Afternoon, miami. That evening. Imagine that this is going to be a patient american living room. Can you imagine that . So we are here, were welcoming one of our favorite tv analysts on msnbc. Shes a daughter of the beautiful country of haiti, any haitians here . All right, youre coming with the senses. Shes also thepolitical director for move on. Org. She has worked on many local campaigns, statewide campaigns and National Campaigns and she has written this delectable memoir of her personal, professional and political life. Please join me in giving a warm Miami Book Fair welcome to karine jeanpiere. [applause] hi everybody. Thank you forcoming. High, high. I see edward back there, ive gotto give her some love. Both law. [speaking french] i want to take you back to your mommy and copy are watching on cspan santa you, was his nickname . Pecan, maybe,. And your first name is pronounced . Karine. Karine jeanpiere. Moving forward, my first question for you is how does your haitian this inform class i have to Say Something, thank you so much marlon , thank you for doingha this. Ive known marlon for such a long time, you were one of the major supporters for president barack obama in 2008 and now youre doing your own thing, which im very proud of you so i wanted to make sure i honored you as well. And im here to substitute for jorge ramos, thank you jorge who couldnt be honored to be here on his behalf. I want to fronts, what was it like the first time you came across customs into america. Do you remember that . I was about five so i dont remember that but its so interesting yousaid that. I just wrote a piece for load and in the piece i talked aboutbeing hopeful. And i talked about one of the moments that has happened in the last three years that has really just broke my heart there have been many moments have been heartbreaking but one of them was the separation of children at the border and a zero tolerance policy which led to, which basically meant were going to separate children from their families, babies and children in cages and its led to awfulness and i remember when that happened, at least when it became known in the National Media back in 2018 of the summer, going into the summer of 2018. My heart broke because i thought about what would have happened to me. My parents came, we were lucky. We landed at john f. Kennedy. I was about five years old and i thought to myself what would have happened if they had told my parents were going to separate you from your daughter e . Your daughter is going to go here, youre going to go there and potentially i would become an orphan which is what is happening to tens of thousands of children right now who are orphaned under our name. And so i do not remember that moment but its interesting that you brought it up because ive thought about what has happened recently and what would have happened to me at that young age if i was separated from my parents on purpose. You were home with mom and dad, what do you call them . Mami, papi. I grew up 12th street, jamaica avenue. And i lived in a 2 family house. My aunt and uncle lived downstairs, we lived upstairs and at the time you do not know theres a difference. You just do what you are told. Its very much in the haitian culture and asian food. What you wear. And we lived very humble, we had humble beginnings. My dad was a new york city cab driver. They worked six or seven days a week, went to catholic, they did everything they could s. Did mom come home . It depends, if it was nice she had to sleep at her job and nights that she didnt, and it was just different. I grew up inthe 80s and 90s , a totally different experience for haitians living in newyork. It was tough. I didnt learn to read untili was in third grade. I always felt like the outsider and i talked about that in detail in my book. And you know, one of the things that i want to make sure i did in the book was to tell and immigrants story because the last three years has been such ugliness, such antiimmigrant rhetoric and policies, clearly as we just talked about so i want almost correct the record. And tell a story of hope from sadness of some achievement and what does it mean to be in this country . I think another thing i wanted to make really clear is that immigrants, we feel very patriotic. This is our home. This is our country and we are a fabric of america, part of fabric. What you see in america through the eyes of haiti . Is there a haitianness inform your experience in that home witha haitian family, mom and dad. What was the first time you came to American Culture to say theres a difference . Just from the moment go. I was teased at school. It was made very clear i was different, whether its the way i look, the way i dress. Its very clear. But i have to tell you, it took me time to appreciate the haitian culture and the haitian history. That was something that i had to learn myself. And that took probably in my early 20s when i realized how powerful our country is, our history and my ancestry and who and took some time to be comfortable with all that. And i think whats happening now is that im living in my truth and so i think once you live in your truth and once you are comfortablewith who you are, i think that doors open. And i think that is whats happening. Your dad a taxi driver, your mom a healthcare worker. Mom endurance, stress, shes one of the smartest people i know and she does not have formal education but shes clearly one of the brightest people i know. Esshes strategic, you know how haitian moms are. Theres always a plan,theres always a tragedy. Theres always something that