Spread throughout the us and the world with interactive maps. Whats on the man anytime unfiltered at coronavirus. Cspan. Org coronavirus. [applause] good evening everyoneand welcome to the George Washington university. Im pleased to welcome you to tonights event, presented in partnership with politics and prose bookstore read and the third in the George Washington universitys president ial distinguished events series area a lot this series last semester to give our students the opportunity to hear from renowned leaders , the individuals who blink aluminate in dialogue insight and inspiration to our campus. In the heart of our nations capital, our university is fortunate to be surrounded by the many governmental nonprofit and International Agencies and organizations make decisions that affect each of us every day. Our location allows us to be part of those decisions read at allows our Student Access to the uniquely easy experiential learning opportunities. It allows our faculty ieto provide rigorous and highquality scholarship and research informs policymaking and problemsolving. And it allows our university to serve as a home for timely discussion that are important and relevant to all of us. Tonight we are pleased to host former United States ambassador to the United Nations nikki haley in a discussion about her new book with all due respect defending america with britt and grace offers a firsthand nd perspective on national and International Matters as well as behindthescenes account of her tenure in the trump administration. Ambassador haley will be going tonight by moderator United States senator joni ernst in 2014 was selected as the first woman to serve in federal elected tooffice from the state of iowa. These enjoy this evening discussion thank you for being here. Nikki haley became the first state first female governor. The results are what i promised the people of carolina and im determined to get. He haley says it is the single largest Economic Investment in the state, more than 200 year history. For sadie fan, all manufacturing right here in charleston county. It is a great day in South Carolina. 560 million invested. 1700 jobs right here in chester county. Its a great plan. The best part of what has happened over the past couple of years is wanting all these jobs just go into cities but go into rural South Carolina because if you can get a person you job you take care of a family and we blotched a lot of families get taken up care of. President elect trump has asked nikki haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations and shes accepted. The daughter of indian immigrants is considered a rising star in the Republican Party haley would be the first woman appointed to trump scattered. Our ambassador is living proof of the promise of america. For anyone that says you cant get anything done at the un, they need to know theres a new sheriff in town. There is a new un. Youre going to see a change in the way we do tbusiness. For those that dont have our back yard taking names. The Human Rights Council as a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political violence. If for any reason north korea attacks the United States or our allies, the us will respond. He so tough and so consistent and you know youre not going to move here her. The americans said we want our embassy in the capital and capital is jerusalem. America will put our embassy in jerusalem, that is what the American People want t us to do and it is the right thing to do. O. No vote in the United Nations. Will make any difference on n this. What we witnessed here today is at the Security Council is an odinsult. It wont be forgotten. Underground, nikki haley clear. I will not shut up. Rather i will respectfully speak on my terms. Haley shows us what american foreignpolicy looks like. Some people say theres too much swagger, you know that. I dont think its swagger, i think its passion. I am very passionate about defending the United States. As haley said the world is respecting the unitedstates again. I didnt know i would be elected into the little legislature. I didnt know i would be governor. Ai certainly never thought i would be un ambassador. Even though im a private citizen now i know i too young to stop fighting. [applause] good evening. Welcome everyone, welcome to Cw University area thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. We are going to have a wonderful discussion with ambassador nikki haley, can we say thank you to herone more time please. Thank you. Thank you so much, president leblanc, thank you very much. Well. You for being here as we are going to have a wonderful discussion this evening with Ambassador Haley and we will start with about 45 minutes of questions and those are questions i will be asking you, ambassador and we will move on to about 15 minutes of questions from the audience so ambassador, would you like tostart with some remarks. First of all, its great to be at gw area i have to tell you, president labonte , thank you for hosting us tonight and allowing us to be here after your rockstar, your were excited to watch everything you do but i was here on campus because our son is looking to come gw next fall so we will see if that happens. There is a bit of an application process a, we have to go through firstbut having said that, thank you for having us. But seriously, i know im here but how cool is it to have the first female combat veteran in this senate here with us, joni ernst. [applause] you