[inaudible conversations] [applause] this is great. We have a full house tonight. Good evening. I am Jean Mccormick and i have the honor of being the president of the institute for the United States senate. It is my pleasure to welcome you here tonight along with our special guest for this Evenings Program, katie and robin who will be coming through this door in a minute. We are doing something a little different tonight. We are really thrilled to be joined by so Many Community leaders and we are especially excited to welcome our new members of the institute, membership is one of the ways we make it possible to have programs like this evening. For those of you who might be visiting the institute for the first time, welcome to our replica senate chamber. It is truly spectacular in the way that senator kennedy envisioned it might remind people about the Important Role of the senate. Every day, students and adults like you and i come in and become senators for a day and try to grapple with the very same issues that congress is dealing with today. There reminded of the Important Role of participation in a democracy. We all have to be involved. Through our interactive exhibits and our Educational Programs and these Public Programs like tonight, our goal is to inspire a new generation, and i keep thinking to myself re inspire us of the older generation to see ourselves as shapers of our community and to take an active role in civic life. That is what senator kennedy hoped for. This Evenings Program is part of our getting to the point series, as you can see its not always easy to get to the point through our winding construction. Sometimes its not always easy to get to the point in our conversations, but we invite people from all walks of life to talk about important issues in our government and our country. This year, as many of us continue to reflect on the impact of last years president ial election, we also consider the role of the press in our political system. Perhaps no one can speak better to this than our special guest for this evening, katie turner. In a historic 2016 campaign, katie was there from the beginning. She spent over 500 days on the campaign trail covering the Trump Campaign. She fact checked the campaign falsities. That is an interesting word. I read it three or four times. Its not one we been using much before now. She did find her self singled out by candidate trump herself. She became one of the most visible journalists during the 2016 election cycle, and she was part of the first women led Politics Team in the history of network news. She has documented her experience in her exceptional new book, unbelievable, my front row seat to the Craziest Campaign in american history. Today, she is a correspondent for nbc news and an acre for msnbc. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Walter Cronkite award for excellence in journalism. We are so thrilled to hear more about her experience. After discussion you will have an opportunity to purchase or book in the gift shop in the lobby. We are also thrilled to welcome robin young to help lead this conversation. Robin, as you know, is the host of here and now on npr and uvr. Without further ado, i would like to invite katie and robin into the chamber and ask you to join me in giving them a warm welcome. [applause] [applause] this is so cool. Can i get you all to smile for a selfie . , get one too. I just want to take a panorama. I think this is the only circumstance were will be sitting in a room like the. Actually, when she does that, everybody, when you are ready, everybody waves. Hold on. And you are on cspan2. Waves. How many of you use im with her. Check it out. How does that feel . That reception . Really amazing. Its overwhelming, undeserved, surreal, exciting. I dont know. About the undeserved part. Lets review. You are a Foreign Correspondent when nbc assigned you to be one of the first and only two follow the campaign. There would be those infamous moments long before President Trump referred to corker as little bob corker, you were little katie. Huge rally back where the Trump Campaign kept reporters so is sort of like indicating to the rabid dogs were the meat was. Little katie is back there, shes such a liar, what a liar she is. Unheard of in the history of american politics. Its no secret that politicians dont like reporters, generally. Nixon had a fraught relationship with his press corps, there are legendary stories about rod zigler, his press person, and getting into it with reporters, what was unusual about this was the very public nature of it, the way he would go after reporters, myself included from the stage of rallies, and have the crowd, encourage the crowd to essentially turn on us and blew us. There were moments, where i spoke to someone on the campaign, late in the campaign , after we had Armed Security and after i had done Death Threats and after not only the networks provided Armed Security. I said does he know he is potentially putting us in real harms way, in danger, that something really bad could happen and the person said yes, he knows and i said does he care and he said i dont think he cares. What you think it was that you in particular were so singled out . From the very first interview, the very first rally in 2015, he had said something about the television reporters are here and there is katie and shes not even looking at me. That