Transcripts For CSPAN Chris Wallace And Others Discuss First Amendment Freedom At Newseum 20240713

Sundays Chris Wallace, Eleanor Holmes norton, and lloyd abrams. This is one hour and 10 minutes. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Walter to the news forum. We welcome you tonight to welcome the newseum and the First Amendment and to look to a new chapter in it i would like to look to several of the Founding Partners we have with us this evening, leslie hill and carol, ryan and myra, arthur, and robin. [applause] jan we are also honored to have several trustees in attendance. Shelby, phil, david, jack gutierrez, jack kirschenbaum, john lee, charles, mike regan,rd, john, mike, and barbara walkure [applause] while. And barbara while. Wall. [applause] jan after more than 11 years, the newseum will close its doors on pennsylvania avenue at the end of the month. While the closure saddens us, we are heartened that nearly 10 million visitors walked through our doors to experience a story of news, the role of the free press in history, and how the core freedoms of the First Amendment religion, speech, assembly, and petition are applied to their lives everyone who has visited we thank you but especially grateful to all of you here in this room. Members, donors, Founding Partners and trustees and staff. For your belief in our mission and the importance of our work. [applause] jan over the past 11 years, your support has helped us to provide hundreds of programs like this one tonight on topics ranging from politics to journalism to current events, 60 more exhibits covering president ial elections political satire, hurricane katrina, the kennedy assassination, and the stonewall protest, and even the movie anchorman, and the World Champion washington nationals. [applause] jan you have helped us to champion the five freedoms of the First Amendment to further the newseum mission to increase public understanding of a free and fair press. The newseum and all it stands for would not have been possible without all of you. We thank you for being a part of our story. We will begin tonights program with the celebration of the newseum, followed by the keynote speakers, who will each talk about what the First Amendment means to them and in their daily we are honored to have as our speakers tonight, soledad obrien, host of matter of First Amendment expert and champion, floyd abrams, d. C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes norton, Fox News Sunday host veteran journalist Chris Wallace , but unfortunately we heard just this afternoon john lewis cannot join us due to a lastminute scheduling conflict and he sends his regrets. , later in the program, we will hear from five individuals who use the five freedoms of the First Amendment to affect change in their Community Joining us for a short Panel Discussion will be charles washington, jr. , an ardent activist for religious freedom, and he is the power of assembly in her work at the chesapeake Climate Action network, and donna redman jones virginia brown principal and two students from a local high school who use the power of speech and petition to create a dialogue over a controversial issue from earlier this year. The executive director for First Amendment center will moderate the conversation. We hope you will join us after the program for a reception in the newseum giving us all the opportunity to toast the newseum , and before you leave tonight, please sign the guestbook located outside the theater on level one. It is now my great pleasure to introduce someone who has been an integral part of the museum, since its inception, peter prichard. 1985, al and charles displayed remarkable and powers of persuasion when they convince peter to leave his position as editor of usa today to become executive director of the newseum with the creation and construction in arlington. Peter subsequently served in roles as president of newseum, president of the Freedom Forum, and chair and chief executive officer of the newseum. And when the decision was made m wasve the neweu seum to move the new across the river to the district, peter agreed to don his hard hat to oversee the construction of this magnificent building on pennsylvania avenue. Please help me to welcome peter prichard. [applause] peter thanks, jan. When we launched this newseum on pennsylvania avenue in 2008, i really didnt expect to be closing in a mere 11 years. But before i say much more, if we are thanking people, i think we should thank those who made this such a resounding and memorable success. For many years, one of the most popular museums in washington , recognized around the world for the excellence of its commitment, programs, and welcoming attitude to anyone who ever walked through the doors. Please take one moment to thank thank you. Naturally when an Excellent Institution like this has to close people ask why. There are many reasons. First our founder and capable long time ceo charles and many other managers and trustees including me made this newseum too large. We thought big and wanted to make an impact so this was a very ambitious and visionary project. Unfortunately too expensive to operate despite spending more than 500 million from the Freedom Forum and that 150 million we raised from generous donors both large and small the newseum could never break even. The smallest deficit was in the 7 milliondollar range and by driven by Rising Interest Rates was more than 30 million. Unfortunately our foundation could not sustain the losses over time. There were some macro trends that created serious headwind. The development of this with the digital hurricane that swept over oldschool traditional media newspapers large and small media. Over oldschool traditional media