She is also a bestselling author that calls maryland home. When we found out she was releasing a new book, we knew we had to have her back at the pratt stage. In under fire, brian gives her unique look at the Trump Presidency from inside the white house. The book was only released this month and is already being called a must read. If you havent gotten your copier, mahogany books is here tonight selling under fire in the lobby. You will have your opportunity to get your book signed after the program. Please join me in welcoming april ryan. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is so good to be home. So good to be home. This is home, seriously. Baltimore. Im that kid who grew up in Baltimore City and i cant leave. I dont know what it is. It traveled the world. You know . Go to the white house every day but something theres a special juice in baltimore. Yes. [applause] i want to thank you guys for coming out to tonight. It touches my heart. Tonight is not about politics. Its not about party. Its not about party. Its about freedom and humanity. Freedom and humanity. For such a time as this. I know youre watching the news today. And everyone is talking about a certain book. [cheering and applause] hello, my name is bob woodward. [laughter]. Congrats to him. Before i go into this conversation. Im going to talk to a little bit about what ive been through. What you see in that Briefing Room is nothing compared to what ive been through. I want to acknowledge a couple people who are here tonight. Oh my goodness, ive got a lot of friends here tonight. I want to acknowledge first the former mayor of baltimore. [applause]. Where is he . Hes been a mentor, a friend and someone whos helped me navigate these murky waters, for real. I also want to recognize the a im seeing people i havent seen in a while. Carla, jim, my doctor is here. [laughter] wow my doctor is here. And someone who surprised me backstage weve seen on television but hes from that other network. Im going to give him a shout out anyway. His name is john he works with me at the white house on that other network. [applause] i think i see the principle of my childrens school, is that correct . Lord have mercy. Everyones here tonight. Im not going to call you out. Why did my vision go straight to you . Thanks for coming. Im not going to call your name. I want to say this. Tonight is extra special for me. Because i get a chance to tell my story to my community, baltimore. Washington is just down the street. 30 miles, 50 miles for others. But the mentality is totally different. Ive covered for president s. For president s. For 21 years. I know i look like im 17. For 21 years, called by name by each president. At least three i know the name dave called me. This one ive studied for this at morgan state university. Just down the road. This is my vocation. Not knowing that i would be under fire for asking questions. I have asked questions of each president. The same question except for one. Of each president over the last 21 years. Ive been asking questions now asking questions now has me fearing for my life. Which is real. Im not going to get into that but its real. I think about the vision of those Founding Fathers. Who talked about who we are as a people. They came up with something and i think about schoolhouse rock. If you dont know this, google it or you to it. We the people in order to form words . A more perfect union. Im scared to go farther than that. We are still forming a more perfect union. We are still going through growing pains. Its tough but its growing pains. We the people. Im one of those people who are crazy to believe that im part of we the people. John, am i telling the truth . Thank you. Then theres something called the amendments. Its not a mistake with coincidence that included in the first, not second, third, not for us fifth or sixth. The First Amendment is something called freedom of the press. Im going to say it again. Its not a coincidence that the First Amendment includes freedom of the press. So i wonder if the Founding Fathers who im sure had slaves. Never envisioned a girl from baltimore getting in her car and going to this beautiful place, 1600 pennsylvania avenue and raising her hand asking questions. Im sure they never envisioned a donald trump. Stop. [laughter] im going to get yall straight because youre not going to get me in trouble. Im sure they never envisioned social media and the twitter. For the graham or the facebook. Whatever. In the mist of all that, with their vision, what they wrote , what they decided upon covers all of us. And before i start into my book, a paul ryan, under fire reporting from the front lines of the trump white house. Every day i walk into the building thanking god that i am free. Thanking god that i have the freedom to ask mr. President , whats going on with russia . And he shouts back, stop shaking your head. Where is he now with his book . Thats another story. [cheering and applause] that was bad, i am sorry. Before i go any further, i want to thank the pratt library. They have supported me. You are not an author unless you go through the pratt. I want to thank eddie and sylvia brown for supporting me. Theyre the ones that make this happen. Also judy, where is she. She believed in me. So, theres an old negro spiritual when i think of freedom. Oh freedom, old freedom, freedom over me. And before i be a slave, i