youre not thinking about and their is10 steps ahead. My dads kindness is one of the kindest people that youll ever meet. Is he still driving . Parttime. Heres the thing, my parents still live check to check. If you were to look from the outside and look at my parents you would say the american dream, it missed them. They didnt get the american dream. Manypeople dont. And my mom and my dad would tell you that i am their americandream. What was their dream for you . Very specific. Theres always a plan afoot. So my parents, this is something that they talk about in my book thats very, leads to ups and downs that occurred in my life and so, but my parents were very much like many immigrant families they want you to be three things. Three things is your success. Lawyer, doctor, engineer. Theres some other stuff and in re the three their minds you are one of those three. You will be successful. That is what is going to help uplift you and the rest of your family. For me it was being a doctor and it was being connected to someone in our family who was a doctor that i loved, she passed away early but thats kind of how i grew up. I grew up with youre going to be a doctor and they introduced you to everybody. Our future doctor. What did you break that dream . I went to undergrad, majored in premed but i was going to be a doctor and it just didnthappen. You have to take the mcat, you realize it is just a very big burden and you carry that burden for your family and for your community and i actually went through something that i talked about very specifically. I had to do with mental healthissues. Hand something that we do not talk about in our community and it was one of those moments that was incredibly depressing for me. Because i thought wow, i just disappointed the people that i loved the most. And i felt like i broke their art. And it was incredibly hard for me. I had this thought in my mind that if im gone, then it will be better. Then it will be better for them and i tried to take my life. Thank goodness, thank god im still here, clearly, im talking to you but you know, i did want to Say Something about the book before we move too far in. The book is a memoir and the memoir piece is very raw, its very honest, very authentic and i wrote it that way because i wanted to connect with people. I want people to feel something cwhen they read that story and i wanted for anyone who was having a hard time and felt like they will never make it or they cant make it to look at me, someone who is , who has worked for the first black president , worked in the white house, is on tv regularly, to look at me and say if she was able to do it then i can do it and i think theres this misconception that she must have this great wonderful life and it was very hard. So i write this part because if i can change one persons life, the book has done its work and then the other part of it is a call to action to get politically involved. Dont sit back. We need your voice, we need everybodys voice in here to get involved especially in this time but its also connected because i wouldnt be on tv. I wouldnt haveworked in the white house if i didnt have dthe experience that i had hegrowing up. All that has made me the person that i am today so yes, its a sad part of my story but it made me who i am today. What was your support system in getting through that . Ge i actually didnt have. That story i told you about trying to take my own life,my mom doesnt know that story. My parents did not know that story. My sister knew that story, shes the one who found me and we never talked about it. After i decided that being a doctor was not going to be my thing, i took some time off , worked and i went to columbia to get my masters. And it was at columbia when i got my masters that i was out of the home and living on my phone that i started to go see a therapist. Thats what helped me because when i was at graduate school i was actually having anxiety attacks because i havent dealt with the pain from prior so that was the time, the moment i was really able to dig deep and ask for help and growing up in my community, you donttalk about your secrets. You dont talk about your business. You know go to therapy and so i wanted to break that r. We are so glad youre still with us for sure. So what was your First Encounter with the political world . The political world, my First Encounter was actually in grad school. And the first week i started grad school was the first week of september 11. And it was clearly hard and heartbreaking and it was something that i think many of us really just speaking for myself, i felt like i lived in a bubble and when that happens you are awakened very quickly, especially it happens. We lost more than 3000 souls in new york city alone and so that was an awakening and i ndwent to the program that i was in was at the International School of Public Affairs at other, my peers were from all overthe world. So youre opened up whats going on outside of the country and you meet people who are going through their own hardships whether theres a civil war in their home and theyre coming here to try to get a better educationor whatever is going on , that theyre trying to do at the school and then the second thing that happened is i went to haiti for the first time in 2003 which was also a mind opening experience. So those two things let me to this kind of new awareness peand new path for what, for where i am today and half has led me to this moment the reason i say that is when i came back from haiti i wanted to make a difference. What can we do, what can i do and two of my