Ladies and gentleman, thank you for com ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming out on another rainy day in kentucky. Let me take a moment. Thank you for coming out at this historic moment at the Mcconnell Center there is a number of distinguished guests in the audience tonight if you think i would call you distinguish then that is the case. But i do owe and introduction to the president of the university of louisville thank you for bringing her today. This is a storied moment in our history and the statesman one of the most important of all time because it seems to me we have duties one is to remember to learn from our past and the rising generation with the book we launch to the world and we have High School Students all over kentucky just spending the last week at the Mcconnell Center studying the constitution. So whatever else to study the foundation of the american constitutional order. And then to help us remember history to get those lessons onto the next generation. An attorney in washington dc positions in Public Service including assistant chief of staff for senator mcconnell. And with numerous academic articles on the magna carta and its importance and the last 800 years it has been. Senator mcconnell the majority leader and his party in the history of the senate and longestrunning senator in kentucky history and certainly a consequential man in our age. Lincoln. He is a gracious reader, a student really of american history. You are going to see that here today. Without further ado, let me introduce our two authors today discussing the book, u. S. Senate and commonwealth. [applause] thank you all for joining us this morning. I was fortunate enough to work with him for 12 and a half years. People asked me what its like to work for him. I would often liken it to taking advantage summer history. History was very much a part of the daytoday operations, the way he ran thanks. Decision making and his outlook toward his position. I remember he was fortunate enough to have me help staff him on a number of overseas trips and travel. We were on a trip to afghanist afghanistan, which is a long, long flight. I Member Centers joining us and i was sitting there and taking interest in what people did during this long stretch of time. Most of the senators after they finish their materials would not off and take a nap for maybe read a magazine or checking out on the phone. Remember the conical mcconnell reached into his the flag, without a James Patterson 700 page book on the life of senator taft of ohio. I remember at that time thinking he likes his history and appreciate it. This book project is an outgrowth of the number of speeches the senator gave, number of colleges and universities throughout the state of kentucky talking about prominent kentucky senators and the positions they held in the upper chamber. Without them, i was hoping he would discuss history, developed and how they factor into your daytoday operations as majority leader. Lucky to have that. Even though he was not from kentucky, had a instant interest. Not only kentucky, we pondered over this. Then gary, we do a series about kentucky senators who had consequence,. [laughter] we did a series of six or seven of those over two or three years. All that evolved into the book. I would recommend looking at it in two ways, first the reason i read a lot of history not because i like it but also applies to things im doing on a daily basis. There are so many things. Home is everything that folks think is new, it isnt. There are so many lessons you can learn that you can apply today, challenges. If you buy and read the book, i think if you are a really history junkie, you will be in for learning for people like john brown and the two broken bridges and john. If youre just a little bit interested, you could forget the people who party heard of. We had a delicate problem with the perfect solution. How do you deal with bipartisan, im one of the authors . He did on afterwards, to kind of catch up to the president. So thats a way of looking at the book if youre only interested in current event, you can go to afterwards if you are really interested, some people he may have never heard of. A real consequence knocking their era. Were all those as well. A book project that involves the evolution of the institutions, we need to discuss Different Institution and represent different kentucky senator. They include. Senate majority leader preside president , and also in former leaders, influential in the Chamber Given their special challenge or context. You, at a young age had exposure to these informal leaders, common, influential in helping u. S. Involvement in the war and promoting civil rights legislation. Give your impressions and reflections of having worked for him and at a young age. Was telling High Schoolers that we were discussing before, coming down to start this, when youre that age, youre always looking around for somebody, i would like to be like him or her when i grow up. For me, that was john cooper. I got a chance to intern with him in the summer of 64, the filibuster was broken on that. I had a chance to be there for Martin Luther kings i had a dream speech. I went back after my internship the year before and just got lucky. Happened to hit on the right day and he took me over and watch the phone right act. This was a guy who never had that position. This is the kind of thing were talking about. We deal with senators who consequential, we didnt necessarily have an elected role. The example was henry clay he didnt come into existence until roughly world war i. The position didnt exist. He was one of the great legislatures in history. Jfk was appointed by them in the senate. Too little study group that came up, the goal was to come up with the most consequential senators in american history. That is how we approach that. Then there were the people who actually had leadership roles. Roosevelt and the number two that, with was the term. See how what is going to vote. And report back to the leader and if