Transcripts For CSPAN2 Nikki Haley With All Due Respect 20240713

Pros bookstore, and the third in the George Washington universitys president ial distinguished event series. We launched this series last semester to give our students the opportunity to hear from renowned leaders, the individuals who bring illuminating dialogue in sight and inspiration to our campus. In the heart of our nations capitol, our university is fortunate to be surrounded by the many governmental nonprofit and International Agencies and organizations that make decisions that affect each of us every day. Our location here allows us to be part of those decisions. It allows our students access to the unique d. C. Experience learning opportunities. It allows our faculty to provide rigorous, high quality scholarship and research that informs policy making and problem solving. It allows our university to serve as a hub for filly discussions timely discussions 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 grit and grace, which offers a firsthand perspective on national and international matters, as well as behind the scenes account of her tenure in the trump administration. Ambassador haley will be joined tonight by moderator and United States senator joni ernst who in 2014 was elected as the first woman to serve in federal elected office from the state of iowa. Please enjoy this evenings discussion and thank you for being here. [applause] when South Carolina governor hailey was sworn in, she became the states first female governor. Results of what i promise the people of South Carolina and results is what im determined to give them. Governor Nikki Haley Says it is the single largest Economic Investment in the states more than 200 year history. Mercedesbenz van, full manufacturing right here in charleston county. It is a great day in South Carolina. 560 Million Dollars invested. 1700 jobs right here in chester county. A great win. To the best part of whats happened over the past couple of years is watching all these jobs not just go into cities but go into rural South Carolina because if you can give a person a job, you take care of a family, and we watched a lot of families get taken care of over the past couple of years. President elect trump has asked South Carolina governor nikki haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations, and shes accepted, the daughter of immigrants is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. Hailey would be the first woman appointed to trumps cabinet. Our new ambassador to the United Nations is living proof of the promise of america. For anyone that says you cant get anything done at the u. N. , they need to know theres a new sheriff in town. [cheers and applause] there is a new u. S. U. N. You are going to see a change in the way we do business. For those that dont have our back, were taking names. For too long the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias. If for any reason north korea attacks the United States or our allies, the u. S. Will respond, period. Shes so tough and shes so consistent. And you just know youre not going to move her. The americans just said we want our embassy in the capital and that capital the jerusalem. America will put our embassy in jerusalem. That is what the American People want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on this. What we witnessed here today in the Security Council is an insult. It wont be forgotten. Standing her ground, u. N. Ambassador nikki haley making it clear i will not shut up. Rather, i will respectfully speak some hard truths. Haley shows us what American Foreign policy looks like with a spine. Some people say theres a little too much swagger. You know that. I dont think it is swagger. I think it is passion. Im very position senate about defending the United States. As nikki said the world is really respecting the United States again. I didnt know that i would be elected into the legislature. I didnt know that i wouldbe governor. I certainly never thought i would be u. N. Ambassador. Even though im a private citizen now, i know im too young to stop fighting. [cheers and applause] good evening. Welcome everyone. Welcome to the university. Thank you very 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 her one more time, please . [cheers and applause] thank you. Thank you very much. [cheers and applause] thank you very much. President , thank you very much. Thank you for being here as well. Were going to have a lovely discussion this evening with ambassador haley, and we will start with about 45 minutes of questions and those are questions that i will be asking you, ambassador, and then well move on to about 15 minutes of questions from the audience. So with that, ambassador, would you like to start with some remarks yes, first of all, it is great to be at gw. I have to tell you [cheers and applause] president leblanc, thank you for hosting us tonight and allowing us to be here. Sj, you are a rock star. Were excited to watch everything that you do. I was actually here on campus because our son is looking to come to gw next fall. So we will see if that happens. [cheers and applause] there is a bit of an application process we have to go through first. But 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 the senate here with us, joni ernst . [cheers and applause] you were so nice to do this, and were just going to have a fun conversation and hang out for a bit. That sounds great. When the folks from the ambassador and my staff reached out to and said would you like to and the minute they said nikki, i was like yes. [laughter] i didnt even know what it was, but i was excited to do it. So with that, ambassador, were going to go ahead and get 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, you know, well start there because i think it really sets the stage for the wonderful years yet 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 indian immigrants, and you were living in rural South Carolina. So we lived in a small town called bamberg, South Carolina. We were the only indian family in that town. We werent white enough to be white. We werent black enough to be black. My father wore a turban. He still does to this day. They didnt know who we were there, what we were or why we were there. I remember being on the playground and coming home after being teased, and my mom would always say your job is not to show people how youre different. Your job is to show people how youre similar. And its