[cheers and applause] well, thats a good start, thank you very much. [laughter] good evening. Im bradley graham, coowner of politics prose along [cheers and applause] along, along with my wife, lissa muscatine. And on behalf of the entire p and p staff, welcome. Thank you so much for for coming. [applause] what a marvelous crowd. [cheers and applause] and what, and what a great space for a book event. [applause] thanks to the warner theater fok making this spacious place available. As much as we at p and p do enjoy hosting our authors at our store on connecticut avenue northwest, we had [laughter] we had a feeling that a somewhad larger venue would be needed for this one. [cheers and applause] in fact, this is the largest author talk that p and p has ever sponsoredded. [cheers and applause] and tickets sold out in a matter of minutes. So congratulations, you all are the lucky ones. [cheers and applause] since its release a week ago, what happened, Hillary Clintons new book about the 2016 election, has landed on the bestseller list and generated seemingly nonstop commentary and conversation. G some things never change. [laughter] hillary has given a number of media interviews about the book, but tonight shes here with us in person for what is the first stop on a 15city tour that will take her across the united t states and canada. [cheers and applause] in the days and weeks immediately following the election, hillary took long walks in the woods with her dogs [laughter] consumed more than a few glasses of chardonnay [cheers and applause] and tried to regain her bearings. Now ten months later, shes back with renewed strength and fresh purpose and with a thoughtful and very personal account of why she lost and the lessons that can be learned from what was in so many ways a deeply confounding and disturbing race. Many, of course, are very familiar with hillarys long and storied career, from lawyer and advocate for children to first lady of arkansas, first lady of the united states, u. S. Senator from new york, u. S. Secretary of state and the democratic partys president ial candidate. [cheers and applause] she is, she is the daughter of hugh and dorothy, wife of bill, mother of chelsea and grandmother of charlotte and aidan. Along the way, hillary also has managed to write books. In fact, this is her sixth, and reviewers of it so far seem to agree on at least one thing; in these pages she is less guarded than ever before, more revealing, blunt and authentic. She says she didnt intend the book to be a comprehensive recap of the campaign, and it isnt. But it does convey with raw emotion, humor and insight how it felt to run for president as the first woman nominated by a Major American Political Party [cheers and applause] and how, and how it has felt to deal with the aftermath of a shocking defeat. And one other thing comes through loud and clear in what happened, hillary intends to remain active and to speak out. [cheers and applause] hillary will be in conversation up here with my wife, lissa. The two of them go back a long way. At various times over the past two and a half decades, lissak has worked with hillary as chief speech writer, communications director, book collaborator and Campaign Adviser includingng several stints helping in the 2016 campaign. Currently, lissa is writing her own book about her experiences as part of hillaryland, the small group of staffers mostly women who started with hillary 25 years ago in the white house and have remained i2 her orbit since. Id also like to take a moment to recognize that in the audience this evening are a number of members of hillarys 2000 campaign staff. Theyre out there somewhere. [cheers and applause] they toiled mightily for months to help their candidate earn nearly three million more votes than the republican nominee. [cheers and applause] and now, and now, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the woman who won more than 65,800,000 votes in the last election, Hillary Rodham clinton [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] thank you all so much for coming. You sound like 65,800,000 people. [cheers and applause] this is great. And its such a great crowd. Thank you all for being here, and thank you for being here. I feel like we just did this, but that was three years ago. We did it for your last book, hard choices. Were back for what happened. Its what happened. Its not what happened question mark, its not what happened exclamation point. Its not what happened dot, dot, dot, its just what happened. [laughter] but congratulations, book number six. X. By the way, produced in record time, i might add. And its a very personal book, which i am sure those of you who have read it already know. Ok and if youve watched the interviews and youve heard about it, you know. But i just want to say one thing before we get started. Of course, its about the 2016 election, and because Hillary Clinton is Hillary Clinton, it of course delves deeply into a very broad range of very, very important issues from the erosion of our Democratic Institutions, the growing signs of totalitarianism creeping into too many aspects of our lives,it the rolling back of voting rights, health care, environmental protections, economic and social justice and, of course, ongoing seemingly daily, if not hourly, and more overt examples of sexism and racism across our country. So what i want to just say as we get started is that if you dont have it yet, youre going to pick your book up on the way out. You know, in washington theres that thing where you look in the index, and you kind of pick and choose what youre going to read. [laughter] huhuh. Start at the beginning, read all 469 pages, because [applause] she has a lot to say, and she has a lot to say about really, really, really important challenges facing this country. And if you actually read from start to finish, you will learn a lot. And its just fascinating and really important stuff in the book. So thank you for that. An but tonight were going to try to keep it a bit more personal. If thats okay. And i want to start really with how this book even came about. And i am going to remind you you may not remember this, but you and i had a conversation way back in the winter, early winter, and you mentioned you were thinking about writing ain book about the election. And then we had several more conversations about this over the next weeks and months. And each time i said to her emphatically, you are nuts, that is a crazy idea. Ph why would you do that. Its way too soon. Youre still processing everything. Were all still processing everything. I dont know about the rest of you, and i dont know about you, but everybody i know was experiencing weird things like insomnia and anxiety [laughter] gastrointestinal disorders [laughter] in fact, a friend of mine whos a doctor in washington said its an electionrelated syndrome known as trumpahhrea. [laughter] so were all going through all this, so i just couldnt see how you could possibly so soon after this election process all of it for yourself. And, of course, youre the central actor in it. So i advised you consistently not to write it. And, of course, thankfully, she didnt listen to me. So that was very wise on your part. And now here we are with this, with this wonderful book. And i just am wondering though, how did you process it so quickly . And apparently, this did not involve any therapy along the way. [laughter] well, thats a sign of something. [laughter] well, actually, it was my therapy, to be really clear. Lissa has been a friend of mine and a colleague of mine for a long time now and is a terrific writer, was a great reporter when she worked for the post and other publications, so i take what she says very seriously when it comes to writing. And she did come to see me, like a number of my friends who rallied around, came to, you know, support me, just listen to me vent, share their concerns and worries. And i had, after the election as you can read in the book, pretty much nothing i wanted to say to anybody. I was so devastated, and it was incredibly painful, and it took weeks of just getting up every day, cleaning closets, going for walks in the woods, all the things that i did to begin to clear my head. But, of course, other people were commenting and writing about the election, and i just didnt think there was a broadit enough view, really comprehensive understanding, of what it looked like to me in realtime and what i believed happened, but i wasnt sure, and i knew it would take a lot of analysis and evidence gathering and, you know, i do kind of believe in facts. [laughter] [cheers and applause] shocking. So, you know, i just began to talk and listen to people, gather information. And i think that it hit me really around the inauguration. People had talked to me about what are you going to do, you know, will you write something else. And i was still just trying to muddle through. It really hit me that there were these very important issues that needed to be discussed, debated even, that our democracy and country relied upon that kind of selfexamination. And i thought, well, i need to know what happened, and i need to be as honest, candid, open as i possibly can in order to figure it out for myself, and maybe doing it in a book would provide the discipline, the deadline to try to think it through. And so really starting in february i dove in, and i just decided i was going to write it. And it was painful. I say in the book that, you know, id write about something, and id have to go lie down because it was just so hard to think about the mistakes i made, the missed opportunities. But then also to come to grips with these other big forces at work that i think had a determinative impact on the outcome. So it ended up being really cathartic for me personally x. Be from what people are telling and from what people are telling me as ive begun to do book signings and talking about the book, i think it does provide some catharsis and some opportunity for reflection for a lot of other people too, and im very happy about that because theres some really important issues we have to come to grips with. T. And i wrote it not just to say what happened, but what we needd to do to make sure what happened doesnt happen again. And thats what im going to spend a lot of time on. [applause] amen. Just to follow up for a second on this, how hard it is, i mean, as i said, youre the central actor. Youre writing about yourself, and it obviously was, you know, a mindboggling experience. You and i share a favorite author in cheryl strait. I dont know how many of you have read wild or seen the movie. You have a quote from her in the book. She once said to me, i asked her how do you write about these things that are so deeply perm, and she said i write to get to a deeper truth. If im not going to be honest with myself, why do i bother to write. But getting to that deeper truth, as youve experienced, is hurtful, overwhelming, painful, can be sad, and you have to deal with things that are intensely private. So im just wondering, did you censor yourself at all . Were there times when words or thoughts, it was just too much for you to go there or what did you do to try to get to that next level . Id i i ended up not censoring my thoughts, not censoring what i put into the book. I will admit i censored some of the original language i used [laughter] oh, shucks. You should have left that. Yes, some of those early venting sessions [laughter] i had a great team of people who vented with me and did research for me and helped, you know, me better explain what i was venting about. But i didnt hold back at all on what i saw as, you know, my own shortcomings and my deep disappointment. Not just for me, obviously, but for the cup. Omings a for the country. So it was not censored, it was really candid, and it was something that did help me get to some deeper and bigger truths about me, about our country, about some of the really difficult forces that we have to face, the concerns i have about im sure well get into this, you know, everything from sexism and misogyny and race and the russians and, you know, voter suppression. I mean, theres a lot there that i was learning as i was writing. Because when youre in the middle of a campaign and i know there are people here who have been involved in campaigns, and for that i thank you. When youre in the middle of it, you are so focused on the immediate tasks. I mean, you know what the overall goal is, obviously, to win. And youve got your strategies and your tactics lined up. Ve but, boy, every day is, you know, 18 hours of just the hardest concentration and work trying to move that forward. Its hard to lift your head up. And sometimes its hard to really understand everything thats happening at the same time. So being able to step back a little, go through it, take it apart, look at it, analyze it and then write about it helped me a lot. Did you, did you learn anything about yourself that you didnt know . You know, i really believed that and it was, i think in retrospect it was a misconception or it was certainly out of sync with the time in which were living and the candidate i ended up running against because, you know, i did have this idea based on my prior experiences in president ial campaigns really going way back into the late 60s and 70s that it mattered greatly if you could make clear what you wanted to achieve. You know, it didnt have to have all the details, but that it was important to tell people what you wanted to do because then when you were in office, they could judge you on whether or not you were fulfilling that commitment you made. E so we spent a lot of time making sure that everything i said about policy and how wed paye for things and all of that was just bulletproof because i kept thinking at some point its really going to matter. And for all sorts of reasons, it didnt. And so i think i stayed way too focused on a path that was not the direction that the campaign was heading because of the pressures from outside forces, because of the reality tv candidate i was running against. I think that i was not as adept or as quick to try to figure out, okay, what is a better way for me to try to communicate this. So, you know, these are things that you do the best you can, and you think youre running one kind of campaign, and you realize that the press is not covering the policy youre putting out every day, theyre covering an empty podium. And i kept thinking, well, were still going to break through because people really do care what kind of jobs and infrastructure and health care and other things you want to do for them and their families and their incomes. But there was a