Good afternoon. I am margaret talev, politics and widest editor at axios, ad by half of the Texas Tribune, welcome to the festival and to our one on one with susan rice. We have an hour together. Thats going to include at least 15 minutes for time so your questions and answers so youre 45 minutes to think at some killer questions. Im looking forward to hearing them. You all know ambassador rice. She served as president obamas u. N. Ambassador and the National Security adviser, and previously as assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under the bill clinton administration. And you may also know that shes got a book coming out soon. Its tough love my story of the things worth fighting for. Its not actually out officially for another week or so, we can have but you can get it today and she will be signing copies of it after were done here. I think thats at the festival at 800 congress. They asked me to let you know. You do that after this. This book because none of you have read it yet, let me give you a preview is really a book in three parts, its a book about her personal story, her family life. Its a book about her experience in government and then its a book about the Obama Administrations, policies and her explanation and kind of thoughts in the Rearview Mirror about the policies. To me one of my favorite parts about this book was the personal chapters and want to spend some time talking about that bit because its friday, a very historic, i think a way to start off a conversation by talking about the developments this week with ukraine, the houses action on opening an inquiry towards impeachment and all about. And then give us some time to talk about the book. You closely followed everything thats happened this week, and the transcript and the whistleblowers complain. I guess im curious based on the information thats now publicly available, what would your next set of questions be . What do you want to know that we dont know yet . Welcome thank you, margaret, so much for doing this. Good afternoon, everybody. Its great to be back here. Im really delighted to come back to the Texas Tribune festival and thank you for the very generous introduction. What a week and what a set of revelations. I think the most striking thing from my Vantage Point is is is yet another particularly stark indication that we have a president who cares nothing for the National Interest and is all about his personal political and financial interest. And it is there in black and white in that remarkable transcript. So just to put this in context, as you know, ukraine has for five years been suffering from an invasion, and occupation by russia. That war is still going on. There are ukraine soldiers being killed every week. And the United States as a leader in the west and an adversary of russia at this stage, my choice of putin, frankly, has been supporting ukraine economically, politically, and militarily with assistance to help it combat this russian aggression. And what President Trump did, it appears, is to withhold congressionally appropriated funds, almost 400 million worth of military assistance that the ukrainians desperately need, in order to, it seems, to extort information for bogus investigation that he could use against his political opponents domestically. Its an extraordinary interference in our democratic process, sponsored by, encouraged by, solicited by the president of the United States. And nowhere in that phone call does he talk to the new ukrainian president about the issues that have long concerned the United States, russian aggression, sanctions, how to support the ukraine government. None of that. Its all about what zelinsky, the president of ukraine, can do to help donald trump advance his partisan clinical objectives. Do you believe that it is within a president s purview to use military assistance as a lever to prod policy actions . Yes, if its policy action in service of u. S. National policy interest, policy goals. The United States has leverage. We employ sanctions sometimes. We give a come we dont give aid. Aid. But we dont do to advance a president personal political interest. And then we dont hide it. We do it openly and transparently every communicate to the world and to the government in question why we may be providing or withholding assistance. So what is so striking about this is that it was not utilized to advance our National Interest. It was utilized to advances personal political interest. And, frankly, this is part of a pattern. It may check to go back and review very carefully what we learned about 2016. And it makes you wonder about all of these other interactions that it seemed somewhat dubious, whether its with mohammad bin salman of saudi arabia or any number of leaders from kim jongun to other adversaries that he has praised, and wonder whats underneath all of this. That are integral transcripts are notes for almost all of those calls or meetings, if not all of them. As a former National Security adviser, im assuming you always advocated the importance that a president and other foreign leaders being able to have a modicum of privacy in their conversations so that there can be room for actual conversations to happen. How do you balance of those interests, the precedent of the need for president s and for leaders to have internal deliberations that are not entirely shared with the public versus what youre talking about here . Are you advocating for the transcript or the notes of President Trumps calls with mbs, with putin, with cc to all be released to congressional investigators were to the