was the first time we had ever shared the same error. I knew him from television and the new york tabloid, from the apprentice, not as a serious political candidate. I had no reason to believe he knew who i was so i was standing in the back of this rally which was just a couple hundred people who were at a backyard pool thinking what the heck am i doing here and what the heck is this guy talking about because he was talking about the wall whos gonna build and defending his comments about mexico sending rapists and how he gets more Standing Ovations and anybody, and then how the press is terrible and oh, katie, you havent even looked at me once. I was like who, me . And he was, and i remember just screaming right back at them, im tweeting what youre saying and he liked that. He said i did a good job and then he continued on. Thats important. She said i hope so, and by the way you do a good job. When i read over these again in the book, which is terrific and you all have to get it and get it signed after words, but when i was reading back over it, and the current climate of Harvey Weinstein and also since these comments yelled at you, we have had the tape of the donald trump, billy bush tape talking about grabbing womens ladys parts. Reading over these comments now, in this climate, this feels like Sexual Harassment from the stag stage. While he went after all reporters, it wasnt just female reporters. And he talked about charles not being able to get a pair pants. This was an interview and of course hes in a wheelchair. So theres that, but with you there seems to be something, have you thought about it, theres some sort of powerplay going on. Think theres a powerplay going on, i was doing my job and he alternated between trying to charm me and trying to bully me. If i wasnt reporting what he was lik what he liked he would go on the attack and the offense from the stage. Then he would tell everyone how great i was and introduce me to a crowd at the rally. He kissed me on the cheek one morning when he liked my reporting, adding morning joe townhall and then bragged about it on television which is unusual. But at the same time, its what he does, to this day when he is sitting with his counterparts to the republican party. He will have dean heller sitting next to him at a senate meeting, and joke around with him, not so jokingly to say if you dont do what i say, im in a go after you when it comes to the health care vote. Thats just the way he operates. To ascribe certain, another label to it, im just not prepared to do it. We have questions by the way that were super committed by many of you and im in a try to work in as many as i can without dropping all of these papers. Obviously people turned on you, you needed support, you were spit at, you would see families, what looked like lovely families but look closer in the dads wearing a tshirt that says hillary socks more than monica does, but not like monica and youd be taken aback like wait a second, theyve got small children with them. That was in the worst brother was that, then there was the father with his two kids and his wife wearing a shirt that called Hillary Clinton a cu nt. There was a man who wore a shirt that said i wish hillary married oj. I dont care what your political beliefs are, i dont care if you think democrats have all the wrong ideas for this country, that was a shirt that said i hoped essentially that Hillary Clinton was brutally stabbed to death in the 1990s. That is so far beyond what should be acceptable for common decency, for behavior, let alone politics. But do you think, you got to know the Trump Supporters, this is boston, but im sure theres many in this room, and faith asked, you talked about running into a supporter who helped you with your hair, and active kindness. You cant paint an entire group of supporters with a broad brush. I thought it was a huge mistake to call donald Trump Supporters deplorables. You dont go after voters in this country and i dont think its a good idea to say this swamp of voters are racist xenophobes, misogynists, whatever name you want to ascribe to them. They are a varied group of people from a number of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of them voted for president obama in the past, a lot of them were women, there are a variety of supporters, and at the same time they are the kind of people who often times, probably live their lives in a very polite rule abiding way, nonoffensive way, but there was something about walking into a trump rally that allowed people to shed all of those rules, to shed those burdens. I wrote in the book that he had a halo of crudeness, and in that halo, he allowed everybody else to recruit around him. He said whatever he wanted. He never backed down and a lot of people found that refreshing. People maybe couldnt tell a joke any longer because it was a politically incorrect joke. People who were worried they had to watch what they said and watch what they did, people who thought their patriotism was being mistaken for racism, and they walked in there and they said i can say and do whatever im thinking. We talked earlier about covering the primaries, and very early on i was in iowa, and you could see the lines at the trump rally and was calling back to the station saying im meeting a lot of young people in particular who are trying to decide between Bernie Sanders and donald trump. There