were so nice to do this and were just going to have a fun conversation and hangout for a bit. So that sounds great. When the folks from the ambassadors office and called and my staff reached out to me and said would you like to and the minute they said nikki, i was like yes. I didnt even know what it was but i was excited to do it. So with that ambassador were going to go ahead andget started. And im going to take us back a little bit in history because a lot of folks maybe dont know about your background or how you grew up. And so gi, we will start there because i think it really sets the stage for the wonderful years to come. And you really describe your american story and how you didnt quite fit in as a girl growing up in the south. And what was that experience like for you, growing up as the daughter, we all know of indianimmigrants. And you were living in rural South Carolina. No. We live in a small town called vanderburgh South Carolina. We were the only indian family in that town. We were white enough to be white, we were black enough to be black. My father wore a turban, he still does to this day my anmother were a sorry, they didnt know what we were, who we were or why werethere. Being on the r playground and coming home after being teased. And my mom would always say your job is not to show people how youre different ld your job is to show people how you are similar. And its amazing how that lesson i learned on the playground played out in my life in the corporate world and as a legislator, as governor, as ambassador because when you are faced with a challenge , if you first talk about what you agree on, people let their guard down. And then youre more likely reto get a solution by pushing through that challenge so little did iknow that to be a great lesson along the way. And what a great lesson and your mother is wise beyond her years. She tells me that every day. Of course he does. Shes a great mom. So some folks might not realize that for you were ambassador and before you were governor nikki haley, you actually served in the legislature, is that correct . I did so whats interesting is my mom started a business from scratch and a few years in her business, her accountant was going to leave. And she needed to train someone and finally a few days before she left she said im getting concerned. We dont have someone to train. I happen to be walking by and my mom grabbed my arm and said train her, she cando it. But she said but shes 13. And she said train her, she will do it so at 13 i was balancing the bank account, writing out the checks, making sure we were doing bank deposits, the whole bit. It wasnt until i got to college i realized that wasnt normal. Now i totallyrealize that was child labor. Through that process i developed a love of numbers and the fact that numbers t tell a story and every problem can be fixed by moving the numbers around so and a graduating with a degree in accounting from clemson university, go tigers. And then went on to the corporate world and tired of working for the guy down the hall, came home to the Family Business and one day complaining again and i was complaining at how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was hfor government to take it and my mom said quit complaining about it, do something about it. I did not know you werent supposed to run against a 30 yearincumbent in a primary. I didnt. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. I was that kid incollege politics, i never knew to go to student government. So once i got into, once i realized what i had gotten myself into the only option was to win. So my husband drove, i was in the passenger seat, kids were in the backseat and we started knocking on doors and he was the longestserving legislator at that time in the state of South Carolina and i would knock on doors anything ay disparaging about him. I said we appreciate what mister cowans has done but we think, i think i could do Something Different and i always just talked about me, i didnt talk about him and was fortunate enough to get elected. And then fastforward a little bit, im in the legislature afew years. And in South Carolina whenever they were passing legislation, it was done by voice vote at all in favor say icon all those, nay. The eyes had. One day there was a piece of legislation that went across the desk gave legislators pay raises. All in favor say i, all post silent. The eyes have it but to this day you cant find one legislator that said they voted themselves a pay raise area and i got really upset and went to the speaker of the house and i said this is why people dont trust us. And the next day i filed a bill that said anything important enough to be debated on the floor of the house or senate is important enough to have a vote on the record. The speaker called me in. He said that the bill away. We dont need to have it written we will decide what the public needs to see and what they dont really remember going home that night talking to my husband and saying i cant even get legislative votes on the record, what am i doing here. He said then go find. And so i went across the state of South Carolina and said if you know of all the bills passed in the house eight percent were on the record . Did you of all the bills passed in the senate only one percent was on the record. So he didnt know how your house member voted, 92 percent of the time, if you didnt know how your senators voted 99 percent of the time tohow did you know