Was involved in high profile terrorism and kidnapping ioinvestigations, manage the bureau munication in response to crisis incidents. Overseas he was on multiple diplomatic operational assignments has been awarded the fbi combat awarded four times for his work embedded with military special operation. Hes presently a cnn Law Enforcement analysty on cnn. He is a term member of the council of the Foreign Relations and teaches National Security law at usc. He received his masters from Johns Hopkins universityop and much board for from our perspective in austin hes a graduate of the university of texas. [applause]. Most relevant to his book is that he was james comeys special assistant. The book crossfire hurricane gets its name, that was the codename for the fbi rush nvinvestigation and as james comeys assistant hes able to offer a fly on the wall perspective, account on the early days of the investigation as well as really insightful analysis into the investigation up to the present. He was also there when director we made some fateful decisions about another Investigation Called midyear exam which was the investigation into Hillary Clintons email server. Just as important a book offers joshs perspective on again what is the subtitle of the book, Donald Trumps war on the fbi. At the Trump Administration reaction to the investigation and their ramification. The book is a page turner and i highly recommend it. Want to start with your experience, josh writes he first decided to come in fbi agent while he was sitting in a building here at ut watching on the television as the twin towers collapse on 911 so we like to say what starts your changes the world so i would like to ask you, josh to tell us about your experience and how it changed your world. I appreciate it and first thank you all for coming. This is my first book and as part of that the publisher actually send you on the road to talk about the bookt and thats been an incredible aspect of writing this work because then my journalism and television i never get to see the audience staring into a camera. I know you are out there, but i cannot see you so thin rewarding spend time with you, to interact with you. We will have q a which is always the best part so i look forward to that and the fact that i am here at home makes it more special. Is you mentioned went to the university of texas at austini t and always get asked what made you join the fbi, what was that road alike and it didnt start my College Career didnt start thinking i would join the fbi. When i started, i thought i would someday go into Foreign Service and maybe be a diplomat overseas. Over one week into my College Career here at ut as you mentioned i found myself standing in the government building in a hallway next to other students as we watched an endless loop of commercial airliners slam into a manhattan sky scraperta and that was obviously a critical moment for that nation in the country. I remember in the aftermath watching the response of Law Enforcement and the fbi, these agencies responsible for somehow bringing justice to victims, but also as finding those people out there that may have been responsible and bring them to justice, so i wanted to be a part of that and i set out to orient my career around joining the fbi. I was fortunate to do an internship with the fbi my junior year and fell in love with that, the mission, the people was unlike anything id ever seen, unlike any people ive never met. Whats interesting is that i thought okay there are issues here important to meha, policy issues thats it as it relates to the war on terrorism so i wondered since im still in college i havent dedicated myself get to any career, i wonder what the political, policy making side of government is like so i actually worked a session in this building here, texas capital, and it was an experience that was very insightful to see these politicians at work, to see how they interact with each other, how bills become law, how they try to influence each other, how the sausage is made so to speak and after that session i walked out of the building thinking theres no way in hell im going into politics after that experience, so again my road was through the fbi and i was switching death to be hired fulltime and had the pleasure of serving in a number of premieres americas premier Law Enforcement agencies. I will askth a few more questions and then we will open up a few questions in the audience with a couple microphones in front and back and at the appropriate time we will recognize those microphones let me start by asking about the two consequential decisions director, he made during the 2016 president ial campaign. Of the first was decision to not only announced publicly that the fbi had decided to recommend Hillary Clinton not be prosecuted, but in the interest of transparency to announce publicly the details of the investigation and to criticize Hillary Clintons conduct. Of the second consequential decision was a decision october 28 to announce that the fbi had reopen the investigation of Hillary Clintons email server 11 days before the election. In your book you say that with regard to the first decision, the july press conference you were in favor of transparency. You are a little more circumspect about how you fell out the october 28 event, as i would like to ask you to talk about your decisionmaking process, what you know if director colbys decisionmaking process and also if there are any regrets. A great question. What i try to do with this book is for you inside the agency during a chaotic time that began with the investigation into secretary clinton and her email server because if you think about it the fbi and it seems obvious now, butut had under investigation when