disconnect. Nd and so i learned that i just wasnt, i wasnt as, i think, quick to try to make some adjustments along those lines. But you also say in the book that you developed a new appreciation for big, simple ideas. I think thats part of what youre getting at, isnt it . Well, theres a difference. The big, simple ideas i still believed, you know, that a big, simple idea like were going to raise taxes on the wealthy, thats a big, simple idea, and i did have that idea very much centered in my campaign. [applause] but theres also, i think, an important debate about many Politics Today in Politics Today when we have a really intense, Quick Movement of news and its very short Attention Span and social media plays a bigger and bigger part, youu know, trying to, trying to develop a relationship with voters or to engender confidence in voters that you know what youre talking about and you going to deliver because you do understand the complexities may not be as significant as justco repeating those big ideas over and over again and leaving the details for later. Who knows though . By 2020, maybe people will want to know details again and policy again, so you never know. [cheers and applause] and to be clear, shes not saying big, simple ideas without details, just not outlining every single detail, you know, ahead of time necessarily which i, i thought that was a pretty interesting observation. Just one other quick thing about what it feels like, because youre so revealing in the book about what it feels like to be a president ial candidate. And, of course, youve got constant incoming, right . Good, bad, medium. Youre trying to assess all sorts of information from all sorts of people all the time. And it was interesting to me in the book that you say in a number of places that there were times when you wish you had struck back, when youd been criticized or challenged by bernie on wall street and other things, by matt lauer in that really awful interview, by comey and then, of course, we had the jaws imitation by trump on the debate stage. [laughter] you know . So in each of those it sounds like oh, i just want to say also, by the way, even though you didnt say it, do you knowo, how much it warmed the hearts of tens of millions of americans to know that you thought about saying back up, you freak . [cheers and applause] great. But in those situations, it was really, honestly, it was just such a relief to know you were even thinking about it. But in those situations, you werent able to do that, and you felt yourself constrained. You say you felt like you were in a straitjacket at times. What is it that makes it so hard to be able to do that in those situations . And im sure it has something to do with being a woman, but ill let you answer that. Well, i think it does have a lot to do with being a woman because its very hard to be perceived as strong as opposed to aggressive or any other word you can think of. And so part of the challenge is how you modulate, how you present yourself in a mature, appropriate way as a woman seeking a job no other woman has ever had. And i write a whole chapter on being a woman in politics, but much of what i sagos for being say goes for being a woman in business, being a woman in any profession. Its not just politics. And i think as i tried to describe, my thought process up on that stage in the second debate it was hard. We had practiced what i would do if he invaded my space because we kind of assumed he would, because he had his own issues m that he was trying to, you know, push through at that time. [laughter] and so we knew it. But once youre there and its actually happening to you in realtime in front of, you know, i dont know, 60 Million People or something, you are kiss discomforted, you are annoyed, you are a little frustrated that he is stalking you and staring at you. And so i was going back and forth. But i had believed that its better not to show that kind of reaction in the middle of a president ial debate. And as you might think back, unny gestures funny gestures, facial expressions, heavy sighs, things really do affect viewers. And i just ended up believing that in addition to the genderlinked aspect of this, there was a history of people in president ial debates who had deviated in a way to show frustration, anger, dismissiveness, whatever their feelings were and paid a heavy price for it. And i thought whatever price they paid, i would pay double or triple. And so i just thought, okay [applause] im going to, you know, i sort of thought at the end of the day people would say, yeah, we really do want somebody whos calm and composed the oval office [laughter] [cheers and applause] so i, i was aware of all the different crosscurrents, but i carried on in a way that i thought was what a president or someone who wants to be president should do. Well, and you say in the book and i think youre referring to longer than this campaign that you sort of have to wear your composure like a suit of armor and that thats what you did. Yeah. Yeah, you know, everybody in the audience knows that feeling tha the next day or the middle ofat the night you wake up, oh, if only i had said that. There always is that. I mean, you do i thought that, you know, its the toughest job in the world, its a job that requires or at least used to require a level [laughter] [cheers and applause] you know, curiosity and [laughter] focus and things that youd want to think somebody with that responsibility would have. And i honestly believe we were many a different kind of campaign, unlike id ever seen before. Ive worked in them, i was deeply involved, obviously, in my husbands two campaigns. I know the ebb and flow of a campaign. This was really different. And i, i dont think anybody fully grasped how it was a variation on a president ial campaign unlike any wed ever seen. And i, now looking back, see a lot of different, you know, signals about that, that maybe i could have and my campaign could have done a better job trying to figure out how to push back on or make more transparent so that people would understand, you know, boy, ill tell you what, that campaign of his, they have the best empty podium that anybodys ever seen. I mean, get people to think and even laugh a little bit about what was happening in that campaign. But, you know, that didnt happen soon enough, and it didnt happen in quite enough places. Did you watch the emmys last night at all . [laughter] [cheers and applause]ght . I did, i did. And you and i think many people may know you and your husband are big fans of Television Dramas and comedies, and if you watched as im sure many of you did you know that the handmaids tale was a big winner. [applause] you and i have actually talked about that book in the past. Written in 1985, dystopian work of fiction that, of course, is now this wildly popular tvld series that is about a liberal democracy slowly and very definitively becoming a totalitarian state which, ofof course, is, sadly andta distressingly, resonant at the moment. And that whole idea of the normalization of the abnormal im terrifying. By the way, doesnt it just bug you when people say trump is this is the new normal . I mean, we should never call it normal, right . [applause] we should never say its like the new abnormal, not the new normal. But, i mean, seriously, its terrifying. And the handmaids