public . Book, obviously in normal times there is utility in the communications between foreign leaders have the image of confidentiality. These are not normal times. What is unprecedented is the president of the United States who is abusing his office. Thats whats unprecedented. I care about all these other things you mentioned, but i care more about what we dont yet know about what the the presidf the United States has done behind closed doors that run counter to use National Interest. This ukraine example is a perfect case. And then we call the other problem. The other problem is, according to the whistleblower report, that instead of this transcript, which by the way we have not seen the full verbatim transcript, normally there is a full verbatim transcript that would appear. What they did instead of storing it in the normal system, which is protected and classified, even though there was no classified substance in that discussion, instead of putting it where it normally resides, they hit it on a very highly sensitive, highly compartmented server that very few people in the Us Government have access to in order to bury yet. [inaudible] unless there were legitimately in their content classified. [inaudible] but its rare that a president ial conversation would be classified to that highest level. Its not impossible its very rare, even when there are two leaders discussing classified information. Heres a case where there was nothing classified and it was moved to the most secure, sensitive server. The contents of those notes would never have been moved to the classified system, okay. I want to ask you just another question before we get out of this. To the white house and and in s he ever have concerns about the Vice President dealing, Vice President biden even with ukraine or resent dealing in ukraine . The president now, President Trump has raised this as an issue. Was that ever an issue or serious concern inside the administration . Know, and let me explain why. There was a complete distraction play going on here, which is to try and conflate what Vice President biden did at president obamas behest on behalf of transparent and over use policy objectives, pushing back on corruption in a country where the United States and our allies are providing billions of dollars of economic assistance, and trying to bolster this nascent democracy in ukraine. Vice President Biden made phone calls and took trips in support of that u. S. Policy objective. It was transparent. It was stated openly. It was back our western partners in the imf. There was a secrecy about it. There were no hiding the records with the transcripts. It was all the basic work of diplomacy. And to suggest that there is some equivalence between the president of the United States, this President Trump, extorting a foreign leader to advance his partisan personal interests, and the Vice President or president of the United States in biden or obama pursuing a a policy thats open and transparent and backed by a congress that was pursuant to our interests is completely apples and oranges. Before this past week, speaking about the book, i have asked you if you would take a short excerpt to read since nobody in eits has had a chance to read the book yet. That kind of census in the mood for your experience and the story that you wanted to tell the public. Would you do was the honor right now . Thank you. Id be delighted. Let me explain what this is. As margaret pointed out, the book, its really got four parts. The first is my childhood upbringing, my Family History in part going up in washington, d. C. In the 60s and 70s and the story of my parents and grandparents on the one side, the descendents of slaves in south carolina. On the other side, immigrants from jamaica who came to portland, maine, in 1912. And what they shared in common was this extraordinary commitment to education, to the american dream, for each generation bettering the next. That was the foundation in which i was raised, and then the personal story continues with a pretty bald discussion of my parents very painful divorce and the impact it had on me. Second part is after my education, my early years in government, eight years in the clinton administration, and thats the section from which ongoing to draw an excerpt to read to you. And then the third part is about my time as National Security adviser, all of which includes stories of my family and balancing motherhood and having elderly sick parents and all of that combined. What id like to read is the story that, a small story that occurred when i was assistant secretary of state for African Affairs. Where, in 1998, i was a very young assistant secretary of state. I i took the job at age 32. Most of my colleagues, the ambassadors who reported to me were 2030 years my senior. I was a brandnew breastfeeding mother, and at first blush, not a particularly expected leader of this bureau in the state department. Were on a trip in africa, a small plane with three of my colleagues and were flying from south africa to angola from victoria to rwanda, about a four hour flight. Let me take it from here. Such trips were intense and exhausting as we hopped between distant capitals on small private planes. Commercial Airline Connections in africa were scarce, unreliable, and often dangerous point as an assistant secretary, rather than a cabinet official, i did not rate a dedicated military plane. We often the least four or six seat propeller planes, jets were a rare luxury. Which were vulnerable to whether a mechanical challenges. On this trip we flew on a small quinolyl became