be buried in my grave. If yall know the rest, and go home to my lord and be free. This is serious for me. This is so serious for me. Because if im not allowed to ask questions, youre not going to get the information you need. If theyre suppressing me, they will suppress john and everyone else in that room. I think before he passed away. He talked about suppressing the press. If you begin down that line, you begin a dictatorship. Who are we in 2018 . For a time such as this. I think about the books that are out right now. Its not a coincidence that these books talking about the dysfunction. God bless them. Hes gone into the stratosphere. Because hes painted the picture that we already knew. But hes putting something, giving texture and context. Even a omorosa with her tapes. God bless her. I wish her well. [laughter] then you have me. We are all talking about the dysfunction. There is some commonality here that is true. Bob woodward, how are you going to not. He is part of the reporting team that uncovered what . Watergate. Uncovered what . Watergate. For many of you who were around at that time, you remember what it smelled like, what it tasted like and what it felt like. Because nixon tried to do what . Discredit the reporters. Look at what happened. In 2018, whats happening again . Theres a thread and theres a reason for that. Theres a reason for that and we are trying to find out. But theres a reason for that. So we start off with chapter 1. Of my book. The chapter is called the rebuke. I think about how when donald trump decided to run, people thought it was a joke. Stop it. [laughter] cspan is filming. The Republican Party said, its not going to happen. Ill never forget a cold night in washington d. C. And listen to this. This is in chapter 1. Im going to paraphrase because i want you to read it. [laughter] i didnt mean it the way it came out but its a good idea. Ill never forget a cold night in washington d. C. I was invited to the Republican National committee tilting. And Reince Priebus at that time was the head of the rnc. Sean spicer was the consultant for the rnc. They had asked some of the cream of the crop reporters to come to the rnc. Because they were looking for the black vote. Yes. Talking about they were on the this is what we are going to do in this is how it will happen. These are the numbers that happened before. This is what we will do. Me myself, im always raising my hand. I said wait a minute. Theres a candidate in this field of 25,000. I said, thats talking division. And its not about a coming together or unifying to win. Ill never forget how Reince Priebus and sean spicer were the and they just knew how it was going to happen. I said, youve got a candidate whos dividing the nation on race. I said how are you going to get him to continue on to what you want . Talking about donald trump, they said well, hes going to read our data. Donald trump not only prove them on and he proved that you can be present without the minority vote. And they were left with egg on their face. The rebuke of the party ended up being the rebuke of donald trump at the party thumbing his nose at them from the beginning. But what we found from donald trump, cold words, events and rallies. These private valleys. Rallies. The rest against the press. You think about how he galvanized people. How he brought people together. We are like people in the search listening to something tonight but theres another side. You have to think critically when youre watching the news and watching these events. Because sometimes things just right. So chapter 1 page 16, another tactic trump used to galvanize his supporters came to me and a aha moment united my kids to new york city to see wicked for the third time. I know. We love broadway. More importantly, to the actress shirley who played madame mirabal. The headmistress of the school. My friend made the history theater by being the first black woman to play her on broadway. It was our imitating life when one of the characters began to reveal the plot of the play. Making the of the enemy. The character said the best way to unify people is to create a common enemy. Now. Mind you, the wicked, the book was published in 1995. And the play was a Broadway Musical in 2003. This thought pattern was well before donald trump decided to create a common enemy but he understood what to do. How do you bring people together . Find a common enemy. That was further birtherism. And i see it now with the press. The press is a threat. The enemy of the people. Why . Because we are asking questions that make sense . We are asking questions that help america . If not coincidence either. The stars are just lining up today. The kryptonite must have come out, john. I dont know but these poll numbers but have you seen the polls . One of those polls or one of the pieces, the cnn poll. I love the other network. But the cnn poll talked about one question about the press. The American Public doesnt like the treatment of the press. People understand that once you quiet them down, you dont get the information. Whats the problem . Youve got to share. Sean spicer says if we go to a restaurant and have russian salad dressing or salad, we will put russian salad dressing on and we have russia. But when it comes to me, im going to tell you the story about how i became the enemy. And it still hurts to this day. It started when the president