tale resonates because of that. You do talk a lot about that in your book, and you, you know, from voter suppression, from the manipulation of the media to fake news and Everything Else and just the assault on the Democratic Institutions that we rely on that we need to be able to trust yeah. Its scary. Y and you, of course, you know, well get to the fake news russia stuff in a minute. Yeah. Well, look, part of the reason i was motivated to write this is because of what happened at the inauguration. And i write the first chapter about what it felt like to go to the inauguration and what a hard decision it was but how i thought that it was important ti show continuity of our government. I was certainly hoping to hear words of reconciliation andin bringing the country togetherr after, you know, a very divisive campaign. Didnt hear that, and i felt very uneasy about that inauguration. Ive been to a bunch of them, and ive been when people i supported won and people i supported lost. But this was different. This was not a normal inauguration. Or and then it was made even more surreal with the claims about the crowd size [laughter] and the introduction of alternative facts. And then i started thinking, whoa, this is much more than just transfer from a twoterm democratic president to an unusual but, you know, republican president. [laughter] and i just couldnt, i couldnt really grasp how big a challenge they intended to pose to facts and evidence and reason, all of which are fundamental to the functioning of a democracy likes ours. And so when i saw that [applause]pplause] i thought, you know, this is much, much bigger than any transfer of president ial power that im aware of in recent p history because of the recen assumptions that the new administration was operating on. And the brazenness of their attempt to distort reality and impose their version of facts and truths on all the rest of us can despite what we saw with our own eyes. That bothered me greatly. Because ive said before if i had lost, you know, to another republican candidate, somebody else had emerged from the republican primary, i would have felt bad. I would have really been disappointed, but i wouldnt have worried about the fundamental future of our country, our institutions, our rule of law and this imperativet of reason that motivated our founders and which is still absolutely essential. So i think this became a resonant theme with me because you can disagree about policies, you can disagree about all kinds of things, but you cant begin to chip away at the basis of our governments functioning governments functioning and our democratic norms without paying a very big price. So, yes, in the book i you wont be surprised, i mention the handmaids tale, i mention 1984, i mention brave new world because i want readers to say, okay, i may not agree with everything she says, but you know what . I have to agree with this fundamental premise that we cant sacrifice truth and facts on the altar of partisanship and the desire on the part of a particular president and his administration to control the news, to undermine the first amendment, to just create this alternate reality. Because i think the stakes of what we face in this time are just profound. At and ive said before and i will repeat it here, i think that this president and the people who serve him on this alternative reality track are posing a clear and present danger to the future of our country. [cheers and applause] and i think one of the most powerful, clearest, most persuasive chapters in the book is the one about bots and trolls and russians and fake news. And you begin that section of the book i know one of your favorite books is byes dostoyevsky, and you have a linh when reason fails, you do have a book about my favorite term, from russia with no love. [laughter] but in all seriousness, this is an incredibly clear connecting of dots based on what evidence is now available. Presumably, there will be moreil coming out. But anyway, thank you for that because its really essential that everybody read that. I also, ive never had a chance to thank you for something publicly that i would like to thank you for now. How many of you were in washington during what is now infamously known as pizzagate where [applause] okay. And those of you who have been to politics prose on connecticut avenue know that the stores only a few doors down from comet pingpong. And you, of course, were on to this stuff because of what was going on in the campaign before a lot of us realized the extent of it. T. And you and i spoke shortly after the election, and you asked you knew that comet was being targeted, that politics prose and only some of the other businesses were being targeted, and you actually said you were willing to speak out about it for which we were grateful. At the time, everybody thought we all needed to lie low for a bit. The day that the gunman with the assault weapon walked into comet on a sunday afternoon, december 4th, about an hour after that you and i communicated, and i told you what was going on, and you responded instantly and were so supportive which was incredibly helpful. We were all on lockdown on the entire block with police running up and down the streets. And then and people dont know this a few days after that you and your husband said what can we do to support comet, can we buy pizzas, and you bought i dont know how many pizzas, but it was a lot, and p sent them to an afterschool Literacy Program in d. C. Which was never publicized. [cheers and applause]was neve and you checked in on me a lot because we were, we were we werent dealing with it in the same way comet pingpong was,ng but we were also getting trolled and the whole nine yards, harassment calls. I just cant tell you how important it was for me, for brad, for our entire staff, for our entire block, for the people at comet to know that you and president clinton were there for us. Quietly, and nobody knows. Ive never had a chance to thank you publicly, and i did want to do that. [applause] so thank you. [applause] you know, if i could just say a word, because were in washington, and this horrible chain of events happened here. But this is a terrible example of what can be done by people who are malicious, unacquainted with the truth and pursuing their own agendas whether it be commercial advantage, partisan advantage or any other goal. For those of you who dont follow it or may not remember it, you know, when John Podestas emails were stolen i hate the word hacked. They were stolen. They were stolen by the russians. En by th [applause] and they were then, through cutouts, given to wikileaks which is nothing more than a tool of putin and the kremlin [cheers and applause] and certainly People Associated with trump knew about it because in august roger stone was tweeting about how john podesta would find himself, you know, in the barrel some point ahead. So on october 7th, one of the more infamous days in the campaign, the today the day started with the director of homeland security, the secretary, jeh johnson, thend director of nationalse intelligence, jim clapper, saying that with high confidence they knew the russians had been behind those hacks, those thefts of emails. That happened in the morning. Then the hollywood access tape broke a few hours later, and within one hour such an amazing