the leading candidates for the president which was not a place the fbi had found itself in beforen. That would become even more impressive later ond when if found itself investigating People Associated with the other candidates so a very chaotic time inside the bureau. Backing up to the investigation of the suspect secretary clinton what i try to do in the book is bring you in the room during the decisionmaking process and up close to james ommey the person and i will preface this by saying as i sit here today and as as someone in journalism as i look at our leaders in government and former leaders for that matterte, itsp to me too ensure e that the view im purse trying is just the c,cts, the actions and i think its up to you, the public, the readers, listeners, viewers to make the decision if you think people in power are doing what they should be and so thats what i try to do not only my daily life but in the book and what james comey said about these decisions, i knew on that day of the press conference in july 2016 when he stepped her microphone and made the announcement of a new, everyone on the team knew it would now press the agency into a state of turmoil because if you think about it half of the country would be angry with the fbi regardless of what happenedpp if the recommendation was not to be prosecuted people would be unhappy and if it was to be prosecuted another set would be angry so what he tried to do and what i try to do is explain what james comeys rationale was is what he try to do with error on the side of ensuring the public have the full story about what had transpired so you work recall prior to his decision there was another decision by another leader that impacted what he did next and that was at the time the attorney general, Loretta Lynch was in phoenix and privately onair with president bill clinton, former president bill clinton and then candidate trump and others said this is the biggest scandal weve ever seen, they are coordinating, this looks bad. I personally as i sit here i cant imagine loretto when she was an accomplished lawyer will been sitting there plotting about how to make an investigation go away. With that said, perception matters especially when youre in a high profile position so after that took place she did not recuse yourself from the Hillary Clinton investigation and remained in the chain of command so what he thought was looking up we recommend she not be prosecuted, which was way the decision was leaning and we just send a letter to the doj and the public doesnt know what we did there will be lingering doubt about whether the fbi especially when you have these issues are perception so we dido something thats never been done he stood before the American People and made this long announcement, described the fbis and that actions and criticized some of her behavior and hopefully recommend she not be prosecuted. Uncritical of comey in the book as well. I had the honor of a lifetime working for someone who i believe is one of the greatest leaders the fbis ever seen. I can tell you as a person where our leaders lie to us every single dayay about things big ad small one of the big criticisms people give him is that hes too sanctimonious. Again, in an era where we are lied to thousands of times according to the thousands of times in the Current Administration and one thing i criticize is the used to describe secretary clintons behavior you will require a recall with Law Enforcement if youre not compressed prosecute someone but then to talk describe someones behavior is bad so i think that was unfortunate and he has since said he would not use that same language in hind sight. I dont want to keep going on all of this is in the book, backs up to the election where t now he is staring at another set of facts. Of the fbi had come into new set of evidence, emails related to the server that the fbi had to investigate, his decision was to announce to the public that we have reopened this case or conceal that in his mind he thought either decision was an action either to speak or conceal and he made the decision it to seems quaint in hindsight ti think he was worried that the fbis present reputation might suffer or be negatively impacted and it came to light after the election we secretly had her under investigation can all along and he had not told that the American People so critical decision and one thing i will say about him as well is that if you look his actions i hope you understand that nearly every major decision he made as a leader that was a highprofile consequence almost universally negative for himself personally. He could have planted these hard balls to other people and runaway, but he decided on the leader and i will make the tough decisions. As one person described, a legal expert described james comey as someone who has a tendency to jump on everyte grenade even whn the grenades are not meant for him and he was surrounded by people who run away from the grenades. Tough call, tough decisions. Let me pick up on your theme of the book about damage to the fbi. You write that law and order weaks down when the public begins to question if it was rigged in the mutually respect between citizens and those who are enforcing the law is very fragile. How much damage it do you thinko is been done to the fbi and how longlasting do you think it will be . Important question. The answer to that i think will be consequential to public safety. What i write the book andnd the reason why describe this in detail, my sincere belief that this campaign of attack against the agencyba is bad for the country is because at the in the day and i know having been an fbi agent that when an fbi agent knocks on someones adored during an investigation and