not comparable. Brian what else is not comparable about being an anchor in ireland . Are you a star in ireland . Caitriona you would be very high profile. You are beaming into peoples homes every evening while theyre having their dinner. We are a much smaller country and have far fewer tv stations than you have here. Brian do anchors make speeches for money . Caitriona they can but you have to get permission from your bosses. Brian do you vote . Caitriona as a private individual, yes. Brian do you vote . Yourself . Caitriona you cannot vote from so i was not able to cast my vote for the current parliament. I was out of the country. That is that. Brian where did you grow up in ireland . Caitriona i grew up in dublin in the capital city. In the foothills of the dublin mountains which are the suburbs on the age of the city. Brian what kind of a family did you come from . Caitriona im the eldest of three girls and both parents did not work in the media. Im the first one to go into that sphere. Nothing comes easy in this life. You have to work very hard if you want to get into journalism in ireland. You have to do all your apprenticeships. I always wanted to be a journalist as far back as i can remember. I was writing poetry and novels and did little mock radio shows in my bedroom and all that kind of stuff. Then i went to university and did my undergraduate in journalism. Then after i guess seven or eight years after graduation went back while working fulltime to a masters in International Relations parttime as well. Ive always been fascinated by World Affairs and geopolitics and that is why i wanted to come to washington as a foreign correspondent. If youre into International Affairs and how the world works, this is the center point of that. Brian where did you go to school in ireland . Caitriona i went to a sisters of mercy allgirls school. In ireland, it is different, most people go to Public Schools and it is changing a little but they would be samesex schools traditionally run by various religious organizations. Mine was at the end of my road and despite that i was late a lot even though my house was only three minutes away. Brian when did the journalism kick in . Caitriona as far back as i can remember. I was a young kid writing stories and being fascinated with how the world works. If something was a rule, why is it like that and he makes those rules and regulations and what happens in other countries. Ireland is very small and has a immigrant history. We are very outward looking on the world. We are looking to what is going on elsewhere and maybe relations in australia or europe or america. I was a ferocious reader as well as a child and a teenager and just really loved broadcast journalism because of the immediacy of it. When i was growing up, it was not as immediate as it is now with the 24hour news cycle. There was just one broadcast a day. I love that you get to see so much happened in the world. You get a front seat to history and that is an incredible privilege to have as your job. Brian where did you meet your husband . Caitriona he is a friend of a friend but he is an incredibly private person. He does not work in the media and he does not like me talking about him in the media. You have to keep some things personal. Brian is he here with you . Caitriona yes. Brian and he is irish . Caitriona yes. Brian back to the book. The other states you went to like kentucky, virginia, north carolina, which one do you remember the most . Caitriona that is a hard question. People often ask me which state you like the best and you cannot answer that really because they are so different and they virginia is not too far from washington dc and you can drive for half an hour and you are in almost a different world. Which is true for all of the United States. I love how diverse everywhere is in terms of the architecture is different. The food is different. The population is different. The accents are different. Kentucky is very like ireland. I really loved that. The Rolling Green hills. Lexington is twins with a county which is horse mad as lexington is. Lots of irish people in lexington. North carolina, the beaches are incredible. I spent time in the outer banks, which is a stunning part of the country. Brian who is Jason Meister in new york . Caitriona jason is a guy who was a local organizer for the Trump Campaign locally in new york state for the primaries and general as well. He was he would say he was all in for donald trump. Very much of that wealthy, manhattan background where he was in the real estate industry. He and his father knew trump for a long time and he was charged with drumming up support for donald trump in manhattan. That was not an easy thing to do. How hesee that from fared in the primaries in manhattan. He is a good example of someone who, the wealthier end of this country and were big supporters of donald trump in terms of what he would do to deregulate the financial industry. Probusiness and decreasing taxes and all that. We have seen some of that coming in already with the new tax law. Brian what is the American Dream . Caitriona the American Dream i do not know what it is for americans but for nonamericans there is this insatiable hope and optimism and positivity to do better and that your kids and grandkids will do better than you. When you travel to america, this is the American Dream. This is what you hear people describing to you. One person i met said she was the first person in her family to finish high school and she was going to make sure her son was the first person who finished university and she would do everything she had to do to make sure he could be a doctor or lawyer or whatever he wanted to be. I think people are striving for that and it is not happening in the United States. Statistics show that three at five people are the same level of income and wealth that they were in 2008. That is a long time to not make slight improvement on your life. People i met had been democratic voters and were siding with donald trump because they felt they were left behind. That they were not going to retire or going to die better off than their parents were and they were not going to be able to get a better life to their children. That goes against that thinking that is in the spirit and soul of americans. Brian what is your reaction when you hear our politicians say america is the greatest country in the world . Caitriona i think many people in their own country say that. In ireland, we say it is the greatest country in the world. In many ways, america is great. Why else to do so many people go through so much to come here and make a better life for themselves . You know, i think and there have been surveys to back this up in the last few months that maybe that reputation and that viewpoint is diminishing now by virtue of recent policies here. Things like not going along with every other country in terms of the Paris Climate Accord and policies toward the middle east perhaps. You know, i think americans are entitled to say they are the greatest country on earth but so can every other nation. Brian looking back on your experience of four years and your work on this book, it is when you go home and someone says to you describe to me very briefly why the people that voted for donald trump voted for him, what would you say . Caitriona i would say there are a couple of reasons. One, he said he would bring back the American Dream and make life better for them. He said he would change things in washington. Again, drain the swamp and improve things. He did not stand for anything in particular. He could stand for anything that you wanted him to stand for and ultimately a lot of people are single issue voters. He was listening to them. He said he would fix the economy and bring back jobs and that is what everyone wants. They want to be able to provide for themselves and their families as best they can. If you feel beaten down, you will take a chance on someone offering you something new. Brian if you ever had to come back to the United States and live again, which state would you live in . Caitriona i would love to come back to washington dc but with the job i have, if you can get out of the bubble, if i was going to check out of life, the beaches in california are pretty amazing. Also kentucky, a fabulous place. I really loved texas. I have had the best of both worlds. I got to live in the city that lives on politics but i got to travel around every week and visit every other state in this country and to meet the great people and experience what there is to offer. Brian the name of the book is in america tales from truck p country. Trum our guest was caitriona perry. Thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] four free transcripts or to give your comments about this program, visit us at q a. Org. Programs are also available at cspan podcast. Announcer if you like this q a with caitriona perry, here is another you might enjoy. Jd vance on his memoir on his experience growing up with a poor white trash family. And robert costa talks about the 2016 president ial campaign and how that compared to the 1992 campaign run by businessman ross perot. You can find those on cspan. Org. Announcer cspans washington journal. Live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up monday morning, look with aleek ahead weaver. Talks up thelston implementation of the new tax law. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern monday morning. Join the discussion. Announcer at the british house of commons this past week, theresa may responded to concerns raised by Labor Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn about the u. K. s National Health service. She was also asked about voter fraud security, infrastructure needs, brexit and funding for cancer treatment. This is 45 minutes. And my honorable friend coming. Questions to the prime