coincidence, wikileaks dumped all of John Podestas personal emails. Now, if you read those emails, i think its a little embarrassing to admit theyre very an no dine, even boring. [laughter] but because they were, the way that the russians and their allies whoever they turn out to be [laughter] were able to [cheers and applause] were anal to generate were able to generate constant interest. They sent the press on wildd goose chases. Oh, here comes a hundred more, here comes a thousand more, oh, my gosh. And, of course, the other was that they created the illusion of transparency. If you think youre getting something from sort of behind the screen, maybe its more legitimate even though youre being played by a bunch of russians. And the psychology of it was brilliant. And, of course, its part of the russian propaganda effort, manager called active measures something called active measures which theyve used in many other settings, not just our election. Well, you can only go so far with read these emails and listen to people as in every campaign you can imagine debate about what to do when and who says what and all of that. Gi so they had to be weaponized. They had to have elements had plucked out and perverted in a way that would be hard to imagine and then sent back out into the, you know, cyber virtual world. So in one of the emails, John Podestas talking about pizza. Hes italian and greek, i mean, you know . [laughter] and a very good cook. And a very good cook. Yeah, misery soto his risotto recipe is probably still there if you want to see it. And im sure theres something very nefarious about that recipe. [laughter] so all of a sudden johns writing about pizza and one of these really i consider evil people in the media world and in the online world, out of whole cloth, make up this story that john podesta and i are running e child trafficking ring in the basement of the comet pizza parlor. By the way, there is no basement. Yeah, there is no basement. [laughter] now, you would think people would be laughing like crazy,u shaking their heads. But if you migrate that crazy story to facebook posts, to news outlets, there are people who will believe that including this very unfortunate young man in North Carolina who believed it. It was meant to be believed to influence voting. Even i have to say i dont believe it was meant to bebe believed to influence somebody to pick pup an ar15 to pick up an ar15 and drive from North Carolina to washington to liberate the imaginary children from the imaginary basement of the pizza parlor. But in came this young man believing that he was on a mission because he saw it on facebook, he saw it in other places online, he saw it in, quote, news outlets. And so he was there on a mission of rescue. People could have gotten killed. He shot his automatic weapon off inside this pizza parlor. The street where politics prose is was shut down. There was an active crime scene because people who cared more about weaponizing information, making negative stories up than the truth, than facts or even Public Safety and certainly any concern about children was nonexistent, they were nonex determined to stimulate, to propagate the attitudes that would grab some people in some states, some congressional districts, some towns and counties so that they would be saying, well gosh, you know, if Hillary Clinton and her Campaign Chairman are doing Something Like that, they should go to jail. I cant vote for that. Thats the worst example, but there are so many other exa examples that were the same pattern from stealing to giving to wikileakse to propagating to weapon weaponizing into somebodys, you know, google chain, into somebodys facebook post. And i think its one of the most serious challenges we face Going Forward in politics not just at the president ial level, but up and down because if we dont get a handle on information that is not just controversial, protected by the first amendment, but aimed at spreading lies to the extent that they can cause behavior like we with saw in this terrible instance, it will not stop. And im glad that the congress and others are looking at facebook and twitter and google, because they are the vehicles. One of the very First Vehicles to deliver this kind of information to people. But i was just terrified for lissa and brad and all their employees and everybody on that street because i could see what the trafficking of that absolutely horrible information was meant to do, and it got out of hand, and we were just fortunate that nobody was injure. And what, and, you know, it keeps going. But the consolation and there is consolation is that the outpouring of support from our community was unbelievable for comet, for politics and prose [applause] people feel tremendous ownershii about their communities, and, you know, and i might just say mike pence at that time was living about a mile away in a rented house before he could move into the Vice President and wed see his motorcade up and down. Did he once think about coming in, buying a slice of pizza . Of course not. But the community has been fantastic, and any of you who have, you know, come to comet or come to p and p after that, thank you. It really made a huge difference. Okay. [applause] i want to be a little lighter for a second here. So theres a very funny moment in the book where when you say that president obama told you dont try to be hip, youre a grandma. [laughter] just be yourself. And my question is, what did he think, you were going to run off to a soul cycle class . [laughter] take a mixology course . What was he, what was he worried about . Oh, theres probably so many examples i know, im just wondering. President obama, i think its okay. Honestly. No no, he was an extraordinarily supportive and helpful friend throughout the whole campaign. He would call me periodically, and he would say are you gettin enough sleep, are you, you know, eating well. Id say, oh, i think im getting enough sleep, im eating well hes say, well, are you exercising . Id say, well, i think im getting enough sleep, im eating well. [laughter] he really stayed up with me, stayed up with the campaign, and i cant remember which of the incidents he might have been referring to. But he was always just in my corner and had my back throughout the whole, you know, 18 months or nearly two years. [applause] okay. So you love words. Shes a great writer herself, by the way. You love words. Your husband loved words. Did anybody see president clintons guest crossword puzzle in the New York Times a couple of months ago . That was pretty cool. Were going to play a word game, if thats okay. You up for this . Its going to get have you ever heard of the game boxers or briefs . What . [laughter] boxers or briefs . You know, if youre a guy, you like boxers or briefs. Dont worry, you dont have to answer that question. [laughter] and im going to give you two words, and you just have to, without thinking, this book is very revaling but, you know revealing, people know exactly what kind of has sauce you like and that you do deep breathing and all that stuff. Im going to give you two words, and youre just going to immediately whichever one most suits you, youre going to answer. Ready . I do have to say a word about hot sauce first. Okay. [laughter] [cheers and applause] i mean, i have carried hot sauce since 1992, i just want you