mentors, one of them was David Dinkins who was the first africanamerican mayor in new york city at that point and still out teaching and i had this amazing answer, her name is esther fuchs, this fiery feminist who pushed women and young women to get involved in politics and suggested you should get into politics and i thought well okay. What was your first job . My first job was working in new York City Council. That was my first experience, doing local politics which is very important, localpolitics is very important. Get involved, make a change. Not just federal government and the white house. You can change peoples lives on the local level and thats what i did. What was your First Encounter with being a black woman inamerica . That question is so interesting because its a conversation i was having recently. Ive been all over, literally all over the country on this tour at one point i was in a different city every day for 10 days straight. And there was a conversation that i was having about being a black woman in america and i think there are sayings and i know there are things that black women take on on a daily basis that has just been part of our dna that we dont eventhink about. There are things that we have to deal with that we dont even realize or we dont have time to realize that this is notokay. Were just trying to survive. So i think about that question and i think that we all just every day from probably as young as we can remember, there is something that reminds us that we are black, we are a woman and sometimeswe are not accepted. And so thats why i think its something thats just part of the day today that i personally have to deal with and sometimes you dont even realize microaggression. Its like it happens and you just have to deal with it. So you dedicated this book for folks who have ever been told no. When was the first time that someone told you know . The dedication was probably one of the most importantthings to me in this book. And i think it goes something, i dedicate this book to anybody whos ever been told no. I hope this book inspires and motivates you. When i was first taking about the dedication i thought i would dedicate it to my mom and my daughter and the women in my life and then i really thought about the book and the main ingredient and what the book encompasses. I want to dedicated to folks who have been told no similar to what i was saying earlier that this book, if you have been told no i hope that you can read this book and know that you can get to the other side. I know that you can reach that dream, reach whatever aspiration you have for yourself, even if youve been knocked down. Even if people have told you know time and time again that you can get there and ive been told not know so many times. When i got intopolitics, one of the reasons i left new York City Council , i moved to dc is because i was told no. I was working for my second councilmember and the region that i went to work for him if he had said look, the chief of staff is going to be leaving in about a year. Come work for me. You will see how i work and that job is yours. And when we got to by the way the chief of staff was his fiancce. They got married. I was in their wedding, whole other story. Things that you do as a staffer. Youre a bridesmaid and in your bosses wedding, unexpectedly lastminute bridesmaid but they got married and i remember this moment very vividly. They got married and i ran his campaign, i helped him get reelected and i remember we were Walking Around the block and he says to me were going to, im going to give the job to somebody else. He gave it to a man was older than me, had 15 years more experience than i did and i remember crying and i remember thinking i worked so hard. I remember thinking i ranyour campaign and help you get reelected and im not getting the job . That moment i said to myself im leaving. And i took a leap of faith and i said i want to do National Politics and i looked through my rolodex, my phone contacts and started having coffeewith people and i was like how do i get to washington dc because i want to do National Politics, i eventually want to work for the white house. Who ananswered the phone . It so many people. Therewere local consultants in new york that were really well known. People who just been around ic the political atmosphere for a while who had contacts in dc. I ended up working for an issuebased campaign called walmart watch. But you left on goodterms. Its not that i left on bad terms but they knew i left because i didnt get the job so its not like i blew everything up and i suggest never to do that. It was just one of those things that i decided i needed to leave so it wasnt bad terms but it was disappointment. They tried to get me back a couple years later and at that point i had worked on president obamas campaign, im not coming back. I rememberthat. But anyway, that no was the best know icould have received. I dont know if i would have gone to washington dc and worked on the president ial campaign and ended up working for obama in chicago. I dont know what my trajectory would have been. I could have stayed at new York City Council happy as chief of staff for another year or two and it was the best know and it pushed me. How did you choose which campaign to work for andwhich campaign not to work for . In that moment when i moved to dc, i worked for walmart watch for a year and then i had a choice of multiple campaigns. Not multiple campaigns but i interviewed for edwards, even interviewed for obama and at the time, i decided to work for edwards. Ec because it was the work