they need help, the willingness of that person to help the agent is correlated to there be of the agent, are they trustworthy, honest, do they follow the loss of my concern is if good people start to believe this nonsense that the agency is corrupt and out to get donald trump, which you know is laughable to people like me who were inside thinking are you kidding me that this agency that allegation this agency was not only sitting renspiring but doing so at the behest of president obama, which is the line of attack is laughable on its face and also a house of cards because if you go back at all you need is a little logic i think to destroy this deep state argument take yourself back to 2016, when we went to the polls to vote if you are not inside the fbi didnt know Donald Trumps campaign was under investigation, counterintelligence investigation when he went about that was something the fbi did secretly. Os so, if the fbi wanted to bring down donald trump as he says this deep state cabal s someone would have leaked his campaign was under investigation, game over for investigation, but they didnt do that. Not to say there werent people that made mistakes. I criticize heavily some of the decisions especially some people texting each other disparaging things which i have zero patience for, but this notion the fbi was corrupt and out to get donald trump [inaudible] theres data to show that people are starting to believe this. I did research and talk to alk t of peoplee in gallup did a poll where they surveyed public sentiment d on confidence in the fbi. In 2014 the number among republicans, which is of interest for me, over 75 of the public in 2014 had high confidence in the fbi. Today that number is less than 50 which tells me good people believe this, that theres this deep state cabal so it doesnt matter your party preference. Its im in journalism and its not my job to tell you what to believe but theres consequences if the public doubts the competence of these agencies. I can give you many examples. When an fbi agent prizes in a courtroom to testify through the course of a prosecution of a case of the criminal, that jerry has to believe that the fbi agent is telling the truth. Cases hinge on whether they believe that person is honest and again, i fear if there is this continued narrative that they are corrupt how many of these cases will be impacted. If people stop for even a minute that our leaders talking about this deep state and people are to get the president how many will doubt what comes out of the mouth of the people responsible for keeping us safe everydayy. You tell a story in the book that illustrates this point. Was at the philippines or well, let you tell the story. I think about this story a lot. What i describe in the book is was overseas and when i was in the fbi was on a team for many years that worked a lot of cases overseas, so i would be with the cia and military special operations conducting terrorism cases, kidnapping, investigatios trying to rescue americans kidnapped overseasas and during the course of one investigation we were tryingd to find a highvalue terrorist targets in southeast asiaha who is responsible for death and destruction and we got a tip from a human source that this person claimed would lead us to where the terrorist was, so i went overseas with my partner connecting investigation and we go through and i kind of describe the planes, trains and automobiles it takes to get to this person because you want to meet with them secretly. His safety was our concern and you had to find where this terrorist was so we meet and then as we sat in the car in this remote village and hes describing for me where he thinks the terrorist is drawing me a map andnd as we start to et the car i ask you my set i cant let you go without asking, why didnt you just walk into the local Police Station in your village and tell them what you know. Why did we all go through this motion of traveling and switching cars and planes and helicopters in all of this just to hear you outut and he lookedt me and he said trust. You are the fbi. Everyone knows you can trust the fbi so that was moving for me ten and its moving for me now, so what i worry about is if this agency is politicized and was on the Russian Investigation a human source helping the fbi was outed by politicians trying to get to his identity which it sounds similar to the whistleblower story and today, by the way, but the reason i tell the story is because how many people out there who may be willing to help the government conduct investigations to help them as informants to go places fbi agents cant go how many goingause and say im not to be a part of that because these people are not trustworthy. Tse my point is there is realworld consequences. Lets follow up becausese unfortunately your book has to have ended before our latest series of scandals that come about, ukraine scandal was not in anyones mind when he published the book. Just learned the fbi Justice Department investigation investigation into what happened with the russians is now a criminal investigation. Dfa thoughts about that . Lots of thoughts. I thought you might. Lets look at ukraine. What so fascinating and you can make up your own mind, youre a value judgment, thats not my, job. Just staring at actions that transpireded, this book its wih Robert Mueller in the Russian Investigation, but what is so timely and relevant is the playbook used by the white house to go after these investigators and undermine them and undermine the credibility of what they came up with is the same playbook now employed during this ukraine scandal, calling it a witch hunt and going after tho oocalled deep state, i mean, what i describe especially the road to impeachment