they dont properly respond, you bore down and with them into line. So we got them all in their, the prominent ones, those who actually had a leadership position. To those who are just simply leaving because they were extraordinary the business of communication and compromise, which was clay especially. You mentioned berkeley, heres majority leader 1937 when an important president was set in the senate called precedence of prior recognition. The Building Block of the majority leaders formal power. Could you talk about what prior recognition is and white important to senate and why people should be aware of it . To decide what we are going to do. All of you remember the decisions i made, which is extremely controversial during 2016. The president ial election when he passed away. Very controversial decision. It illustrates that the principal was to decide what youre going to do. What bill you are going to take up, what nomination you will go forward with. That started when john was Vice President of roosevelt, decided the following. Majority leader would have prior recognition, the first want to be recognized. Then they would have second recognition. The prior recognition is what became the agenda, the only real power the majority had. Then it was a freeforall. Getting the outcome you want is frequently extremely challenging. But at least you can decide what direction you are going to take before you have the big debate over what youre going to get. Berkeley had been majority and minority over his tenure. How would you characterize the difference between majority leader, minority leader and what were the different roles, different about these to influence things in both positions . If youre a football fan, there is a difference between offense and defense. Easier to score when youre on offense. You get to call the place. If youre on defense, its much harder to score and you are in reactive mode. What are we going to support and oppose . Contrary to what a lot of you may think, there are plenty of things we do together. But being the way it is, you have a bipartisan copper mice, something important, thats what it is. Like dropping a pebble in the ocean. For example, i think the biggest piece of legislation we had the last few years, with obama when i was majority leader in the senate, a bill called the funding. We didnt know about that, its not your fault. But you get the drift. We do a lot together. Thats significant, largely ignored. Most people dont see the controversy. Its the things we disagree on. There are plenty of those. No shortage of controversial areas. But there are opportunities. 2011, 2012, you are able to step in and pursue, keeping us from defaulting on debt. On the enough, a lot of members of my party were consumed by trying to cut spending. On the enough, the only time we have significantly cut spending in recent years was obama in the white house and i was minority leader. How does that happen . Had to raise the debt ceiling. Republican and majority of the house, democratic majority in the senate but in order to pass legislation, it needed 60 votes. So that was why i was in power. We ended up in negotiation over spending and all the enough produced a bill that reduced Government Spending for two years in a row. After the korean war. With barack obama in the house, Republican House and democratic senate. I was at a Critical Role as a defensive coordinator. It empowered me to negotiate the deal, we did not on three different locations. Hes not going to apologize for now. [laughter] you mentioned being the majority and touched on a little bit, i think we have a quote in the book, if people think looks flat or down from a helicopter, stuff them in your pocket and he said it doesnt work like that. Ever is an important ron here. To be whipped and reach out persuade your members and other members. He went for eight years, i went for four. We had a bill that was absolutely critical. Is one we could pass with every folk. I was there with. We had 55 senators. I had to get at least 50 floats. I recorded the bill, we are going to have to have that. He was in afghanistan. [laughter] i sure hope not. We brought him all the way back from afghanistan. I was sweating the whole time. 5050. Its a challenging job. What quickly happened, if you run into somebody whos trying this, you bring the leader in or you have the present on your side, bring the president in. Called the Vice President over afghanistan. The working relationship between majority leader and majority with, have a Good Relationship and then you have your decision as majority leader, initial count tickets. You need good information. The reason i ask, i need to know where i am. A number of whips, that went for a while. John from arizona and now another john, ive got several different ones, theyve all done a good job. We have a top that talks about campaign chairman, this is not a position that doesnt get as much felicity as minority leader. But you were chairman of the National PromotingSenatorial Committee for a few cycles and you take an interest in the work of those folks ever since, can you talk about what its like to be in sometimes right would be desirable to seek that position. Several majority leaders have had that job. Went up developing gratitude from those who went. It is a very timeconsuming job. A lot of fundraising involved in it. Recruitment. Majority leaders involved in all of that, too. Everybody does a lot of the work i did a couple of years. My predecessor didnt want, George Mitchell who was a democrat also has that job. Sometimes you can pick up chips if you have ambitions to move up, it is very timeconsuming. We dont allow anybody to have when they are up on themselves. Its an important part two in the election. I would like to remind people that only the winners make policies. The losers dont. You dont when the election, you are in no position to influence them whatsoever. How does it work, the chairman of each party has her own Campaign Committee in the senate both parties represent their own