to vote for when you got to the polls . And the people of South Carolina were shocked. To put it all in perspective my first year in office i was chairman of the freshman class, second year i was majority with, third year i eewas put on a powerful business committee,fourth year i was subcommittee chair of banking. The year i wouldnt put the bill away they stripped me of everything. I could go to the well, no one would hear a bill. I could try to get support, i wouldnt get it so i ran for governor. And you want. Im proud to say one of the first bills we signed into law is inarSouth Carolina. Any peace of legislation that voted on have to have a vote on the record and we took it a step further and they have to show their vote on the record on every section of the budget as well. Very inspiring. [applause] i love it, i love the transparency. So this next question folks, and this is a hard one. Really, and you have had such an inspirational life, nikki. And im going to go back to probably some very hard, dark days. That you had as governor of the beautiful state of thSouth Carolina. Many will know what im referencing but out of despair can come inspiration and true leadership. So this next question, ambassador, you talk about the tragic killing of nine innocent, the manual African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015. During her time as governor which led to the decision to bring the Confederate Flag down from the grounds of the state capital, can you tell us a little bit about that time and how that incident affected the people and the state of South Carolina and then as well if you can, what did you do to bring those citizens together, reunite everyone. My heart goes out to the community in california that had the shooting today. When Something Like that happens, its not just the people in the room that are affected. Its the entire community is affected and on that night, we had 12 people who did what so many people in South Carolinado on every wednesday night they went to bible study. But on this night, someone else showed up. He didnt look like them. Hhe didnt sound like them and he didnt act like them. They didnt call the cops, they didnt throw him out. Instead, they pulled up a chair and they prayed with him for an hour. When they bow their heads in the last prayer, he began to shoot. These were people like ethel lentz. She had lost her daughter two years prior to Breast Cancer and she had a broken heart but she would go around the mother and annual church cleaning the church and she would sing one day at a time sweet jesus. Thats all i ask of you. Give me the strength atto do every day what i haveto do. Our youngest victim, lon sanders Just Graduated College with, was so excited about his life but on that night, he stood in front of his 87yearold aunt susie and looked at the killer and said you dont have to do this, we mean no harm to you. Or it was people like cynthia o heard whose life motto was simply to be kinder and necessary. Thats whothese people were. They were famous. A lot of people didnt know them. They love their families, they love their church and they love their Community Area and when that happens h, it brought South Carolina to their knees. Eeit was the first time we had a shootingin a religious place. And i remember all i wanted an to do was to protect the state. Because the National Media came in strong and they wanted to define it. They wanted to talk about it. And went immediately to make racism. They wanted to make gun control, they wanted to make the Death Penalty and you name it, they were talking about it and i remember strongarming them back saying were not goingto do this. Going to give the time to the families. Are going to go to the funeral. There will be a time and place where we will have those discussions but it is not now. The next day the killer comes out with amanifesto and hes holding up the Confederate Flag. The Confederate Flag in front of the state house in South Carolina, use the on top of the dome and they compromised in 2000 and came right in front of the statehouse. And when he did that, we have a lot of people in South Carolina who have a Great Respect for the confederate pe flag. Not a reason to pay out of the fact that its service and their ancestors and sacrifice. That was the way they look at and then you had obviously a small minority that saw it tfor what it was he hijacked what that was. Rtake it a step further, another day or two days after that and it was the first time killer was going to be in the courthouse facing the judge read and the family showed up. Unprompted, unplanned and one by one, stood in front of the killer and forgave him. And that forgiveness was so overwhelming, that we didnt have protests. We had vigilance. We didnt have violence, we had dogs. And we went through a tough few weeks there where we had to debate where that Confederate Flag needed to go and the good people of South Carolina stepped up and the flag was moved to the museum and the people of South Carolina showed the entire world what it means to be get through a tragedy. [applause] out of despair there comes inspiration. And i just want to thank the people of South Carolina. With your leadership ambassador for showing us how we get through those difficult times by sharing what love with one another and not hatred and not violence but love and forgiveness. So thank you for that. Going to move ahead a little bit and talk about the next step from being governor to