was a certain pro culture that would come out to the rallies. Men who would wear tank tops and big make America Great again hats, that College Fraternity culture that would show up in like the enthusiasm of the event. The same people that would say , and this is kind of a broad brush, but this is a demographic that im talking about, they liked Bernie Sanders or donald trump, and it was because they wanted an outsider. They wanted somebody different and refreshing, somebody who wasnt part of the establishment, somebody whose name they hadnt been hearing their whole life like Hillary Clinton, 70 who wasnt afraid to take on the system, Bernie Sanders had that quality, so did donald trump and they both had jobs messages. These were young people who were either just in the middle of the search for a job or soon to be graduating from college and they wanted a better opportunity. They wanted the disruptor. Definitely. Do you think, i thought i observed this, i constantly saw people who saw things that people on the left might see as appalling, like those tshirts you mentioned, and they thought they were perfectly acceptable parallel reality of what they may have seen, for instance when george bush, the invasion of iraq and so many people who were against that. If you had gone to the antiwar rally in washington, you wouldve seen disparaging tshirts about george bush, and they really felt it was the sam same. And theres an argument to be made for that. I think thats just a sign of how corrosive our politics and our Public Discourse has become. The question is, where does it go from here. Do we correct it . Does it get better for 2020 or 2024, or are we going to see even more crude language, crude behavior . Will there be a line that is too far, a bridge too far . Where do we go. Do you feel somewhat validated in your reporting that we now have a President Trump who hasnt really changed his style. He 71 years old. He is never going to change for the guy you saw on the camcampaign trail is the guy you see in the oval office every day. Just yesterday, he would make these broad statements on the campaign trail like i saw thousands of muslims cheering on the streets of new jersey after the towers came down. Not true. Didnt happen. Then he forced his Campaign Staff to try to find evidence to bolster him so theyre running around trying to find anything that might point to some shred of truth. You cant because is not true. Yesterday he did the same thing which was to say that past president s including obama didnt call the families of fallen soldiers. That is not true, but he said it. He put it out there. People will want to believe that and what does the white house do, they would run in circles to try to find something that backs them up and what they found was that john kelly, president obama didnt call him well, he was at a number of events with obama who was honoring fallen soldier soldiers, but what theyve done now, and this is what sad about this, beyond politics beyond donald trump, beyond whatever you think about republicans or democrats, what sad is that were not politicizing the death of john kelly son. Thats awful. That should not be happening. We already politicized goldstar family. Exactly. That happened in the campaign as well. By the way, general kelly. [inaudible] what should the press do . We have a question about whether or not the press should boycott. We cant boycott the president of the United States. Im sorry. You might not like him, but thats not what we do in this country. He is the democratically elected president of the United States, and so there is , we have a service to everyone in this room and to everyone in this land to cover the president. It affects you, every single day. You have to cover it. Lauren asked if they should boycott white house briefings as a sign of solidarity and press accountability. What you do, if that happens, say you boycott the press briefings. You just validate Donald Trumps complaints that the press corps is out to get him, that theyre not on his side or looking for any reason not to report on the things that hes doing. Its a doubleedged sword in that way. Barry also asks, from what you saw on the trail, do you think the president intentionally attacked the credibility of the press to rally his base . Is it just a technique or is he really hurt. Some suggested when he lashes out is that for soldiers were killed and most americans dont know why we still arent talking about that because the question now becomes whether or not president obama did not. Everything gets clouded. It just makes things cloudier. Hes very capable of distracting. Everything comes around and its always about him, how does it make him look, how does it affect him, what does he need to do about something. Its not about the death of the soldier, its about what has he done or what has he done in separation with his predecessor. Every policy, every subject, every interview, every topic, it all goes back to him. He uses eyes so much. The governor called to say i was doing a good job. Its me me me me. What was the first part of the question . Is it to do that, to distract us, or do you feel theres something. I think its both. I think he likes to dominate the headlines, and on days we would see this in the campaign, on days where he wasnt the main focus, he would make sure that he took it over. The muslim band day is a great example. The