Transcripts For CSPAN2 Washington Post State Of The Union Preview 20180130

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, House Majority leader nancy pelosi, and senator untrained senators took part. Hosted by the Washington Post. [applause] hello everybody. Thank you for being here. Excuse my appearance. I fell and broke my arm a couple of weeks ago so im just getting by but we are eager to talk with Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president at the white house and key advisor in helping shape the president s policies and his message and we will start by talking about the state of the union tomorrow night. Its a big speech and a year ago the president gave his first speech to a joint address to congress and talked about american renewal and got pretty good reviews. It went pretty well and lasted a short while because in the days that followed there were number of controversies including some by him that created a more polarizednd environment on the hill and im wondering looking to the speech tonight what can the president do to set that bipartisan tone to try to achieve those deals that he wants to democrats in Congress Without getting kicked off the script, so to speak. First of all, thank you for having me. Thank you for the Washington Post and any other sponsors. We appreciate from today. The president is working on a bipartisan forwardlooking speech that positive in tone and content and what that really means is working on the speech its a reflection of the past years accomplishments but also those compliments not just checking a box or a to do list but what is the next this o between what has happened in your own life or your own business withh your own aspirations. And then how is that a framework for working together in 2018. I would point out a few things that are pay recent. One is about twothree weeks ago the president held a 55 uninterested, undeterred, unscripted with a bipartisan bicameral groupte of legislators and the cabinet room and it was quite unexpected. I think mainly by the media and the press were covering it and by all accounts they were pleased to have that transparency and live again unfiltered and unscripted exchange between the president and the legislators. That is good for transparency, accountable, and democracy and his second conversation we need to keep happening. That particular issue was about that particular meeting about immigration and you see an openness and flexibility by this president very recently on the Daca Recipients and the dreamerp that he will address that tomorrow in his speech. Immigration be one of the major five or six i but its covered. I would also go back to august 201st when the president came thereabout with his afghani policy speech about afghanistan, a little diversion from where he was during the campaign having consulted with those on the ground and his generals initial security team. I know you wrote about it at thc time and were criticized forne saying the new president and new strategy and indeed, it was. I would like to share those as examples of openness and stability. It will be bipartisan in terms of content because of the only way to function in this town as a democracy. We saw during the Government Shutdown, very unfortunate, but you saw it to me of the government you need 60 votes and you need bipartisan cooperation and we were happy to Many Democrats came around the Party Leadership and voted to open the government a few weeks ago. Kellyanne conway you talk about immigration which speech tomorrow. The white house is framework that has been in the last couple days that includes something for the dreamers. Is that a redline for the gopresident as is he committed o seeing legal status for the hundreds of thousands of kids were here without duck mutation . The president has said that and as you saw, the framework currently includes resolution for 1. 8 million so it would include those who never avail themselves of that after president obama took action in 2000. It would anticipate and include those who never took the action in addition to the roughly seven or 800,000 who did. That iso there but also the 25 billion for enhanced security at the border. We are an the president willav talk about how a sovereign nation much have physical borders. We as a nation have spent billions of dollars over many decades helping other countries secure their borders and protect their sovereignty and he believes and has successfully one on in his governing on enhancing security at the border and that includes the wall and other security measures. But that also i would say that is his redline and hes always made that clear. Again, it is a great symbol of how cooperation and discussiong can be had on the same issue with two very divergent priorities. Ii think if you look at the conversation in the past several months is not a year the democrats talk about immigration they basically talk about the dreamers in the Daca Recipients. Thisis president without a 70point plan a few months ago. You can read it. He talked about immigration and in entity migration and into the visa lottery system and obviously, Border Security and now Daca Recipients make as his political counselor, how do you help manage to navigate the current in the Republican Base right now . Breitbart has taken to calling his amnesty don because of the immigration framework and how does he manage being compassionate with the dreamers and coming up with some sort of legal status for them while satisfying his base that its a very hard line . That is not a conversation we have frequently. Of alle president americans including the millions who didnt vote for him and that is something he said on novembef november 9 on election day. He changed it and added that when were up in the residency. He said at the hilton that imn the president of all americans even those who didnt support me and there are more than a few, t believe those were his words were something thereabout. You have to take it seriously as president because its just like the tax cut in jobs act. People rely and they said it wouldlk only help the wealthy ad people now see it is helping folks and its helping upwards of 3 Million People already, 274 companies employers taken action as of this morning was the last count i saw in you talking about a direct investment in your workplace, your workforces, raises, obviously bonuses but also Capital Investment and skill training and education for your employees. The broader communities being invested in an even some benefits that have long been seen as problems of the other party. I think that is the biggest because everyone thanks about child care and everyone thanks about wellness of their employees but you got Many Companies and many job creators now employers taking action because of this tax cut in they are saying because of the tax cut we are doing x, y and z. There are plenty will benefit from support the president and i hope part of his base and the president bases the entire country because hes president of the United States. Here is the best example. I have many good examples but in addition to working on the big issues of the day like tax reform in them for structure in immigration i tend to have some things in my portfolio that i can legitimately referred to as nonpartisan issues in search of bipartisan solutions. When i go around the country meeting with grieving families are talking to lawenforcement officers or Health Professionals or faithbased leaders i dont ask them how did you vote for are you registered. You cant care when youre serving the country and i do think people are that way are the ones who should serve the government. Well, todays a busy tuesday as every day is or has been for the last year. The Deputy Director of the fbi, Andrew Mccabe, has stepped out. He will be formally retiring in a couple of months but he step down immediately from his position and i am wondering is the present celebrating customer i mean, president happened so much to say about mccabe over the last few months in his and other comments criticizing his leadership at the fbi and im curious how the white house is responding. Im not personally seen the president asked one way or the other. I know the secretary was saying during her breathing in the press Briefing Room that the white house had nothing to do with that decision and that you have to refer your questions to mr. Mccabe and the fbi. Yeah, but the president has criticized his leadershipad personally. And also read in the paper c maybe even the Washington Post that mr. Mccabe planned on retiring at some point so i would again its not a surprise move, i guess, if you wash the Washington Postgt and we seen t before but in any event, thats what Sarah Sanders has said and that is what is occurring right now as the news is breaking. N another story, todays Senate Health out of the House Intelligence Committee put together a memo suggesting the fbi may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources to justify one of those early requests for secret surveillance in the Russian Investigation. This is obvious is something the House Committee will have to decide in the next couple of hours but should that memo be publicly released and you think has the right to see it and showed it necessary to date other changes in the doj . Let me be clear, the president went to to go in december and he has Great Respect for the rank and file of about 5000 those at the fbi and youre talking about people who were in charge of investigation and will we see that they made public and i dont have any special knowledge obviously on that. Some very disturbing statements about the now president and we expect people have political point of view they support the support in the bell box and some of them give money and