the great state of South Carolina and id like you to tell the audience a little bit about when you were offered the position to be the un ambassador and was a difficult decision for you to make and what we really want to know is what were those conversations like President Donald Trump . When he was asking you to take on this momentous position . Its interesting, i knew the president a few years prior. After i won the primary, for governor of the first time , i received this envelope with this great goal trim. And it had a check in it and there was a note thatsaid you are a winner. S so i had talked to him then and we had stayed in contact over the years. And then we had a republican primary and we had 16 people on the stage, a lot of talent on the stage and i put my backing on another candidate. And it was around that time where he sent out a to that said nikki haley is an embarrassment toSouth Carolina. In which i responded in a tweet, bless your heart. But we really did have a respect for each other and i knew if you kick them, he was going to holler. He knew if you pushed me i was going to push back. Fastforward, he wins the primary area i supported him in the general and i get a call on his new chief of staff rants previous so he says i need you to come to new york and i said for what he said the president elect wants to see you and i said about what and he said secretary of state. I said secretary of state, im governor i cant be secretary of state he said he wants to see you, we need you to come so i come in the next morning, i go into his office and the first thing the president says is i guess you are guided when. You justcouldnt help himself. He couldnt help himself. I let him kind of stool a little bit. And then we had a great conversation but i said im not your person. I said weve got a lot going on in the world today that you dont need someone with a learning curve. But i want to be helpful, i want to be supported, anything i can do to help you ill be happy to. Later that week he calls again. He said dont say anything, i just need you to listen. Us ambassador to the United Nations. I said i dont even know what the United Nations does, i just know everybody hates it kn. And he said the president is higoing to call you on monday and he needs you to about this so we get home, my husband is on the computer and he says i think youd be good at this and it wasnt a good time as our son was 15 and i didnt, it would have been a tough time to move our daughter was a freshman in college. Michael and i, my husband we take care of my parents read their golden 80s my mom has parkinsons so it would have been moved to go to new york the president call that monday and said what are you going to do this . And i said im there have to be conditions for me to consider and he said what are they . I said ive been a governor and i dont want to fwork for anyone again. I will want to work with you wso it would need to be a cabinet position. He said done. I said im a politics i would want to be in the room when decisions are made so i would need to be on the national Security Council. He said done. And i said im not going to be a wallflower or a talking head and i need to be able to say what i think and he said thats exactly why i want you to do this and he was true to his word from the first day the last day to read. [applause] i know we got a lot of young people in the audience area and a lot of people ask eome how i knew to ask forthose things. And what you have to remember is theres one lesson that i have learned to live by that is pushed through the fear. When a challenge comes in front of you, your reaction is naturally to step back. But if you lean in and push through the fear, you find out you are so much stronger on the other side. If i wouldnt push through the fear i wouldnt have become a legislator , i wouldnt have become a governor i wouldnt have through the fear, i wouldnt have said i can be an un ambassador of what you have to do when you push through the fear is set yourself up or success. I knew what i needed in order to be successful. So dont be afraid to ask for the platform that you know will bring out the best in you. And that is great advice and taking risks. Taking risks and challenging yourself and i think that is very good for so many folks that are engaging in their firstcareer or looking at opportunities after college. So the book is actually, everybodys hopeful he got a copy of their book but it is full of stories about working with President Trump in the white house, as a member of his cabinet and im sure that there are plenty of stories and inside information that you can share but could you shed some light on some of the conversations that you had that would be maybe and lightning for the audience. A lot of people ask howi got out of the administration without a tweet. And really, it was just the fact that i was very honest with the president. I thought it was important to give him what i wanted from my cabinet when i was governor which is i wanted them toserve the people. I wanted them to be creative and i wanted them to speak up if they saw me going in the wrong direction so with the president i was always very honest. If he did something i thought was good i supported, i pushed through, i rally, whatever needed to happen. If i saw him making what i thought was a wrong decision i would call or meet with him and say i think this is a mistake. Instead i think you should consider ask and he would always