was running for office. He had someone very close to him was loyal to or he thought was loyal to him for that that person was on the apprentice and everything. This person had been my friend. I met her during the clinton years. We were close. I thought we were close. She was working in al gores office. When al gore wanted to talk to me, shed call me. Lets do this, and interview. Wow. Its about access of a principal to find out whats going on. What happened. Then she left. She had sharp elbows and they pushed her out. She failed up until she finally failed out. Walking around this town and other towns, you run into each other sometimes. And we hung out a lot around the country when we were two different events. Got closer and closer. But when President Trump decided to run for president , thats when it happened. He had disdain for the press. Donald j. Trump did not like the press. It was clear. You saw it before he became president. He was chastising my poor jim acosta. Now tells jim to get out. Sarah wont answer my questions at all as she looked me straight in the eye and point to someone else. Shes trying to have an elegant exit as well. [applause] so, it was time for her to prove her mettle. It was time for her to prove that at one point, she was a democrat loving barack obama supporting, bill clinton supporting, Hillary Clinton supported democrat. But now im a republican im a conservative. I want to show you im in your camp. What can i do to make you believe me . While all of us were looking at her askew. The closest thing she could find was mean. A friend was made. She wanted to cut my head off and serve it up to President Trump, to show she was loyal. To garner their support. And trust. One of the worst things you can do in washington is lie on someone about taking money. She tried to kill my career by saying i was taking money from Hillary Clinton. Oh yeah. Here i am, a kid from baltimore. Not west baltimore, not used baltimore. Northwest baltimore. I stand on the shoulders of too many people in this room. Every atomic, my greatgreatgrandfather who was a slave. I came from a bluecollar and whitecollar family. Both of my parents are gone to glory. They worked too hard. They worked too hard in the city for me to get where i am to let someone who wants to prove something to somebody, for me to lose any standing. So what did i do to deserve this . A friend. So she was bad mouthing me saying all this. So i pulled away. Couple months later, are you still going to be in my wedding . [laughter] i did not get the swatch for the gala. Never answered her. But you heard the rumors about that fight between the oval office and sean spicers office. It happened. Because i confronted her that i said why are you telling people that im taking money from Hillary Clinton . You heard about it right . Yeah, good. It was like, did you hear april ryan and omarosa was fighting. Im from baltimore and youre from sweden, you better back. Im a little scrappy. I may be 51 years old. I wasnt going to do a cardi b and nicki minaj but sometimes youve got to let people know youre crazy enough to go there so they leave you alone. In the book i talked about that. My aunt says, sometimes you have to hit a bully one good time and they will leave you alone. And i know the principles and the teachers from my kids school. Im sorry. I do tell them this. Its all right. Its okay. If my children act a certain way, i know where they got it from. That mama of theirs. Sometimes, you have to know when to fight and went to fall back. Here i am in a black network by myself. Im not at abc, nbc, cnn, cbs, i end american urban radio network. Its given me 21 years. A black woman by herself. I didnt have a producer behind me to hold my purse. I didnt have that. When we got into this argument, she started coming out with these crazy things. Unlike what you talking about . She screamed loud enough through the closed door of the oval office that im like the present is going to come out the i was like okay, its going to go on. Thats how bad it was. But a week andahalf later, a week andahalf later, the saga continues. Its all in the book. Ive got receipts. I dont need an audio or video tape. You saw it on tv. Remember that one and only press conference, that the low press conference that President Trump had. Remember that . Your member that. It made news. It made news. It went viral. My child was in school. My oldest child was in school. And this is where, i love socially but where i hate social media. Im still in the room and shes in a Current Events class. And she Text Messages me, mommy, are you okay . My heart is in my stomach. What am i to do . Baby, i am great. I had to let her know, im okay. Theres Collateral Damage to this. The president called on me and the blood rushed to my ears right away because he started to say this is a bad question. No its not serbian good i like watching you on tv. One and only time he said something nice to me. And i still grab onto it. But he said to me, can you get the cbc together . Are they your friends . You laugh. It was a serious question. He had talked about an urban fix. We are an urban area whether you like it or not. Baltimore is urban. I dont care what part of baltimore but you are urban. How are you going to fix the Africanamerican Community still has the highest number of in almost every category. That is not miss, conjecture, that is