at least one attended the president s political opponent Victory Party on Election Night but that aside we believe in transparency and accountability. This person would air on the side of transparency and i hope with a legion of people including the media have been covering russia and thea investigation for over a year now and the president has made very clear that there is no pollution and there is absolutely no collusion and he calls ite a hoax and an excuse for losing an election but more importantly is the transparency and accountability piece of this that if those who are in charge of this memo and i have not seen obviously but those who would charge feel that it is ready to be released to the public andis im not sure what we need to be rejected or not then they should make that decision. To pick up on that point is the president does he think that the message is that is that evidence of the launch the community was working against his campaign . Is a very large group of people we should never generalize as such and as i say what has been revealed now after the fact and ironically to the course of investigation that was targeted with him in his campaign which i was manager for the winning part and i can tell you that the idea that i would ever have to go to moscow rather than to Mecklenburg County North Carolina or Macomb County in michigan is foolish and to think that you have to do that otherwise or on this particular discrete matter lets those in the committee decide what they think is best based on what they know. This is a president who was talked about prosperity, security in transparency and accountability of being his top priority said he will talk about this night in the state of the union. Hell talk about a safe, strong, proud america and i think workout is america is important because whether this president telling the country to dignify all clear types and to have invested millions of dollars ton the department of labor and skills training so that we are not as a nation telling everyone you must go to a Fouryear College and you must get a degree where we hear from employers andee governors frome both sides of the aisle all the time that there is a labor shortage supply of carpenters, welders, and those i grew up out of philadelphiaa and most people i graduated with went for a skilled certificate and were able to support themselves the next day practically. This is someone whos trying to say to america be proud regardless of what your choice of career or job is. We want to find things that bind us together as a nation and he will talk about that in tomorrow state of the union. Yeah, and he probably i would assume will not talked with the Russian Investigation in the state of the Union Address but thats the shadow that hangs over the work he is doing is present. Sarah sanders said today at the press briefing its about time everyone washed russia fever out of their systems. Its real desire to pass that and the president himself last said he was looking forward to testifying under oath Robert Mueller if indeed he is asked and im wondering is one of his advisers considering his history and pass as a businessman exaggerating details and saying things that are not true and there isio this one deposition that he gave in 2007 where he w had 30 misstatements. The worry that he could be putting himself in a position where he might perjure himself . The question of whether or not the president testifies in mr. Mullers investigation a question for his attorneys of which i am not an attorney for him. I know that one of his attorneyr did say that he is not decide whether the president will testify and he will let everyone know when that decision is made. I know his other attorney also said publicly that that decision will be made at another time but we have also set from thema beginning and i will repeat it here today that the president has said in the white house is that we have all said that everyone is operating that we have turned over those of documents and people have testified for many hours and so everyone is complying and cooperating but when my colleague Sarah Sanders says today time to wash russia fever are your System People are going back to the promises that were made that this presidency wont last and you find collusion and the election will be notified and we were promised that we would see those 70000 votes in three states that donald trump one is president fairly and squarely that somehow youll se that there was a serious activity in those will to be turned around somehow and you go back to what everyone was saying a year ago and its a little praised. Now that has come to pass. We do have an investigation and everyone sees it and everyone knows what is happening so sometimes i guess we get details that maybe shouldnt be made public from whatever source is, i dontly know, but the fact ise are fully cooperating as white house in the president s attorneys, his personal attorneys, said hes fully cooperating. He is also said he looks forward to coming to an end. In the meantime were cooperating. There is inherent risk for anyone in talking to the fbi. In recounting details and especially for the president of the United States where a lot has happened and to be able to recall all of that he doesnt know what other people have been telling muller and his interviews with him. Is there not concerned at all about whether he could be caught up somehow in intentional saying something not true . You are asking me questions for his counselor. His counselor is happy to wake up every morning and see more americans benefit directly from legislation and to a be frank wh you, phil, in the span of onect for months i dont understand why and someone can ask former Speaker Pelosi when shes here but i dont understand why the democrats voted against max tax cut that is benefiting their constituents now. I dont know why they voted to shut the government down. These are the kind of things i were gone and i dont understand it and maybe someone will ask iy i dont know what the strategy is other to say that its we want to stop the president who is saying he wants to work across the aisle with you on immigration and work with you on and structure and other big piece of the president of the union tomorrow where he will talk about he is a builder. Want to rebuild this nation but you do that in a bipartisan fashion you do that by saying roads and bridges and are of the structure in our technology and these are the fact that we dont make anything more or billed as a countrytu is a major big publc works projects. That is bipartisan and the air Traffic Control system is designed for time when we had roughly 100,000 passengers a year and we now close to 1 billion. I dont know what is partisan about that but the idea that the president will commit to investing at least for 20 and in the structure and bring the permitting process from eightten years to about two is you get to comment publicly and you can criticize the proposal that you dont have ten or 20 years to do it. Will get to the democrats in the second but i want to pick up one thing on russia before weti change topics such as that reports over the weekend first New York Times confirmed by the post and fox and others are that person trump ordered the white House Counsel to fire muller as a special counsel back last summer in june. You are number of white house Officials Say he has never contemplated that including you on august 6 and im wondering how we should make sense of that when the president talks about firing muller. Is that an order or directive or him talking and what to make of that and how to swear everything. That has never been discussed with me is what im trying to say on tv. Its really been discussed in i believe mr. Coppola said publicly that thats never been discussed since he was there. You have to look at his exact quote. He just got the job in general kelly. Much arrived on the same day or so week and he may have missed it as he got there too but in any event that has never been im not aware of this discussion but i am and i would like to point out that when interviews like that are played and we show the president many times saying im not thought of doing that it is never used to refute the allegations in the news its always used to show well, look at that, it must not have been true. And by the way, the Washington Post reporting that it was a different in the new yorkwa times reporting in terms of their work couple of keystrokes there and will have to assess as i said, main point is mr. Muller is there a he is investigating hes been doing that since may and we are now practically in february and the white house is fully cooperating and we respect the process. I want to talk about the midterms coming up. One of the roles he plays is the president into the political strategy or Campaign Manager and we will hear from nancy pelosi would like to take back the house and feels bullish that the democrats will do that. The question for you is what are the odds the democrats can take back the house and what do youai and what does your party need to do in the next ten months or so to prevent that from happening. Sure. Phil, obstruct, resist, hold up a subsite, Donald Trumps bad as a Campaign Strategy that failed in 2016 and its not necessarily the best strategy for any election. At the same time were well aware of the historical trends. Were well aware that the party in power particularly in light has power to suffered grievous losses in off year elections in firstterm election. Certainly bill clinton did in 1994, Steven Gingrich came in and house and senate and at that time and same thing happened and president obama in 2010. Both of those gentlemen, president clinton and president f obama suffered losses in the house and senate but that