newspapers large and small were decimated of objectivity and news reporting deteriorated or disappeared in some cases and some politicians found blaming journalist was a political gain so the traditional media natural base of support was left economically weakened. We also opened in the midst of a recession and fallout from that greatly increased over time with annual Interest Payments on our debt and because we receive no money from Government Entities to remain independent we had to charge an admission fee of more than 20 that was in line with museums around the country and around the world but quite high for washington where the government funded institutions are free and we underestimated how hard it would be to breakeven when the competition is free. So much for the tedious financial details the good news is we had a great run and in our nearly 12 years on pennsylvania avenue more than 10 million visitors and most of them found it could be an entertaining and educational experience. We received accolades from critics and visitors around the world for six years in a row and here are three representative comments. Its hard to put into words how history unfolds at each turn. This is a worldclass museum that is among the most important sites ever visited in washington the hallmark of a free society and it is more relevant that at any time a nations history through the many exhibits and forums we help to understand how crucial all the freedoms of the First Amendment are functioning in democracy and to take those for granted i hope you remind yourselves and there they are freedom of religion of speech of the press, of assembly we have a very active International Program doing forums all over the world everywhere we went in to say you americans are so lucky to have your First Amendment we should always remember that. The top digital Educational Programs we help middle and High School Students to help critically assess news reports and how to tell fact from fiction in the wild west environment of the internet. These programs reach more than 10 Million Students in middle and high school in the United States and many countries around the world and will continue as we move forward. We also remind how much Good Journalism can accomplish when editors are at their best. Inscribed on the wall and that inscription says it is a cornerstone for democracy. People have a need to know journalists have a right to tell. Finding the facts can be difficult reporting the story. Freedom includes the right to be outrageous. Responsibility involves the duty to be fair. Journalist provide the first draft of history a free press at its best and it shows journalism can be a noble cause and the newseum was a noble effort from a Commercial Point of view we faltered but we left millions of visitors delivered delighted with our substance. Millions of people understand their bedrock freedoms, what they mean and why its important to exercise them so they never ever atrophy. We help them to understand the crucial role journalism plays in a free society and why it deserves constitutional protection. Not only did newseum have a good run i would submit we did a lot of good to make a difference in the lives of many visitors. I would like to think there are a few hundred Young Journalist out there because they came to the newseum now doing their best to help the public understand complex issues of the day. One is the labased reporter who last week tweeted i visited the newseum as a 17 yearold unsure if i wanted to pursue a career in such a turbulent and unpredictable industry they captured everything it stood for and no doubt i needed to be a reporter. It will be missed programmable close with a quotation from one of my heroes the only politician to ever win the nobel prize for literature a record may stand forever. [laughter] churchill said success is not final failure is not fatal it is the courage to continue that counts. As our founder said dont just learn something from every experience, learn something positive we may not be able to build another newseum but we can promise the work will continue it may be in a different form or on platforms but it will continue. Thank you so much for what also many of you did to further this noble cause. Thank you. I am very proud to be here toda today. I want to start by thanking all the people here who made this great museum possible and made it what it is, a champion of First Amendment rights in the country, and one of the Great Teachers of the nature of the First Amendment. I want to start out by quoting a statute from a different country and a different time. It said five through 15 year sentences could be imposed for false or exaggerated news of such a nature as to quote mack harmed the national interest. That was 1925 in italy within one year after mussolini took power there. And it occurred to me in saying a few words tonight how easy it is sometimes, how thoughtlessly we take the First Amendment without thinking of it or how different. And the rest of the world certainly mussolini but every country by way of example and the democratic countries truly where they have an enormous amount of freedom where american pows were being held and then to say the publication of certain top secret designated material would interfere with ending the war, getting our soldiers bac back, i spoke to lawyers from canada, england, lots of countries around the world that were stunned at the results. And now often enough i dont think we celebrate this museum as it has not just that case but the degree to which we are unique in the world and the degree with respect to all of these freedoms. Let me mention one recent example. I never needed the First Amendment i never made a radical decision on