fact. I was the only one asking the question until they shut me down. So the president said, can you get them together . Are they your friends . First of all, that was on the armor job. I didnt dare say that. That would have been a mess. But the blood is going to my ears. Im like, this is not about race. This is about omorosa. It was more sinister than racial to me. Are they your friends, can you get the meeting together . A week andahalf before i was told i was taking money from Hillary Clinton publicly in that fight. Do you see the connection . Im already labeled as a bad person. And it continued. Sean spicer and i had a decent relationship prior to all of this stuff happening. As soon as that happened, boom. I was now the enemy. Stop shaking your head. Its absurd. Oh my goodness, here comes sarah. All in my book, under fire, written by bob woodward. [laughter] im not mad at his seven come on, bob, work this out. It was so bad between sarah and i for a moment. She asked me to her office. I stopped going up there. Because it was so thick and so tense. The only time i would see sarah is when i would said in any seat, third row, smack dab in me middle and you cannot miss me at all. She would look at me and point somewhere else, thinking shes going to get me. Huhuh. Heat not a gotcha moment. Ill will survive this because ive been through worse. But she felt something was wrong. She said, lets i know, right . She said, lets get together. Lets talk. I said, okay, lets do dinner. But this is after that pie thing. And honest to god i didnt realize my influence on social media. How many of you good to thanksgiving and take pictures of thunder thanksgiving table . You dont . Im sorry. Im going to tell you something. In the friend is have we take picture, we are thankful for the bounty of meanty. We are thankful for that harvest, that feast thats on the table and we take pictures next to the pie we made or next to at the turkey. We do. That im serious. That year, i didnt bake because i was so busy i took a picture of the food that i had in the tins in the back of the car showing this is my bounty for the table. Well, that picture came out. Hmm. That picture came out. And that picture wait a minute. I said, sarah, i said, girl, you need to show us a picture of the pie on the table. And she didnt say anything. But lord knows, fox news went off on me. With a burlap and rock, diamond and silver, whatever their names are. [laughter] i dont like talking about people but the things they said about me. I mean, the world came down on me over a pie. Some even her daddy, pastor, reverend, governor huckabee, went on fox news, talking about she dont talk about a southern woman and their culinary skill bahamas because you will get gutted like a deer. Said is that it a veiled threat . She can find for herself. Shes a grown woman. Im she nodes to learn how to stand up foreigners end up he stead of having daddy tom to her defense. But it was okay. We had a moment. She said where did we go wrong . I said, sarah, id like thereof talk to you so we went to dinner, trying to find commonality. Talked about our religion. Our children, shes a mother, im a mother. We talked about our death threats. Yeah. We talked but life. We talked but her boss. Stop. No, really, because as a reporter i want to learn about who he is, and what she really thinks of him. Accomplish i said, sarah, this wasnt about getting an interview bit i would like an interview. He said this is a good step. But not long after that it began ben. Why . Because her boss doesnt like me. Why . Why . Because im not perceived as their base. Why . Why . Because im asking questions. They dont want to answer. Its not just all about race. Ive asked about russia, asked but north korea, china. And i did ask a question that they didnt like. Thats put me on the block list. The black list. If you dont know about it, google it. Its in my book. Still gets to be kind of upset, no one no reporter, should ever have to ask a sitting United States president , mr. President , result awe racist . No one should if ever have to ask a sitting United States president , and then on the day that i asked that question, that day meant a lot to me. It was the time when we were celebrating the march, now martyr, Martin Luther king jr. The president was announcing the fact that dr. King, his center was going to be expand by the National Park service. And that was the only time i was in the pool that day. And the pool is when certain number of people representing each medium, go into a small room or travel with the president , be it in the vans to the golf course, the trump golf course or to Trump International hotel with the thump and trump. Thats true. And like john is laugh, thats true. Im serious. Or whan we travel or good to when we travel for to roosevelt room of the oval office. Everyone, all the press cannot fit into those rooms, so that day it happened to fall on me. The was the representative for radio, and i kept questioning myself, leading into that question. I knew i was going to ask it but i had nod decided how i would was going to ask it because that was a question cat was so heavy, the weight of that question still is an albatross around my neck. Again no one should ever have to ask a sitting u. S. President in 2018, are you a racist in think about it. Prior to that, we had Fredricka Wilson and the Sergeant La David