were successfully reelected. What i think is different this time. Two things. Eyes are wide open about the historical trends and wanting is different if you look at 1994 and you look at 2010 which i think we can all remember is at that point were trying to runth and justified their vote for the Affordable Care act otherwise known as obamacare in a time when people were getting nervous about it. They were worried about keeping their healthcare and keeping about their doctor to keep the plan they were promised it wasnt true in they were worried about the loss of benefits and loss of hours and of course the reduction in quality and access and they started to hear more about it in and longer to pass the Affordable Care act and was originally planned. You members in the house voted for it and trying to defend that vote. This is different because the centerpiece of the domestic agenda was a tax cut so the republicans who voted for it assumed will be out there saying i voted for a tax credit that now means apple is bringing 20000 jobs to the us is repatriating billions of dollars of wealth and look at the 274 companies and counting that have made direct investment because of the tax cuts i voted for. That is benefiting members in my particular state. I thought recently the generic ballot had been cut in half and that will go back and forth over time. It always does. I think that knowing what the headwinds are for the party in power and when you think about how these members will run on something and defending something or crowing about something and bragging about something they think benefits their constituents in the that plus this regulatory framework, having been improved, you see, you see everybody from the franchisees to Small Business formation to larger employers and job seekers feeling bullish. The confidence numbers are up an appointment is down and those metrics matter to folks. Manufacturing confidence is up and jobs are being created. Those are big numbers and people know the 401ks are fatter and the 529 education have been expanded to the tax bill and been able to responsibly develop our own Energy Resources in alaska which has been attempted for 40 years so there are Different Things people will see over time that will be helpful. The other thing that is wildcard, two things frankly, one is continuing to ask you several weeks ago we continue to date we have retired another House Republican from new jersey and no one knows where these retirements willly end. There seems to be an awful lot of them. That is something. The other thing is everyone knows about the october surprise which seems to me in this fraudo environment where there could be election day surprises for people, folks for being called out, right, left and center for their behavior and terrible behavior and allegations of behavior fnm and worse by a curt and former staffers and whatnot so in both parties that the wild card that we no one can anticipate and picked at this time. That gets to what i wanted to ask next which is what is your assessment of the Metoo Movement and what impact do you think this will have ten months from nowis politically . The democrats think it will work in their favor and result in more and more women voters turning against this president and against the Republican Party to elect democrats to office but i assume you might have a different view of that. What do you make of that movement and the political power . Anytime people feel powerless or inferior to a superior who is treating them poorly, particularly certainly in this case in a sexual way, that is a very positive thing. I talked about it for years. Ive been treated that way myself. Or. There were a slew of allegations and revelations about harvey weinstein. What have to say that was the centerpiece of it at the beginning. I dont want to inflate three or four or five things into one answer, but at the same time, i think we have to have a larger conversation about the workplace environment. It does seem to me that the me too movement cannot be based on a womans political belief or that whether shes in media or hollywood or professional sports or if shes a conservative, it simply cant happen. I dont feel comfortableer explaining to my three daughters, and my son, that it depends on who the victim is and where she worked or what she wears or what her politics are. That would really be a terrible message to send, particularly to our youth. I hope you have a larger conversation about respect in the workplace and the workforce, but so far i dont see that. If the women in this room on a tell me that they want their daughters to be treated the way some of the women at the white house are treated, im listening, but i highly doubt it. We are out of time. I am 51 years old and ive definitely been on the receiving end of that, especially when i was younger and prettier. Ladies, if youre listening, everything of time happen to me, i was afraid and ashamed like it was my fault even though it clearly wasnt, but i never looked at those men, i dont want you to look at them as powerful and intimidating, i want you to seeee them for who they are. They are weak and pathetic. Dont say you cant report it because no one will listen. They are weak and pathetic. That is the message i want to send to everyone. Thank you kelly m. I just want to get one thing on the record as we walk out and thats that the super bowl is this sunday and your Philadelphia Eagles are up against the new england patriots. President trump is a big patriots fan. Are you going to watch the game with him . He has a great deal of respect for the owner of the patriots, hes a wonderful human being and a Great Success story. We were happy to have the patriots at the white house in 2017, but theres no reason they need to come back again. The more americans that can visit, the better, especially if they are wearing green and white. Now im being partisan. Lifelong eagles fan, very excited. Whoever wrote the story that nick folds is all of us now, youre right. Just when you think you your career is over you get called back up and great things happen. The super bowl is a great night and its one that bringns america together and we eat too much and stay up too late and its a fun time. Go big green. Go eagles. Kellyanne conway, thank you for being here. Next will be interviewing nancy pelosi, the Democratic House leader. Thank you. [applause] [applause] good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. We are thrilled to have House Democratic leader nancy pelosi as our guest, who is also the one and only woman to havean served as the speaker of the house which makes her quite literally the most powerful woman in american history. In politics, anyway. And she would like that job back again this year. Before we get started, i want to remind you, the audience in the room and those of you watching online, if you have any questions or comments, host live and i will try to get a few in the interview. First i would like to talk to about our topic which is the state of the Union Address. We know the president is going to be talking a lot about immigration, he put out a framework of a deal that he would like to see last friday. It involves expanding the number of dreamers who would get protection and includes money for the wall and some pretty radical restrictions on legal immigration. He has sweeteners in there for the left and sweeteners for the right, is there a deal to be had . Especially a deal to be had in time to protect these seven or 800,000 young immigrants who are looking at a pretty steep deadline in february. Of course there has to be a deal to be had, and agreement to be reached. One of the republican members who has a bill described it this morning, lets discreetly deal with the dreamers and some security and if we want to go to the other subject of comprehensive Immigration Reform and all that entails, thats a bigger subject that takes more time. For right now, if you really do care about the dreamers, there is an agreement to be reached. It has been presented in seems like the president is right there, and then hes not. Its really discouraging because what he put forth in the framework is really not in keeping with what immigration has meant to america. We are a country of immigrants unless we were blessed to be born as native americans and bless our country for their contribution to our success but immigration has been a constant reinvigoration of america. Everyone who comes here with hopes and aspirations to make life better for their children and families ascribe to whatth our settlers had in mind that every generation would take the opportunity to make the future better for theirfa families and therefore for our country. When they come with that hope, determination, courage and optimism to make the country better, immigration makes america more american. Thats not what happens in the president s bill. Have democrats come around to the idea that the president can get some money for his wall . We are talking about Border Security. What is that . In other words, we all have a responsibility to protect our borders. Every country must do that and that means north and south, in our case and coming in other ways but especially the two physical borders. We had been receptive to saying what is it that the Border Patrol has as their wish list or suggestions to meet their needs and thats actually what wey have in some of our legislation. That is commensurate and appropriate to the number of people we are trying to protect. Another bill, when there was a bipartisan bill in the senate that was agreed to, it had more money for border but it also gave a path to citizenship for 11 Million People in our country. This is a much smaller number. So wall money is not a deal breaker . What do you