a particularly memorable leg from south africa to rwanda, angola, 1500mile journey that required a refueling stop in rural namibia. It was approximately a four hour flights were left south africa early in the morning to arrive in angola by midday, go straight into meetings with senior officials. Along the way we plotted our message to the angolans. The four avocet close, almost toe to toe. Gail and i faced foreword with john and howard facing us. Flying backward on our tiny plane. It made for convenient conversation, but soon was to intimate. About an hour into the flight i started feeling clammy in week. As my perspiration increased, my stomach turned over, signaling it was quite discontent. I announced to my colleagues, im not feeling well. And reached for the airsickness bag, which thankfully was handy. With muffled apologies i opened the bag apologies to you all as well. [laughing] and threw up voluminously. Suddenly, to my horror i felt my lab growing warm and wet. The bag had a hole in the bottom [laughing] and i was covered in puke. My lightweight right and blue dress with white polka dots come once ready for meeting with the president of angola, was ruined and i would have no time to change before our meeting. And a flash icon howard and john sitting there slackjawed and shocked. [laughing] but can never to gingerly pull back their feet to try to save their shoes. [laughing] from the bomb it pooling beneath us on the floor. As soon as i finished being sick and realized the gravity of the situation, there was only one thing i could do, laugh hysterically. Kindly as friends they all join me in howling at the insanity of the moment, that we still had the problem of the dress, and the leader of our delegation being a smelly, and presentable mess. We landed on a dirt patch in nowhere namibia to refuel as planned. There was a small there is a single gas pump, a waterhole with hose in some rudimentary bathrooms. Admin gave us some privacy, as gail turn the hose on me and my dress. [laughing] sprayed me that until i was thoroughly drenched in the desert. She and i then went into the bathroom to strip down and ensure we washed away all signs of vomit. Confident we had succeeded, all that remained was for me to a dry over the ensuing couple hours. [laughing] [applause] welcome to high style diplomacy. [laughing] sounds fun working at the white house, doesnt it . Vomit on yourself, get hosed down, go back to work. All of your parents died while you were working in the administration. I can relate. Both my parents that parents died when i was coming to administration. When you are working on the book a lot of this was dedicated to putting in the gaps about questions you could ask your parents anymore when you finally able to come up for air. After a long time in the government. Your dad was one of the tuskegee airmen. Your mom was the mother of a pell grant. How hard was it to find that stuff and why did you want to share that stuff with the public . I know that the experience, your experience both going through the tragedy in benghazi as a Public Servant and also your experience with how that played in the media and how Many Americans know your name now, for better or for worse, for right offer wrong, was part of your motivation write the book and introduce yourself to the public. But why did you want to share your personal story with the public . What did you learn that you didnt know before about your parents . Let me begin by sharing what i did this. First of all, with this unusual background that i come from and the extraordinary riblets that ive had to serve two president s and our country extraordinary privilege ive had to serve two president s and a country in to make different context and represent the United States in the world and to keep a safe, i feel like ive learned some things along the way. From my family, from upbringing, from my service that it want to share that i think are valuable broadly to people who are trying to compete and thrive in unforgiving environment. And if they have been not down, to get back up. But also personally, i felt that for the years between benghazi in 2012 when i was characterized by the right as a villain and by the left by some as a victim, that i was really unable intelligence government to do anything other than speak for the United States and the president. I didnt have the ability to speak in my own voice intel and tell my own story. That rubbed me the wrong way because as you might discuss some of the critical lessons i learned from my parents was such a ever let anybody define me for me. That i had to be my own advocate, my own champion, and my own spokesperson. And that overlays with some lessons on race which we can potentially come back to. And so if i was going to comment on story, and i wanted to, i had to be honest. I had to tell not just, this is not a book for selfpromotion, running for office, some of the kind of thing. But i have actually written an unorthodox book. This was a book to tell my story and all of its dimensions and that required talking about the painful step would also enabled me to go back and spend time dissecting and excavating some of these chapters in my life when back to my childhood and my parents divorced in particular. I had just rushed to in order to keep trying to strive and excel and do my best. Painful of course. Very painful divorce, environment and terrifying, ad achieve me in many ways because i was a little sevenyearold firefighter tried to mediate between my parents and protect my little brother. And i had wonderful parents. These were highly