that i was doing seemed more connected to what he was doing. He was a labor guy doing poverty work and i was one of those people that thought were not ready for a black president , were not ready as a country. Thats what i thought. Marlon did not think that. He was smart so i went to go work for edwards and it was a good experience. I worked for edwards for a year and went to North Carolina chapel hill. And he dropped out after south carolina. And that experience and the connections that i got from that campaign that led me to the Obama Campaign because there was somebody that i worked with on the edwards campaign. She went to the Obama Campaign and called me and said im working, where getting ready for the general election campaign. We want you to come here and do what you did for edwards for obama and i did that so this is part of having good relationships, making sure that you stay connected to people and thats how i got the job. So the first time you walked into the oval office. Theres nothing like it. Seriously, i mean i write about this in my introduction iwhere i talk about walking through the gates of the white house. And you know, this black girl , patient american immigrant, like i was told i had no business doing this a. And here i am walking through the gates of the white house going into the white house. With the whole entire Haitian Community i felt with me. [applause] and you walk in and you think im representing not just the president. Im representing my community, the country. It is one of the proudest, proudest moments. You walk into the oval office and you see obama, theres nothing like it. And it is one of the proudest moments that i have, that i carry with me. What did you learn about the office of the presidency tduring that period. Not the person the president but the office. You learn the enormous responsibility that office has. Youre the president. The commanderinchief. Youre hoping to set policies. Youre hoping to change minds and change hearts and make a big change for so many people. People are relying on you. They come to you. They tellyou their problems, their personal problems. They think that youre going to change the trajectory of their lives. It is a big responsibility for everyone thats working i there. Theres a moment in the book that i was perusing through, i havent had the chance to go through the entire book but hopefully everyone will get their opcoffee area december 14, 2012, the remember that day . What happened in america and you had to go to the oval office at sandy hook. I was not at the white house december 12, 2012. When the shooting happened. The shooting happened and im trying to think where i was but i definitely was not at the white house at that point. I was on the campaign side and the campaign was done. I think back at the press conference that barack obama held and youre talking about 20 little kids, five, six years old, seven. Murdered. And you see the humanity and what it means to be president. You see the heart of what it means to be president. You see the realities of it. Because theres a part even when im thinking, im thinking about words that he used and what he says where even as president he felt that there was nothing he could do. And i think thats the heartbreak. These done everything that he could do but it was almost out of his hands because congress neededto act. And i have a fiveyearold right now and she went through a drill recently, she just started kindergarten and that broke my heart. Because we didnt have togo through that. So for 2020 going to be taking questions so folks who want to ask a few questions if you can get yourself prepared. Inso 20 20 what are we fighting for now . You spoke about that in the book about thinking about her. So 2020, what are we really fighting for . Fighting for the soul of this country. [applause] so were fighting for the soul of the century and there are going to be certain candidates on multipleballots. Since and analyst i will put you on the spot what are you looking for in a candidate in the context of 2020 . 2020 is so tremendously important. I know people say this all the time. This is the race thats really going to matter. You hear that four years yago, eight years ago, twoyears ago but this is it. 2020, we have to make a decision on what direction thiscountry is going in. And it is imperative for us to not just vote to get j involved. And thats going to be my goal this next less than a year now is just to talk to peopleover and over and over again. Because theres a target on our backs. And i see this all the time and im going to say itto you guys. If you are not white, male, rich and straight there is a target on your back. And its being made very clear theselast three years. Immigrant communities, if youre a woman, if youre gay , if youre latino, if youre black, there is just transgender. Theres a target on yourback. And if the last three years have not scared you, think about four more years. Every election has a motivation, you know that so 2020, what are you anticipating the motivation needs to be to get folks out in a way that youexpect . Let me get to the question about the candidates. The candidate, whoevers the nominee is going to have to gput together a movement. We will need a movement to win in 2020. It is going to take everything that they have and we allhave to win. And so they are going to need to inspire young people. People ofcolor. Latin communities. Older people, everybody and create that coalition thats needed to win. And if they cannot motivate people, then were in trouble. It is not going to be easy. And so