say how do you see that playing out and we would discuss it and he was really about hearing other opinions. It mean i want all the time but it meant he was open to listening. But he would often make life a little interesting. This is one of many stories it was the first highlevel week at the United Nations so at the United Nations there was one week out of the year where 193 countries and biased people in the highest caliber of their delegations to new york for one week in the name of peace and security, every head of state comes in, gives a massive speech meant for the world this was the president s first highlevel speech. So we had meetings all lined up. We had approved everything and he gave me a call and he said just want to touch base with you. Did you get the speech and i said i did, its fantastic and it was. And i said but i really want to set the tone for you. I said the un is a different kind of place you i said its serious. So when you give your speech, its not like a rally. I said theyre not going to cheer for you. But dont take it personally. I said i want you to think of it like church. Just like church. He said church, got it. And he said but i have is one thing, i had this idea i want to ask you and i said okay. He said i was thinking about calling, what if i referred to him as little rocket man into speech. I said sir, remember the part i said about church . I said its a really serious crowd. I said i really dont know how theyre going to take it but you arethe president. If you want to do it, you can read and he said while i tweeted about this morning and it killed with my face and i thought it wasfantastic. So you fastforward a couple of days later, hes going to get his speech. We sat down, thenorth korean delegation is in the front row. And then he goes and he says it area and everybody is sitting there. And they have their translator pieces in and all of a sudden you see them go and then they started tolaugh. But a few hours later im meeting with the president of uganda and he sits back and goes so ambassador, what are we going to do about this little rocket man. And before the week was over everybody was referring to him as rocket man so i guess, but that was one of many stories working with the president. Thats awesome. And i bet there are hundreds more. Never a dull moment. So one topic that im always very interested in a course is leader ship. And there is i believe a chapter in the book. Its i dont get confused. And womens leadership. So as a woman, what does it mean to quote, know the power of your voice which is something that you do reference quite a bit in your book. Can you explain that for us . I always thought people should use the power of their voice. You really can move things when you use it at theright place at the right time with the right tone. And i think that its something you learn over time of when the right time is. You always hear and choose your battles and i think as you get further along in life you get better at it. I do have a 24 hour rule that i always try and use. I dont always use it but i try and use it and in that if something is hot and its moving and you feel your Blood Pressure going up and its dramatic, if you can wait 24 hours, usually by the next morning esyoure more tempered. Your thinking more clearly and the right things come out but the other thing you have to learn is usually voice to protectyourself. And the book with all due respect actually came from a time where i needed to insert my voice and it came from the fact that we had had a meeting, national Security Council meeting and through the meeting everyone and decided you were going to put sanctions on russia. And i talked to the president the next day after that. We were Going Forward with the sanctions. And i never was on the sunday shows unless the white house asked me to be they had asked me to be on face the nation that someday. So i go on their, were discussing the issue with russia. I say well, sanctions are coming down onrussia. Stephen has coming down, it has already brought them down. And then we left it. I a call from stephen who was a great friend. A call from him that afternoon andhe goes we got a problem and i said what happened . He said the president changed his mind. He said hes notgoing to do the sanctions. Which fine, a president can always change their mind. Theres nothing wrong with that. I dont fault him e anyway for that, he had another strategy in place and i said just fix it. Tell them that and he said theyre going to come out with a statement in the morning and hopefully he will address next morning statement comes out, dont fix it effect is still asking the question why did he say there were sanctions, where are the sanctions, whats happening though i called multiple people in the administration. Chief of staff, secretary of state, National Security adviserbolton at the time and i said we got a problem. Theres nothing wrong with the president changing his mind, just go out there and tell the truth. Tell whathappened. But everybody is like calling our office, you need to fix this. They said okay. That was monday, tuesday happens, its a level is rising. I said okay. This is the deal. I you all fixit by 5 00 today or im going to fix it by 5 00 today andtrust me, it will go a lot ibetter if you all fix it. Nothing happens. And then i think it was like four or 445 or so. My friend larry kudlow goes out in front of the press. And they asked the question about the sanctions and