day before he had given a speech on terrorism so today was being dominated by that speech, by the president , and then donald trump announces the muslim ban and recaptures the narrative. Then he wants to be liked. He really wants to be liked. He wants to be accepted. There is a chip on his shoulder that has been there since he was a young man in queens crossing the river to Start Building skyscrapers in manhattan. His father said he could never do it and he was trying to prove him wrong. He was never really accepted by the ruling class, if you will, of manhattan so hes always been trying to prove himself. Thats why, with reporters, he will be extremely friendly and very charming because he wants reporters to like him. If you meet him in person, hes very charming. He wants you to like him. Your family, you were born into the News Business. Your parents, bob and marika,. I was born while they were covering a breaking news story. As they changed the face of local news, maybe not for the better, your mom is from a more stable foundation, they teamed up and had a small news service in l. A. Chasing gang fights or fires, car accidents. They would go out in the middle of the night and cover news stories when the local news didnt have cameramen and then they would sell it to the morning shows in the afternoon shows during the day and they built up a business without. They bought a helicopter at one point, there was a big strike in l. A. , all the cameramen were on strike. Didnt physically cross the picket line, but they flew over. They didnt have a helicopter at that time. They did it because my mom was pregnant with my brother, i was two years old, and my dad had this ambition to be a helicopter journalist and to cover l. A. From the sky. L. A. Is a big place. You need a helicopter to get around. He had this really big idea and he walked into one Helicopter Company and they laughed him out. He was 24 at the time. He had 30 grand in his pocket and the helicopter cost 250 grand. The second Helicopter Company said okay, will give this to you. And they bought it. Least it. And became sensations. They changed everything. Suddenly everything was in the sky and they were doing car chases, and then they became the people behind the famous video of denny being pulled from his truck from l. A. Riot. You hear that sound, oh my god, theyre trying to kill him. Thats your dad. And then, the white bronco and the person in the helicopter chasing the bronco and you hear his voice. My mom was a camera woman. She was hanging out of the helicopter with it. She gets none of the credit, and i feel so bad for her. She was literally hanging out of the helicopter with a betacam on her shoulder which is like a 70pound camera, literally just hanging. Nothing between her and the ground but air, and she had a canvas strap that was hooking her into a harness, that hooked her into the helicopter, and she did that over fire and flood and over Police Pursuits and over riots, and at one point, during the l. A. Riots while they were covering that beating, the gang members were shooting at the helicopter. When they landed, the mechanic said there was bullet damaging the engine blade and there was bullet damage in the battery, the camera battery that she stowed beneath her seat. Your parents are amazing. I was covering the riots, and i put that together, you grew up with us. Theres videos of you at four years old doing news reports with your dad. You hung out of that helicopter. I did. There was one instance in my forefather almost had a heart attack where we were over the rose parade and i was a very savvy kid and i figured out how to open the helicopter door. Its pretty complicated. You have to pull down, pull out and pulled to the side. I wanted to get a better look at the floats below. My dad remembers looking back, and very calmly, because he was cool under pressure, saying katie, please sit down. He reaches back and he pulls the door shut and he said he immediately had to land the helicopter because he thought he was going to pass out. Understandably. Your parents became very successful. It changed at a certain point. They were not using the helicopter and it seemed to spiral out. Even when they were at the height, this didnt appeal to you. Journalism didnt appeal to you. , no, it just seemed so disruptive in my life. Im a terrible eater. I have to try to remind myself when im out with my fiance, to eat like a lady because i have a tendency to stop food in my fac face, because as a kid we would be in the middle of the meal and something would come over the scanner and we would have to stop and get the helicopter and cover it. My mom used to sleep with the scanner in her ear. It was at the disruptive lifestyle. There was no stability to it. There is a camera in my face all the time and i had no desire to do it. I would run in the opposite direction. What changed . You cant deny your genes, i guess. I wanted to be a doctor, but i think i got a d in chemistry. I was terrible at it. I was really bad at math. Then i changed my major to philosophy and i was going to go to law school and i sat down with the counselor and she said you need the score to get in for the lsat. I just didnt want to study any longer. I wasnt feeling it. I was driving back with my College Boyfriend at the time and there was a fire in malibu. There was a cut off because there was a fire in malibu. My