Johnson issue, the young man, the soldier, a soldier who was child in niger by an ambush by boca haram. We had charlottesville. Yeah. Five or six times the president had to figure out where he stood, if there was a teleprompter, were okay. If but if he spoke extemporaneously, my god, the world came to an end. We were like, did you hear Senate People would i dont know i said, i cant help youment i got work this our myself as a reporter. People came to me like i had the answer. Maybe with im still watching just like you are, maybe with a different vantage. Then in that meeting or series of meetings when the president was supposed to to use his heart to deal with issues of immigration. Yeah. Kept saying the word, heart. And just a couple weeks prior that he was saying, those who come from nigeria, who come here, dont want to go back to their huts. And then just days before this, there was this question as if i if the president did or did not say those words about brown nations ill respect the church. You know what the words were. Were alleged to have been said. I heard so many people, oh, hes a racist. Oh, this you got be careful how you label someone. Have to be careful what you say about someone. Because words matter and they can hurt someone. So all these leaders not just black leaders were saying he was a racist. Said what is the definition of a racist . So i called my friends at the naacp. The head of the naacp. I said, look they didnt know what i was going to do. Wanted to get it right because when i go and ask a question, its researched. Talk to the people involved. I go and google it and find out other stories about it. I try to be as knowledgeable on a subject that i can be to present it to you and ask the questions, so it wont ever be a gotcha moment. When i talked to the head of the nappin he the naacp. He said its sim simple. The definition of a racist which have been called and its not true called a race baiter. Im not a race baiter. But the definition of a racist is so simple. If the intersection or meeting of power and prejudice. That simple. So the next day, the next day, in the roosevelt room, ben carson in there, stop. [laughter] hud secretary ben carson, great surgeon, johns hopkins. Remember that. All right, guys. He supported me. I got to say this. He supported me when lynn patent of hud called me miss piggy. Because i asked the word, mr. President , are you a racist . I want to say this. When i was at morgan state, i loved miss piggy. I thought she was fabulous. Used to call myself miss piggy. She dont new that. But i digress. In that room, lynn patent was there, ben carson was there. The niece and nephew of dr. King were there not the children, not bernice, not dexter, not ml iii. And they go on to talk about the greatness of dr. King, and im i understand what it means to be black in america. I understand what it means to be a human being in america. I understand what dr. King did for america. If he and Robert Kennedy had lived, it wouldnt have just been about race. It would have been about poverty and fighting against poverty for all people. If they had lived. Six weeks apart they were killed. The dream is still alive but the dreamers were killed. I understood. I come from a home, not too far from here, not too far from here, i lived in golden. Not too fair from here as a kid. My mother had the picture of dr. Kennedy and king up there of president kennedy and king and ill tell you not about my politics. This is what they did. If my mother and father my mother was still alive when barack obama was president weatherer would have the whole family, barack obama, michelle, sasha, malia, and the bobble heads. I come from that family. I come from that family. And my mother was the woman who gave me my heart, my father gave me the courage. Me late father. He passed away august 8th. My mother always taught me, im telling you, whenever id be sitting at a kitchen table, and if i had a peanut, do you know how many uses of the peanut there are . George washington carver im like, okay, mom. Id like at a Peanut Butter job, oh, get away from me. We go to a stoplight do you know a black man created oh, mama. I came from that household. I understood who i was as a person in this nation. And understanding i dont hold my head down. I walk boldly because we come from a beautiful, overcoming community of people. But im part of the broader community. I understood that. So that day the weight of that question was on me. I threw that question out and he didnt respond. Mr. President , will you answer any of these questions . And his little friend, pastor darryl scott, no i said, sow know who darryl scott is, right . Yeah, uhhuh. Hes in the book, too. Not for so many nice reasons. You now how President Trump met darryl scott . Through michael cohen. Hmm. Mmm. Its true. Hmm. So i asked again, as highs mr. President , are you a racist in the walks out the room. That question layed in the air for days. Aim telling the truth, john . It took the president about three or four days to answer. No im in the a racist. Im nowhere near whatever he said. But because i asked that question, i could feel the anger in the room. Darryl scott was playing with a bottle of water as if he wanted to throw it on me. Other people. Ive been labeled racist, ive been labeled everything but a child of god because i dared to ask a question. Thats on others minds. My life