campaign but how does it work if youre chairman of the Campaign Committee, how you interact with the individual campaigns . Today often take your advice, sometimes . Is it depend . It varies. We have our own building, 50s or 60s. Republican National Committee or congressional committee. They are in unelected position. The leader, the wind, the conference, all of the chairs. The democrats do, too. Its cheaper. Its like running a to your campaign. Extremely timeconsuming job. The current chairman is from indiana. We have a chapter about john, Committee Chairman in the early first have a 19th century. He served as Committee Chairman also majority leader. He talk about the importance of the finite, for time and how you interact with chairman as to how you allocate wartime . I dont know how it was back there but i was ovaries overshadowed by that. Clay passed away in 1952. It was a little more prominent in, a side of him he tried very hard to keep the unions. Committee chairman are always rolling up their sleeves to bring up my bill. Its very, very difficult to do things in the senate because of our rules. Every senator can create a problem. And many do. [laughter] so if you ever watch cspan2, usually, but not always me are asking for unanimous consent to do something. Unanimous consent means unanimous consent. Youre always shopping for unanimous consent. Lets assume one of these Committee Chairman has a bill and he comes out and they are pulling up their sleeves and say lets do it. My first question is, can pass . Will hotline it and see if anybody has objection. The democrats do the same thing. If theres unanimous consent, good. When we cant clear, i would take to the Committee Chairman, can you get the consent to have this handled . In an afternoon with two pending amendments. Objective person is, can you satisfied them with the consent agreement and give them a chance for their amended . It still doesnt eat up a whole lot of floor time. Fix great around and see if they can get an agreement. Im not going to spend a week on this bill. You have to work here. See if you can get an agreement, what were going to do. In a reasonable timeframe. Other bills are much bigger and you know they have to pass. Theres a another device called feeling up the tray. The majority your cause of the bill, they make it impossible to amend. This is generally not popular. [laughter] they do what we call cloture. A device by which you move to complete, culture on a nomination only requires majority, culture on the bill requires 60. So a bill that would be in this category, that bipartisan support so you want to shout them out. You dont want to go on the bill and spend two weeks on it. So theres a lot of difference in categories but this is responding to the question about Committee Chairman. They have become experts in certain areas and when they develop a bill, they would like to have time to pass it. My question is, how hard would be to posit . In the book, we talked a bit about congress chairman, which began in the 19th century and evolves over time when the parties would elect someone and number of kentuckians served in that role in the 19th century, john stevenson, joseph and this position of Party Chairman involved majority leader. You weekly, multiple times, and former carcass, the summary of your numbers and usually a couple times a week, you have a lunch with your membership, can you talk a bit about the importance of these lunches and what you try to achieve during them . You just have your people. I know how in the world they deal with that many people. [laughter] on our side, democrats dont know what to do every day like we do. Trying to knock down problems, trying to figure out how to move forward, i have an opportunity to deal with all of them. Three days a week. In the house, there are so many people, they and up with little caucuses. I find them really helpful. I believe the democrats have to, tuesday and thursday. We have three in a row every week. That is essential. Every week im trying to sell something. When you make a presentation about the, you have a certain course of action, to members often clear what they are going to say . Is there sometimes silence . How do you gauge that . [laughter] imagine, think about this for a minute. You got a bunch of class presence, they all got three big egos, pretty smart. They wouldnt have made it pretty far. Any given day, they can do this job better than me. I support and to be a good sister and we have plenty of people have something to say. Discussions get entered out, also frequently have somebody cut off. To the populace about whatever, the iranian situation. They come and talk about current figures of the day. We frequently do that. Technically the republicans call themselves a caucus. But everybody uses the term caucus. The members of the party and the sentence of the house. Can you talk about majority leaders, how you would compare your, the way you can take the speaker, the differences between house leadership and essentially run and how the house runs. They are at the top of it. The rules committee chair, thats what the speaker says. In order to get a bill, you have to go to the House Rules Committee which determines whether it is or not. They pick the amendment that allows that. The house is pretty much topdown operation. The senate was on a level and majority leader has a little more thought because you can pick what youre going to take up. Every senator has a lot more ability to influence the process for better or worse than individual house member. There are a lot of people in the house, its hard to have much of an impact. In the senate, i wont mention any names but there are people who do that routinely. [laughter] had to deal with it every single week. They make themselves a part of the conversation, better or worse. Usually for worse. [laughter] when you have a member who stand up and objects something youre trying to work on, how do you approach them . You sometimes go to them directly first . You have a third party go or you just