dad, even after the business fell apart, kept making me fake press passes. [laughter] he took my photo any put it over a photo of my grandmother who was in the business with my family and then re laminated it and so that was my press pass. Its a felony, by the way. I dont know if you know that. I didnt have the time. Or obviously would not have done this next thing. I pulled up to the sheriffs officer he was guarding the line and a showed him my press pass and i said my crew is ahead and i like to go see the fire. Im sure he knew it was fake. It was so obviously fake. , but he let me through and my boyfriend looked at me and said i have never seen you more confident then you were just then, lying to that officer. I thought im chasing ambulance and always curious whats behind the crime tape. I want to be in the know. I cant deny any longer. Im in a go into the News Business. I told my parents, it did not go well. Didnt want you to do it. Didnt want me to do it. When i was 14, kcbs undercut all of their staff and breached their contract and the whole business fell apart we went on hawaiian vacations but they never put any money into a bank account so they didnt really save. When the business fell apart, the family fell apart. When i told my dad specifically i was going into it, he was angry. He felt like he had been victimized. He didnt feel like the News Business was a good place to be. He was the one who wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer because it was so much more stable. He ended up saying that i was going to be asking, do you want fries with that, for my life. We ended up slamming the door in each others face and not talking for a week. Your parents were divorced and ten years later he transitioned, your father transitioned and became zoe. If you see the main america documentary, she is great and it. She is great. Your dad is great. How difficult was that for you. Obviously was a difficult situation. We didnt see it coming. Its hard. Its hard when it changes so drastically. My dad is an incredibly rate person and she has always been an incredibly brave person. Shes always been a boundary to fire and a rule breaker. Its not a complete estrangement, we talk, but its hard. My family is complicated. I am really, really proud of the decision she made and i think it takes a lot of guts to do that. Boy, we could do a whole hour on that, could we not. You make it clear in your book that your dad is a big mouth, outspoken, you say at one point when you are in exchange with donald trump, the president , you say you can deal with this because you had this dad. I have these very larger than life figures in my life. Argument that dinner. The way that donald trump, it was more than unfamiliar, lets put it that way. It was a good primer for standing up to people later in life. Thats my whole family. We are all kind of like that. My mom, my brother, my dad, my aunts, we all have big loudmouths and would like to yell at each other over a thanksgiving dinner table. We would love to be a fly on that wall. Tony, my fiance is here, he will have to deal with that for the next foreseeable future. Im sorry, wherever you are. Back to donald trump, have you had any interaction with you . Did he respond to the book. His son tweeted me. He had said Something Like its fascinating to see people who have zero access to me right major articles and publish major books. I just had done an article for the New York Times, and then he said zero access which is kind of his code word for me. I have a lot of access, but heres the thing. You dont need access. Access is not how you do journalism. You dig and you factor act and you contextualize and you try to shed light on the person, and you dont need access to do that. Access journalism is barely journalism. He is so public as it is, the idea of needing access to cover him is a bit laughable, or any public figure for that matter. Where are we now, and where do you think Trump Supporters are now. Are you still in contact with the many you met. Yes. Doctor mccormick was telling us that there are many Trump Supporters who come here to this institute because they feel that while they support their guy, they elected someone to be a disruptor, they never thought he understood government, thats not why they elected him, another coming here to learn more about government to help you. [laughter] what are you hearing . We know that the polls show there is some softening. It depends on who you ask. There are some that volunteer for trump that are still very enthusiastic about him, some folks up in New Hampshire that i talk to regularly. There is a gentleman down in South Carolina who would show up at every trump rally that he would hold, enthusiastically, loved donald trump, thought he was wonderful, thought he was a disruptor, that he would bring change and is horrified and appalled that he has been president. Part of what he doesnt like as the attack on the prospered he thanks its just way overboard and not helpful for anything. But, there is an idea that people elected donald trump because they thought he would be throwing a bomb into the system. He might not know everything about policy, he might not know the ins and outs of healthcare or the ins and outs of veteran affairs, but he will hire the right people to do the job, and i would ask people why they believe that about him and a lot of the times the answer i