accomplished, brilliant, devoted people who gave me and my brother everything we could hope for, that they had no business being married to each other. They broke up in bitter way and put us through that experience in a very bitter public custody battle. Out of that not only did i learn for better or for worse a Little Something about mediation and conflict resolution, but i learned that i i could take a t and keep going. That i wouldnt let something even that painful that early get me down. That was very valuable also down the road. You asked what i learned that i didnt know. Its interesting, i had a childs perspective on my parents breakup. With the process of writing this book, and i heard my parents but i saw the documentary records. We found in my deceased fathers papers the legal depositions that my parents had to provide in the course of their battle, and nobody should ever read the legal depositions of their divorced parents. Its not pretty. But it was enlightening because i cant understand both the perspectives much more clearly and could digest them from the Vantage Point of a grownup who is make myself and us children. It was a lot that i learned, and im glad i had the opportunity to do it. Her parents divorce was foundational experience. You had another difficult experience although you did know about until later but it must have shaped your thoughts about yourself and your relationship to your mom, which was i hope its okay for me to share this, its in the book, you actually wouldve been a twin. You had a brother and he was stillborn, angela about that many years later. Yeah, my mom and dad, as i said, one of the people who had no business being married. One of the early indications they had no business being married was that my mother wanted kids and my father thought he didnt want kids, and my mother got pregnant and my father blamed her for tricking him. I was the product of that first trick, so to speak. It wasnt a trick. And it turned out that my parents learned that my mother was, in fact, bearing twins, and they had been living in nigeria when i was conceived long story, i wont go there yet. And they were making their way back to the United States from west africa line through paris, and they were on a plane crash. Their plane took off, a twa aircraft took off and instead of lifting off it crashed nose down into the ground in i ideas mayr something of 1964. None of the passengers were killed. They all feedback we get safely including my parents, but it was a dramatic, emotional and physical experience for my mother. When they got back to the United States she was on bed rest for much of the rest of her pregnancy. When she came to deliver, my baby brother was stillborn and i survived. I didnt know about that until i was 12. My parents i think it wanted to keep that from me until the time i was old enough to appreciate it. But in a context of a heated fight that us having with my mother as a 12yearold i said something flip, like, why do you always treat me worse than the others . She heard that income a nation with some of the things ive said over the years to suggest that i had some intuition that, in fact, i was a twin. And she blurted out, how did you know you were a twin . I said, what are you talking about . I had no idea, and that was the first time i learned. And what was hard about it was, i asked her, what happened . Why did he die . And she said we dont know for sure. It couldve been the plane crash. They could even the pediatrician who wasnt and careful enough attention to what was going on and i never had full confidence in. It couldve been that you were the stronger of the two and that you consumed the lions share of the resources. And i heard that as, am i my bg blamed for the death of my sibling . I know thats not what my mother met but thats what i heard. And so that was a moment that i never really let go of. Over and over again when you take somebody elses job as well, you take someone elses work as well as your own, he tried to do extra comedy feels you cherry that with you . I dont know that i have thought about it that way. I have known from my childhood that i was a strong personality and a strong character, and data had a lot of selfconfidence even from an early age. And i visit an athlete at the tomboy, you know, through around a few elbows when necessary but i didnt associate that with taking from somebody else. I dont think you took away from your brother anything. Just the sense of responsibility to go the extra mile . I do feel that but im not sure where that comes from. I found that story incredibly haunting to read the excerpt. That was a lot to put on your shoulders i think. Were not going to have time to talk about, so what you quickly share a glance at some of the passages that are in this book because we have a couple of we have to talk about. You told the qt story. There was a time you gave Dick Holbrooke the finger. Highly recommend that passage. Theres the decision you have to make about whether to attend john mccains funeral, given the course of your relationship in those final years. And why you decided what you decided to do. There are some really interesting passages on your relationship with the former Russian Ambassador at the u. N. , the late Russian Ambassador who compared the u. N. Meetings to porn. Let you guys. Read out on your own. Theres a couple of lessons from south sedan and rwanda, and then theres the alshabaab plot to attack resident obama on a trip in 2015 that i was on in ethiopia that i didnt know anything about, and guess who else did know anything else