hearing, the playbook is being used to defend and if you look at the timeline the day after Robert Mueller testified before the world which we probably all saw on our television screens, the very next day after he closed the books on that investigation the president picked up the phone and speaks with the leader of ukraine the very next day and asks for foreign interference in us election. That tells me that i think what he thought based on the end of the Russian Investigation was he was emboldened and felt a little bulletproof especially with this policy at the Justice Department that states you cant indict a sitting president. This is something that has withstood administrations, its nonpartisan policy cited the president knew this was tested during the rush investigationll and molars there he was he couldnt go after the president so i think the president felt again emboldened by that what concerns me is as you mentioned the attorney general and his current efforts to investigate the investigatorst , to look bak on the origins of the rush investigation. Im troubled by that for a couple reasons. As someone in journalism i think transparency is important and i also know these agencies have too much power to operate without oversight, without someone looking over their shoulders and ensuring they are doing what they should be doingh we had a very dark past in this country with Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies violated Civil Liberties and i write about that at length in the booe because the agencies of the past are not the agencies of the date the site that administration i want to i believe especially investigation into a top tenant, there has to be reviewed. Tthat problem is i dont know sitting here that attorney general is the person to lead that the fairway because hes already shown through his actions with the molar investigation that hes prepared en run interference for the president. You look at his actions after Robert Mueller investigation the attorney general mischaracterized what was in the report American People for about six weeks the American People believed until it was finally released and we could make it up ourselves anyway, looking at his actions in russia the fact that he the attorney general is now the one circling the globe now trying to investigate with the fbi did with russia gives me pause wondering whether it will be done in a fairway wood because the attorney general has already described the fbi investigation as spine, adopting the same language of the president used is a big question that looms over the fbi. I talk to someone in the fbi this morning about the killing of overnight. I said you tell me what you think and he said hes concerned that now they are moving into a criminal investigation again which has the potential to be politicized in the 2016 election againio and let me circle background began with transparency and oversight. Theres a review to the fbis work thats on the cusp of being finalized by the independent Inspector General in the Justice Department, separate investigation from the attorney. Eneralfr as the one i have the most confidence and because although this Inspector General has criticized the fbi in the past lot i think is a fair person, not a political person. Along those lines. Is there more the fbi could do to fight back. You dont think of the Justice Department playback, but would director komi be sitting there silently while this is going on now . Not a chance and as i describe and send to james comey that i think he wouldve been fired no matter what i mean there wouldve been something during the term of his presidency thatom he would have felt the need to speak up and defend his people again and he would have probably got me ask, so i think that is the state of the world that you had to people that were so different and even in the beginning of the book i was there with him at trump tower when his briefing with the Incoming Administration on the russian interference and he had the job of meeting oneonone with the trumpet describing the socalled dossier this salacious material circling in the two men walked out of that meeting and i think that was the beginning of the end of the t comeys career because they saw that meeting in an entirely different way. Comey that he was giving the president a new headsupht and President Trump t thought that s the attempt to blackmail him that he was pulling a J Edgar Hoover on him, we want you to know we have this material and james comey said that was obviously not the case so i think he wouldve been fired no matter what just looking at the chaos we have seen. With that said i think there are things people in power can do to defend these agencies against these political packs and its not to defend them out large. The fbi makes mistakes all the time and as a journalist my jobu is to know hold them accountable and report on what they do, but these attacks on these agenciesb have been met with silence by people in power and that is part of the reason i wrote the book. Current fbi director i heard him say one timem to a audience tht we didnt ignore im paraphrasing but ignore the pundits, ignore the politicians and the news and focus on judges and juries and i think you have to focus on judges and juries where your cases are made, but those judges and members of the jury walked into the courtroom with a predetermined view of the fbi at based on what they had seen s from press and politicias and the like so what i say is that in this time of turmoil we have never seen where agencies are in the crosshairs of politicians, sometimes you be willing to lose your job in order to do your job and sometimes that includes standing up for your own people and telling even the