to know. [cheers and applause] it is true. And there were people who were actually accusing me of just making that up. Ly its not made up. No, its not made up. But i do spend probably more time than i should in the book talking about hot sauce. [laughter] so anybody want any recommendations, just let me know. Okay. Its true. For as long as ive known you, hot sauce has been in your purse, absolutely true. We can all vouch for her. Okay, you ready . So two to words, okay. This is going to get progressively a little harder, but were not going to do too many of them. So tea or coffee . Coffee. Beach or mountains . What . Beach or mountains . [laughter] beach. Shower or bath . [laughter] well, these are all really unfair, and that is particularly unfair. These are easy. Because really it depends upon how much time you have. Okay, thats fine. Okay, pilates or yoga . Yoga. Vodka or chardonnay . Again, it depends upon how much time you have. [laughter] [cheers and applause] history or mystery . Oh, historical mysteries, how is that . Okay. [laughter] putin or trump . Oh [inaudible conversations] [laughter] yeah, well [laughter] i have to take that under advisement for the following reasons i ran against both of them [laughter] [cheers and applause] excellent. I was going to say comey or comey. [laughter] who you also ran against. Okay, i think well were going to take some audience questions. You guys did great questions. There were zillions of them, a lot of them were similar. First of all, lots of people just said thank you, and i could go through a lot of cards that said thank you. [cheers and applause] quite a few also related to young people and young women especially and getting into politics, so heres one [cheers and applause] heres one that, there are two that are sort of similar. What advice would you give to a young woman who wants to go into politics, and heres another one thats similar, would youu encourage your daughter to enter politics if she were interested but you knew shed experience the same level of sexism that youve encountered during your political career . Let me answer this question in general because i would say the same thing to any young woman who were to ask. Id say, look, even though i write at length about the challenges that women in politics face and point out its not just me and its not just democratic women, it is unfortunately still a very, very tough double standard, i would still say that if you are willing to enter politics either as a candidate, as a campaign staffer, as a, you know, person in government and Public Service because thats how i view the bigger definition ofwe politics you just have to be prepared and try to have the confidence without being walled off, without being, you know, too defensive. And its easy for me to say. Ive been all of those things at various points in my public career. But its a really great experience. And it is important to have more women in politics, and it is important that [cheers and applause] we all support each other in the political arena. You know, one of the great quotes that i have loved for years is Eleanor Roosevelt saying for any woman who enters the public arena, she needs to grow skin as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros because you wile be judged by everything from, you know, your hair to your voice to whether you are married or not married, whether you have children or dont have childreno so its a constant gotcha game, and you have to be clear about why youre going into politics and what you hope to achieve through your efforts. But i, i say in the book, you know, by pulling the curtain back and talking about how hard it is, i dont want to discourage anybody. I want people to be more aware of it. So we can call it out for what it is. You know, but this is common across every walk of life [applause] and theres a, theres a fascinating article in the New York Times sports section today about women in sports and the grief they take because of their voice. Yeah. And as somebody who has beenf called everything when it comes to, well, everything [laughter] but i was thinking particularly about voice, it really struck home with me. You know, you just have to be prepared, you have to have at least a sense of humor to get through some of what youre going to face. But if you are prepared, if you educate yourself, if you are surrounded by good, you know, good supporters, friends, family, people who can tell you the truth like lissa started off telling me it was a terrible idea to write this book. I am grateful for that because shes a friend, and you need friends who tell you when things are good and when things arent so good. I think its really important. So ive got this new Organization Called onward together that ive started [cheers and applause] and really the primary purpose is to support groups that are recruiting young people, especially young women, training them, funding them. We also highlight and lift up wonderful groups like indivisible which is leading the charge [cheers and applause] to keep our attention where it needs to be like weve got to stop this latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care act that is going on. [cheers and applause] so i think theres a lot of good work to be done. And onward together is really interesting because that was you and howard dean, you met with howard dean earlier this year, our friend Judith Mchale who were instrumental in thinking outside the box in how to bring in young people, get them involved, engage them, support them, because they know a lot more than people well, it was so great. After the election one of the things that keep in mind of got me out kind of got me out of bed and moving again were the stories i would hear. People would call and say, oh, theres this new young group that one of your Campaign Staffers has started called run for something [applause] and its aiming at recruiting more young people. Or theres a group called swing left. Ng theyre going to try to flip the house [cheers and applause] a group that ive worked with before, emerge america [applause] which has a great record of electing women. Re color of change which focuses on [applause]ec you know, africanamerican young people, getting them into politics and doing some of that work. Ic so i felt like theres so much we can do because at the end of the day, and i just have to sayn this and hope you help me figure out how were going to make it happen. Everything we do, we can writepp books, we can speak out, we can go to protests, we can recruit people to run for office, but if we dont get people to voteto starting in virginia and new jersey and then in 2018, were not going to turn this around [cheers and applause]. Ound. We have the better side of the argument about how to make the economy grow to lift incomes and provide opportunities we just head to keep plugging away at it and not get discouraged and we have to keep calling out the other side who has an answer to everything and it is tax cuts for the wealthy. I almost can imagine a scene in some republican members home and the kid says hey i dont feel good. E take a tax cut for the wealthy. We will wake you in the morning and see how you are y doing. E insi that is really the inside story of whats going on with this attempt to repeal the Affordable Care act. We have to keep talking over