about until they were back on the plane . Okay. So were in ethiopia in 2015. This is one of the many president ial trips with took overseas. We just come from kenya which was president obama is first trip to cannes as president. Lots of enthusiastic crowds as youll recall. In ethiopia the first night we were there after the state dinner, i went back to my bedroom, as usual, and planned to get ready for bed and there was a knock on the door and it was anita decker breckenridge, the White House Traveling chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, playing the role of chief of staff and instill an account and she says you have to come with me. I didnt have my shoes on. I still had my ball count on, and we go down to this secret service tent, you know how we have these secured tents on these trips for the communications. We go into this secured tents and if it is the head of the president Security Secret Service detail, a number of other senior agents representatives from our embassy who on the Security Side of the embassy, and they wanted to share with me that they had just learned very reliably that alshabaab, this is an east african terrorist organization with links to alqaeda that had carried out a number of attacks throughout east africa, had an active plot underway to attack president obama the next day as our motorcade was leaving the African Union headquarters and making its way to the airport. You were in that motorcade. So was i. So we get this information. Obviously, we take it very seriously. I call back to washington to make sure that were putting all of our assets on tried to chase down this threat strain. In communication with the Ethiopian Security forces who are actually quite capable and efficient, if also very ruthless. And they keep assuring us that they are following the suspect and have the suspect under surveillance, and that we shouldnt worry. And, of course, we worried. We get to the next day. Were at the African Union. The president gives his speech. What are about to get into the motorcade to head to the airport, and all of the ethiopian assurances that they have everything under control are ringing hollow because suddenly the americans have information that suggests that the suspect is at large and on the street. On the route, by the way, of the motorcade. And so the president is hustled into a hold room. Hes getting increasingly frustrated because he doesnt know why precisely he is being effectively detain by his own people in this hold room and prevented from going back home. Im in in a meeting with the ethiopian Prime Minister and several of my colleagues trying to underscore to the Prime Minister how concerned we are that we cant actually move the president until we get this resolved. So my friend and colleague gail smith who lived for many yearsn ethiopia, the one who knows me down, is on the phone with the head of Ethiopian Security and she saying to the sky, weve got a serious problem. We have reason to believe this guy is on the loose. Hes like, its not a problem. Shes like, it really we are very concerned, its a problem. He said, its not a problem. She said how can it not be a problem . What is this guy . And finally the scripture says, hes with me at the airport. And were like, hes with you at the airport . Yes, hes in my car. And im thinking, hes buried in his trunk, not getting out. And, in fact, he wasnt i dont know where in the car, i never asked. The secret service verified that this was the case at the airport and we were able to move the president and you onto air force one and leave and we took off. I delayed recall that we took off in the most extraordinarily steep ascent that ive ever been on except in a war zone. We were getting the hell out of dodge. And you all never knew . No. We told the president after wheels of what happened, in great detail. We had a few extra drinks on the way home. I was on that trip but i guess in a situation like that, its a safer to hold out in ethiopia or get an appointment get out . Once we knew that i was in custody we knew we could get out with relative confidence. But we were not could hang around for niceties. Im going to take you back to the spring 2015. Your at the white house correspondents dinner, which you hate. I hate. And i was honored to be your guest. Thank you for coming. Someone is coming at you for a hug, which is always weird, like a dark room and you realize the person coming at you for a hug is donald trump. [laughing] and he wraps his arms veg and he whispers in your ear, youve been very unfairly treated over benghazi. And quote, you were doing a great job for the country. He puts his arms around you and you pose for a picture. Thats a true story. There were a lot of awkward things about that. Some might even say creepy. But i had my back to him and he came up from behind me. I had never met him before and actually have never met him since. He literally pulled me out of my chair and gave me a hug. And it wasnt, i do want to misconstrue. It wasnt a gross hug picture was inappropriate, except for the fact i didnt know him and ive never met him before. But what was notable about it was what he said. Youve been very unfairly treated over benghazi. Youre doing a great job for the country. Were you surprised . Hell, yeah, i was surprised. Why were you surprised to hear them him say that . Because in public on twitter, hes talking conspiracy theory. It was just six weeks later Something Like that that he declares his run for the presidency. And in every subsequent mentioned to me that ive heard out of his mouth, ive been a criminal, ive