mean . Do you mean mowing the grass where people come through unsuspected . Theres many things about borderer security. A 2000mile wall that cost 25 billion which by the way, the mexicans are not paying for, and by the way, if you know anything about the region, its a community with the border going through it. Families go back and forth, school, people buy the groceries, they visit family and friends. To put a wall there, in my view, is too expensive, almost in moral. One area that a lot of people think there is potential for bipartisan agreement is on infrastructure. The president has talked about sums of money but he really hasnt put a lot of detail into what he would like to see. E. What will you listen for tomorrow night . The president has always talked about infrastructure but its also just been a moving target. We had thought when he talked about infrastructure in the first meeting we had in a bipartisan way with the president of the United States a few days after his inauguration was that a trillion dollars to be invested into infrastructure. What theyve come up now is this mini plan which is 200 billion over ten years, it doesnt even come close to what we need. We have trillions of dollars according to the society of Civil Engineers in the trillions of dollars of deficits. Think would would mean if we made a real commitment. If we put that to build a road, mass transit, Water Systems, broadband, highspeed rail. Some of our Water Systems really need to be replaced. With all of that School Construction it could help grow the economy all over the country. Create good paying jobs and the care and feeding goes with the jobs that are out there so would also stimulate the economy in many other ways. T it would sustain commerce and improve the quality of life in terms of the investment in infrastructure. The president s proposal meets none of those standards. A put some of the burden on states and cities and municipalities which has just slapped in the face of the state and local tax reduction so he saying youre going to get less resources and you have to raise taxes if you think youre going to get some collaboration. By the way, some of the money youve already put up for infrastructure, thats not going to be counted in all of this. So its a really bad deal for state and local government. Instead of american bonds where state and local government takeover. One other part of it thats a problem, and i pointed this out to the president is that you cannot expect to put forth a mini program that subsidizesbu the private sector to buildan the infrastructure, now weve guaranteed their loan and now theyre going to build it, own it, and charge toll so the taxpayer is paying twice. Yes, there is a way to do this, infrastructure has really never been a source of partisan disagreement. Weve always found our wayme because everyone knows this is important to our country. Really, to promote commerce, to improve the quality of life, to move product to and from market especially where time is important, we really need to do this and weve always understood it, and now theyre coming up, this is another example, as a tax bill , ill give you this little thing while we do this other problematic stuff but youll be attracted to the fact that we have this little goody in there for you. A little goody in the tax bill , a little statement about infrastructure while most of it is really, this isnt what the role of federal government g is in terms of infrastructure in our country. President eisenhower recognized it as a National Security issue. The interstate highway system as a National Security issueve connecting us, and then again on immigration and we will give them citizenship in tenty or 12 years but at the same time will upset the rest of our immigration. Just a little teaser and a big problem. Its the three eyes, immigration, infrastructure. In california, on st. Patricks day we always had the three eyes day. The italians, the irish and to think that we might do that right now with infrastructure, the problem with intelligence. Is seriously undermining our country. I would like to ask about that because between your time on the Intelligence Committee and your years as leader where you have been read into everyon crucial intelligence question, i dont theres anybody in congress who has had as many years of dealing with highly sensitive intelligence issues as you have. What are the implications and ramifications Going Forward of what we have seen between the executive and the intelligence community. Its not between the intelligence immunity. What is happening now is that massive politicization of intelligence. What is happening right now is that the chairman, let me put this in context, i have served longer than anybody in history and i dont know if anybody will catch up with me because i started in the early 90s and then i had the ranking position, im so proud of adam shift, and isnt he doing a beautiful job in his role. Im very proud of all of the members. The speaker and the leader have the privilege and responsibility to deputize, to name who is on the Intelligence Committee. Its not a question of the steering and policy committeeke making proposals to the caucus, it is a personal appointment. The chairman, ranking member, the speaker, the leader as well as the members of the committee. I think we have tried over the years to honor the fact that this is about our security. When i was there first it was mostly about force protection. It still is, how to protect our forces to avoid conflict and all kinds of multinational issues including terrorism. To this is a serious responsibility. The speaker is politicizing the process and really, it should not be happening. For example, hes talking about releasing a document that is predicated on another document that was put together on the basis of total misrepresentation. Let me do a terrible document, now let me write a report on it and release it. Now as you said, i have seen most of the underlying documents of all of this and i can tell you that the memo that they referenced as a misrepresentation. I can talk about whats in it, i can just say the underlying documents that i have seen of this document that the republican staff alone, welk usually do things bipartisan put together a false, misleading, misrepresenting another doing a memo on top of it and so its like the wrap up smear. This is bad, never going to tell you about it and now are going to release it which is highly unusual. I hope tonight they dont vote to release it, but if they do, then we will have, the ranking member, adam schiff has said there will be an attempt to mitigate the damage that they are doing putting out there. Un we would rather not any of it go out, but the president hasou said, do you think hes read the underlying documents or even the memo or the memo on the memo that theyre going to put that out. I mean really, this is about protecting sources and methods in about the integrity of our intelligence. It should never be politicized and thats what theyre doing and then its a stooge for the white house to do all of this. Since we are spending time together i thought wean wouldnt waste any of it with niceties. You mention the vote thats coming up and how spread theres also a vote coming up in the senate on an abortion bill. It would specifically outlaw abortion after 20 weeks. What is Mitch Mcconnell trying to do . Its a procedural vote. Its not a vote on the underlying bill. I think hes up to practicing medicine which, as far as i know, he has no credentials, however this is saying to doctors what they can or cannot do and what is legal if they do. This is about the health and wellbeing of the mother. We shouldnt be going down this path, but its a bone they throw to their base, and its sad because i grant people their position on where they are, i come from italianamerican, catholic family, a little more conservative in their views and i think theyre coming around, but nonetheless, to go into Something Like this, if somebody is doing something wrong right now, they go to jail. This bill, in effect, has no affect except its a show about. I would like to turn to my favorite subject and i suspect one of your favorite subjects which is the midterms which are looking pretty good for democrats. Its always difficult for the white house the first goround in the midterm. You have a historically unpopular president and right now the generic ballot of wood you rather see a democrat or republican in your seat, the real clear politics average on that pole has democrats up by eight in the house. It looks like you are in pretty good shape. My question is, what keeps nancy pelosi up at night. Eating too much chocolate during the day. [laughter] the tax bill is really the dark cloud that hangs over the capital. The fact that the republicans rushed through this tax bill, trillions of dollars of impact on our economy with no hearings or expert advice as to what the impact will be on our future. A bill that is 83 of benefits going to the top 1 , middleclass families will be paying more in taxes as a result of this bill on nearly a trillion dollar tax break, unpaid for and permanent adding nearly 2 trillion to the National Debt when you put interest on the debt and again, robbing from our childrens future and using it as an excuse to then say wellt, i cant spend too much money on the domestic budget because we have this budge deficit. Its a deficit they created. By the way they say it will pay for a itself and then we have money for domestic budget. If it isnt and you shouldnt of done in the first place. That is coloring our negotiations on the cap, but for that, i thought we were close toto a solution that the tax bill has put a little fear of the lord and to some because they know we have a cap agreement