anything. I gave a speech a month ago at Duke Law School and i was describing a case in which the organization you would know of which goes to churches that more in the death of american soldiers Westborough Baptist church with signs thats the closest the police will allow them to be to the church they say this is gods punishment because the United States is too accommodating to gay people so i use that as an example in my talk of the extraordinary degree of First Amendment protection that we would protect those speakers when the conduct was so offensive and outrageous and so contrary to the norms of human behavior. It wasnt a controversial speech except the organization then protested me and had a rally outside the campus with my name on it. And its not that well known. I usually dont get involved in situations like that. And i was struck again even here. [laughter] even to protect such speech it is unique in the world that that speech would be protected and a lawsuit brought by the father of a deceased soldier that was denounced viciously in the ugliest possible way. And that should be followed by the exercise of First Amendment rights by that same organization that i described in the case. To be furi. I want to say what a joy it is to have been here on a number of occasions to have a chance to walk around this great edifice celebrating the protection of freedom of the press in particular and all the other not insignificant rights protected by the First Amendment. It was an accident that the First Amendment is first. It had been third initially, but the first two proposed amendments were not ratified. But the first has come to have a special role in our jurisprudence. To celebrate the First Amendment, thank you. [applause] thank you for this wonderful remarks. Eleanor Holmes Norton is in her 15th term as a congresswoman for the district of columbia. She is the chair of the house subcommittee on highways and transit and serves on the committee of oversight reform and the committee on transportation and infrastructure. Before her congressional service, president jimmy carter appointed her to serve as the first woman to chair the u. S. Equal Employment Opportunity commission. She came to congress as a National Figure who had been a civil rights leader as an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for help organize the march on washington to help recognize the 50th anniversary of the historic Voting Rights act. Please welcome Eleanor Holmes norton. [applause] thank you for your kind introduction. I remember this day was a useless corner. The district had used this corner gu that wasnt much use o anyone thats one of the cornerstones of the constituti constitution. I dont know about the rest of you, but i do not. Since theyve opened millions, visitors from every part of the world spot at this site sometimes on their way to the capitol and you can see the capital from here to. Its the First Amendment. You can see the capitol where it belonged. The sighting couldnt have been more right. So i regret any notion of losing the museum today but for two reasons when i think about it, first as the disappearance of so many newspapers and the difficulty is pure news outlets have in our country today. Second, it is evidence that the First Amendment itself is losing currency particularly among of all people, young people who must depend to Carry Forward First Amendment so that people yet the evidence and in preparing for my remarks but i came upon. Here the brookings amendment found, and im quoting them, freedom of expression is deeply imperiled on u. S. Campuses. Theres a significant number of College Students who believe that hate speech is not protected by the first amendme amendment. She cannot be heard is acceptable and republicans and brookings warns they bear in mind most controversial study on campuses are from the far right. This is a generation that is very effectively using the First Amendment to protest for issues they favor. The notion they would be intolerant for the other side may mean that we all have to do something to help them relearn the reasons added for the nations constitution in the first place. Im a thirdgeneration washingtonian born and raised in the Nations Capital. That innercity that even then was supposed to symbolize the essence of american freedom. Not only was the Nations Capital racially segregated, the city had no home rule thats what we call it. The city was governed by the congress and federal government and of course there was no person like me to represent the district and the congress. I dont know if my child helped me develop an appreciation for the First Amendment. I do remember that as a young lawyer but one out of one to cobol school. I got to argue a case in the United States supreme court. That was a court order that kept this organization from appearing again after it had already appeared and engaged in racist and antisemitic remarks at a rally. I remember another case i argued in new york when the liberal mayor of new york city, john lindsay, denied the notorious alabama governor George Wallace a permit to speak at a public facility stadium went into the supreme court. Those were not difficult cases s in light of controlling precedents. Proselytizing those with whom i have nothing in common yet it was clear to me that my ultimate client was the First Amendment. So, in my own life, and my life as a lawyer, i had regarded the First Amendment as a tool like none other for change and i remind us all that it remained so. It didnt say kill the First Amendment. This amendment remains a tool for whatever change they may desire. The newseum located so close to the capito capital in my judgmes irreplaceable. I for one who grew up never giving up and not