commanderinchiefef, cut it ou. Im going im going to ask when last question. Those of you who have questions for our author, approached the microphone and a soon as he finishes you will be ready to go with your questions. You mention that it wasnt until the helsinki conference where current stood up to Vladimir Putin and essentially said he believed Vladimir Putin not the intelligence agencies that you really thought Vladimir Putin had leverage over trump. On going to ask what you think that leverage was or is . Hard question. I do describe that and its not i will say at the outset are not a theorist by any means. I tend to believe the most likely answer to any puzzle is probably the most obvious answer theres rarely this sinister underlying view k in these conspiracy theories, but i writt about the president as it relates to russia. We can all see it for ourselves that his actions as it relates to Vladimir Putin and the Us Intelligence community caused a lot of questions and what so fascinating is that you look at his time after time seemingly site so many of these foreignpolicy decisions seem to be counter to us interests. There is a reason for that and you mention helsinki and i will say i dont know if you remember the press conference with the president standing there next to Vladimir Putin. President trump has one of the i want to say he would say healthiest it go of any president we have seen in modern era and thats not a criticism because he will tell you that himself. He will say im great, homogeneous celebs not a criticism, but its important for what im trying to make is that he his ego is very large and he would admit that. Theres a reason why someone with bad dining zero would stand on the world the stage next to another strongman and seemingly cower. There is a reason for that. Is not done by people with giant egos so thats my only point is that i think we areme running ot of innocent explanation for his relationship with trump. Some as said we think the president is an asset of russia. I dont buy that. That seems way out there. Others who are less that extreme have said perhaps there have been some business dealings with the russians over the years that would be embarrassing for the president. Perhaps they bailed him out when he was bankrupt and offered him loans. I dont know the answer, but i know we are running out of innocent explanations for his relationship with russia, so as people concerned about the country and National Security we have to keep asking these questions and i know those of us in journalism will certainly keep asking these questions. Lets take questions from the audience. Im going to ask you to make your questions as short and distinct as possible. Thicket with local anger angle,. [inaudible] theres a lot there. I will take the easy one first, what do i think about the current fbi director, i think hes an honorable person. I mean, i met him and think highly of him. I will sayay if you take yoursef back to the day comey was fired and i write about that day in the aftermath where the president of the president of the United States fired the person leading the investigation of his campaign, i know it was chaotic on the outside of the country, inside the fbi was troubling to say the least and more so troubling by the fact that we wondered what would come next. Who would President Trump put it as the next fbi director, would be a crony, politician and mean we have been in instances, you know the nixon administrationnir the acting director was destroying evidence. He was very much in lineme with the president. Thats what we feared. Fortunately, thats not what we gotat. We got someone who surprised a lot of people regarding his caliber. People thought this would be okay at least having someone in their that could have been a lot worse and i think highly of him as a leader. The last question, Current Events with ukraine and series of actors you mentioned, what so different about this is a relates to the Russian Investigation is that i poured over 400 plus pages of the more investigation and its so detailed and nuance and confusing even to me as a former fbi agent, how does this together, the ukraines and it was to digest because the white house released this rough transcript first to read for ourselves so regardless of how may times the president saysn, no, i didnt do at the call was perfect, that is a view of his qualitatively, but we can read for ourselves this question up asking a Foreign Government to interfere in an election. Thats why you have seen a fast track to impeachment that we didnt see with the Robert Mueller investigation. I will add about impeachment, its not my job tost have a beeline impeachment as as a journalist. Thats yours as a relates to your leaders. I will just say this is moving at lightning speed itt appears and i think thats because the issue is so easy for all of us. I would like to go back to that fateful time in october, the second decision you talked about what was it about the emails, the salacious miss of hothony weiner and his girlfriend that caused you to think yes, we must reopen this investigation and number two how do you answer critics essay this is against fbi policy to do what james comey did. So, the first white in the fbi feel the need to reopen this case based on the wiener laptop. If you will go back and remember at the start of the fbis investigation, not just opened an investigation out of thin air. The referral came from the Intelligence Community so the fbi investigated. Mishandling of highly classified information. At the time it was secretary clintons team that made the decision what emails they would turn over and what emails they ould not turn and i think they called out some 30000 emails they didnt turnover