and it will increase the deficit, then National Debt. Of gun to be pretty predictable that in midterm elections youll see a lot of yourself on television and weve already seen one in pennsylvania quite recently and one of the arguments they are making is taking issue of your use of the word crumbs to describe them money that the average household gets in their pocket from this bill. I noticed you just use the word goodies instead of crumbs. Its not a question of a thousand dollars. Its a question of the. Billions of dollars that they have put for the top 1 . I dont begrudge anyone their success or their wealth or their achievement, but i saw cartoon, the cartoons always have it. Its a middleclass with ae piece of cheese on the mousetrap and then the fat cat is just waiting for them. This is unconscionable that they would have 83 of the benefits going to the top 1 . Iats my point, its not whatt it is, its what it isnt and what it is for the banquet of money, the extraction of money , but trying to sell it as something that you should be so glad to get. No. Our people deserve better and we couldve had a bipartisan discussion on taxes but they didnt want to engage in that because they were afraid of it. It would give more benefit to many more people and that was not their goal. Their goal was trickledown economics. If it trickles down that would be good. If it creates jobs, that would be good. If it doesnt so be it, thats the free market. Thats what they tell us. What is going to be critical for you in your selection. Our having the right kind off candidates and the right kind of district and youve got 23 districts out there were you have a republican incumbent member of congress in a district that Hillary Clinton one. You want to talk politics, okay. First let me get to your first point, yes they always like too, im so proud come from San Francisco and im so tired of our San Francisco values but thatar seems to be what they like to do with cable car and lgbt and thats how they put us all forward. I saw the play and they sang make me a channel of your peace. Thats the and some of our city of San Francisco. Its the song of st. Francis, our patron saint and yet they want to characterize my city in a certain way and identify candidate with me, and we are really proud of who we are. Some of these candidates, ive never met. Its really important for these candidates to come from their communities as this candidate did in pennsylvania. But it is important because your title and your Job Description are the same. Youre not representing my district and im not representing yours. Job description, representative, title so your point was exactly right. There has to be a connection between the candidate and the districts and the districts that make those decisions. History is on our side in terms of if the presence numbers go below 50 its a bad year. The next year will be bad. I would say, tell me where the president is the november before the election and ill tell you if the doors open for us if the president s under 50, well lets say the republicans, but when clinton was president his numbers went down and they won. When bush numbers went down, we won. Its not dispositive of the election and many other things going on and you have to be strategic, coldblooded in terms of your decisions as to where you allocate s your resources, but you never underestimate your opponent. Dont overestimate them either. Right now i had never seen, in all my years in politics more enthusiasm at the Grassroots Level wanting to take responsibility to run for office and a support friends, that taking responsibility gets us opportunity. So this nine and a half months or ten and a half months or whatever it is, its not today. If ite were today i think overwhelmingly we would win. Its not today. We do have to make sure we have truth and we say to each other, this is about authenticity so the candidates go out and theyre not running against donald trump, theyre presenting themselves what their purposes for being a candidate and why they woulde want to go to congress and what theyy know about the subject and judgment they have and how they think strategically to get the job done and how that attracts people to them. This is personal between the members and the candidates in the district. It has nothing to do with someone who is not from their area. And youre not a big fan, as much as you have this reputation of this liberal, youre not a big fan of litmus tests whether its for Democratic Candidates or issues on i abortion or getting people to declarepe whether they would vote for impeachment of President Trump. Are you concerned, you have all these potential 2020 president ial candidates out there and they do seem to be speaking up on the single payers and other issues that look like it could be becoming a litmus test. Is 2020 and where the party is on some of those issues a problem for some of your 2018 candidates . No. It certainly something that should be reviewed, but heres the thing. Our party is a democratic party. It has a lot of vitality, diversity and the rest. As i said earlier, its not for us to say you should be the candidate and this is what you should do, its about what they can attract. I get credit for keeping the party unified, i dont. I dont deserve the credit. What unifies the house is our unity about the Economic Security of americas working families. Whatever differences we may have on tactics that people may want to take, we are unified that that isy our value system. About respecting ouret responsibility to meet the needs of the American People, americans working family, and to do so in a way that make sure people all participate in the prosperity and growth of our country and also, i think my responsibility as a leader is to be unifying, but not just in my caucus but in the country and to be transparent, have transparency and openness. Lets do a tax bill. Lets do an immigration bill, lets do it openly so people can see what the choices are, and then also, issues like impeachment and the rest, that will take its course but its not a unifying thing for the country to go down a path at this point, in my view. Overwhelmingly, i think a lot of people in the public have a different view and if i were out there i might to what i have a different responsibility here. Transparency, unity, bipartisanship, thats why we come here. We dont come here to do party work, we wsi come here to honor the values of our country and the solutions you choose when you have some options to bring people together. So jack on twitter asked, if you get that gavel back next january, what is your top parity . First of all is not about me getting the gavel back. I just want the democrats to have the gavel back and the American People to have a back instead of what motivates people to do a tax cut. Who motivated that . They shouldnt have this gavel. Its not about me. Right away we would do something to lift up the American People in terms of their Financial Stability and financial security, and part of that is their access to quality affordable healthcare. Its a right, not a privilege. Some of it is to have a fair tax agenda so they can participate in creating growth. You will not have growth in the economy unless you have Consumer Confidence across the board and those who aspire to it would be an agenda that we are putting together in our better deal, better jobs, a Job Initiative that creates growth and generates good paying jobs and increases the paycheck and lowers the cost of prescription drugs, lowers the cost of your communications and the rest. It would be about jobs and s growth. We have time for one last question. One thing we are seeing this years extraordinary numbers of women stepping up to run for office ate every level. I think last i looked there were Something Like 75 women whose name where the mix running for governor. When women run for office, they have a different set of challenges. What would your advice be two women candidates as they step into this arena . My advice would be what it has always been which is, when i came to congress, 23 women, 435 members in the house, 23 women and i was determined from that day that we would have a priority to elect more women on the democratic side, republicans up to maybe 20, but we made a decision, one third of our caucus is women and lgbt, im very proud of that history. Heres the thing. The best advice i gotot when i iran for office, be yourself. Know your power, be who you are. See other people and you think i could be this or that. Forget that. Authenticity is what matters. Your sincerity as to why. Share your purpose. Why are you running . E, know something about your subject. Is it about climate for education or a womans right to choose her health issues, whatever it happens to be, know your subject. Show your vision so your judgment is respected. Think strategically. This is how i think i can get something done. If you show your vision and your knowledge and your plan, you will attract. You have to connect. Thats why i say show them what is in your heart. Its hard. This is not for the faint of heart. Women are so needed and so when youre making the decision, weighing the equities and how important it is that you make this decision to run because nothing is more wholesome for our political process, for any aspect of her economic and social life that increased participation and leadership of women. Thats all the time we have today, but that is a great note and leader pelosi, thank you so much for being with us today. Im going to hand things off to my colleague who is going to lead the next discussion. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i hope you know ive got the questions in advance and my major i share them. I asked for them, she wouldnt give them to me. Its going to be really fun. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. Fireworks are starting already. Im windy casey, im the on air reporter at the Washington Post and were thrilled to have this panel to talk about medications in the trump era. Let me introduce my guess. Congressman eric, a democrat who is represented california in the bay area since 2013. Thanks for being here. The former press secretary under george w. Bush and he owns his own strategic medications firm. Also the former chair of the Democratic National committee. She also managed former Vice President al gores president ial campaign. It aint over till its over. Well see what happens next. And david is former Senior Advisor to the trump president ial campaign and currently serves as president of the American Continental Group in washington. Think you for being here. Before i get started, let me remind the audience that you can send usde questionsan using post live and we will get to some of those later on. We will try to keep this answer a little bit brief, what do you want to hear tonight from the president first is what you expect to hear. I hope he speaks to the millions of americans who are not yet feeling the thrust of this economy. Theres no denying the stock market is up, unemployment is at nearly full implement and n the gdp hovers around 3 but theres so many people i talked to, who i grew up with or who live in my district who couldnt whether a 500dollar emergency. A car tire going flat, washing out, someoneoing going to the emergency room. People are not seeming more. Theyre going deeper in debt. How does this tax bill help the them. Thats who he needs to talk too. We know whos benefiting but we want to know how will this help us. I want your normal. Lii want to hear. [applause] what does that mean to you. And one here president who does what president s do, unifies us and talks about bigger things that unite a country. The Trump Presidency has been such a fascinating one to watch on so many levels. He has so many accomplishments and so many good things that hes done but every time he moves the ball down the field to get a penalty flag for unnecessary roughness. The spontaneous moments that get him. In a moment like this when youre talking to 30, 40, 50 million americans, unified. Im convinced that the American People knew they were letting someone with warts and all. The American People hate washington so much, think this place is so broken fitting care and they wanted to send somebody who would get things done. They sent to disruptor. Now hes entered the face ofpr his presidency where he needs less disruption and more getting things done. They didnt elect disruption for disruptions sake, they elected disruption to get things done. He promised to come to washington d. C. , drain the swamp and to and politics as usual. He is an unusual president. I think if he gets an opportunity to tell the American People what he has accomplished over the past year, of course he will tout his tax plan which is not very popular and he will try to recast himself as a different reality tv star. Someone with knowledge about the world and brag aboutchr. His trip overseas and give us dazzling numbers to show he has made progress in jobs, the stock market, het will take credit for a lot of things but the question tomorrow night, when he finishes his speech gets back to the white house and starts tweeting, what is the lasting impression we will have . Will he still be the c dividerev into or will he come across as a commander in chief. I dont have a lot of expectations because every time he has hitcy a new milestone to reset his presidency, he has gone back into form and the question is will he returned to the donald trump the firebrand on the campaign trail in 2016 or the new president that wishes to unite the country . I get the easy part. I did the cleanup after the congressman. I think youll see an aspirational donald trump. I think it will be a shining city on the hill speech, i think the president does very well, as you recall you up to the hill and spoke to congress and had that kind of speech. It wasnt the state of the union, it was aspirational. After words most of said what ato great speech and people wanted to see him govern like that. Its already been said that the president was elected to come to d. C. To break some china and shake things up because i can tell you, the folks on the campaign trail and none too happy with the current state of play. Itsto tough to be disruptor an a uniter at the same time. Hes entering a phase in the presidency where if youre going to get anything done on daca or his incredible offer of the path to citizenship for close to 2 million folks, something i will point outir president bush, president obama, president clinton didnt even offer to do. You know its not popular amongst a great number of democrat, i must be a good bill of both parties dont like it. Think at the end of the day they will have an aspirational speech, something i think everyone will say great job. I thought tuesday about three weeks ago was the best day in his presidency. I think a lot of people thought that was who he they were electing. He was wheeling and dealing in saying you come up with something on immigration and i will sign it. You can put to good days together because about two days later we saw what he said about these african countries and the deal blew up. I still think congress can collaborate but we need somebody at the white house who will take the deals. Would you vote for the plan as it stands now. Would you support path to citizenship, solving the daca problem for a while. I would vote for increased Border Security which would include a wall but not to cut legal immigration. That was neveres on the table. What you think those 2 million folks that want to become citizens. Were not going to bring you in and then kick you out. Does he pitch this proposal. [inaudible] the Government Shutdown is likely to occur again. Theres a deadline in february and again in march for the dreamers. Colleagues on the right are just as upset about this proposal. Again, graham and durbin took him a deal. Ng he said you make the deal and ill sign it. I want to bring us back to communications for a second. As you mentioned during his joint address, he had a lot of success by theth metrics of a president ial speech staying on message and staying on the teleprompter and within the same week big news broke about his attorney general during the campaign, meeting with the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. , others recusing themselves, how longlasting is the state of the union bump and can all be destroyed wednesday morning with the wrong tweet. A its always a challenge for president s to corral the message and get everything going their way as opposed to all the various inputs you have at the white house. Something happens at domestic agencies are internationally. But the problem with President Trump is of his own making. He too often creates his own problem Going Forward. This is where i agree with that. Ithth say this as somebody out f frustration because i want them to be successful. On policy theres a lot about him that i like. In terms of the nature and the way he conducted his presidency, theres a lot i do not like. This is a big part. President s have to have that discipline to stay on message. If you have more of it he had a more successful presidency. The tim ten democrats up for reelection would be under massive pressure to vote with him. The reason they are not voting with him is because he is not very popular. If he can get his popularity up to 50 it will be a seachange in washington. We do anticipate infrastructure coming up as an issue that red state democrats would love to behind. Is also 23 members of congress that one in districts for hillary. We know theres a lot of politics. I want to talk about the light wound and the possibility of snow but theres another cloud around the presidency and thats the trump Russian Investigation. The question is will he talk about that . Of course not. Why should he. This is not nonsense. The elections over. This is not an excuse. When our democracy, once upon a time you and i would agree that if a Foreign Government intervened, we would both complain about it. So it is important for us to understand what an election coming up in less than 280 some days that we understand what issues we need to resolve because if you look at whats happening in europe, they have built a firewall against foreign aggression. What have we done . This is something the president should be concerned about because he should be concerned about. [inaudible] i would like to hear from the congressman. Do you want to hear democrats talk about russia tomorrow. Youve been very involved in some of these behindthescenes issues that the rest of us are privy too. Will congressman joe kennedy talk about it. I think what he could say is i wouldnt put together an independent Commission Just as we did after pearl harbor in september 11. I wrote the bill with thege republican support that would do that close to look at not the issue that Robert Muller is looking at but what we do to secure thell ballot box. Most americans believe russia interfered and we ought to do something make sure they dont do it again. That would have bipartisan support. Im extremely hopeful that our National Security apparatus in wording for the congress to tell them what to do. Im hoping the fbi folks have been out on their toes. Im sure the w nsa has been leaning forward and the cia has been leaning forward. If america is sitting around waiting for the congress to act, will be waiting a long time. I think a commission is a nice way to kickt the can down the road on things. We saw the leader of the fbi director Andrew Mccabe is stepping down. What you do from a communications tenpoint without news . Will that overshadow tomorrow night. Goodness now. This is such a washington story. This is washington news. We all have an fbi we can have faith in and have trust in. I do think the investigation of hillary has raised a whole lot of issues that have notgh been adequately addressed including the fact that we learned hillary was sending emails to barack obama as president and when the onlyhi report came out they took obamas name out. This seems to be a strategy of pivoting the news. And im entitled to. In terms of the medication strategy, is a something were publicans need to do . You bring it back where you try to move on. Heres why i objected to what donna said. I am all for fortifying america, and you are one 100 right, it should be underway. An attack on one party is an attack on all party but face it, a russia trump pollution is all aboutec donald trump and whether or not he cooperated with russia to hackne the d c and the emails and disseminate them. Thats what collusion is about and theres no evidence thats the case. To bring this up . I would look backward. I look forward. We have a responsibility to protect our democracy. How important is the state of the union . Is that going to make news this week . Are americans going to tune in on focus on that or they think about these issues youre bringing up. There thing about recipes for the super bowl. Most americans want to know how your ros roads will get fixed and bridges will be fixed. Thats what people want to hear about, secure borders, a path for citizenship. You can sit down and negotiate outside of politics. Unfortunately you heard minority pelosi appeared talking about it, 23 seats to pick up. I think it will be aspirational to talk about america as a shining city on the hill, how to become unified and make it better for everyone. How do you sell that. It does not see my communications were getting from the white house. Does he plan to do a road to he her . Sarah sanders, punted on that and said we will at you know of our travel plans. Is that a missed opportunity. Yes it is. That part has always perplexed me. There are certain normal things that people do because its an effective way to connect. The president style is so much through twitter and other means that only goes skin deep and hurt himself. I would love to see him go outti and meet with the people were getting these bonuses, getting the pay raise, getting the 15dollar minimum wage through the natural economy, these are the way the president can connect with people and broaden his base. Why not do this road tour. Its called message discipline. What happened next was you go out and you start selling your program. You sell your vision. This president has a hard time keeping his eyes on the prize. Part of the problem is if he goes out there, he likes to rally his base, he likes red meat, he likes to return to that fiery populace that he iran in 2016. Thats not a unifying president. When he campaigns, he divides. No president can run just on the base alone. I think you will see a pivot here with immigration. To sign a wants deal and protect the daca kids. I think thats the perception, but i believe no one sending anybody home. I think you will see everyones a deal to get done. I think the same thing on infrastructure. These are great issues because they require those ten senate democrats, senator mansion was on sunday, it sounded pretty republican to me. To support this innovation economy, we had to move people around and have a 21st century infrastructure and green energy. He said im going to invest 20 trillion in infrastructure. You know who stood up, the democrat spread he has a problem in his own base that they dont support that. Its a lesson my parentswi taught me. Dont burn a hole in your pocket with your first paycheck. The republicans have spent 2 trillion on this tax cut that now we are almost unable to fund any infrastructure changes. I want to hear from you all about accountability. When the president goes out tomorrow night and talks aboutou accomplishments, it also looks forward, here are my goals and what i aspired to do. How important is it that theres followthrough. Last year we heard him talk about building a wall, it hasnt happened yet, repealing obamacare, hasnt happened. Is the american populace watching what the president does or are they will listening to news reports and commentary reports on places like fox news who are giving them a pluses when the followthrough isnt there. I think this would be a check in balance election which seems quite simple but what americans will be looking for is where they have a congress that can collaborate with the president but i think infrastructure and immigration are two areas where you can find cohesion. Whether theyre willing to stand up and be a check on the president when he tries to follow through on the wall or the muslim ban or some of the other policies, if you will be a check and balance election. I dont mind that he hasnt followed through on the wall and quite frankly i dont mind that he hasnt followed through on summaries other hurtful policies. The numbers came as a result of meeting with leader pelosi and leader schumer. The American People, the numbers finally came out of the weeds a little bit and you saw the American People say he can work with the democrats and other people. I think he needs to spend a third of his speech not talking to his base but the mom and dad who are concerned about their job security. We want to know if the tax package will trickle down to them, andx if so will it help improve their job status, their wages, et cetera. If the president can reach that milestone maybe perhaps we willl see an improvement in his numbers. How important was followthrough with president bush. Has it changed . Is there still a level of accountability. Its always important. Support is always driven by two factors. One, i like and i believe in the president. There is a personal element, a connection element. Theyre fighting for you and you believe them. He has that with his base. The second area is his actual accomplishments. I present tax reform as one and as the year goes on i think that will resonate positively as wages are likely to rise in the economy picks up. Secondly, if you can get infrastructure and immigration done, thats a powerful three. Thats way more than his predecessors got done. That is a potential for a lot of trust and basic expansion the accomplishment. We will see what happens. The thing that looms large is that the government, we start keep the government open in a week. We have to raise the debt ceiling. There are two supplementals for emergency disaster spending and then you will g get to daca and infrastructure. There will be a great deall of fatigue in the congress and this town about spending money, cooperating, and a lot of fighting going back and forth to get those things done. I used to work on the hill many years ago, and we passed 13 spending bills every year. Subcommittee markup, full committee markup. [inaudible] i believe this government can work again like that. We go from crisis to crisis here and its become normal. days of cooperation. I believe this government can work again like that. Crisis to crisis here. Its become normal. What give you faith that can that . To im not certain. I would hope it can. Thats part of the congress go throughity to normal order. Take bills up and have hearing. Its pretty quickly Congress Needs to get. In fairness, ive been critical of president company is that things like the asphalt statements that he said i was criticizing him for that and i always will be but it works in both directions. When democrats were fused to show up in the state of the union at his inaugural event in tomorrow democrats will boycott the state of the union this is part of this destructive atmosphere of washington that Everyone Needs to stop. Lets hear from the commerce went on that. That the inauguration and i set a lunch next to Kellyanne Conway and it was a tough day. I took the first flight home. After the treatment by many republicans, after what i call the treatment of president barack obama at the state of the union i dont have faith and confidence in any member of Congress Cards to the state of the union so im going to let that go by me. But the boycotts have to stop. Im a former hill staffer enters the office and of the presidency also believe it goes two ways comes to respect and you cannott expect democrats to hold these high standards and moral standards and then when it comes to expressing ones views there are a lot of members who are offended and a lot of americans who are offended by thees president sg remarks regarding those countries. The continent of africa,a, hait, el salvador, honduras, ett cetera. Many of those members ande some of the members i know and i talked to a few them personally have decided they will not show up. Theres some willso show up tomorrow and they will show up with symbols to show that these countries, especially the continent of africa, we expect the continent. We love thef people of africa ad love haiti and love the people of el salvador in the so that as well to. Congressman, what does to this duper told how shouldsh democrats should put the results tomorrow and this is have this tradition . Im showing up and i think its a personal decision for each member. I show up because i want to be check of the president. I think thats the role of congress. I wanted to see that i am my t colleagues are there and we were to a more we can hold them accountable but you can also make a statement as donna printed out. Women will also be wearing black of the times up, me to move it. I think those statements are important and ila also dont thk we want