has been threatened from people who dont know me. Ive had to take measures against people who dont know me. If i dont ask the question, some of those questions, then who will . In 2018, we dont have helen thomas anymore. In 2018 we dont have Sam Donaldson anymore. In 2018 we dont have dan rather anymore. People in that room. I grew up watching helen thomas go after questions of ronald reagan. Sam donaldson issue get my big mouth from him because sam knew how to throw a question. I watched them. I worked with these people. And today im somewhat ashamed what i see. Sometimes in that room some people want to be friend with the administration. We are now conservative reporters, liberal reporters, but i pray that i stand right here as that person who used to watch Walter Cronkite and say, thats the way it was. Trying to be fair, these are questions that are on peoples minds. If sarah would have called me today, what you think about the poll numbers, sarah, she would Say Something smart. Its not a coincidence that all these poll numbers saying the same thing. When it comes to freedom of the press, i am biased. I worked hard for this. And i continue to work hard for this. Some of the worst days of my career have been in this administration. They wanted me gone. They wanted me fired. They wanted me to give up. Why . Because i choose to continue to ask questions. I think about what my aunt said. Sometimes you have to hit a bully one good time. Im by myself but im not by myself. I stand on the shoulder offered those wonderful Founding Fathers who had the foresight to understand that information is power. This is not a new game. Just a Delivery System is new. Back in the day they used to run through the towns and talk about things, on the in the town square, or write in the paper. Today were writing, videoing, were on twitter, facebook, but were still moving. Information is power. What makes us different . Than russia and china . The free press. An independent press. Im not going to give up. But i think about something Kamala Harris said to me and i put it in the book. We were at a luncheon, both being honored and there would as person between us and she leaned over and smiled to me, are you still there . I said, so are you. Theres not a coincidence. There is an attack on certain groups of people. Im going imhe more you to use imploreow to use Critical Thinking. You have not seen the rest of it. Its coming. We havent seen the mueller report. Its coming. And im going to tell you something, this president creates his own story and were there to cover it. Its coming. But in the midst of it all im going to ask you al to stand with us, the free press, because its not about us. Im not supposed to be the story. Its not about me. I just happen to be telling my story because if i didnt tell my story, they shouldnt wouldnt. It would be a different way. Ask you to stand with us. We need you. Because if they did what they did to me, theyd do it to john and everybody else. Ry local leave you with this one. Charlottesville weekend. We all remember where we are. It was the ugliest moment in this era. I was in new orleans that weekend with my children. Saturday night i received the journalist of the year award trough the National Association of black journalists. The next morning a dear friend of mine who has been around for a long time, blowing my phone up. April, april, april. Im like, what, im asleep. I had a great night. She said have you seen the add . I said what add . She said, look at the ad. She sent me a desk. I was the only White House Correspondent the weekend of charlottesville in this ad saying, rotter are trying to thwart trumps agent. Black woman reporter during chicago and the president approved of this message. Yes, the other people in the ad were like don lemon, wolf blitzer, rachel maddor, chris matthews. All friends. Was in good company but aisle trying to thwart an agenda . The agenda has if they can do it to me theyll do it to others i implore you, stan with us. Its about freedom. 0 freedom, 0 freedom over me, and before i be a slave, i be buried in my grave. And go home to my lord and be free. Thank you. [applause] thank you, guys now. You see why i dont want to leave baltimore. Were going to take questions now. If you have a question, no comments. Please come to the mic. Dont be afraid. Cspan is just watching. Dont worry about it. I love cspan. Cspan maryland public television, cspan, friends of mine. Come to the mic. I know who you are, college classmate. I have friends here tonight. 30 years ago, on the campus together. Shhh. I know. Morgan state university. Welcome home, april. Thank you. As a member of the Academic Community who focuses mostly on history, i have a question about politics in the crosssection of history particularly this time. Lee atwater and Richmond Nixon in 1968 wind out the southern strategy and tied to the g. O. P. They dont own that. Democrats used the tool as necessary. But there was a split in the Republican Party as to how dangerous a tool, how dangerous an instrument this could be. And so George Pappy Bush was not a fan but used willie horton. We had others use this tool. Now its kind of come around like a chain saw. How is the g. O. P. Now looking at this strategy as a useful tool for motivating their base . Its not behaving in the same way that it used to. Its out of control. Let me say this. There are