been this, ive been that. Ive not been fairly untreated, who has president obama. Whats interesting was the contrast between what he said in private and what weve heard before and since in public. Benghazi was a tragedy in 2012, ending the life of several americans including the u. S. Ambassador. Your mom told you not to do the sunday shows. She said i smell a rat. Softball question. You recent Hillary Clinton for sending to out there to those shows . No. And let me explain. First of all, she didnt sende out. Secondly, the back story is, horrible week. We had lost four of our colleagues in a terrible tragedy. Tragedy. Many of our other embassies around the world had been subjected to violent attacks, demonstrations. Its about ten days before the opening of the u. N. General assembly and im the u. N. Ambassador, and many of the issues that a work on from syria that palestinian stated to the Iran Nuclear Issue will be at the four. And the white house calls me on a friday afternoon and says, weve asked secretary clinton if she would go on the sunday shows and were waiting to hear from her, but if she cant, would you consider doing it . We need somebody to go out. And i said, call me when you hear back from her you are a couple hours later they called back and they say shes that able to do it. And my assumption was that was because she was emotionally spent after a very wrenching week, tired and didnt want to do it. They said would you please do it . And i said okay. It was not how i planned to spend my weekend. In fact, i was taking my kids the next day to columbus, ohio, for the ohio state Football Game against berkeley, and my kids have never been to a big ten game and i was determined to take them, and i did take them. But on my way home from work, i stop by my mothers house. My mom, just a couple months later had a stroke him earlier, had had stroke, and after fourth or fifth cancer surgery, and i stopped in to check on her, and we were having a conversation and i said, she said what are you doing this weekend . I said im taking the kids to ohio state and then i agreed to go on these sunday shows, all five of them at the white house request. She looked at me and she said, what . I said im going on the sunday shows. She said why you . I said because they asked secretary clinton, she declined. I agreed to do it. I was trying to be a team player. She said i smell a rat. You should not go on these shows. I said mom, dont be ridiculous. Ive done this many times before. It will be fine. And, of course, it wasnt. So ill be honest, i think my mother had that suspicion, but it wasnt mine. What i think perhaps my mother understood intuitively, and maybe secretary clinton and tom donilon, the nasa student advisor and the other likely suspects, understood better than i did, was that the first person who speaks publicly about a crisis with the details are unfolding is inevitably going to have information that in some way, shape, or form turns out to be incomplete or inaccurate, and that was what happened in this case. I provided the best information that the u. S. Government had at the time. It was given to me by the intelligence committee. It was consistent with what i knew to be our intelligence, and that sherry did, say if the change and it was preliminary. And it ended up being erroneous in one important respect. There was no demonstration at our facility in benghazi. But having delivered that message, i became, it wasnt just the message that was the target of the president political opponent in an election year, it was the messenger as well. And that frankly not occurred to me, it would be the next time, that i should put myself above a broader mission. The lesson out of that, among others, is, one, that most importantly we lost four americans, and their loss has been overshadowed by all the politics and back and forth over this issue, the least of which was my portion of it, but just generally their loss has been overshadowed which is horrible. And in the real world it soured washingtons interest in helping to stabilize libya picks would have realworld consequences as well. But the other lesson ive learned is you should listen to your mother. [laughing] and i tell my kids that all the time. Listen to your mother. We have only a few minutes left on what ask you one more libya question. Im going to tell a couple quick stories. I get 15 minutes, right . If i talk fast enough to do. With the benefit of hindsight give any regrets about the way the administration approached libya and stuck with it . Put benghazi aside a what am asking you is a prelude to benghazi. Where the things you do differently now if you could do it again. Was yes. As i discuss in the book i advocated for u. S. Intervention in libya. I was on the side of the argument the said we ought to intervene to protect civilians and it made that case fortunate on behalf of the trend of the unit and we won the vote to authorize. I still think, you know, its not a black and white call that that was the right decision. Where i think we made mistakes and underestimated both a willingness of our european allies, willingness and ability of our european allies to contribute in the postconflict phase and the u. N. , but we also underestimated the complexity of trying to unify a society that is only lived for years under the rule of one man, had no institutions to underpin it. We did not, when i say we, i mean the United States, the europeans, the u. N. , all of us, africans, who are engaged this, arabs, didnt do enough swiftly enough to try to help libya stabilize. I have no idea on