and it determined that they were personal in nature. They made that decision. For investigators, if you are trying to figure out if there is a conspiracy people are trying to commit a crime if the question was did the secretary set up a server to circumvent record of laws, if any of us in this room were conspiring to do something in an fbi agent wanted to figure out the conspiracy they would want the Communications Early on in the so the reason this became relevant is because later on in the course of this other investigation into anthony atweiner, which i will save my view of him, but found himself under investigation you can google it the fbi found out laptop that barack along to him that had a lot of Hillary Clintons emails on him because his wife was heard this assistant. So the fbi decided this might be the set of emails we dont have. People can agree or disagree. Th the second part about whether it violated fbi policy, there is not a policy out there that says that you cant open an investigation. There has long been a norm that the Fbi Department of justice dont take investigative actions close to an election because there is a fear he may impact on election either way, so in this instance where he determined was he violated that norm because we are or a week away from the election in his decision and you can agree or disagree, his thinking was again either course of action or inaction. Let the people know we have reopened the case which by the way he told congress if we open a case we will let you know and he felt a duty to correct that or whether it should have been to keep quiet k. He was thinking if it came to light after the election that we had secretly been investigating herd a widow caused so much damage with the fbi. Great to question. Scenic very enlightening. I was very discouraged at the beginning of the investigation to find out how they were political texts going beyond fbi agents. I would not have suspected they would be doing that. More recently i found of those were against trump and more recently there were some very antagonistic against clinton. Obviously these are people and how political thoughts, but i wouldve expected people in the fbi would be more cognizant of the fact they have to bury those i would like your opinion as to whether there was more political activity within the fbi van you like to see in an agency of that sort then and now that its exposed, do you think this level of political activity will be exacerbated by whats goingit on and will it be even deeper trance trenched because of whats going on . The first is when i saw the Text Messages between these two and we all saw there when they came to light, i was a second and i talk to people inid the fi and they were disgusted as well because that is completely inconsistent with my experience in the fbi and some of my current friends and former colleagues. It just isnt done that you would disparageso someone you hd under investigation in that way. The problem for the bureau is i think this was a great big gift wrapped political scandal for the white house because they would use this, these conversations between these employees to bludgeon the agency about everything, going after not only the hillary investigation but the Russian Investigation and now trying to tile that to ukraine. That was a big scandal that was hand delivered to the white house. I will say theres this notion we timed about you check your policy at the door. You are in Law Enforcement. Is true and its not true. Its true that you dont let it impact your work. Fbi agents arent robots. They formulate opinions and these are people who think about who we hire, people who are curious about the world. W with that said its known throughout the culture, that its just not done so what i also say on that point is that obviously i think i hope you can tell by now that theres no way they could have impacted an investigation politically even if they wanted to for this reason andve i write about it at length in the book. The fbi is built on a system of checks and balances. Dc people do not really investigation. If anyone else on the team thought per second wouldve been impacted or evidence gotten rid of because of anyone Political Action would be screaming from the rooftops. Again that leads me too believe these people although they have terrible things about the president a, but it wasnt negatively impacting their work. I think they caused great harm to the institution, so thats my video. The book first of all is very easy and compelling book to read , but in the book you describe a time when comey comes out of a trump tower meeting and you hand him a laptop to begin writing his contemporary minutes immediately. From that i took the fbi agency in general do that frequently and often, so i would like for you to briefly talk about your evolution of your writing skills. Regular and to and how did it and how did it evolve. I write in the book about that experience of sitting in the car with comey as he walks out of trump tower and will now know he memorialized his meetings with the president by taking notes and what he said at the time and said to be privately and now publicly is that he thought the president may one day live about that exchange, so he thought it was important to memorialize that now would be one of meeting the meeting to would memorialize in notes that we would see later on andze learn that the president f the United States demanded loyalty from the fbi director that the president sat with james comey the oval office and asked him to drop an investigation into one of his associates, Michael Flynn that stem from these memos. Having been in the fbi, and fbi contemporaneous memorialization of an event is highly respected in