he says i think he just got momentarilyconfused. So that was it. And i happened to look at the television and the five was getting ready to come on fox. And i call my friend dana and i said can you call me real quick. She called, she said whats up and i said i need to put out a statement shesaid what is it. I said will you just say one sentence. With all due respect, i dont get confused. [applause] she said that it . I said that it, ill take it to you so you have it in writing. And so he goes and she doesnt. Within 10 minutes larry called me. Nikki, im so sorry, you know i love you. I had my tail between my legs, im so sorry. And i said larry, at what point you say i am confused . And he said i know, i shouldnt have done it. Trust me ill make it up to you and i said you will make it up to me and dont do it by going out there and telling them you were wrong and i wasnt and he said i cant do it and i said you can and you will. And he did and in fairness to him he immediately went out, contacted a reporter but what was surprising to me is how it went like, it was a simple moment of me defendingmyself. And how it went viral across the country on tshirts, on mugs, oneverything. And it goes to show though many people have been in a t moment and i hope the lesson you take from that is no one is going to protect your integrity but you. T so people can say theyre going to do it , but at the end of the day you have to do it. Its all you have. And you have to know how to protect yourself so that was another lesson learned. A very powerful voice and we are glad that you have been able to defend yourself and i love that. Its just a true strength. Because you can alwayskick with a smile. Regardless, you dont have to be hateful to get your point across. Absolutely so using the power of your voice, now you have used the power of your voice. In certain circumstances to pull people together after tragedy. Youve used the power of your voice to defendyour self. But there are other times two and i remember this quite clearly. When you use the power of your voice to have the backs of our allies when you were serving as ambassador to the United Nations and i remember this, how many of you remember taking names. Taking names. Of those uswho dont have our allies ask. And i remember quite clearly. And oh my gosh, i was really itimpressed i practice it. So if you would just explain to us what does taking names mean to you . I really didnt think it was going to revel ruffle as many feathers and did that when i realized iwasnt that much of a diplomat. But i purposely when i wentto the United Nations , i obviously did a crash course in Foreign Policy and study to our friends were, who our foes were, what our conflicts were, what we needed to work on but i purposely didnt study the dues and dont of the un i wanted to be able to go in there with fresh eyes. I wanted to know that i had goals and i wanted to achieve and i didnt want the bureaucracy of all that to get in the way. So when i went in and first gave, talked to the press the first time i said its a new day at the United States mission of the United Nations area and it was important to me that country didnt have to like us but i wanted them to know what we were for so i wanted it to be clear what the us aiwas for and against and not give any gray areas to them in the process and i told them i said were going to have the backs of our allies and we are going to be taking a of those that arent with us and what i saw at the United Nations was you got hundred 93 countries. Most who resent us on any given day. Every day felt like you had to put on body armor. You knew you were going to have a fight that day you just didnt know which country it was going to be but they would jab and jab but then they would turn around and have their hand out once in foreign aid and that was the part that bothers me is you cant have, and perfect example is you had pakistan. We were given pakistan 1 billion of aid for their military. And they were turning around and offering terrorists that were trying to kill our soldiers. It didnt make sense. It wasnt being a good partner. Words having our backs and we no longer gave that billion dollars to pakistan anymore. [applause] doesnt mean they cant be our friend again in the future but it means we have to change the way we do our relationships and i think that was really important and having the backs of our friends, i went in there and it was almost like reliving that feeling when i was a fiveyearold on the playground, seeing the way israel was bullied at the United Nationswas the most unconscionable thing i had ever seen. Here you have a country that is a bright spot in a really tough neighborhood. They share our democratic values, all of our values share and you saw israel constantly just kicked and kicked and kicked because they always had been. So they would have this one session on the middle east every month and we have plenty of issues in the middle east, but all they would ever talk about was israel and i came to refer to it as the israel bashing session so it was taking names of our friends. It was taking names of our foes and making sure everybody knew you were holding each one of them to account. Fotaking names. [applause] taking names, and i do want to be cognizant of our time so i have one more general question that we can use as an allencompassing but following the same thing, taking names and using the power of your voice. I think this one is really