would get, and dont laugh, but they would say i saw him do it on the apprentice. I told you not to laugh. Donald trump has created a mythology around himself, and hes always done that, since he got onto the real estate scene in the tabloid scene in new york in the 1970s, 1980s. He has been selling donald trump. He is not a real estate mogul. He is a branding mogul. He doesnt build buildings, generally, he puts his name on buildings. He sells his name. He sells himself. He sells the image of success. He sells the image of a dealmaker. He goes out and says i alone can fix this. I can make deals nobody else ca can. This is a terrible deal. I will make it better. Deal, deal, deal, deal. I think thats his most loved word in his vocabulary. He is successful at it, but hes always been successful at it. It wasnt just donald Trump Supporters, it was the reporters in new york in the 90s and the 80s. Jimmy breslin wrote about this early on for newsday in new yor york. This was around the time donald trump is on the verge of financial collapse, when he was going through bankruptcy, he was hanging on by a thread, to use a cliche. They were saying hes going to fail. Breslin came out and said how can you say that. He will create a razzledazzle , he will call all the reporters in new york and say donald trump is too big to fail. Donald trump will come back bigger than ever, and he will convince them and they will write stories about it. And hill username that is in his. That too. Than the real estate magnets, the investors in new york city was a nono, he cant fail, and they will loan him money because he has created this mythology around himself and hes doing that successfully for a certain segment of voters to this day. So when things dont go right, its not donald trump that made them go wrong. Its congress will. Its kicking everything down to congress. But there are still people who hold out, many people that hold out that his is the voice needed right now, stand up to the president of north korea, stand up to the world that hasnt respected the United States, stand up to trade deals that most economists say theyve actually benefited people like american farmers, but they dont see it that way. Is there a chance, is there a chance this could turn out to be a great presidency . I think it depends on who you ask, honestly. I think there are wildly differing opinions of donald trump. If you are a supporter of his, you will defend it. You will defend, defend, defend. If you are not, you will take it apart. We will see what people say in four years. Does he get anything done . Does this Republicancontrolled Congress passed legislation, any legislation, major legislation before the midterm . That is still an open question. There is a lot on their plate. If they cant agree on healthcare which they have been running on repealing for seven or eight years, do you expect them to agree on tax reform . Thats a much more complicated subject. He is going after bob corker. Hes going after susan collins. Hes going after john mccain. He will need their voices and their votes to get any of these things done. That is unless he suddenly goes to democrats and convinces democrats get on th board and that is a big if as well. A couple more questions from people who are here. Is magdalena here . Anyway, she had a great question. She said do you have any advice for a young woman of color who fears she has so much to say and contribute to the Public Discourse but has no idea how to get started, especially in todays political and journalistic climate. What do you say. I know we have some students appear. Where are they . There being shy. Oh my god, they could be back there. Oh, over there. There over there. There you are. Thank you. What do you say to journalism students who might have watched what you went through. The young women of color, get loud, be out there, participate in your local politics. Run for office. There are local positions that you can run for. Just participate in your town hall. Its a really tough climate. We have Gretchen Carlson on our program, she is the fox news anchor who sued and successfully sued saying she was fired because she didnt respond to roger ailes Sexual Harassment overtures. You look at her twitter feed and what she gets, i know how she gets out of bed in the morning. You ignore it. Yes at the top climate, so what. Get up and fight. Fight for what you believe in. Its not to get better if you just say its a tough climate, i cant get out there. Thats not how it gets better. That comes from a woman who hung out of a helicopter when she was four. [laughter] what i would say to journalism students is, its a tough business. Theres no doubt about it. Especially the tv world. It can be hard to break in, but there are so many more forms of journalism now and there is so much more opportunity out there. There are digital outlets that have a whole host of jobs that didnt exist five, ten, 1520 years ago. You dont just have to go to your local newspaper or to your local television station. You can get on a blog like 538. Com. You can get on a number of smaller versions of those. Theres patch. Patch still exists everywhere, right . You can make your way in through that and work up the ladder and just refused to take no for an answer when it comes to finding a bigger job. What should journalism students learn from this campaign . You are one of the first to