they core mean testimonial nature. This is what i saw, this is what someone told me so i think i was build into comey as a prosecutor knowing you had to take notes and as it relates to writing and how i learned the skill of writing, my writing skills were actually damaged by the fbi. I remember the first we call a its a form you use to document your interview with someone in my began so there i was in there like no, no, just the facts, man, just the facts. I learned to write here at the university of texas with amazing instructors, professors, and that was the theme i can remember. Some of the best was to ensure you honed in the skills because they will help you out. I will name drop though quick, sean from the Government Department if you know him. I was one of his researchers and helped him write a book so it was instilled from an early stage at this university that its a skill you h have to mastr early on. Im pleased now be able to bring that to you, the public to tell this very important story. [applause]. , prayed im afraid our time is up. We will have to cut this off now excuse me, sir our time is up. Thank josh very much. I will be around. I will meet with him afterwards. There is a book signing tent to it tends down. Thank you for coming. Recently at the National Press club in washington dc New York Times reporter discuss the Supreme Court confirmation process of Justice Brett kavanaugh. Heres a portion of the program. Is a very good lawyer. Very good judge. He was probably not you would probably not get there in line for American People, but that he kind of navigated the truth i think is a good way to put it that there are conceited conceivably different definitions of devils triangle and moving on those terms and that he said he had too many beers, for example. That understates our reporting how excessively he was drinking but he did say he had too many beers. Thats the kind of thing that was technically not a life, but that is actually you know the drinking was a line we found in his book which was frankly kind of what help to understand what hes like as a person and how actually these events may have happened and what may shed light on explaining them and drinking was a big part of that. That is what brought so many [inaudible] who had kind of planned to stem the sidelines who wanted to say wait a minute thats not the breadth i remember. He was a different level of drinking and so, i mean, i think thats parsing, perhaps. I also think theres this question of his temperament towards the end. There is this element to which there are people who have argued that if kavanaugh got up there and said i did stupid stuff when i was shown and im sorry about it and i may have her people in the process and i feel bad about that, but ive been a good person ever since made a real effort to be a better person. You know, i think the argument is in this trump moment it wouldve been inconceivable to think he could still have made his way onto the court. Its all about fighting back and its all about denying there is no kind of road for the brave. So, our understanding was obligated apologize for example how he spoke to amy senator coburn sure and he wrote an oped in the wall street journal saying i probably went too far. I think otherwise there was no room for for concessions. Due to find [inaudible] he did apologize to granada. There was a deeply felt apology to her in the september 27 hearing and as i recall he kind of jumped up on the Community Key feels bad about he said he felt bad away this had come out, so maybe he was referring to the media coverage. I think the idea that she got her was upsetting to him. In terms of saying gee, i dont remember anything like this but if i heard anyone in the past im sorry. Thats not happened that im aware of. Its amazing how many people suggest how much that would have meant and i think Christine Kate has an interesting story before she even did this by maybe could call Brett Kavanaugh and say lets not do this, which was so clearly unrealistic on some level but Deborah Ramirez said if he had just apologized you now and its so weird to hear that it may have been enough that there was enough sexual victims i have talked to who had said like sometime thats kind of what you need for closure is an acknowledgment that he did this to me. Whether or not these are alleged situations, but i think its lost in the conversation. Its a quest of sugar although in this case just in kavanaugh said he was innocent. The cultural moment we are living in so hard its a moment we are the advent of social media you can say needful thing the someone can get away with it and this happened to christine was a ford, two Brett Kavanaugh, to ashley kavanaugh, Deborah Ramirez, many key players and their lawyers and people had bodyguards because they were worried about Death Threats and a lot of that comes from social media and the feeling anything that goes when it comes to language. I think the Metoo Movement has been a galvanizing cultural event and at the time of the capital hearing the Metoo Movement have been underway for a while and i think there was a backlash brewing that it was going too far in this notion of that believe all women was oversimplified and overlooking the investigation part of it that i was talking about and then you have a president who advocates taking tough stances and has talked about allegations of Sexual Misconduct and something you need to deny, deny, deny so it becomes hard to just sort of acknowledge any flaws in the environment. I think one of the things we encounter as reporters thats interesting is we had to fight our own assumptions about us as well as our own preconceptions. We are to women you know i think people assume we would be sort