and over again and not get discouraged because sometimes we think we make a great argument but it doesnt take the first time weve to keep going at it. Time and time again. But we cant be promoting onng standing up for Economic Justice to the exclusion of turning our back on all of the progress we have made in moving people forward on civil rights and womens rights, and gay rights and human rights. I dont buy this false dichotomy you can only be for the economy we want everybodyri to rise. Opportunit we want everybody to have a better opportunity and future Going Forward. Bout wom lets talk about women for a second. Just getting back into the other big subs text is howt othe women treat other women. Women with power and women who dont had power. Women who have been marginalized. It can be very cruel the way women treat other women. You had experienced a little bit of that yourself b obviously. Right, im glad you ask about it. I write about this and i will start with a conversation i have shortly before was announcing that i was going to run. As with it was with sheryl sandberg. Some had known for a long time. We really appreciate the work that she has done with lean on and with the research and working with professors at stanford. In facts and evidence and how women perceive themselves. D she wished that everybodyt book would understand the major takeaways of that book. He the more successful a man becomes because more likable, the more successful a woman becomes our stereotype and our presumptions about whats appropriate and not appropriate are just so powerful. They are rooted in our dna. M on so you say to yourself okay if thats the case then what can we do about it. The second point she made equally provocative is that women are viewed a much more favorably when they are in service to someone else. I was in service to our country and in service to president president obama as a member of his cabinet. I left the state department with a 69 approval rating. People thought i was doing a good job they could see me standing up for our country and standing beside thedi president trying to solve problems and what was fascinating to me was how effective it was to just begin to knock that down and to get to the point where we dont know what we think aboutab this. And cheryl made this very clear. If you are in service to someone else your viewed favorably so in the workplace if you go to your employer and you say i really think lissa should get a raise. Shes been working so hard. You are viewed as somebody who is a real team player looking c out for your colleagues. Ive been working really hard and i would like to bei considered for a raise if youre a woman is held against you if youre mean its not. These are just attitudes that are deeply embedded in how we see women in the public arena now i won the womens vote but i lost the white womens about. Lo i got more white womens vote than present obama got in 2012. So the problem is one the democratic nominees have to contend with have to figure out how to communicate, breakthrough better. I personally believe that i was doing well enough with white women even republican white women before the call me letter. It stopped my momentum and a plate into the concerns that women had about whether they are making a mistake with her a vote. I started going doortodoor in politics many years ago and i was always surprised when i would knock on the door in aa woman would answer and i would say im here for this candidate i just dont knowow enough i dont want to make a mistake. Thats what they would say. Ast o and then taking it to the last month of this campaign. All of the sudden people are being told somethings going on. We could see that a lot of women in particular turned away they were discouraged. It was outrageous what happened. You got to see how women how they try to do what they think of. Ofte they are offered often under pressure from people around them. When a woman runs she is to work extra hard to convince other women that she can do the job that she is running for. Way not enough in Governors Office is getting by getting people to feel comfortable at the president ial level is still a challenge. There is statistics in my book even among democratic men and women is not 80 or 90 a lot more than it has been for republicans who does have a hard time thinking about a woman in the white house. If you think there is just one answer your probably get to be wrong. If you look at a much broader sense of her responses and appeals to persuade women to vote for other women. One of the nice things in the book is the incredible sense of support you have for your own friends. For y that has been true for everu for you. Y women really do come through for other women when they are least close to each other. Next the next question from the audience and we are coming close to our time but will try to do these quickly. Theres no question but imi dragon solid chardonnay with you in solidarity. I really do highly recommend it. Its not that hard. What has been the most fulfilling part of your lifefe so far what has been the most fulfilling part of your life so far what has been the most fulfilling part my family and my friends for me and doing work that i believed in that i thought made a difference. I write in the book about my marriage and my husband and my daughter and my motherhood. I write about my friendsher. Because at the end of the day everybody has a disappointments everybody has losses. As much about resilience as about running for president. For me certainly the aftermath and for my friends made allll the difference. S to, as to how i felt. And if i could summon the energy and the commitment and a very fortunate person i want others to matter what happens you would like to understandthe that there are ways to get up and keep going. T give u and dont give up on yourself on your friends. On people you care about. Heres here is a serious question that i think were all distressed about. Wow. I am so distressed because there is so much experience and expert ts among federal employees across our government and its been hard one. Its been years in the making. Contemp there seems to be a total disregard even a contempt on the part of many in thispa administration for what federal workers know and what theyve done in the advice that they have given. I was second with Rachel Maddow about this. When it came to the state department. At all levels and the state department the crisis that they confront. And people who know the language know the history had experience they should be sitting in meetings with the highest level of this administration providing advice and information that could be useful on behalf of our country there is such a disdain though for federal workers i would say if you can stick it out stick it out. The tide has to turn [applause]. And if we can take back a one or both houses of congress in 2018 you will have people you will talk to again. I know how difficult that is because i know whats happened to people that i worked with in the state department. Just really been frozen out and demeaned and mistreated. Fore i know its not easy for me to say this. I dont want us to lose the decades in the thousands of years of experience in the epa and the state department and the Labor Department and a lot of the places that are being targeted