prepared to write the epitaph even as i am grateful for the unique contributions. Thank you for coming this evening. [applause] none of us are prepared to write an epitaph, but is a goo that id thing. Our final speaker is a warrior journalist is a mainstay of the sunday talk shows. The anchor of Fox News Sunday and in his 14 year career for the coverage of nearly every Major Political event and nature interviews with president s and politicians at the highest level of government. As they said recently, Chris Wallace is not afraid of his guests. Shes a very tough interviewer. I know i dont think i would like to be interviewed by chris. I cant understand where he got that information. Working on primetime thursday and nightline and before that he worked for nbc as the chief white house correspondent. He also moderated beat the press for a while making him the only person to have posted to sunday talk shows. Please welcome Chris Wallace. [applause] i cant imagine where i would have gotten that inclination either. Someone once said if you havent been a reporte reporter what wou have done and i said i wouldnt have absolutely any idea except to be a reporter. I was looking at the video and it brought back some memories because i remember one saturday afternoon a long time ago when i took my kids who were my twins were about 12 to the newseum over in roslyn area. You could see it but you couldnt quite get there. My kids were not thrilled. We is involved in an interactive report how to cover reporters and they got engaged in it but t said data please dont ever do this to us again. A few years later, i brought them here and they saw it as a magnificent building and you see him and all the wonderful exhibits you have here. I think for the first time in their lives they were proud of their old man dead, so i thank you very much. [laughter] i want to talk this evening about the First Amendment and the challenges inside of the News Business. A lot of people come up to me these days and say how fair i am. Some even say that i am a voice of reason which my twins and my other children find absolutely hilarious. Dont get me wrong i like compliments as much as the sky but i find this particular compliment and depressing. When i started in the News Business half a century ago working as a reporter for the boston globe, fairness wasnt something to be singled out. It was the basic minimum requirement for your job. People might praise you for your reporting or writing or how you were on the air but fairness is what kept you from getting fired. Now it stands out. I will get to that in a moment. [applause] before your applause, listened to the rest of this because i think that many of our colleagues see the president s attacks in the constant bashing of the media as a rationale and excuse to cross the line themselves, to push back and that is a big mistake. I see it all the time on the front page of major newspapers and the lead of the evening news, facts mixed with opinion. Like bombshell and scandal, the animus of the reporter and editor as plain to see as the headline. Two days after donald trump was elected president , this was the sentence in the lead story of the New York Times. The american political establishment reeled on wednesday that leaders in both parties began coming to grips with four years of president donald j. Trump in the white house. The once unimaginable scenario that has now plunged the United States and its allies in to a period of deep uncertainty about the policies and impact of this administration. Thats a lot to unpack enough one sentence. And that one sentence. It hasnt stopped since. I know theres going to be controversy but i came here today from having spent all day at fox news covering the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the ig report. Some things in the report very supportive of what the fbi did, some of it very critical. We covered at all. One of our fellow networks, cnn today ignored the ig report and all the statements about terrible misconduct perhaps illegality on the part of the fbi on the fisa. Cnn was pretty interested in the russia investigation but they didnt seem interested in this. The fact is to be clear the president has given us plenty to work with but when we respond to him like that, when we respond with bias we are playing his game, not ours. We are not participants in what we cover. We are observers trying to be objective witnesses to what is going on. If the president or anyone we are covering says something untrue or does something questionable, we can and should report it but we shouldnt be drawn into the fight, or taking sides as tempting as it is. We are not as good at it as they are and we are abandoning the special role the founders gave us in this democracy. Now lets talk about the president. Hes done everything he can to undercut the media and try to delegitimize us and i think its purpose is clear to raise doubts when we report critically about him and his administration that we can be trusted. Back in 2017 he said something far more about him than it did about us. Quote, the Fake News Media isnt my enemy is the enemy of the American People. Added to that statement retired admiral navy seals for 37 years a man in charge of the missions that captured Saddam Hussein and that took down osama bin laden. He said this may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime. Ive got to say i was a little surprised by that. Remember this is a guy that fought the soviet union. This is an admiral that fought terrorism but when i asked him about this, this was his response. Those threats, the soviets, islamic terrorism, those threats brought us together. Both the president and i swore an oath to the constitution and the First Amendment