say President Trump, im covering him, im the only one covering him, he could win. I have to say i set it in iowa, having seen was happening on the ground. Dont discount him. Weve declared his candidacy dead dozens and dozens and dozens of times. We declared his presidency a failure a number of times as well and we said how could anybody vote for him again, if he doesnt do this is voters will vote for him. Ill give you this is a cautionary tale. What is the one thing that donald trump needs to do to keep his base . Whats the one thing . Some talking to a guy in ohio. They said go to war. They said build a wall. Oh, i thought you said go to war. It could be either, but okay build the wall. We will take that one. And i was talking to a guy in ohio, and i asked him late in the campaign, why do you like donald trump. The man answered because he is going to build a wall. I said what if he doesnt build the wall. Its okay, i trust his judgment. Straightfaced, but thats emblematic of his support. There is a trust there that goes beyond his policies. They voted for the man, not the position so dont assume because he did not do something that those voters wont go out and vote for him again. Also, he has defied political gravity so many times, whos to say that will stop now. David asked, has your book been considered for a movie, and if so, who would you like to play you . No, and no. It has not been optioned for a movie. What about a play . A musical. But then you dont get the helicopter. [laughter] im just interested in the helicopter part. That would be better in a movie. If you can make a movie, i say make a movie about my parents because they are fascinating people. If you buy the book, and i hope you buy the book, the chapter six about my family, it is the best chapter in the book. My parents are incredible amazing people, and the way we grew up, my brother and i, is just wild. Its totally wild. And it sounds like it set you on the path that you were able too. My mom was pregnant, she was hours from giving birth to me on a breaking news story shooting in l. A. Its just ridiculous. No wonder you held up under the incredible pressure of the last year. I do encourage you to buy the book and there will be an opportunity after words to talk to katie. Thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] thank you katie and robin. It is truly an unbelievable story. We encourage you now to buy the book if you would like at the bookstore and katie will do a signing. We would also encourage you to think about th becoming a member of the institute so you can hear more about these kinds of exciting programs. Thank you both. It was terrific. [applause] tv tapes hundreds of author programs throughout the country all year long. Heres a look at some of the events we are covering this week. Monday at the New York Historical society to hear michael porter, author and former editorinchief of simon and schuster. He chronicled his life during the runup to world war ii. Later we are out west where university of Southern California history professor, they will recall the infiltration of nazi and fascist groups by an assortment of American Veterans in world war ii. On tuesday at the Smithsonian Ripley Center in washington d. C. , lindsay looks at surgery in the 19th century and the medical advances of british doctor joseph lister. Wednesday we are at the Redwood Library in Newport Rhode island for gordon woods recount of the tumultuous friendship between john adams and thomas jefferson. Also the night we will be at politics and prose bookstore in the Nations Capital to hear and often tell the story of how a member of the French Resistance gave her life to save hundreds of jewish children from being sent to auschwitz. On thursday at hoover institute, lee edwards recalls his career in the conservative movement. Saturday and sunday, watch the live coverage of the texas book festival in austin. Also bestselling author Michael Lewis will discuss many books and take your calls live on in depth. Many of these events are open to the public. Look for them to air in the near future on the tv on cspan2. Good morning my friend eric , how are you today. As soon as i heard gig, i said i know this is, ive known him since we were 17. Its so good to hear your voice. Its great to hear you and see you on television. Thank you for your works and the discussion you are having around this whole german nazi issue. As you and i both know, every german during that time period, if you wanted to buy bread, you had to have a nazi card. It wasnt really a matter of choice. The thing that i really would love for you to talk about is the notion of coming you touched upon briefly, binary choices. Where i live, here in northern california, in the bay area, there is a growing population of people who call themselves progressives, and it seems to me that term has been hijacked to the point where, its really at the exclusion of god. It is progression toward the notion of yes we are making our culture and society better. We are progressing, but its to include everything except god as the focal point and centrality issue and most important thing in our lives. I would love to hear you talk a little bit about how progressives are almost coopting and hijacking what it means to be alive and working in gods kingdom. Gig, before we hear from them, tell us about yourself. Tell you about myself, well, as eric