by the administration i hope that we can maintain a core of experience with Public Servants in our government because at some point there gonna need you. And i ho in the countries can a need i need you. I hope youre still there. [applause]. Organ had to wrap it up unfortunately one last audience question was what is your favorite flavor of ice cream. My favorite flavor would be anything with chocolate in it. I did want to just say a few more words about the future because that is really what i most focused on. I think it was important to figure out what happened in order to be better prepared and some of it is institutional and some of it is attitude but they can all have an effect on not just our politics but on who we are as americans and im concernedned that a lot of permission has been given to people to be very bigoted and prejudiced and to lash out at others based on religion or gender or race or every other kind of identifying characteristic. I think its very important that we not grow weary in standing up for what we see is core American Values and not permitting the clock to be turned back. In peoples progress to be reversed. Theres there is a lot to be proud of that the resistance and the people and the resistance are doing every single day and of course the great contrast that i write about between the inauguration on a friday and that womens march on a saturday in holding the line on repealing the Affordable Care act and saving insurance for millions of americans its a really big deal. There is ways for everybody to play a role not everyone will start an organization or run for office but everybody can be sure you and your friends and everybody you know is registered to vote. You can be sure to give a free weekend you can go campus this year in virginia and new jersey you can start looking to see strategically to see where the vote can count the most. I wanted 24 congressional districts. Unsold thinking hard about how you can support people who stick their next out. G onis l going online to combat untruths and attacks be one of those people who is standing up and tweeting back or posting something. Nal at the personal attacks in the really horrible when i can let that go unanswered. Ause it it is critical that people have a sustained commitment to taking our country back in a way that we believe it is at its best. In order to have the kind of future that we believe is possible. And no one has more of a stake in that than young people. Talking with young people and encouraging young people. The power of the vote which is still the great unrealized opportunity in american politics into keep havingoss cross relationships that cross every line that is meant to divide us instead of obliterating them instead of leading into. To be the rebuke to those that want to divide us. M very im very optimistic. And at the end of my book i talk about love and kindness something we talked about in the campaign it was somethingofe that was my attempt to respond to the site of some of the rallies on the other side. Bulgg the yelling and the pushing and even the violence. Thats not who we are. A thus who we should be. At the end i talk a lot about what i think we can do and should do Going Forward at the end of the book im optimistic. I really believe that we always summon up the energy and we get ourselves focused right to keep moving towards that more union and i do to do everything i can to help us get there. We keep going which is been a favorite. Your book by the way is in some ways a collection of your favorite sources of inspiration. I though i thought, first of all thank you for not going quietly. Into the night. [applause]. I just wanted to say none of us cant afford to go quietly away wiener voices in our energy and i really do believe it takes a village or in this case country to get us back on the right track and its very consistent with my belief thatto we have to bring people together to Work Together with the childrens version of it takes a village. It is intended to say we all had to Work Together and maybe you think it is politically a correct. I think it is america and at its best. What i can go anywhere. We are starting to be here and still fighting and so moving. And let me just and with a couple of quotes by supportingrd that together. Lot peop you are a model for a lot of people who wonder what they can do. I just wanted to end with a q few quotes that you include in your book we can all turn to as we resist, insist process and enlist. Nelson mandela. In raising every time you fall. Y the tr there is only the train. Ra life goes on. Here is the best one and we will end on this one. Appropria this one is most appropriate for this evening. And what youve done for the country for the last 25v years. And while for the well for the next 25 plus years. But still i ride. Thank you all very much for coming. [applause]. [applause]. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] [applause]. Here is a look at some authors recently featured on book tvs afterwards or weekly Author Interview program. This is a hands and reflected on the travels abroad. And weighed in on americas global standing. Progressive policy Institute David osborne offered his outlook for the future public education. In Harvard University professor discussed how mass incarceration has impacted the family. The former radio host at and be c host. Credit surely discusses a life and political career of newt gingrich. Federal judge john newman will share the challenges he faced in the 45 year career on the bench. And this weekend on afterwards investigative Analyst Reports on the Mental Health industry. I open my initial story with the person that is let out of a facility over the objection of the psychiatrist. They wanted to save money and then he have a dream that he wanted to send his father to heaven by killing him with a tasteful back. Of the untreated. And then i learned this was all the same time frame. I learned through the good offices of one of the countrys great reformers they have really changed so they gave me a two or of a modern day hell which is the ninth floor of the Miami Dade County jail. It is my original article. It have the photos but the narratives simply does not do justice to the horror of what you saw. Its not even a 19th century Mental Health. Sleep minorities and mostly untreated and refusing the medication or not treated properly. They were spouting gibberish or they were locked behind these a dungeon like cells and the only places for them to sleep were in the rusted metal beds. And dr. Placement told me at the time it makes you wonder who is crazy. Or as is a system crazy that this is existing. It airs on book tv every saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous afterwards programs. Former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice won the gop Senate Nomination for his state this past week. He appeared on book tvs afterwards program to discuss his book so help me god. It is about his tenure and ouster from the state Supreme Court because of his placing it is available is available any time by visiting our website welcome to afterwards. Your book so help me god is a combination of a memoir and political car dash mike call to arms. Becoming chief justice of the state of alabama. And mostly we talk about the event for which you are most famous