to the constitution is freedom of the press. When the president says the media is the enemy of the people, to me that undermines the constitution. So i do think it is a tremendous threat to our democracy. Lets be honest the president s attacks have done some damage. Freedom Forum Institute Poll Associated here this year found that 29 of americans, almost a third of all of us think the First Amendment goes too far and 77 , three quarters say fake news as a threat to our democracy but on this night as we celebrated freedom of the press and we commemorate the newseum i think we should remember some essential truths. First, ours is a great profession, maybe the best anybody ever thought of as a way to make a living. Think of it we get paid to the truth. How many people can say that, to cut through all the spin and distractions and toe the American People whats really going on. What the leaders are doing, whats happening in the schools, hospitals, neighborhoods and environment. Ive been blessed to do this for 50 years. I spent a week with Mother Teresa in calcutta after she won the nobel peace prize. I covered president reagan for six years going with him to china and the korean dmz. Last year i interviewed Vladimir Putin in helsinki after the summit and i asked why do so many of the people that oppose you end up dead. [laughter] and i lived to tell the tale. Sure we take our share. A couple of weeks ago President Trump said after one of my interviews Steve Scalise blew away the nasty and obnoxious Chris Wallace. Afterwards one of my sons said nasty, though. Obnoxious, while. [laughter] the bottom line is we have seen president s come and go. We will endure and so will freedom of the press so im confident with the newseum. Thank you all so much. [applause] good evening. Im the chief operating officer of Freedom Forum institute as you just heard those apply to us all and they also power our democracy. We are here tonight to celebrate the work and legacy of the newseum but as i have been saying throughout the last year or so we are not simply a magnificent building with a great mission, rather we are a magnificent mission operated out of a great building. The building will close with the work will go on. The mission of defending and explaining and educating about the First Amendment freedoms, that will continue. It will also continue to have championed in high places and regular life to use and defend what i call the bluecollar amendment as a part of our bill of rights and we may or may not use all the other freedoms protected in the bill of rights but its hard a to work with us every day to believe what we will and speak and write seek change either as an individual citizen or in the company of likeminded citizens for the betterment of us all so now we get to turn to some of those reallife champions of the First Amendment in a discussion moderated by my colleague the executive director of the First Amendment center. Thank you. [applause] thank you. When we discussed the First Amendment, we have a tendency to focus on cases, controversies and sometimes we lose sight of what you can do with your rights when you practice them. On this panel we are going to hear from people that used their First Amendment freedom to educate others to raise awareness about important issues and change minds. Thank you all for being with me because tonight we have Charles Watson junior the director of education at an organization dedicated to helping all americans retain the right to practice their spiritual beliefs as they see fit. We also have the general counsel for hsp Climate Action fund a nonprofit Grassroots Organization dedicated to fighting Global Warming in maryland, virginia and washington, d. C. We also have three alumni of bethesda high school, donna jones is the former principal of the high school who works with than seniors virginia brown and Nicholas Schmidt to fight back against a culture of toxic masculinity within the school. Thank you all so much for sharing your stories with us tonight. I thought we could start with charles because you are an advocate for religious freedom and religious freedom is the first freedom mentioned in the First Amendment and the importance says thats the direction we go. Your work involves educating youth about how religious freedom works. Why is that important and what do you want to convey to them . If you are the same person at the 20 thaofthe 20 that you aren youve wasted your life so if im talking to students i want them to know they need the freedom of religion to say you may change your mind when they on what you believe and freedom of religion is your freedom to believe and practice your religion as long as you are not hurting somebody else without government interference and also to not have a religious belief if you cant say no. We try to have that for everybody and the students realize i used to think this o about this and then two years later, i dont like that anymo anymore. Situated to get them to know you may change your mind when they post something you nee that youe freedom to be able to. Whats interesting is your organization stands for Baptist Joint Committee that you dont just advocate for the religious rights of baptists are christians but also hindus, muslims, atheists. Why is that . I said earlier about a westboro baptist, not that kind of baptist. [laughter] fought for religious liberty here in america in the colonial age and we didnt get everything right in that time that we were going without preaching the lessons and we never want that to happen to anyone else in this illegal but its important that everybody has the same freedoms. Theres no such thing as a secondclass citizen or secondclass religion. As an africanamerican i dont like anything