knows, my grandfather was also in the german military. He was one of those who was in the german resistance. He was a german officer, as were many and his family. Another relative an uncle was also in the german conspiracy against hitler, and another uncle was the german ambassador to russia and was the architect of the hitler, stalin nonaggression pact. All three of them were found guilty of treason when the famous bomb plot failed and they were all executed. These things are very near and dear to my heart. I just think eric for exposing a lot of these things through the stories that they were really some brave germans. The truth is, i think eric mentioned, germany has been paying this notion of guilt, this debt of guilt for so long , and youre right, you can never get past that. I was going to say, if if he didnt say it himself, his family are heroes. The bonder he lumbered family, thats his family, they gave their lives to defeat nazis from the inside. They were heroes. They were mentioned in my book. There are many people who literally gave their lives. They were tortured horribly to stand against hitler. These are germans. Their people from the inside. It brings us to the larger question of progressives and the bay area. I really think that people of good faith in america, on the left and on the right understand that when people take to the streets in violence and when the Democratic Party is hijacked by people on the angry, bitter left, you are going to have problems. We have had, and continue to have some wonderful people on the democratic side in america, and i have to say, something has happened. It does seem to me that the anger, the gloves off incivility tells you something. Even if you didnt agree with Martin Luther king jr. , the nonviolence would give you pause to say theres something there, these people look so humble and so noble and so dignified. When you have people behaving like animals, even if you agree with them, you are disinclined from supporting them because you dont approve of what theyre doing. I think there are a lot of young people today who are just angry. The looking for an excuse to break something that they know that i can smash a columbus statue or Something Like that and no one will prosecute me. It is troubling to me. I do blame the news medias coverage. Ive been incredibly grieved by the New York Times in the last year or so. They printed an article the other day, in effect, excusing the violence as defensive, that these are people who are willing to fight, if necessary , that is rank nonsense. They ought to be condemning this because this is not going to lead to a better america or to a safer america. I think we have to be fair. I would think that anybody would condemn, any fool doing the hitler salute saying hes a neonazi, but you better condemn everybody whos an idiot and his willing to divide the country along these lines. Its really, we are in a bad spot and if good people on the left dont stand up, and if good journalists dont emerge to do their job, we are in big trouble. We depend on journalists to do their job. Its not your job to take down this president , its your job to tell the truth. If you cant tell the difference come you should get out of the journalism business. We are really in need of honest journalism today. Im really concerned about the state of the union because of that. You can watch this and other programs online booktv. Org. Heres a look at some of the bestselling books according to the conservative book club. Topping the list is bill oreilly in the history of the revolutionary war, killing england. Next laura ingram weighs in on trumps political agenda and relationship with the republican party. Thats followed by the latest novel enemy of the state. Then audio and radio host explains how the christian monk reshaped religion. After that, jd recalls his childhood in a rust belt town in ohio. A look at the bestselling books according to the conservative book club continues with scalia speaks, a collection of the Late Supreme Court justice speeches, edited by his son and his former law clerk edward. In seventh is another novel, american assassin followed by author and filmmaker critical look at the political left in the big lie. The final two books on the conservative book club bestseller list are bill oreillys legends and lies, the civil war, and robert oneills account of his 400 Mission Career as a navy seal in the operator. Some of these authors have or will be appearing booktv. You can watch them on our website, but tv. Org. We are in our 22nd year of the texas book festival. It was founded in 1995 by First Lady Laura Bush and a Pretty Amazing group of dedicated volunteers who decided that we needed to have a book festival in austin texas to celebrate Texas Authors and literacy. And to support our texas library. Since those early years, the book festival has just exploded, and very quickly became a National Premier destination for the biggest books of the year. Joined book tv for the texas book festival, live from austin saturday and sunday november 4 and fifth on cspan2. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created by a Public Service by American Cable Television companies and brought you today by your cable or satellite provider. Next on book tv after words, bob schaffer, former host of cbs face the nation
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