so whether we could have succeeded, but the tragedy is we cant make that judgment because i dont think we put sufficient effort into it when it wouldve mattered. And then came benghazi which was sort of the deathknell. A day when i was National Security adviser, i didnt have later, with president obama is forceful support and encouragement, we turned a lot more effort and attention to libya, to diplomacy to try to resolve the internal conflicts to building up the capacity but i think in retrospect it was too late. There are a couple other things i want to flag for readers out there. You do identify one regret with respect to russia policy. You say that you wish not you, that the administration had been more aggressive about sanctions in 2016 you also and wish we still were more aggressive about sanctions related to 2016. You talk in the book about to that other things, president xi tells obama right before the end he a trade war with President Trump, but if he forces him to have one, china is going to play to win. That was quite a moment. This was president obamas last bilateral meeting with president xi jinping in peru at the aipac summit, were talking about all kinds of different issues and out of the blue without warning, president xi says was just relayed, that he said, he looked as obama in the eye and said china does not want a trade war with the United States. But if you start one we will fight to win it. And, of course, president obama was not meant to be the recipient of the message. But it stuck with me as unusually cold and start a warning, and now we are saying what that meant. I wish we could do a whole hour on this. The fbi ran a counter into operation on you because there were not sure you were supposed be meeting with irans u. N. Ambassador. Thats another session. Before we go over to questions, there are just to make people we have talked about yet, what is your daughter and the other is your son. You may all know jake as a very active republican at stanford university. You should all know him. The other is that your daughter you reveal in this book, around the time of the benghazi episode, was so stressed out by being a nine year old kid processing what was happening to you that she began having hallucinations. I just want ask you before we turn to questions, in both of those cases, kind of your takeaway from balancing parenthood with a very stressful, high profile job like the National Security adviser. Will come in the case of our daughter, she started telling us about, she was seen images of men coming out of walls at her. We were of course very freaked out. Shes a very happy, healthy, normal kid, and she was at night and she is at 16, almost 17. We couldnt figure out what was going on so of course we took her to the best place in washington to get tested at Childrens Hospital and there were looking at dg have a brain tumor, when she psychotic, e. G. Have some visual problem, what was going on . They went through a battery of tests can ruled out all the worse case, scariest scenarios and conclude that ultimately was a stress reaction. And it was on us to a large extent because we had not realized that with the tv on in the background she was inviting the file that was directed at me and had no basis for understanding. Bio. My mother also suffered from this patient a very clear consciousness of what was going on but it was still emotionally traumatized. I include that story in the book because i wanted to illustrate that the politics of personal destruction in washington dont come for free. There are innocent children, loved ones, friends, colleagues who suffer as well. She is fine. Shes a top student, a great athlete, a wonderful, happy, healthy kid. Thank god. But shes not the only kid in washington who has suffered because their parents have been attacked, and its not going to change im afraid, but we should be oblivious to what it costs. Before we go to questions,o a thing i would leave you with is with jake it does seem that is, if you and jake temperature differences instead of extreme a close, anyone can. Lets get to questions right away. If you would tell us, be brief because i went on too long, tell if you are and ask away. What would you say the democrats now going to what theyre going to go through, what are the thinks they should tell the American Public about why its so dangerous, what President Trump has done . As hard as it is to persuade people, this really shouldnt be viewed through a partisan lens. We have had president s of both parties going back as far as we can remember with whom we may have agreed or deferred, but at least in my lifetime we have never had a president of the United States that acted in a fashion that wasnt consistent with what he believed to be the National Interest. You can agree or disagree about the iraq war or vietnam or whatever, but the president s who prosecuted those efforts i think did it because they thought it was the right thing for the country. They were not doing it for their financial gain or their personal political gain. And now we have reason on a national and by person basis to question quite seriously whether what motivates the commanderinchiefs is, in fact, the National Interest. And to our collective dismay, i think there is mounting evidence, and, frankly, the ukraine is only the most recent and start example, but you can ask, why are we in bed with kim jongun rex why did we invite the taliban to get david . Why is Vladimir Putin sitting with the president in private meetings with no notetakers and the president coming out and denigrating our