did you hear his question . No. Okay, okay. The question was, how talking about the southern strategy and different time periods and most recent times people have used race to kind of divide and what is the Republican Party thinking about this racial attack to gin of the pace there are people of good will both party. People see. What i will say is early on is that the Republican Party was watching the numbers. Going to have the number. The number change well walk eastern from him and save everything for the mid termed of its late out in because the turn ins are starting to tank. But ill say this. There is something going on. President trump was born out of the discontent. Let me say this. You remember when barack obama was elected president. You smell it and feel and it taste it. You remember when donald trump was president barack obama was named at 11 m. President trump, 3 00, 4 00 in morning. Remember where you were. Many were awake. Okay, whatever. Ill say this. Theres a Common Thread between both of those historic presidencies. The thread is the word change. There are people on all sided of the spectrum who feel theyre not touched by government. So therefore when they heard barack obama im going with him. Im going with him. And then when others heart donald trump, im going with him. For better or for worse. Donald trump was born out of birtherrism. He played on race. It was a direct reaction to the election of barack obama. Now, its not even waiting eight years, now lets see what is happening. People are not people are not feeling this. Think about selma, alabama. What happened in alabama against roy moore. The black belt rich soil north black people but it is black people. Blam women said they remember selma. Bloody sunday. I was there with president obama when we went there to comet rate the 50th afghanistan of bloody sunday. Looks like the town the time froth. The economics still bad. It looks like the same place. Just in 2018 put those people said, no more. We are not doing this again. They did not vote for roy moore. Now, what are we seeing today . Never seen is in in my life. What happened in massachusetts . Press pressley. Now in 2018, three southern states, i dont garrett wow think but maryland. Still a southern state. Maryland were informant new york. Maryland, georgia, and florida . Three africanamericans are poised to be potentially be governor of those states. I have never seen this. There is a reaction to this. So people are not its not just black people. Its not just people are seeing what is happening and theyre upset so it could be a southern strategy all it wants. For every action there is a reaction. And i met Andrew Gillum last week, he remind he me of barack obama but has this theme of everyone, universality. I met Stacy Abrahams and we commune okay. Same thing, theme of universality. I want to see what happens. Dont mow what is happening in each state but i want to see because anything can change because you have this quiet move of africanamericans voting, but then you have this other move that could come up and say, were not going to let it happen. Whats that happened with trump and thats what happened with Andrew Gillum. They didnt expect it. Came out of nowhere. And one thing he did say to me when i talked to andrew last week, he said the reason why i came out of nowhere, because just like you in that press room, said the Florida Press i mainstream. They werent paying attention to me. Thanks. Yes, maam. So often elections are decided by the people who dont bother to vote, and what do you think the press can do to encourage the antitrump voters to come out and vote even if its not for a perfect candidate for the governorship, the senators, so that in fact people will vote. Im not an advocate journalist. Im not telling you, good out there and vote for Andrew Gillum or stacy abrams. Im telling you, as a human being, vote. Exercise your freedom and privilege. Vote, i dont care who you vote for forks vote. You go into that poll, use a Critical Thinking, and research the candidates. Politics is personal. Politics is so personal. But its all played out in public now. What i would say is, for times such as this go vote. What i do is i let you hear the naacp and the Congressional Black Caucus talking about hate, vote against hate. But i also let you hear people from other walks of life to talk about how critical i try to give you all sided of the spectrum . Dogs biting through their skin. A vote. Please. Thank you. [applause] you see things so much more up close than the rest of us. My question is, are you still surprised by things . [laughter] ummsome days im like, they cant topless. Top this. How are they going to explain that at the podium today. It is so funny to watch the president Say Something and then the next day, what the president meant to say. Thats not what he said but no, he said oh my gosh. They insult our intelligence quite a bit. You can see it. At one point, am i crazy . Your questioning yourself. Once you embrace that this is different and you know what you know and how they handle it. You know your are white. Its not normal. Its not normal. Im just going to say, this is not normal. If you believe its normal, go take a vacation and breathe and come back. This is not normal. Imat the point where [applause]. Im going to call it out. Im going to ask about if its ever told me, its not what you