of absolutely on the side of the women in noncritical way. We have a liberal agenda. Africa was important for us to put ourselves in kavanaughs shoes and imagine that someone was being falsely accused and kind of go there and explore that and try to understand perhaps we have plenty of people who argue to us yes his temperament was unacceptable but imagine if you are fighting for your personal professional life and i think we try to reflect that in the book, so we we really wanted to talk to people in sort of kavanaughs camp. It was hard because they just assumed they had all sorts of ideas in their minds made up on what we were setting up to do. To watch the rest of the discussion does our website, tv. Org. Search for the authors using the search box at the top of the page. Heres a look at authors that of the peer to recently on book tv afterwards, weekly Author Interview program that includes bestselling nonfiction books and guest interviewers. Last week Gregg Jarrett authored against the russian interference in 2016 residential election and coming up david from will recount his time as secretary of Veterans Affairs and this weekend on afterwards republican senator rampart of kentucky provides a history of socialism and contends theres a new threat of socialist thinking on the rise in america. If im going to be a successful capitalist and i sell something im not carrying about my desires. To care about what you want. I do care about everything you want if you are consumer. Everything is focused towards getting you to accept it either by my services or product, but if i am a socialist im not carry much about popular opinion or pleasing a consumer. In fact, when we socialize things like healthcare they just say yet everyone will get it. You will no longer be bankrupt are about your bills, but you will have tab rationing here they dont seem to care that you have to wait six months in line for a hip replacements. Its directed more towards their ideological concerns. How does that drives selfishness because it seems youre making the argument that a country thats more socialist becomes more selfish . I think that is true and i think its an irony in a way because they would profess to be you know for the other man, everything for someone else and yet in the end its driven by selfishness and also driven by their ends up being a elite and their society and they consume and accumulate power and money in homes and Everything Else based on the cronyism of their system. Afterwards airs this saturday at 10 00 p. M. And this sunday at 9 00 p. M. On book tv had ceased into your call previous afterwards programs are available as podcasts and to watch online at the tv. Org. Book tv recently spoke with Warren Farrell about his latest book the boy crisis at the annual libertarian concord conference in las vegas. Heres a portion. Have a great lack of concern for boys issues and the reason we have a lack of concern for boys issues is that historically in order to be a real man had to prepare yourself to be disposable, to be a man you had to prepare yourself to be disposable and more or disposable and hazardous jobs in the workplace or work 60, 70 hours a week at the executive level positions and drive die from what japanese calls death from overwork so the reason we care about men and call them heroes is because they were willing to die so the rest of us would live. When you train people to die in order to love them, you cant be too emotionally attached to their help so boys have historically developed baroque intelligence, which is training for a short life as opposed to Health Intelligence which is training for a long life or as opposed to Emotional Intelligence which is training to be able to express your feelings, your fears and to talk about them in a healthy way to other people without whining about them and so this is a great opportunity for boys in the future, the boys in the future who dont have their older sense of purpose have a purpose void and with a have a purpose void combined with a lack of father than the purpose of boyd plus a dad devoid so they dont have the father to guide them to have the discipline to achieve a variety of senses of purpose in their life and then they become a failure to launch and ashamed of themselves and they become angry at people who arent paying attention to them and giving them praise like teachers or malefemale peers with her parents. Those boys with the lack of purpose often times get depressed, withdraw into video games, become they dont have be rejected so they get up in odyssey because its access to a variety of attractive women without fear of rejection at a price they can afford, but then they get addicted. And dopamine goes up and they get addicted to more and more risky things with women, so when they finally meet a woman thats maybe interested in being sexual with them the woman feels like shes treated like an object because shes being treated like object so she withdraws which only convinces the boy hes a loser and increases his shame and anger adverse Case Scenario thats the background of the mass shooters are the boy saying in that desperate way i will make people regret that they didnt worry about me, talk about me, care about me. You can watch the rest of the interview by with visiting our website but tv. Org. Search for the author, Warren Farrell for the title of his book the boy crisis by using the search box at the top of the page. Book tv is television for serious readers took join us again next saturday beginning at 8 00 a. M. Eastern for the best and nonfiction books. Host this week on the communicators we want to introduce you to a firsttime guest. This is christine wilson, one of three republican commissioners on the federal trade