intelligence agencies and praising putin . Theres a whole lot of things that dont make sense, and none of them seem to be clearly in the u. S. Interest. So thats the fundamental problem, and thats something that, in my opinion, for better or for worse, merits scrutiny and investigation. Thank you and thank you for writing this as a human book about such difficult and political things. Im with the washington examiner, and when you were saying you underestimated the complexity of making libya peaceful, im just thinking of the iraq war and the regime change war in the muslim world turn out to create a hotbed of terrorism and help isis in the same way iraq and alqaeda. The only lesson i can see president obama seem to take from iraq was the dangers of nationbuilding but that plays right into what youre talking it was a problem the wasnt a lasting u. S. Presently afterwards. Was there anything that the Obama Administration learned from the iraq invasion that you applied in the libby invasion . And if so why did things into exactly as badly . Good question but let me put in context the first of all, president obama as you recall opposed the iraq war. I personally opposed the iraq war when i was out of government in the bush years. But opposing the iraq war because it didnt seem to be justified on the basis for which we were told were going to war, weapons of mass destruction. And it seemed to detract from and distract from what was our principal characters and challenge at that moment, which was in afghanistan against alqaeda. President obama learned many things from iraq, starting with dont put your Ground Forces into a combat zone when youre National Interests, your vital National Interests are not at stake. Libya was a humanitarian intervention. We did it with the blessing of the world and with the partnership of the europeans and the arabs. We did it because we thought at the time, and i still believe, that the ability to affect the protection of human beings was achievable at a bearable cost and risk. We knew we could do it without putting u. S. Forces on the ground, without an occupation. So the mistake, if there was one in aftermath, was not that we didnt but u. S. Forces on the ground. That was not what im suggesting it was that we didnt invest with the europeans and the United Nations and others sufficiently the diplomatic capital, the postconflict reconstruction, the stabilization presents that the the United Nations might have provided in order to try to help libya cohere at the moment where, or a short period, i think there was a collective will but it wasnt about putting u. S. Forced on the grounds that wasnt an unlearning of the iraq lesson. Thats how we did, for sizes in syria. Thats how we ultimately tried to tackle isis with iraqi Security Forces in iraq so the principal lesson of the iraq war against Saddam Hussein in our estimation was you dont necessarily have to put tens of thousands of us forces on the ground and occupy a sovereign nation in order to accomplish your counterterrorism objectives to more if we can. I just wanted to first of allsay thank you for your service. As this last week we saw testimony from acting dni mcguire and one big thing he said is the warfare we face in our country is no longer kinetic but cyber. Being a young person frankly i agree so my question is what do you believe that the Obama Administration as well as the Trump Administration did to keep specifically in regards to our election being secure and not enough during those two administrations which is what i would esteem personally, what do we need to do to ensure security for oursystems and our elections . Great question. For 2016 when we confronted the russian threat we worried about several things. We worried about whether the russians would be in a position to infiltrate our election systems in each of the 50 states, many of the 50 states and corrupt the voter rolls or the voting ballots in the county itself. We were worried they had already stolen emails from the dnc, from Hillary Clintons server that they could not only publish those emails which they had already started to do but they might be able to falsify them and make them look real and thus in that fashion corrupt the process. Those were among our most immediate and principal concerns. We also saw the russians using rt, the Russian Television station and sputnik and other propaganda vehicles to infuse our political debate. What we didnt see clearly and only came to light subsequently in 2017 and beyond and which we therefore underestimated the severity of was the russias ability then and every day sense to use social media and bots and activists on all sides of various divisive issues to get americans against each other. And to undermine our confidence in each other and americans and this democracy so what the russians are doing every day now as we speak and we saw it initially in 2016 but its continued is they are playing on both sides of every divisive issue with her its race or immigration or guns or what have you and sometimes theyre utilizing americans and their as a vehicle, sometimes theyre utilizing false flag operations. But their whole purpose is to pit. Were going to leave the last few minutes of this tribute event with susan rice and you can watch this and all other programs online at cspan. Our live coverage continues, bringing you a discussion on Public Diplomacy in the Trump Administration. We will hear from a numberof state Department Officials hosted by the heritage foundation. Live coverage here on cspan2. Not enough has been, we talked about the extent of thch