even though 2018 we saw some gains, 2017 we saw some gains, just weeks ago we saw some gains, its going to take that 10 to get out. And heres what i asked everyone in this room. Yes, i want you to vote. Thats one of the thingswe do not do in this country is we dont vote. Voter turnout is always incredibly low. So i need all of you to vote, thats number one. Number two, i need you to be the voice and message in your community. I need you to give a little bit more and a little more time area volunteer, get involved. If you dont do it already. I need you to get involved in your neighborhood, get involved in your communityand get people out. Registered and get people out to vote. It is going to take all of us to do that. And youre going to have to have the message. Youre going to have to be able to talk to that person that you know that stayed home in 2016, didnt come out to vote for whatever reason. They cannot for obama, for 4 Million People did not vote in 2016. We missed 4. 4 Million People who decidedfor whatever reason they werenot going to vote. We cant let that happen. Is it going to take like 1804 . Ill leave that right there. Some questions from the audience, if you want to step up to the mic. Its right there in the middle. Introduce yourself and quick question. My name is Michael Russell and i am one of the moveon. Orgprotest organizers in miami thank you for what you do. [applause] thank you. Karine, im very concerned when i hear the president say if you try to remove me there will be a civil war and youve heard our congressman from texas who said the same thing on the floor of the house. I am so concerned that this country may descend into civil war. No country has lastedforever. Rome fell because of moral decay and i think we are watching that happen tothe united states. Id like to know what you think about that and lastly , what National Protest are we going to get ready for when this thing moves to the senate or a trial to make theserepublicans do the right thing in their votes . Thank you for what you do, i appreciate it. We need more like you all over the country. We are a young democracy and i think people forgetthat. E and when you have a president for day in and day out stepping on the constitution. Never read the constitution, could care less about the constitution, stepping out on ourdemocracy you have to worry if were a country thats going to hold. And when i think about civil war, thats something we should be concerned about because hesays it. He tweets about it. And i think that when you talk about motivation, those are the things that we have to take him to his word. Hes kept his word on manybad stuff. And if that doesnt motivate you to get involved, i dont know what is. Our democracy is at stake. If he gets reelected, our democracy. When he went to ukraine, the president of the ukraine and asked him to interfere in our elections, we have free and fair elections. The cornerstone of our democracy. Thats it, thats the cornerstone of our democracy so youre asking a Foreign Government to interfere in something thats the cornerstone of our democracy. Thats something that should resonate with folks fand get us moving. This is the commanderinchief who now is a National Security risk. That is how youve got to think about what were up against. As far as protests, moveon is holding protests. You are going to be having protests in the next couple of weeks. Going to be very vocal. We asked people to come stand out, stand with us. People ask me all the time why are we not having 1 Million People on the streets . And im thinking we hold protests. People have tocome out and let their voices be heard. You cant force people to come out but those are the things you have tothink about. Just what is at stake . What is at stake . Our lives are at stake. Our democracy is at stake, our freedom is at stake. What is the nomination process for the democratic nominee have to be mindful of in jeopardizing the coalition that you spoke about going to motivate the turnout . They have to make sure they talk to black women in particular. We have been there. 98 percent, 98 percent of black women came out to vote for alabama 94, 95 percent came out for hillary clinton, the largest voting population for hillary clinton. Youcannot forget us. Got to make sure you get those young people out. Thats going to be hard. Youve got to get youngpeople out. That is a key part of the coalition. And. In the book you speak about our journalistic literacy in terms of where we get our information. Misinformation. What are your thoughts . In the back of the book i lay out awardwinning journalist reporters who are out there who are giving, who are fighting the lords work and trying to get the truth out there, making sure that people are well informed, well educated on whats happening and i list folks to follow but that is one of the major issues is Misinformation Campaign thats out there coming from foforeign countries, that coming from the president himself. Hand it is also dividing our country. It is a very, very scary time right now and youve got to make sure that you have, that you have the right information. That your armed. Welcome to miami. Jillian smart from 197 streetand jamaica avenue. We are neighbors. Also kane media group right here in south florida. I heard a comment while you were speaking a few minutes ago about who who will move up to that point to where we want to vote for them and i want to say one thing to the person who made the comment is trust the process and whoever becomes the nominee, lets all get behind that person. 