The initial reaction is i didnt want to do it because what else can we write about that everybody doesnt know already . So i said take the research and go look it over and tell me what you think so the book was the narrative and it is a prologue over the next year so in the sense if you look at the coverage of donald trump you will see who has dominated coverage of any man in history and the worst coverage of any man in history. And as a series of studies but qualitative not just in the percent of negative coverage but when you put that all to gather and its stunning to see what is happened i think we have heard so much of it we just dont listen anymore. But if you look at this coverage, you will see the degree to which the media change in the biggest take away is this is an attempt to destroy a president and to nullify the process but at the end of the day many of the Media Outlets will destroy themselves. You mention that in the first chapter that that only did he understand the media on the common media hellbent on his election and to destroy the presidency so he went to war after they try to destroy instead so those are very powerful words that they are trying to destroy themselves in what way quick. That credibility is everything for the news media if you dont have that you are nothing other than the National Enquirer if you dont have credibility people will not watch you anymore or look at you for the truth. Look at the numbers of the networks. They are crashing. The most telling numbers would be cnn once that was a Gold Standard if you go back 25 years ago with bernie shaw who was the anchor sure had a liberal bias but you could work with it you can sit down and have a frank conversation and they would chase the story even ted turner could that was cnn then but today clearly once no conservative and is on a mission against donald trump and the audience clearly is leaving the last time i checked 500 in a nation of 571,000 on a good night so to put that into perspective two tenths of 1 percent of the American Population and to put that in its proper perspective more people own pet chickens and watch cnn. [laughter] so what about digital numbers like social media . We will go there in the second. And you are right and theres also more prostitutes in america than viewers of cnn so does that mean cnn is completely irrelevant . Know they go to cnn. Com. That has about 20 Million People so whats the difference you get a lot more news on cnn. Com then on cnn is like cbs. Com is quite good but cbs is not. Fox has 26 million on fox. Com so if you want to get your story out fox news is nice but foxnews. Com is the place to go cnn. Com the word that comes through the institution of cnn that what you watch in the dennis Office People are not watching that. Host in terms of another quote from the book that looks like he was itching for a fight with the media had donald trump and put the entire profession on trial in the court of Public Opinion and did that by entering the two words i now have become part of the political lexicon is fake news how do you define fake news . We discussed the in the book because it has to be explained. There are Different Levels of media bias. The distortion the twisting of a story to bend to the political view of the author you can have two kinds of bias and not where you move things with the people the labeling there is all different ways that theres also omission which is just the opposite which is the refusal to write a story and to label people to get the other side of the story of a complete headline and the proper conclusion so then the second level is false news that somebody reports unknowingly now often times this is a reflection of poor journalism that two independent sources or you dont have a new story now they just rush to come out with anything they can to be the first kid on the block with a story which makes for bad journalism. But fake news is the publishing of stories that you know are not true. You know that they could be absolutely untrue but that is fake news and that is a harsh, harsh indictment on the industry. I will give you a micro and a macro. Brian ross from abc wrote a story about how trump had sent mike flynn to russia to talk to the russians. Candidate trump. Stop beating me to the punch. [laughter] National Security advisor. Im sorry. Candidate trump. And that meant collusion. That meant the stock market dropped 300 points and this was serious guacamole. Host that is normal protocol during the transition. That is exactly what he had done. The others had resigned. Host he has been the most Senior Investigative officer for abc. For years and years yes we might disagree here and there but he was central casting with investigative reporting but now this entire russia collusion story has been one big exercise of fake news. I dont care what you think trump doesnt care what anybody thinks about trump but from day one he said there is not one scintilla from day number one no one ever no reporter or politician no legal outfit, no one ever delivered one scintilla of evidence for to publish a report just under 20 percent of all new story since trump was president dealt with russia collusion. All of these on unemployment on taxes and spending all of the stories on foreignpolicy on russia and china and iran all of those on politics but yet 20 percent of all new stories did not exist. So bob mueller came out within his report he said there is nothing. There is nothing there. The real question is what in the world is going on with our government . Those that are attempting to defeat donald trump to his presidency theres a much bigger issue so lets see if they will investigate. There are a couple of others nobody is looking at this but i think it will change because the attorney general is investigating it so now we will see what happens when the media has to cover that. Host its interesting because now they are reporting about the average voter and how they feel about the mueller report. They dont know or they dont care. And literally 0 percent so why is there a disconnect. Because the media are not covering it is very subjective. And half of that dealt with the base for what is news and news is what the editor says it is in on the second half what is news . This is what the producer says it is. So cnn and company wanted it to be news that this was collusion and bob waller what bob mueller would give the report is like Climate Change that is another one that is a top shelf can turn on concern but cnn it is Climate Change they have been terrible about this but if you look at the Public Perception i dont care at the bottom of the pile they could say is not our business to give the public what they want but to give them the news and i will accept that but by the same token after all the stories with the public is saying youre not giving me anything moving my opinion at all. Host as a guest on cnn but the anchors are contributors will say that there was nothing here no indictments were produced from this. We know more to the extent of rush interfering in our process so that investigation was worthwhile so to say fake news is disingenuous so many welcome the Mueller Investigation to clear the president. The answer would be yes with every single indictment dealt about involving someone doing with donald trump the central investigation the Trump Campaign did they collude with the russians . The bottom line is now and there was no evidence at all the other stuff that had nothing to do with that other than those 13 russians we will never know who they are because they were indicted but one question that was raised that we thought was interesting who tipped off cnn on that outrageous raid on roger stones home . Whether he is or was innocent or guilty but the fact that this almost 70 old man with this landing on his house at 6 00 oclock in the morning and cnn was tagging along. They said there was no leak. Of course there was a leak. I would like to know letting them tag along that was really out of balance and should be investigated. So you make the argument of republican versus democrats and one argument is how the press treated ken starr versus bob mueller so do you think the testimony has happened now the press will turn on bob mueller quick. They did already. Its interesting he came out with a press conference and said that donald trump is innocent on the collusion charge. There is between 12 or 24 hours of stunned silence by the news media who did not know what to do they all expected that he would come out with something serious against the president. With them being the democrats like jerry nadler and company to say this aint over yet we will investigate because the 16 lawyers and all the three euros and dollars they did not do their job so we will. So basically they threw him under the bus after saying he was honorable now he is useless and eloquent testimony the congressional testimony that so we will get to the bottom of what was happening it was mueller 2. 0 with a man looking very frail and unsure of himself and unprepared this backfired tremendously 12 hours of stunned silence and they say who are those republicans and then they go right back so it is interesting how it is repeating itself. Host and the low level of trust something that you talked about with barack obama and his coverage to say that the senator obama and that he has such great publicity all his life one friend joked to me this morning he is throwing his halo into the ring. So to what extent do you think the victory of donald trump who certainly is incredibly antiestablishment carrying the institution of media where do you think of the presidency and the coverage of him contributed to the rise of donald trump quick. I think barack obama triggered trump in the sense that he was an outsider i have said for years a republican businessman will run for president for years i have said that and in a way allow that to happen because obama was an outsider in his own right and was not an establishment figure so the country is getting use to outside figures. However it is also one of the three reasons why there is such hostility to donald trump. Donald trump announced from the getgo and stated it was his intention to undo what barack obama had done talk about the transformation of america and donald trump said we will undo that. And went through a hole in any of issues. And those god guns and religion. And trump with those evangelicals. And you reference the catholic faith in poland so that evangelical how the Obama Presidency treated them. I think the evangelicals decided they will put their faith in a very flawed human being and a flawed human being who would say to them, i am flawed and it will continue to be flawed but i will deliver on what i promise and first was abortion and here is interesting that people may not realize this but donald trump is the most prolife president in history virgo who wouldve thought that . He is the first president ial candidate ever. Ever. To promise a prolife Supreme Court justice nobody has ever done that before. Host i was surprised that that may be Ronald Reagan or bush. Nobody constructionist or originalist nobody has ever said that he said and every speech and then gave a list of 20 of the potential justices. So that really registered and then what did he do he sent his Vice President and said this is something republicans dont do he put justice corset should we will soon just as kavanaugh is we will assume that. And even the evangelical and they continue to be happy. These are some strange times we are living and we never thought would happen. Host so your relationship with trump in you said the president at the time or candidate trump reached out to you to have lunch at trump tower and that he pushed back softly and gently that i never thought i would ever hear containing the word trump but with humility and graciousness three. Five months before he declared and then you said after he did declare that the man i met was nowhere to be found now that he was on stage not thoughtfulness or gentility or kindness or all the things he had shown me. So why do you think in your opinion the president embrace that persona that is so different that the person you met privately . And the female suburban voters are those minority voters maybe that is not their cup of tea . Thats a very good question i am not alone many have said the same thing. I was stunned. That perception so as i wrote in the book it was just the opposite thoughtful and quiet and inquisitive and humble. Yes he was bragging but a very different man south america sees this man he is going places. So why did he do that . He is a master marketer understanding something about politics that again barack obama that he fundamentally change politics obama took the equation that says in a primary campaign the democrats go to the liberal base and republicans go for the conservative base so he said my minority base is if i can get them more agitated than i can beat up the majority base and that is just what he did twice and use social media to do it. He didnt write back and got so worked up he could never get 50 percent in the polls but his base beat up the democrats and inculcated barack obama. So when republicans lost the house do you think that was related to the tone you can say in the off year thats true and a whole swath of resignations and that is true. Bed at the end of the day, i dont think he won new friends between 2016 and 2018. And his popularity im not so sure it goes down stream. It transmits itself to the republicans at the state or local level. So many seats that were lost. When donald trump goes into a state and says i dont like the republican thats what he did and thats what happened to her. But at the end of the day it was almost the cult of personality. Obama didnt translate down stream. So i dont think it is a bellwether i think 2020 will be fascinating. Nobody knows what is going but i will say that you saw in the book i knew donald trump would win. I think im the only person willing to put in writing looking the future president in the eye and told him there is no way he could win. Even fox news was projecting that trump would lose as well. The one public figure was the gravis stakeholder going on the Bill Marshall she said him the audience fell apart is in laughter as they laughed at her she got the greatest last laugh. Host so you are a skeptic and you both the oped for National Review with those critiques but once you won the primary you had concerns. So to what extent you have a donor base so what was it if you think of the donor class of the conservative movement it is more establishment for the chamber of commerce where did you feel pressure from the establishment from your initial reticence to trump. It didnt affect us because we are a Nonprofit Organization and does not endorse personally i can do whatever i want. I had people who were upset with me for not supporting trump and people who were upset with me and you just cant win and it really did happen so where that pieces concerned it is unfortunate not trump was never trump so that in addition of that view was quite often against trump. Host because i have talked to so many National Review. Thats exactly what it was i endorsed ted cruz and i was asked to submit a piece why would a supporting cruise over donald trump and i stand by it he didnt walk with conservatives like reagan did. He walked with liberals thats a simple point became the bible there were some sioux with the National Vehicle to be vocally anti trump and some were not. We never talked about the Media Research center at the end of the lunch he asked me if he supported the Media Research center so it really wasnt what he had said. It was what it was an off to the races we went. Host i found that interesting because that is the phrase he used to describe amarosa and multiple people, men and women yet somehow when he uses it against women is called so what is your take on someone that is conservative you talked about stability, humility when the president uses language like that do you think the media is unfair to see sexist, racist or more of an equal combat and . Guest i do believe it was Brian Williams who filed the story asking, and im not making this up, asking if donald trump was antidog. Theres there is a story about. [laughter] talk about the pot calling the kettle black. How the media are constantly savaging the president for the language he uses a whale calling him a nazi, every kind of despicable name. The modicum of decency has been cast aside. Its telling. They have no right, none. You have a right, i have a right, these books have the right to pass judgment on Donald Trumps language. You pointed out an editorial and supporting them and at the hyperbole. And that isnt coming from the nation or Something Like that. Guest if you look at what is happening at the border honestly. They are the ones crossing the border right now. The media are not reporting that america is invaded. They are inundated in a very bad way by some very bad people. In the book we cite the flipside to all the negatives about donald trump. If you look at the litany o of competence from it is rather extraordinary. Things i didnt know as of october 2018. Dont you think that there is room for that story to be told the unemployment numbers in 50 years and the more than two minutes to talk about how the cast members have been on staff for 16 years and the book portrays the reports on reportf interesting statistics the bureau of labor statistics stats that were released the coverage of those statistics and a historic unemployment lows for black latino and asianamerican women into the ratio of 60 to one versus the russia investigations. Things that are actually affecting peoples lives versus things that voters dont care about. They failed to inform the public about the fascists they are electing. Its how theyve treated them in the past and today and this is decades in the making arguably going back at least to the 1960s. The. Guest i wish the Journalism Schools that have a mandatory internship for the students. This is an institution, where people go from schools to columbia journalism. They do not understand the idea of investment of sacrifice. I do believe that journalists need to understand. Seamlessly throughout the word fascism. We might as well get the rally to do with it. George stephanopoulos saying the number of people comparing trump to hitler is going by the day. They call them a neofascist. You go through the book and documented the extent to which the words are thrown around very casually. In terms of the demographics when you look a at future still thinking about the future of the millennial population is 44 nonwhite and when we look at the voting patterns to 1964, 6 voted for Berry Goldwater but before that in 1956, it was Something Like 39 or 29, 30, the low 30s for device eisenhower and similar for Richard Nixon and it was 64 when it fell to 6 and its always been now for generations with black voters Single Digits at ondigits andone timed a vote ofn you have multigenerational voters having such skepticism for the conservative movement, what does that say Going Forward especially looking at the majority and the growing latino population looking at the future what is the future for the conservative movement of the media is so entrenched in these anticonservative narratives as it relates to the other minorities . It depends on what they do. There might be some kind of tectonic shift taking place to the public spent time going against the Republican Party and that is the only reason hes there. He became a populist and attracted blacks. He went and twice he said what do you have to lose . He should have had a program i think that hes going to move. The latino vote is moving Companies Going to move the black vote with it. What does that do . I dont know. What donald trump showed is that it is high time conservatives that stood up to the press. He went to war against them and he showed how they can be defeated and he did defeat themm is aware oso where the movements concerned either they learned a lesson from him are after him. Host he would say with the criminal Justice Reform into the record unemployment if the historically black college and universities that hes looking to move the needle but over and over you talk about the republican establishment as being disconnected from the grassroots conservatives. What figures do you see albert as bridging that divide in the movement beyond donald trump . Guest to some degree the freedobutFreedom Caucus is kindf interesting once upon a time the republicans were synonymous with conservatives during the reagan years everybody wanted to be a reagan conservative. Today you have this little Freedom Caucus in the house and they are the conservatives in the house. There is nothing more than a handful of them. I think they are above one, maybe one or two more they are the only conservatives in town. The question is how long can the republicans keep up this facade when you see them being no different than the democrats when it comes to the Economic Issues or policy issues they are really no different and when you try, the democrats will always been. What about the post is agreed upon to you think that that portrays it is unfortunate that the president would do that. This is one thing that we know, every republican, even democrats run on the idea of the fiscal conservatism. Why we are going to stop this crazy spending, why our children and their children are going to be affected by this, why its irresponsible and than republicans did nothing but point the finger at the democrats during the obama years now they are all supporting it and president s are signing them, george bush signed this, barack obama and now president of trump so theres going to be but unfortunately it could be our children and grandchildren who are going to suffer because of what is being done today. In terms of what is next for the press now that the testimony has happened, the media the ratio of the stories about the investigation was truly incredible. Whats next in terms of their strategy covering president of trump now that the knight in shining armor has been . To the they are truly flummoxed. What can they do . They have ingested hook line and sinker on the proposition that there was going to be a real possibility of removing this man from office and not only a possibility, but a calling and justification for it. Meanwhile youve got the radicals. I love that nancy pelosi is a moderate suddenly. I dont know what planet youre on, but lets assume she is a moderate compared to some of those radicals. The media will give continued oxygen to those radicals and nancy pelosi knows its going to backfire on everybody. They see this for what it is. Im going off on the cliches again. Democrats believe the media is on their side and democrats. The media is against their side. To what extent do they not realize the voters themselves are telling them how to mitigate the lack of trust in the media why doesnt the media understand consumers are trying and giving feedback about the process why would you listen to them . Guest if this business trumps politics and politics trumps business when it comes to the news media. Lets go back to cnn i wont say who it was but theres been an endless number of recent years one of them is someone i knew. Its all about the numbers. Get on cnn one or whatever your aircraft is go to his house, knock on the door, open up a paycheck, give it to him and tell him he can throw that in for whatever amount he one. Whatever you do, dont pick a fight with roger ailes. If you are cnn you want to regain your audience is. Within 15 seconds a market analysis. Fullstop you dont go from the conservative standpoint. Host in the book you touch on the topi topic but dont givo much into it on the issue of technology and facebook and twitter and conservatives have the perception that theres ideological bias against conservatives not process the algorithms on the context. Do you think that they should be broken up the question is if there that need to do something and the answer is yes theyve gone in this direction where they are testing the one to say they are the open marketplace of ideas and have Legal Protection against the information could another facebook emerged. Are you going to compete for petroleum dollars in cash how can you compete with facebook and they are reaching 2. 2 billion people across the gulf are you going to compete with google when it has 92 of Search Engine . That has to be explored. If you cant and youve got antitrust issues and that is the quintessential position youve got to have competition it is too soon to tell whether you can or you cant be competitive and thats fair. Host do you think that the administration ends up looking at these trust issues do you see president of trump as the figure because that was Teddy Roosevelts claim to fame with the rough rider, the outsider, the rough and tumble person unafraid to challenge the establishment of . That is elizabeth warren. I see the future, the left right alliance on a number of different issues Everybody Knows in this city they run the show. The left are saying the same thing. That is an interesting dynamic that is emerging where the antitrust is concerned ted cruz and elizabeth warren. Donald trump is going in that direction and what is the message, its very populous. I think they are motivated by different things. Elizabeth warren is motivated by believing they are too wealthy and ted cruz is motivated by believing they are too powerful. But you see this alliance that might be growing in the interesting dynamics. Host if we have the editor in any number of executives here in this conversation with us what would you say to them and what is your advice to them in terms of looking at the country because certainly an argument i hear over and over again from people that are critic that he is dividing the country. To what extent are these national Media Outlets dividing the country . When i walked out there wouldnt be a need to fumigate this room that is the Police System they would be very surprised that i didnt have smoke and forms. I didnt know you were a conservative. So i think that is going on today in the news media. Not just professional, but its personal, its the social world. Thats all they know. They all work at the same network and they all think the same way. At the end of the day i dont like the term Mainstream Media because they are not mainstream. They dont see themselves as all that way. What i would say to them is bring conservatives into the fold and make sure they are professional. Make sure that they know how to be reporters because there are some who dont know how to be reporters either. Go back to journalism and see what happens to your product when you have to include them in the eight nation. Good things are going to happen. Is it in their Business Model because theyve seen an uptick in is the sam its the same thih National Review baseball and uptick do you think to some extent theres a financial incentive for them to continue to play th a position . Guest perhaps. Lets look at the cable networks, fox, cnn, msnbc, all of them are motivated. Its not as onesided as cnn or msnbc but theyve all made Business Decisions and they all say i can carve out a certain piece of the pie. If you look at these 24 hour news networks, fox, msnbc, cnn, how much time is being spent on the real news reporting, very little. They were giving the market for the market wants. Unfortunately it may be true maybe they dont want news. Host thank you so much for joining us to talk about your book. Our trade agreements are unfair to American Workers and basically hes tried to get across the idea that our trade negotiators had these in the developing countries. Any of you that have watched the trade negotiations over years will find that laughable and when i talk to them from south africa were other countries they actually do laugh. They say they were dictated by the United States. The problem wasnt that the u. S. South africa or some other developing country, the problem is that the United States wanted and the american trade agenda was a corporate trade agenda advancing the interest of the corporations at the expense of American Workers. The good evening everyone. I am a bookseller here at politics and prose of the union market, on behalf of our coders and the staff i would like to welcome you to tonights event. We would love for you to grab a print calendar over by the register which shows the event is scheduleschedule for the rest both at this location and other