that doesnt give me full freedom. I want that biblical noose around my neck and loose change around my feet and want to practice within the next day then really im not free i want everybody to have that freedom. [applause] how do you fight Climate Change we work locally and promote clean energy and site dirty energy. Youll see on our website we use every tool in the toolbox we hold rallies and litigate and get creative we get as creative and if it doesnt work we engage in a nonviolent civil disobedience as an effective strategy. And you had a few this year . We did. September 23rd i was personally responsible for interrupting your morning rushhour at the corner of independence and 12th street southwest theres a hundred people at that intersection with 25 different affinity groups spread out and we were there to make a point if you have extreme weather and sweating and wildfires taking peoples lives we cannot afford to continue with business as usual. So thats what we did. I was out there blocking traffic for my mom morning rushhour with a couple other people ultimately to make members of congress and elected officials act like everyone that lives on the planet that depends on them and that legislation to take the Climate Crisis seriously. We are not there yet. But in order to get there we need movement. That doesnt sound like too much fun with 14 lanes of traffic. What can you accomplish by that kind of assembly . Ultimately the goal is to get congress to act like the planet and the people that live on it depend on it. We are not there yet but does help us thats what we are trying to do by generating press which we are doing effectively. Ive been involved in a number of protests like the ticktock coverage of the event but this is more than that. Talking about how this has happened in the past and the success they have achieved and a local columnist writing about it and we are reaching more people. We are also bringing it to the streets it is in your face action that is hard to ignore. And we are growing. I guess the most famous climate activist right now is greta one year ago she was outside the Swedish Parliament alone with her climate strike and one year later 6 Million People charged throughout the country and that is part of the climate strike she is engaging in and it continues. We were out on the streets on friday and then next friday we will be joining the birthday is in jail for Climate Action with 80 when other people planning on getting arrested. [laughter] so we are growing. [applause] so to have several of the freedoms and now to turn to our representatives who are no stranger to using their voices to make an impact. So can you tell me about what happened during your senior year . s how did this start . In my history class somebody showed me a list of 18 names and after each name there was a number i was confused it was ranking each one of us as female students by our physical appearances and then it spread by wildfire we took it to the administration we dont want this anymore with this type of culture is so common in high school where people objectify and treat girls as less so we said can we do something about this they couldnt do anything punitive lisa we would start the program to have a town hall meeting and we just sat everyone had an opportunity to say how this affected them and people who were not on it just wanted to show support in this sort of forum. Its amazing normally people dont raise that kind of attention that most of the girls in the senior class did a lot more. What happened after that . Yes initially a lot of us were upset and angry but when we got together we started to talk about similar things we have experienced and then we realized it was so much bigger that it was a toxic culture so we tried to and got engage the larger pcc family and parents through free events that we helped to organize and the toxicity that we experience and we also created a Panel Discussion with experts on toxic masculinity or parents of former students and also showed a movie screening of a documentary which is about a girl in ohio who was a rape victim that when she came out about her story she was ashamed because the community saw this as boys being boys. This is important because it wasnt just a discussion we helped to create in the school but it was much bigger. And you were a principal at the times what was the response . We heard about what had occurred. And what about our process to investigate the matter and talking to some of the students that were implicated. We were borrowing the code of conduct some of the things that we found this was generated the year prior in a classroom in a group chat that what became clear in talking to the students was that a community of learners was really hurt by this and it struck so many different chords so we had to be able to engage in discussion that was far beyond the code of conduct and well beyond the community. See here about the initial meeting of those most directly affected but then i was impressed with that meeting about how the students could share their personal stories. There was a lot of preparation they did for the meeting i thought carefully what they wanted to share and courage and a lot was shared. That engagement had the effect of changing the minds of people. And this is what i was most impressed with may be those in producing the list but those that had known about the list and didnt say anything all this time who had it on their phone phones, who considered themselves friends. So our idea from mlk is its not words of our enemies but it was at that point that was driven home so well that it really had an impact on all involved. Something that struck me about the entire story it seems like the girls are more