100 percent correct. Even if its a bus, get behind that bus. As a haitianamerican, how do you the young men who are doing the Little Things to get in trouble to take away their rights . How do you speak not just to them but their familymembers into safeguarding them and getting them involved with this process . So i have the opportunity recently when i was in dc, the first week that my book came out to talk to a bunch of young, amazing kids who were at a local high school in dc and it was a Diverse Group of kids and theres a program that is high school has where they invite authors to come talk to students and just really engage withthem and have real conversations with them. And i read a passage from my book and they told me, they said its going to be hard to connectwith them. Their 12thgraders. Theyve got the senioritis, theyre ready to go. Some of them donthave a lot of hope. But we really want you to try and connect with them. So i wrote, i cant remember tthe passage but i read a passage about one of my tough times min high school. And i think because i was trying to connect and be authentic iconnected with them. And for 45 minutes, we talked about all of the pain that they were going through. And it blew me away, they shared what they were going through at home. They shared aboutwhat they were going through on the streets. They shared how some of them were depressed. They shared about not feeling like they have, they can continue theirlife. And just by reaching out to them being there and talking about my story talking about the book, they felt just a little bitbetter. And i ended up for 45 minutes , and not being there for two hours. And their teachers there, their administrators were amazing. And its a lot of work. You asked me what to do and i thought i gave my time for two, three hours and it made adifference. Connecting with them. Because if you dont try to authentically connect with them, were going to lose them. Were going to lose these young people. Who have hopes and dreams for themselves and its not big. They dont want to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer, theyre just trying to survive. And just find some happiness. So i just think about just having to be able to reach them which is not easy but it takes time. And you have to do it authentically. You have to put in thework. So for the folks who are disaffected, frustrated and thinking about passing on 2020. Please dont pass. What is your advice to them to get motivated . There are people that i bumped into who have sent to me i did not vote in 2016 and i looked at them and i say, and im like do you take any responsibility for what we have right now . Heres the thing. Hillary clinton won the popular vote which is great. Thats wonderful. We want to win the popular vote but she lost the Electoral College. 217 Electoral College votes that we needed to win and we didnt. Three states i, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. One of the things that happened in wisconsin, 200,000 people could not vote because of votersuppression. Theres a lot riding against us in this for 2020. There are there are voter id laws across the country thats going to make it difficult for that coalition to go out and vote. It is not going to be easy. We talked aboutMisinformation Campaigns. Now hes president. He could care less about making sure russia and other countries dont interfere. Its going to be harder than it was in 2016. Weve got to get to 270. Weve got to win and we can c do it cause we elected barack obama twice because of 2270 so its not like we cant do it. Weve got to get people out to vote. We cannot sit this out. We cannot sit this out. We cannot, i cant say it enough. We cannot sit this out. We have to hold on to our urdemocracy. We have to hold on to our freedom. And we have to stand for each and every one of us. Because if they come for one of us, they come for all of us. Weve got to stand with your brothers and sisters in this fight and youve got to bring people with you. The future of this country is at stake. There will be a choice in november. Thats it. Its simple. Its about choice. Whatdirection do you want to take this country in . ,yeah. Final question, whats next for you . Whats the next big thing youre not going to say no to. Sleep. Sleep. Im in this fight through november. Im in this fight. I am in this fight and im going to do everything that i can to make sure we win in november. I will do whatever it takes and that is vethe fight. That is a fight that im all in on and you know, im doing it for my daughter. Im doing it foreverybody elses kids. Imdoing it for our future. I cant, this is a thing that i am the most passionate about and Everything Else will come later. Ladies and gentlemen, karine jeanpiere. Shes going to be signing books on the outside,thank you. Youre watching book tv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Cspan2 television for serious readers. This Weekend University of maryland president treatment rogowski shares his insights on building and sustaining an inclusive, high achieving university. Alan dershowitz offers his thoughts on how Sexual Misconduct accusation should be handled. Gloria steinem chronicles her life and career through a collection of her essays and notable quotes and amity compares the economic debates of the 1960s to those happening today. Find a complete schedule at booktv. Org or by put consulting your program guide. Thank you joel. Thank you for coming, its wonderful to see so many of you here. Id like to welcome our friend from Books Incorporated to our left and after the q and a they will be selling andys new book