important. You were really an outspoken champion for human rights while you were at the un including in areas such as venezuela, syria and the democratic republic of the congo and much of your advocacy really came from time you spent visiting those affected areas by war and conflict so we thank you for doingthat. Can you tell us a little bit about the experiences and how they shape your work at the United Nations. I think that everybody deserves Human Dignity and the unfortunate part about the job at the un is you go to places that most americans wont go. Most americans dont want togo. And you see some things you cant unseat. And i would always make a point to ask when we would go to an area to sit in a room with a group of women. No offense to the fellas in the audience but the women had a way of, you could sit down with them and they could tell you what the problem was, how they got to that point and how to fix it. They were very clear on. In many cases i would always go see refugees in the cases they had started their own businesses, theywere focused on their kids. They just always had what was needed so for example when i went to jordan in turkey, we were talking with the Syrian Refugees and it was those women that were able to tell me how their children needed psychological help because they had seen so many things. What they were dealing with interms of finding jobs. And we went to the south sudan refugee camp, there was one woman that i talked to and she started to tell me the story about how she had six kids and she couldnt examine the in the morning for breakfast. And i said, she started to cry and i said why cant you look at your children. And she said because they saw me get raped in front of them. So you hear these stories and it was at that camp that there were 100 women in the room and i was sitting on the chair weand these women would start to tell their story and before one would start crying, before we knew it the whole room had started crying because they had all been traumatized so i start on the chair and i end up on the floor hugging them and helping them and you really do realize that every person deserves the freedoms and the ability to worship and the ability to be safe and all of those things and there are a lot of places in the world that dont do that and my parents reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in america and you go to those places and you come back and you realize that we truly are a very blessed society. [applause] we are, thank you, very much nikki. So were going to move into some audience questions and this is a current event one and one that we have just experienced here in recent weeks but audience question number one was how do you feel about the removal of our armed forces of syria and what next actions would you personally recommend to the United States government to do next . This was, is a tough one because i think that i disagreed strongly with us pulling our forces out of syria and the reason is the kurds had been there and fought alongside us against terrorism for years. They lost a lot of blood, 11,000 have lost their lives and it goes back to the taking names. You have the backs of your allies, you take names of the enemies. The kurds had been allies with us. And fought alongside with us and i understand the president t wanting to get out of endless wars and none of us wants to be in a war. But the assets of having troops on the ground, especially for intelligence purposes is so important so when you saw the terrorists how my daddy get killed, its because those troops were on the ground. Its because they had the ability to communicate and know where he was and i think thats what we have to remember is we have military forces. We have been in japan and south korea and all over the world and its not because were in a war, its for prevention and its to make sure we dont get into another war and its for intel and its to make sure we know whatshappening on the ground. But having those people on the ground here my husband is a a combat veteran and served in afghanistan, and having those people on the ground that can report back and tell you whats going on and you know that better than anybody is so important. I hope we can continue to keep an error on the grant and hope we can continue to let the kurds know we appreciate the partnership over the years. And wee do, yes. [applause] i wish is going to make a funny quip. We do need those forces on the ground and we could use a few more of those dogs, too. Give it up for the dog, conan. Our second audience question, Ambassador Haley, what led you to conservativism . Thats an interestingat question. When i was running for office, the first time, i did know if i was republican or democrat. And i remember my friend saying, i told her i wanted to run for office. Actually when my mom said do something about it, i decided i wanted to write and i started talking to different people. Everybody gave me a reason on why i shouldnt do it. I was too young. I have small children. I should start at the school board level and not the statehouse level. There were all these reasons. Interestingly enough, i went to a womenss Leadership Event at furman university, and Hillary Clinton was there. And she happened to say for all the reasons people tell you not to do it, thats exactly the reason that you should. So [applause] Hillary Clinton is actually the reason. I may not agree with her on a lot of things that shes the reason i made the