to make news. Want to let his policy be heard and then we should respond as vigorously as we can with public sentiment after. I hear desire from all of you that the president stick to the script and the teleprompter. Does it benefit him with his space or otherwise to go rogue to throw in offthecuff remarks . Do you see from there . It makes for conversation but what does it say about the presidency and what is it do to his Political Capital . Not tomorrow night and much less so going for. Again, the Trump Success it will be successful down the road meaningful lose to congress in 18 and he knows about the election 20, its too soon to say but it will be whether he gets things done, not just disruptive to the American People to get you selected him because he thought he could and they thought a businessman could go to washington in the place of a politician and a businessman could get things done. Hes got to fill that in the promise to be a successful president. Less of thatin unnecessary roughness frederick and more normalcy is the future for trump. When that teleprompter went out one year i recall. I was there and bill clinton bill bring it to him on what. [inaudible conversations] tomorrow night the president is bringing in several americans heroes, people that we all applaud. We owe it to them because many of the people that he will honor tomorrow night and pay tribute to our people that we admire and that have inspired us their bravery. I would hope that again this is a night full of americans is the president of the United States and give him an opportunity to make his case to the American People and the next day as many of us know we will dissect the speech and point out his shortcomings. I want to say one thing. The resistance is growing. In large part because of donald trump. Tomorrow nightse for those who e still appalled at the election of President Trump they will get an opportunity to also go out there and n speak out and i want to make sure people understand their millions of our fellow citizens who do not vote for th president would been waiting for the president and they have grown increasingly frustrated with this president and his policies and i expect they will also have a say when his speech is over with. With the democratic strategy is their benefit to the president turning something controversial the next day and going off i look forward to it. [laughter] i know you said hes not a midnight and maybe its the morning time that i wake up butw it looks as though he puts his ideas together the night before and in the morning he goes i look forward to those. Do look forward to the or is there a difference between the political strategy versus what it means to be a functioning congress and a functioning government. It brings anxiety for everyday people. I represent the district on theb west coast and we dont think it is funny or something you should be loose with to poke someone who is there weapons in the eye unless you have a strategy behind it. If there was a strategy to dealing with north korea and this was a tactic of that i may be to w go along with it but no one believes this is part of an overall strategy and this is bringing uss closer to being attacked unnecessarily. Although i will say for the first time in north korea the south korean are talking at the table going to the mix in this president has the luxury of kicking the can down the road. And we should welcome that. You might want to give him a pass on. I tell you one area will talk about by the end we can that is how many people view the state of the union and im sure the president will tell his numbers so im looking at george w. Bush has the record at 60 million followed by barack obama following the tragedy of 911 president obama his first year in office so we will see where the president will line up with the numbers game as well. Since were going to super bowl week and we have to will that be a reflection of. Zero sanders patrick. We will remember the last time theres a press briefing about numbers. Yes,ef yes. Is a reflection of the current presidency or as a reflection of state of the union and the media environment right now . If the numbers are low and americans dont tune in is that has stateir of the union t diminished in its importance with the modern era of constant medication . The state of the Union Remains an essential feature of our democracy and it really is a time for people to tune in and see with their own eyes what the president does and says even though it is scripted and on a teleprompter. The stagecraft of government remains important. These National Rituals are made important and the one of the few things that the united should unite us and we should watch. I always watch obama and i hope people watch donald trump. Despite instagram and snapchat and other forms young people perceive their news. I will never forget back in 1981 i made to myself [inaudible] [laughter] when i was in college we are actually friends. But you know mr. Speaker, the president of the United States and i was so happy and during Ronald Reagans pregnancy and during george w. Bush and George Herbert walker bush it is so american and its essential and i look forward to seeing the president and i continue to pray for the president and my grandmother told us where kids that prayers for john f. Kennedy and i look forward to it and the next day i look forward to commenting. We have to leave it there. You so much for the panel. We appreciate your time. [applause] i would like to hand thingso o now to my colleague who will be doing our last panel of the day. Thank you so much everybody. Good afternoon. Is this on there it is. Good afternoon everybody. This is a great crowd. Ladies and gentlemen at okeefe of the Washington Post, cover congress. I spent a lot of time with thesi two, our next guest. Well, dont normally get pancakes in the halls of congress but we will hear today. Thank you both for being here. Sally, republican of her [inaudible] and angus king, independent from maine caucuses of the democrats. Both of you, great to join us here. We wanted to talk about the state of the union in one thing we learned from your waiting backstage they may have to return the tickets because they have been misspelled. It says that the president is delivering the state of the union on. You and i on. They may have to order a reprint tonight. Those could become valuable someday. Further proof that Everyone Needs an editor. [laughter] we know that here the Washington Post sure and certainly they have learned thav now. Pleased to wrap up our state of the union with senator and you can join the conversation beyond the here or here in the room and send us your questions post live in will try to get some of those a little later. I wanted to start senator king with something you said and of all places instagram last week. This is great photo of you and senator jones sitting at the airport. Looking tired. And you said that last week marked as much Bipartisan Energy and concentration as ive seen in the past five years. Why is that and why that happy now . In part because the daca issue has important aspects of both sides and theres a genuine energy toward getting something done. Ow it started during the pre shutdown with this commonsense caucus in Susan Collins office which started back in 13. There were about one dozen of us and this time there were 15 or 20 in the last meeting we had and by the way theres another one tonight at 6 00, there were 35 senators. Everyone wants to be a moderate all ofer a sudden its kind of cool. Or its an election year. [laughter] and a lot of the work we did ended up pressuring the leaders to get the shutdown over with and now were trying to carry that over into the immigration. I want to ask about those meetings. Curious if you agree, this seems to be a moment of cooperation that perhaps we have not seen in last years. I think so. I think in addition to wanting to get things done i think theres a realization rather quickly over the last week or so that a Government Shutdown is a misery journey on any side and it doesnt serve the public and it doesnt serve us as policymakers and so i think theres a realization that on both sides that this is a miserable exercise we are in and try to get out of it. It has been rather partisan and certainly a request year in years past i know everyone, the leader, leader mcconnell and others have said there will be attempts at trying to bridge the divide in working together. Beyond immigration which is a more immediate concern where you to think there are possibilities or potential for cooperation across the aisle . Ig i personally think if a structure has great promise. We dont know the pay for and the detailed structures of it but all of our states have a huge interest in modernizing our transportation system. We have in my state thousands of bridges that we need repaired and we also angus and i worked on Rural Broadband issues together. Thats a huge one. Thats a huge for a lot of us and even states that have like new york, for instance, work with senator Angela Brandt on a Rural Broadband issues you dont assume just because it shes in new york that she doesnt have the same issues. With that as a rallying cry i think we could possibly do that. If a structure has traditionally been bipartisan and i thank you carry that off. I think opioid is another one of the greatest Public Health crisis in my state and my history that i can ever heard of. Your state is one of the toughest and this cuts across parties and this isnt really a partisan issue. Rural states need to be affected more by it but that is an area. You can watch for this discussion online at cspan. Org. The senate gaveling in working on the nomination to the circuit court, a confirmation about coming up shortly. Vote