interested in starting a dialogue for those that were involved to make them understand how they felt more than demanding punishment. Why is that . s. For us we know this happens everywhere every day and asking for punishment for this small group wasnt going to change anything. We hoped starting this dialogue as widespread as possible would be the most beneficial way to end her start at the beginning of the end of this so we had presentations we gave two other classes and why these are not acceptable and starting discussions at her own school and then National News outlets talked about our discussion it turned nationwide about toxic masculinity and why they are not acceptable anymore to make us the greatest hope for speech that we can actually change minds is just wonderful that all of you have expressed your rights in such a productive way. One last question for everybody. What advice would you have for those who want to affect change in their community through a larger world . s. Do i get to go first . s. [laughter] its a free for all. [laughter] for me religious liberty to be able to talk to a human being or see another human being first before you put a label on them so that was the best thing for religious freedom and religious literacy to understand other people. We dont see eye to eye or have the same theology anymore. That love seeks to understand not be understood but if we try to do that first we can help all of these issues. I would say get creative and keep it fun. Youre not always going to win. So doing the underwater press conference or walking 14 months in traffic wasnt fun bad it was fun. [laughter] it was empowering to be with that many people and to do that for four hours. More than the underwater press conference . s . s. [laughter] cold water is not my favorite thing. [laughter] but yes keep it creative and as light as you can. And you have to have fun while doing it never underestimate the power of your influence and to show things that are hurtful can really help to change and its really easy to be angry but to change the culture. A wonderful note to end on. [applause] thank you to our panelist i hope you will leave the program and Museum Feeling inspired and tired and optimistic about the future of the First Amendment and our fundamental freedoms. Many of you are concerned the First Amendment is under and you come to programs like this was a night, because you want to be part of a solution to protect it for future generations. As we prepare to leave this building and look to the future, we have worked hard to redefine our best and our mission, to consider new opportunities to and to explore new ways in which we can foster First Amendment freedoms for all. Our next chapter has yet to be written, but it begins here tonight with all of you. We thank you for coming, and we invite you now for reception in the New York Times great hall of news come where we will celebrate the newseum, the First Amendment, and the spirit in song, beginning with this moving rendition. Thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, bob deans of the National Resources Defense Council discusses Climate Change. Then author and Police Officer adam wilson talks about challenges facing Law Enforcement in the u. S. And the state of police and community relations. Watch washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Live campaign 2020 coverage continues live today at 1 30 p. M. Eastern with president ial candidate senator cory booker from the university of New Hampshire law school. Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. On friday, the d. C. Circuit court of appeals will hear two courses, the first on whether doner white House Counsel mcgahn needs to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify. The second on congresss access to the mueller grand jury testimony. Oral argument begins at 9 30 a. M. Eastern. We will have those live on cspan2. Normally what would happen is there would be a team of helicopters helping each other and supporting each other to make sure that they were safe. But because there was no one else there and it had to be done, odonnell decided he would rescue those men. So he went down into these landing zone areas and he hovered on the ground for four minutes, waiting for the Reconnaissance Team to arrive there. Which is, in a battle condition, and maternity. It is a very long time to be sitting vulnerable to the enemy. But he waited. The Reconnaissance Team arrived , injured but safe. They boarded the helicopter. All of them. And odonnell began to pull the helicopter above the tree line. He radioed, i have everyone. I am coming out. President and ceo of the metropolitan museum of arts daniel weiss on his book in that time, about the life of michael odonnell, who went missing in action during the vietnam war. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. The impeachment of President Trump, continue to follow the process on cspan, leading to a senate trial. C coverage oned cspan, and listen on the free cspan radio app. Kathryn kolbert is the attorney who argued planned parenthood v. Casey in front of the supreme court. She recently protected the high court will overturn roe versus wade after the 2020 election. With the future of reproductive rights could look like at this event held at the National Constitution center. Its one hour. With that, i am delighted to welcome tonights guest for our conversation regarding whether or not the supreme courts decision in roe should be overturned. Standing to my left is kathryn kolbert, who recently retired as constantce williams 66th director of the center for leadership studies, professor of leadership studies and professional practice in the Political Science department at barnard college