hope over time they welcome around, given maybe the Popular Support alongside what youre advocating is sort of context . Depends on the issue at first. Some people influence others, some people influence when i might say, its really important, i might say mr. President , would you call soandso . Depends on who it is and what the issue is. And who i think might have the most influence to get where we are trying to go. But there are some people who are more apt to object than others. Its not all that unusual. At the beginning, you start out as majority leader, when you start planning what youre going to try to do, right after the election, what will be and do you put together a plan then . What is your position . When does it begin with the Upcoming Congress . Depends on wednesday elect. I can relate on the previous, 1 30 a. M. In amazement, trump got elected president of the u. S. [laughter] the first thing i thought was, you are back 100 years and he has the house and senate for 20 years. I said to myself, he wont last very long. Youll notice it didnt, to hear stators, the dent because of the house. I begin to think about the Supreme Court, circuit courts and also those at the top of the list. Are you was of the previous administration, we wanted to and move that in a different direction. In the last two years, Supreme Court justices were history or comprehensive tax reform for deregulation, if you were like me and wanted the right of center, it was the best two years. We took maximum advantage. Quinn lost the house and senate after two years. Trump lost the house after two years. Its fairly common for voters and some sort of marriage remorse, lets try Something Different now. So what happened, wasnt all that unusual. Could you talk a bit about the difference between leadership of the senate and the house, talk about how the senate is distinct in its role within constitutional structure and how it should operate, you have how the house operates with respect to the president. It is really different. Its even more different when is a different party. To go back to my earlier. Next, it determines what the agenda is. I knew going in that there were not going to be any consequential legislation either way. It wouldnt pass the senate or the house so the question to ask the american people, whether they expect. Heres what i think they expect. We know you have big differenc differences. I think we did a really good job during the obama years. A broad area bipartisan agreement we can reach and those configuration. There are two big things we need to do for the country. Thats the usmexico canada trade agreement and reach an agreement on how much we are going to spend over the next two years. Had a couple of them this past week, the speaker, myself and leaders reaching an agreement in the next two years. After that, im just not sure how much we are going to be ab able, the speaker has a lot of challenges. Shes got a very significant number of, the freedom caucus, a totally different view about that going forward. We are going to do anything about that. Shes got a lot of things including those who are beating the drums for impeachment. The american people, even those were not there understand the normal way to deal with that is the election. As opposed to the previous election, thats what impeachment is about. Shes got her hands full dealing with her own group. We are but the house is not. Confirming judges and commissions, there are 1200 executive branch departments. Most of them are on the vote. A little harder to pull that out the last few years but we have to have a vote on every single one of them. Ive got things to do even if we dont end up having a lot of bipartisan agreements on legislature. One final question, this person should these days, the highest level we had in our history, could you talk about that and address that . Everybody should relax. This is not the most contentious time in american history. I spoke with students today that anything you say about each other even in campaigns, pales compared to what they said about each other. Congressman came over from the senate. Weve had robust political debates and occasionally include balance since the beginning of the country. Everybody who looks at the situation and says its got to be worse than ever, its not. It is different though. Twentyfour Hour Television and the internet and number of people who are acting out with their twitter account. [laughter] 65 million followers, everybody is more involved. Its like a perpetual campaign. I do worry, the one thing i do worry about, i hope this is not here, but do worry about the unwillingness. Which i think is complete nonsense. Its a is a place for debate but the notion that i have to have a crime, you might say something, its not that its going on all over america. I dont see it here and its not happening here but i do worry if youre going to write about everything. You dont always see another point of view, its a dangerous place to be. Nurse in school a long time ago, one year we had someone we knew and the next year we had somebody we had never heard of. He was a socialist. I remember thinking that i want to listen. Im offended by something you said, i disagree. Thats the only thing going on right now that i have had trouble, weve had a lot worse and nobody should be elected, the country is in trouble. Thank you, everyone. [applause] america will be just fine and you will be just fine if you follow my directions now. Consider give your self one of these books and dig into the history of the senate. If you will hold still for a few moments, i will ask them to make their way to the archives, which is just off to the left. They will be there signing books and talking to you as you come over. If you could all hold still for a moment and let them get over there and will dismiss everyone. If you purchase of a court just want to meet them, head over to the arcades. If not, thank you again for coming out. It her face on a rainy day like this. I appreciate you being here. [applause]