report, its what you say on tv. I said i speak the truth, whats the problem . Im not into lying or fudging anything. I just tell it like i see it. Ive been around 21 years. Ive seen a couple things. You cant pull nothing over on me now. But its all right. I hope i answered your question. Thank you. This is not normal. Not at all. Yes sir. I think this is the last question. Im special. Good evening. During the primaries and a president ial election, i asked the same question over and over. How is she doing this . How is trump winning . Ive got lots of stuff on tv and other places but never a direct answer to a simple question. How is he doing it . What i like is your response to this. All of this is driven by one thing, that is the real or perceived threat to white male privilege worldwide. Its called the forgotten mail. Thats what the Republican Party called it when they were doing their strategy. The forgotten white man who felt like they werent touched by government and he played upon it. He made people who felt like they were not a part, be a part. This is the thing that trips me out about President Trump. And the people who support him. Hes like us. No hes not im like him this man has got buildings in his name. He has a discerning clientele that comes to his hotel. You probably would not be welcome there. He is not you. Even though hes got this crazy combover and he speaks kind of weird, they feel like hes just real. And he is real and a lot of ways. Its just not normal. But im going to say this, how is he doing this . How is he doing this . Taking the knee. He created the narrative. They got mad at me about that. They said its about the anthem, its about the soldiers and our nation. Let me say this, it was that day that said im not going. I said sarah, does the president realize what taking money is about . It was like this for text, everyone just got quiet. Now its exposed. Patriotism, who is not more patriotic, and the vast majority of us in here have someone in our family thats in the military. Right . The vast majority have someone whos in the police department, right . All right. I almost married two of them in the police department. We are patriotic. But this, ginning the stuff up for this immigration thing. I have never seen i grew up talking about lady liberty and how she welcomes people from so many nations with and now, its a sin and the shame for us to open our land to other people. The thing that gets me is, ill never forget that night. When erin burnett, astop. I hear the grumbles and groans. They were talking about, we dont want immigrants coming to this nation. They were talking about black and brown. They are a drain on the welfare system. I said wait a minute, i remember during double aand this is when youre dangerous. When you know stuff from before you can call it up in google it and call people. I said wait a minute. We went to commercial break. According to the senses for american progress, african immigrants were black immigrants are the most educated that come to the shores. It was like, oh my god. Things change. People play on misinformation and trying to change history. Thats why i said, we have to use Critical Thinking and we have to be on top of it. This game of creating your own new facts. We are checking it. Im telling you, its like, if certain people were here tonight but you would not believe. You would believe youre in a dance hall, youre not in a church. And the sky is orange. People are changing facts. Im serious. Thats how bad it is. They will tell you things that are just not true. You know its not true interface and youve got to go back understanding this is what it is and put it out there. That is the job of a reporter. With a pen and pad and microphone and videocamera rules sit there and sift through what youre saying and find the facts without saying youre a liar. This is the truth. Versus put this out there. That is how this president is securing his base. By playing on the fears, the recent years, the culture fears, there is a divide here that was created playing on the fears of others so they could be loyal to him. Thats the way i see it. Thats the way it was. Thats the way it is. For september 11, 2018. Ozma [applause]. Thank you baltimore. I love you and appreciate you. Were going to sign books. Thank you everyone. [cheering and applause] thank you all. Thank you, thank you. [inaudible conversations] thank you so much everyone for spending your evening with us. In the hallway to your right, mahogany books. April ryan will be signing books. Thank you and good night. Heres a look at some books being published this week. Historian eric larson looks at Prime MinisterWinston Churchills leadership of britain. During germanys attack on the country during world war ii in the splendid and the vile. In revolution, former Deputy National security adviser for the trump administration, mcfarland provides an inside look at the white house. Also being published, near times columnist argues u. S. Success, [indiscernible]. Dana lash argues the politics of outrage is endangering democracy in grace canceled. Stephen the b explores the history of the largest social media platform. Look for these titles and bookstore this coming week and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv on cspan2. Please welcome dan abrams, norman pearlstine, Van Gordon Sauter and Richard Stangl with your moderator doug