jump. I had to figure whether i was republican or democrat. I said i dont know. She said, do you think government should tell you now to live your life or do you think you should decide it . I said no, i want to decide now to live my life. She said, do you think that government should control how you spend your money or should you control how you spend your money . And i said if i were hard, i want to spend my money. And she said, well, do you think government can fix more things than not . I said no, government definitely messes up more than it fixes. She said honey, youre a republican. [applause] okay. The next audience question we have is, as a firstgeneration american sikh immigrant parents, a seven or, a female, and conservative how would you respond to those who dont feel the Republican Party is welcoming to minorities and women . I think that, i think the Republican Party can always do better. We should always want to be better, no matter whatt situatin we are in. I look at the fact, youre a strong republican woman. We had some strong republican women. We need to continue to encourage women. I want women involved, republican or democrat. We are 51 of the voting population and i think we need to have as many women out there using the power of the voices we can. Om [applause] do i want them to be republican . Of course i do. But having said that, its really tough right now because what i have found is the left is really hard on republican women. They really give us a hard time if we dont think like they do. They do. You can see how toxic it is and all the reasons it would be tough to do that but im constantly hit from the left to be a woman or indian yesterday one was being hit by the left and we just get badgered. Actually saw ben shapiro gives us speech and he was criticizing antisemitism and hate against the alt right and the left came out against him. The one thing we always said republicans shouldnt wait for minorities to come to them. You should always go to places that are uncomfortable to go. Because you will open doors of communication that you never had. I see that with jewish community. And that the Republican Party needs to do a better job to voice it. And then bashing the women on our side. [applause] with just a few moments left so i will ask the last question. So the final audience question tonight partisanship scenes dead in american politics what can they do to bridge the divide to bring more civility backed american politics . It is very toxic right now. You know it is bad because as somebody puts a good piece of policy they want to know whose it is before they supported. And thats when we hit a low. What bothers me is me have watched both parties refer to each other as evil and that hits a soft point with me but i have seen evil perk i have been to the democratic republic of congo where rape is a weapon of war. South sudan where i have met with women who have said military came and took their babies from them and threw them into a fire. And then force them to eat the bb . I have been on the bridge watching thousands of venezuelans walk hours in the heat to get the one meal they would get that day. The average venezuelan adult has lost 24 pounds. And by looking at chemical weapons in syria that is evil. What we have in our country are real issues that deserve real debate but we need to be responsible and realize through that debate still on her worst day we are blessed to live in america and we need to be grateful for that. [applause] before we and i want to take a point of personal privilege you cannot write a book like this to pour out your heart your heart and soul without having a fantastic partner. I had amazing collaborator she is here with me tonight. Jessica stand up please. [applause] fantastic. This is been a very, very enjoyable evening, Ambassador Haley, thank you so much. Before we released the audience we have one last thing that we would like to deal in addition to our thanks, again, president , thank you for the wonderful hospitality that you show here at gw university. Thank you for your wonder leadership as well. Its a pleasure to get to know you. And what we would like to finish with, which are like to explain what were going to do . Were going to memorialize the moment with the selfie. So everybody hold up your book. We do up a photographer thats coming. Thank you. Yall look spectacular. [applause] weeknights this month were featuring booktv program showcasing whats available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight, socialism. Booktv this week and every weekend on cspan2. Tonight on the communicators, from the annual state of the net conference internet archive creator Brewster Kahle talks about documenting the internet. We collect about 800 million pages every day. The total collection is about 800 billion urls. So its actually kind of huge. It turns out that to be on the part of what we do. We also archived television, abc, nbc, cbs, fox but also international television. If you go to tv. Archive. Org you can search to find clips what other state and put this in blog posts and the like. The idea is to make it so people can quote, compare and contrast, think critically about whats happened on television. Watch the communicators tonight at the eastern on cspan2. Cspans has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and its all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand any time, unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus