Transcripts For CSPAN2 Deborah Lee James Aim High 20240714

I am honored to be here because the secretary has been involved in the foundation for about 15 years now and it was hard for us when she became secretary of the army because she had to step off the board but now that shes no longer secretary of the r. Air force. Im going to say to introduce debbie and she will be formally introduced by allison of the National Press club, she has been a friend for many years and set the example when she was at scic she was leaving people and was president of the Technical Division of the Largest Division and she doesnt mince words. Shes always there and when she became secretary of the air force, i used to stay up at night watching cspan and she with a decisive leader. She always made decisions quickly and i look forward to being here today where i dont have to watch on tv but have had the opportunity to learn about her leadership style and shes been a role model the last decade. I would like to introduce Alison Fitzgerald kodjak who has been so kind to host us today for this book event. Thanks so much. Good morning everybody welcome to the National Press club, the place where news happens. I am a correspondent at npr news and president of the press club this year. For the cspan public radio audiences i just want you to know there are members of the general public and journalists who if you hear applause or other reactions, that isnt necessarily a sign that journalists are not being objective. We are very happy to have with us secretary deborah james. She left the pentagon and is only the second woman in history to serve as the secretary of the air force. Not bad for some one plan b. If plan a worked out, james would be part of the american diplomatic corps. That was her childhood dream. In her book, aim high, she writes that she was heartsick when she didnt get accepted into the diplomatic corps but she moved on and got a job at the department of the army and then in 1993, president bill clinton appointed her to be assisted secretary defends. They made her a Senior Adviser to the secretary of defense on matters involving 1. 8 Million National guard and reserve personnel worldwide. She offers a budget of 10 billion supervises a staff of 100. So then in 2013, president obama pitched the idea of her leaving the air force. James was in the private sector and funds president technical engineering sector of the science applications corp. Of leading a Major Military service offered a challenge she was ready to tackle. She was arriving at the time the air force was in the center of the fight against the islamic state. She faced a tight budgets and involuntary reductions in force. James beat decisions even before she settled into her new office. She had to force the retirement of a general who overturned the Sexual Assault and conviction of a Fighter Pilot in a firestorm in congress and he was detained in the military involved with wd the officers discretionary power. But the book is about more than leaving the air force, it is about membership. Im sure that this morning we will have a lot to talk about so lets give a National Press club welcome to deborah lee james. [applause] thank you to the whole team. The Credit Union Just one quick word and vote of thanks. Its a really Important Foundation that works for the betterment of our military. It provides 100 of the funding for the overhead i am so honored to be involved with all of you. Thank you. That is a good way to segue into my book aim high, chart your course and plan success. I hope that you will see that there is an awful lot about the importance of doubling down on people. Its why you get things done in very difficult constantly changing or even dysfunctional environment as we seem to find ourselves these days it is a book about why you however you are and whatever your role is in the organization how you can have a big impact and make a big difference with people and within your team. Even if, and particularly if you have a different background than most of the people seated around a table from you. Its a book about how you cannot only survive through all the changing times in this function, but i think how you can actually thrive and achieve that personal satisfaction and fulfillment that you are looking for that i was always looking for. I also have to say i dont have all the answers to all the problems or how to advance in every single profession out there, but i do have a formula that has worked for me as a woman in the maledominated world of the military and national security. Its worked for me as a liberal arts major and grows to oversee a rather technical workforce, a goat in the government as well as the private industry. Its worked for me as someone thats already been a civilian in a sea of th their military uniforms that have surrounded me, and for a good many years early in my life its worked for me as frequently as the youngest of the table and there wer ther, many older people surrounding me in the charge. Note to self, that part is also not the way so enjoy it while youve got it. Im serving up another at the table anymore. I wrote this book, aim high, because i wanted to share the formula with others but i have to admit i got into it and it was a project. More than once i regretted why did i do this to myself and take this on because i had deadlines and i would have writers cramp and i couldnt get it done but at the end of it all i powered through and completed the project. The way i did wa it once i fell back on my lifelong affinity. I dont know there may be some others out there, but i nearly went into a panic attack when the top ten went off of television so im a list maker for everything because thats how i keep track of and makes an of complex or multifaceted things i have to tackle. I ended up writing aim high based on what i consider to be the three essential actions all of us need to undertake. There are underline makes through hiv through these are through actions. Now in the pentagon with the fast forward for a moment when i was the secretar secretary of tr force, one of the first things you learn a certain maximum, full of acronyms of the pentagon. It isnt a problem or issue that cannot be handled in a lengthy powerpoint. They are all for powerpoint presentations and they all start with one acronym which stands for the bottom line up front and this is the military approach to giving the Key Takeaways right on the first slide and they go through 150 or to giv 150 were e through point to lead up to that blessed day will conclude with. I thought that is a pretty good technique so in that spirit i want to give you my bluff this is the bottom line up front. The three essential actions and they are quite simply you need to chart and navigate the course so that is the case if you are an individual professional or leader of the organization, either way you have to be engaged with charting and navigating the course. Number two, lead and inspire the team, this is the case i if youe the leader of the team or a member of the team you need to embrace the team and be able to work within the Team Environments because everything happens through teamwork. Number three no matter who you are or where you are in your life you are charged with getting things done on the charged with being confident in your current position and building a body of accomplishments in that position. That is how you will need to achieve the next level of leadership. So these are the three essential actions. You heard from the reference it sounds pretty good but theres more to the back story. There are things that went wrong and things i learn a from negative experiences select you hearwhat i considered to be a to be in the state department. I took all of what i considered to me to the ultimate path, but at the end of the day for whatever reason i crashed and i remember going to bed and crying for days but i had to have a child an and i did get a job ate department of the army and the organization at the time i have no interest in, knew nothing abou, itbefore i knei discoverel security that i havent given much thought to end the work i was doing so, it was giving me that feeling of now i was finding it from a news source a great grou. Number three my gread lights a boss that not only counseled and advised me that opened up the as you heard you might have guessed it was one of those doors opening and one of those connections that lead me to the House Armed Services Committee Opportunity went from someone who knew nothing about the military ten years later on the House Armed Services committee. Now i was and objects into the. That led me tand i was pretty yf public presentations that is our mothers and fathers told us about practice makes perfect if you force yourself and do it and you also learn how to not leave people in that position. 17 years in the government, i must have i decided i would try my i wajustand heres wher. I goa couple of jobs that were not the right not every job you choose will everso i came across a couo this was going to b and i they introduce. By the 20 years by but there is the power of keeping up with people and over the courswhich i hesitated an and they told in decision but athelead. Amazing people in the air force. Today i serve on corporate do some consulting and is my professionathat youwould be wros a lot more. Im on the way i have a difficulty getting that we have to hang in there with positivity the personal front. I raised two beautiful children who are now in i did that as a and sometimes at. Canteaching mwy baby granddaughter three keep a close eye on her way and learn how i have a very ful what in te world have i learned from all of thesstrategy is whereverof. Of, you always have to have another ope many years later whi was the secretary of the air force, was the secretary of state mind, and it for myself, 35 years ago because i cant imagine othebepartcompensationad by your to attach yourself to something been so important in my life and i would urge all of the network and keeping in touch with sure that you pay it forward when you go int touring. The otheeven if at times you have to fake it i and positivity. And i learned that before saturday night live turned making it work foat least for a whileand then e experience. Its hard to do i in the moment but theres alway the no matte e models you things with. His communication skills i on. Beinshow some ive had a couple of frontrowst happens when someone feels too entitled, cheats, lies, whatever it may be. Ethics is crucial and i said that embraces change earlier on at least for a while, not a citizen to front end of the situation. Da situation. Two reports, dont let it go by. Ethics is both an individual and team sport we have the obligation ethically as well as report on things making us uneasy in the environment. Last, i will say the importance of people. Generally we talk about technology and process and innovation. It falls apart if you dont get the people part of the e. Creation directly so i am a bbb for in doubling down on the things the Employee Workforce cares about most, the people issues and defend the importance of playing to your own strengths and a team environment. We are strong at certain things. None of us are stron strong at everything and none of us is as smart as a collective smarts of the total team so remember the team work always. Third is get things done. Ive been in environments where reworking is happening in the company or in a government where we are constantly on edge because they are making proposals and maybe the congress isnt going along. Hell does one work through these environments and advance the ball, tacklin the tackle the pr, get things done backs i maintain there is a five step process any of us can use ive used it in business and government and in the book i take case studies from my time as the secretary of the air force about how even in difficult and challenging environment you can advance the ball to get things done. The five step process is first you have to investigate and get as many of the facts as you can possibly get and talk to the stakeholders at different levels, get used to ambiguity because people never hav they wl of the facts you want and then understand how critical it is to act or not. Other times you have to react within a day or two or three to understand the time sensitivity communique and this is a continual proces process of thet element of communication is unique to communicate the reason for action in the first place pe what is thbut is the imperativeg the change, why are we going to make some changes here we need to bring people along on a journey. The journey. Third is activate. We have to change. What exactly are we going to do you have to have a series of initiatives and things you are going to try. Number four is reiterate because everything you come up with to change you can bet your Bottom Dollar you will not get it right 100 on the first pass. Some things will work, others will not. And you need to add new ideas so you are iterating. You might be compromising or negotiating. And last his relentless followup because nothing ever happens the first time it is directed particularly if it is a big change for people they may not understand or they may outright resisted the change you have to keep at it when it comes to communicating and following up. Again these are the principles ive tried to live by when i was the secretary of the air force and some of the case studies we dealt with in the Nuclear Enterprise fighting the Sexual Assaults in the military and defend something that might seem mundane but we face it in the military world it is a nuisance and a morale buster and that is trying to stop doing something, doing away with unnecessary trainings or regulations or what most people would call red tape so these are some of the case studies i have in the book and there are many stories and data to amplify the stories. I thank you very much for being here and hope you will enjoy the book. I hope you enjoy the book. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much, secretary. Its great to have you here. We are going to have everybody join in the conversation. We would love to have your questions. Please wait if you have a question raise your hand and wait for a moment for the microphone to reach you so that our audience on cspan will be able to hear what you have to say. Im going to start with you hate on this a couple of times and said you have to zigzag. Tell us what you call this theory. Its mainly relates to the need to be agile in your life. I think many of us have dreams and its fantastic we need to dream and dream big but as you heard in my back story, i had such a singular dreams, and my eyes were shut to the rest of the world and what other opportunities could be interesting. What i now know looking back when i try to counsel people is the dont know what will be interesting to you until you try and you should be willing to try different types of professions and different types of. They find that they dont like the profession, they find that it doesnt bring them to enjoy and they have to switch and be agile for other reasons. So the zigzag is a reflection of the fact of life is not a straight line. It isnt linear. It is this way and that way and you have to be prepared to pay that. Were the second woman to serve in the secretary of the air force. We had a year or so ago general kate who was in the army and talked a lot about the challenges facing women in the military. Obviously didnt serve in the military, but led. Can you talk about the role of the women it seems to be a push and pull going on about the role of women in the military. First, a few statistics. Women are still very much the minority. We have close to 20 women so we were kind of believers. We had the greatest number. The other services were less than that so still very much a minority until recently women were not permitted to serve in all capacities in the military. That changed and some of the most difficult are now open and there are fewer numbers of women entering only if they can qualify me for stringent requirements so whenever youve are a minority with a much larger majority around you isnt as to working with you, that will present challenges. Some would say that its harassing and others would say its not. And of course Sexual Assault which affects men and women. This is another big problem. I try to work on that i it in sl areas. Retention of women, recruitment of more and retention of those women we have because as i said 20 of the overall number you can imagine the higher up the leadership chain you went, the fewer we had and thats because women were attracting. Can we work on some of those issues, worklife balance, so all kinds of changes were made to things like maternity policy, things to make a little bit more flexibility for women and men. That was one area. Another was Sexual Assault, part of my platform, something i talked about all the time was weve got to stop Sexual Assault. Assault. We got the money for programs. It is a leadership imperative for me tracking the statistics. Did you expect when somebody said would like to serve as the secretary of the air force, did you expect Sexual Assault to be one of your major initiatives . I did because there was a major scandal at the lack of an air force Training Base a year or two before i became secretary of the air force and there already were congressional hearings that were being held. Overture to get the Service Chiefs were called then and there was an iconic picture in the post. All these men seated at the table being questioned by several female members of congress about the assault in the military. So i did know that i was going to be a major issue. I knew people issues in general were going to be very important. I will open up questions right back here. A recent report came out from recruiting and that is i think 71 of young graduates are not eligible for the military either through obesity, lack of fitness, drugs, other things. What can we do as a nation to sort of open with the availability of people coming into the military . Even with that statistic and that is telling if anyone thinks that todays military isnt selective, we are not looking for the absolute best, they would be wrong because as you pointed out, many do not qualify. Some of the things we tried during my era and the various approaches are being continued as we are trying to open the aperture and go to the parts of the country that traditionally hasnt delivered as many new recruits for us so im talking abouswing talkingabout the nort, the west coast has not. Weve done very well in the heartland of america and the south but other parts of the recruiters simply havent gone as much. We are trying to use the more as a way to better target people so we are trying to do things a corporation would do to be able to find more recruits. Obviously the military has become a Family Affair so that is to say if my dad or my mom or my own old served in the military, that is going to make me much more likely to serve. We need to open the aperture as well and i think that is true power of the press, publicity, Public Relations to get the message out to more of america that isnt considering military service. Do you have any research why certain populations dont consider military service . Im not sure why they dont. I mentioned that propensity. Exposure is a big part of it. The more we try to attract young women it certainly helps to have those that are in service so they can see th their role modes for their. It is a bit of a vicious circle you have to go where the population far and educate so they get that exposure and see the opportunities. Hold on for one moment please for the microphone. The Washington Center at Brown University last year found between 400 to 80,000 or 7,000 people have been killed in u. S. Post9 11 war iraq and afghanistan and pakistan according to air wars presumably targeting isis the coalition has caught 6,575,000,000 since august 2017 in airstrikes. I have a question on that and could you comment on those findings and in general, dont air wars resulting reducing u. S. Military casualties at the expense of the local civilian casualties you were the secretary of the air force during the vcf is that your question . Id also like to ask the situation in libya and the failed state with markets. One question and then we will make sure everyone has a chance. To be clear, the job of the secretary of any military service is organized, trained and equipped so that his recruits, retention, training, technology investments. The uniformed commanders are the ones who make decisions on how to actually prosecute a campaign anand bush areand push it to tad etc. With that said i will tell you in my experience, and it is my deeply held belief that the military is second to none when it comes to making every effort humanly possible to avoid civilian casualties we target only those we have excellent intelligence on. We make every effort to be precise and i dont see any power on earth, any other nationstate to avoid civilian casualties. With that said, to talk to the statistics of the numbers i dont know what the correct numbers are but certainly innocent people have lost their lives. We have come up against a foe that deliberately uses tactics and shield themselves within the civilian populations and mosques. They take tactics that they know he will avoid hitting because we will not hit a hospital or deliberately a mosque. Are there mistakes sometimes that are otherwise made, yes and it is a terrible regret people feel when that occurs but again, the war is ugly and we prosecute in the most carefuthe most carey nationstate could in my opinion. We have a question here now. You talk about the importance of sponsors and at this stage in your life if you could recruit any mentor to help you from today on, who would it be and why . My wife today is one of what is called a portfolio approach so that is for a first time in my life i dont have a singular fulltime job. I have like ten parttime jobs. It is anchored in service so you hurt me reference i si said on various corporate boards and mom profits and i am two years into it so i consider myself still a new person. Im able to bring to the table certain skills ive had from my previous work but theres a lot i dont know so i would probably search out considered Board Members and those who can Board Service in their next stage in life. I would try to pick one, probably a woman i could learn from and who could critique and advise me on some of the stylistic points i do not yet know about. In the back. Secretary, from your time at the pentagon in a building that is filled with people who are either leaders were considered themselves leaders or want to be, how do you lead into the question specific about the consensus there are those who argue that it is overrated and that nothing gets done without consensus. Where do you fall on the spectrum how do you get things done in a place where everybody has an opinion many of them will tell us to your face but behind your back to get things done you talk about ethics and the rest. How do you navigate . Im a believer in achieving as much as possible but with that said we all know in this room the military is very drifted into the state Hierarchical Organization orders are given and carried out and that is certainly the case. If you are in a military, uniformed military operationunim and a military Operation Overseas you must follow orders provided that they are lawful. We hav have a mixture of people coming uniformed military, civilians. Everything that we do can be overturned by elements of the osd. Congress has the final say on all of this. The white house, so there are all these different stakeholders and you do need to work hard to get the consensus to get that apostle. You cant always get there and then come down to what is in your authority so certain things were in my authority provided i didnt get overturned by the congress or the president or the secretary defense. Stephen. There were two morale issues that came up in montana with the Unmanned Aircraft Drone Service so how did you deal with those cracks i imagine they were different so can you talk about that and with that fivestep process that i went through before i got personally involved in both of those. With multifaceted people how they were perceived or treated their quality of service with those people oriented problems that turn to be the Nuclear Enterprise calling the rpa force. Spent abrasive back to technology all of these are important but the culture in the people. And following up, we had cbs correspondent of the issue of civilian casualties the strikes and they are ordered related to the intelligence did you come across situations like that quick. Clearly there had been mistakes and intelligence with the operators and then to say there have been no mistakes or inadvertent deaths would be wrong. But those statistics we heard earlier but given what we are up against and to do an extraordinary job of minimizing civilian casualties every loss of life is in his and a tragedy but thats a point in trying to make. That was affected me more with the secretary of the air force of a dignified transfer. If they die oversee a training accident or combat death they will come home through Dover Air Force base. There is a mortuary there and that is where the remains are prepared for burial and also where we bring the families of those who have died to be there when the casket comes off of the plane with a solemn ceremony that goes in addition to this as meeting with the family. I did this six different times over a threeyear period i remember each and every one so its everything from inconsolable crying to stoicism and anger and families go through all of these things. And all of these in that way and i did my level best and of course i didnt know any of those that had died but i read up on them so i could talk about how each and every one were fantastic airmen. The terrible challenges of the veterans communities specifically a high rate of suicide if you think of the air force as an employer or any Service Branch during employment for these folks that would lessen the burden on Veterans Affairs and nonprofits having to deal with this. Did you see warning signs when you are at the helm and what for their future crack. And what to do they keep trying Different Things and that is a special Operations Community that community particularly for the air force is the worst combat and has seen the most carnage and they have a very high rate of suicide also in that community with Mental Health related problems and use of alcohol but they came up with an approach which helped within that microcosm of that one community and i would like to think expanding that approaches the next step and it is taking steps. To take people at some level within the unit itself so those were the other team members get to know this person not like im going to the doctor but this is one of the guys are one of the gals. They are part of the unit and you are used to them in the Mental Health professional is knowing people to see changes in behavior and spot those warning signs. That seems to be a good approach but that means you have to ramp it up a great deal in a much bigger way in my mind that is the approach of what im familiar worth. You said earlier when you got the call to be secretary of air force you hesitated. What were you thinking quick. I was very happy at asic. We just spun it into two publicly traded companies. I retained my position i thought i had a Bright Future it was an exciting time for quite did not seek out the position that youre back into a divisive environment. It is a big pay cut going from industry to the government. It was for me. And i have friends who have stellar careers to go into a senior job in the government and something bad happens on their watch. So you can have reputation issues as well. So im trying to think of i really want to do this cracks it took me about two weeks and i said to myself. Hell yeah. This is a chance to have a big impact and i will take the risk. I know enough about being in the pentagon and capitol hill and i felt i had enough pieces like hr and navigate my course. That was a shameless plug by the way. [laughter] thank you for so many things that you have said resonating as a female later on leader and as a mom how are you able to balance those responsibilities you only have so many hours in the day. But some key perspective crack. I now mention my children who were in their mid thirties but at the time they were grown but when they were young was the era i was a professional staff member and an assistant secretary in the pentagon. And to be the secretary of the air force and Young Children with a bridge too far with all the travel i was going through. But the way i did it when they were young and today was with personal relationship with husband and friends. You have to intentionally say i will have this balance and i insist on it. I will not be ashamed and it will be in my life. I am entitled. You book your time when you leave if you have Young Children you have to leave. You get proper notice and coverage but you intentionally do it. None of us are in ireland and those of us who want to be mary poppins and practically perfect in every way. So what do you really want to do well quick lets focus on that and let the other stuff go. So my husband will tell you i dont really cook or clean. I keep things going but when i went home at the end of the day to my Young Children, they were the focus. The meals were as simple as they could be. Warm them up put them on the table and dont sweat it. So what if the house was not perfect it was good enough. Good enough is good enough for some parts of life and i could also hire someone could come into my home. Everybody needs child care if you work at some level. If youve got the money to do this you are in a whole lot better place than those who struggle and dont. But you have to prioritize your own paycheck so that means you cant get a new car every five years or the new parish shoes. You really have to look at your own Spending Priorities and make room for the top priorities. And the last lesson is the gift of time for children is the best gift of all. Its way better my childrens that i was a cheapskate because they wouldnt give in to buy the shoes or pants that the other kids had and i would hold firm till that to that. But when they were older we spent money on travel and experiences. And the gift of time like dont worry about dinner but instead do homework or read a book thats another way of giving time they will remember those experiences way more long after the pants or the shoes are no longer usable. Whenever we have these conversations about a family and work balance we dont have this conversation with a male ceo. I think its time that we do. [laughter] absolutely. And one of the Sexual Assault cases have been overturned. The judge said there was excessive interference by the highlevel people in the air force. You are aware of the case. I dont think it was ever directed at the secretary level but under command prick i think the judge ended up ruling due to the publicity and congressional hearings there was undue command influence. Its hard to talk about an individual case especially once it has been adjudicated. The process is the process the overturning has happened that person is obviously going on with their life. But i will just say that it seems like we are updating the code of military justice almost every year. There are actions working their way through congress right now to update the code and during my era the big updating that occurred was the idea a seniorlevel commander never attended the trial that could sit at the appellate level to overturn a conviction. Now that has been eliminated and that was another very celebrated case at the time where someone was convicted at trial but the commander at the higher level overturned it and it was subsequently discovered the person who overturned the conviction had in fact perpetrated some of the crimes. It was a bad decision so why in the world is somebody even allowed to do this in the first place so that was the genesis. There will be more coming. We continue to tighten it but there is no substitute for prevention and bad is where we have not crack the code yet. How do we get it so these things dont happen in the first place. We are close to the end of our hour together i will present you with a very highly coveted National Press club mug. I was hoping to have one. [applause] talking about service and corporate boards are you now out helping to recruit people and encouraging them to serve our country many havent as corporate ceos and leaders do you encourage them to serve in government cracks your young with a lot of energy will you serve in the future crack. I have learned to say never say never i encourage all the companies and the groups i am associated with already donate to military charities and very involved with military organization so i am fortunate i am and with a patriotic crowd. By the way its not just patriotism to hire a veteran it is smart business. We know what great employees they are with their ethics and i get it done spirit and the training and everything you want in the hot market of washington dc. I carry that message forward all the time as well. Any special message for women who are considering the military crack. I am a big proponent so i would encourage it. I was a proponent to up our numbers as i was secretary so i literally gave goals for the Recruitment Service to go to try to attract more young women. It is a matter of exposure. I never thought about it but i didnt care. But it may not be what you complete your career but its a great place to start but strictly looking at yourself and the educational benefits the training, leadership, all of these will serve you well when you have a full career or just four or six or eight years its a great place to start and many years after the fact will tell you some of their best years relate to the people that they knew or the camaraderie and the experiences even though some had very serious experiences in combat. Thank you for being here. [applause] thank you very much she will sign your books if you would like. [applause] [inaudible conversations] on july 5th this year after my show i logged into twitter and found myself locked on the socialist aoc. [applause] block to. I have even defended her through political policies even though they are delusional i defended her against her looks are her age or her history as a bartender. But with her tweets i only present facts. Nothing personal so that means somebody is threatened by fax and the truth this is the tweet which made her block me. She tweeted trump spent billions on a poorly attended one day parade days after he could not afford toothpaste and soap for children. Know he held them hostage to secure Millions Congress needs to see that so i responded and i said stop. You voted no on a four four. 5 billiondollar bill to give emergency humanitarian aid relief to these Migrant Children at the board in detention centers. If you wanted to help the kids you could have. But you didnt. Thats the tweet that made her block me because 25000 people re treated on tweeted that tweet and a quarter of a Million People saw it. [applause] so essentially the truth stings if you are a socialist. Aoc is a public official it is a critical part of our public dialogue and selfgovernance to hold elected officials accountable. By the way i have legitimately never blocked a Single Person on twitter i love engage with people who disagree but i guess she is not confident enough in her principles to do the same. Also you have to be illiterate to think blocking somebody prevents them from seeing your tweets. [laughter] so that means the only reason to block somebody so your ideology is not challenged there is a fitting word for that somewhere thats right it is cowardice. Now some who tried to blame me as if i did something inappropriate or wrong to deserve these blocks other than challenging congresswoman aoc congressional voting record edit my fax would equal to violence. Dont even think about blaming me for violence that is the threat those are 100 percent wrong. In that hideous and false accusation to try to blame me for other peoples disgusting behavior i challenge her voting record in congress for goodness sake. But those on the radical left who falsely try to conflate criticism of our government here is your daily reminder that the very same week a domestic terrorist attacked the i. C. E. Facility with a rifle and the left did not care in Portland Oregon last month independent journalist was brutally beaten by nt for that he suffered a brain hemorrhage the mayor of portland refused to condemn and houthis by name and i asked him to and you know how he responded cracks he condemns all violence but refused to condemn them by name and the democrats did not care. This is what the left does they dont like my fax so they try to define my speech is violent. This is a sneaky tactic they used to silence me. Because if my speech is violent then they have to shut me down. Right . Im here to tell you this morning do not fall for it. Refuse to be silent in the face of leftist bullying. Dorothy butler gilliam, first africanamerican woman reporter at the washington post. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the 30th annual fest by the Planning Board i want to give a special thank you to our sponsors for their generouswa support this year. Especially as our programming sponsor