amazing how that lesson i learned on the playground played out in my life in the corporate world, as a legislator, as governor, as ambassador, because when youre faced with a challenge, if you first talk about what you agree on first, people let their guard down, and then youre more likely to get to a solution by pushing through that challenge, so little did i know that turned out to be a great lesson along the way. What a great lesson, and your mother is wise, wise beyond her years. Yes, she tells me that every day. Of course she does. Shes a great mom. [laughter] okay, some folks may not realize that before you were Ambassador Nikki Haley and before you were governor nikki haley, you actually served in the legislature, is that correct . I did. So i whats interesting is my mom started a business from scratch, and a few years into her business, her accountant was going to leave, and she needed to train someone, and finally a few days before she left, she said look im getting concerned, we dont have someone to train. I happened to be walking by, and my mom grabbed my arm and said train her, she can do it. She said but shes 13. And she said train her, and she will do it. So at 13 i was balancing the bank account, writing out the checks, making sure that we were doing bank deposits, the whole bit. It wasnt until i got to college that i realized that wasnt normal. [laughter] now i totally realize that was child labor. [laughter] but through that process, i developed a love of numbers, and the fact that numbers tell a story and every problem can be fixed by moving the numbers around, and so ended up graduating with a degree in accounting from clemson university. Go tigers. And then went on to the corporate world and got tired of working for the guys down the hall, came back home to the family business, and one day i was just sitting there complaining again and my mom was there and i was complaining at how hard it was to make a dollar, and how easy it was for government to take it. My mom said quit complaining about it. Do something about it. I did not know you werent supposed to run against a 30year incumbent in a primary. I truly didnt. Ignorance is bliss sometimes. I wasnt that kid in college that was in politics. I never knew to go to for student government. That wasnt me. So once i got into once i realized what i had gotten myself into, the only option was to win. My husband drove. I was in the passengers seat. The kids were in the backseat. We started knocking on doors. He was the longestserving legislator at that time in the state of South Carolina, and i would knock on doors and not say anything disparaging about him. I would say we appreciate what he has done all these years, but we think theres you know, i think i could do something different. I always just talked about me. I didnt talk about him. And was fortunate enough to get elected. And then fast forward a little bit, im in the legislature a few years, and in South Carolina, whenever they were passing legislation, it was done by voice vote. All in favor say aye. All opposed nay . The ayes have it. One that came around was a piece of legislation. To this day you cant find one legislator that says they voted themselves a pay raise. 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 the senate is important enough to have a vote on the record. The speaker called me in. He said put the bill away. We dont need to have it. We will decide what the public needs to see and what they dont. I remember going home that night and talking to my husband and saying if i cant even get legislative votes on the record, what am i doing here . And he said well then go fight. And so i went across the state of South Carolina and said did you know of all the bills passed in the house, only 8 were on the record . Did you know of all the bills passed in the senate, only 1 was on the record . So if you didnt know how your house member voted 92 of the time. If you dont know how your senator voted 99 of the time. How did you know who 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. My second year i was majority whip. My third year i was put on a powerful business committee. My 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 and get support, i couldnt get it. So i ran for [laughter] [applause] and you won. Proud to say one of the first bills we signed into law is now in South Carolina, any piece of legislation thats debated on the floor of the house or the senate has to have a vote on the record. 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 good. [applause] very inspiring, very. [applause] yeah, i love it. I love the transparency. So this next question, folks, and this is a hard one, really. 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 South Carolina. And many of you will know what im referencing, but out of despair can come inspiration and true leadership. And so this next question, ambassador, you talk about the tragic killing of nine innocents at the emmanuel african methodist e e church. 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 . Well, and my heart goes out to the community in california that had the shooting today. I mean, 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 Carolina do on every wednesday night, they went to bible study. But on this night, someone else showed up. He didnt look like them. He 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. And when they bowed their heads in that last prayer, he began to shoot. These were people like ethel lance who had lost her daughter two years prior to Breast Cancer and she had a broken heart, but she would go around the Mother Emmanuel 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 to do every day what i have to do. Our youngest victim, just graduated college, was so excited about his life, but on that night, he stood in front of his 87yearold great 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 hurd whose life motto was simply to be kinder than necessary. Thats who these people were. They werent famous. A lot of people didnt know them. But they loved their families. They loved their church. They loved their community. And when that happened, it brought South Carolina to her knees. It was the first time we had a shooting in a religious place. And i remember all i wanted 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. They wanted to immediately debate racism. They wanted to debate gun control. They wanted to debate the death penalty. You name it, they were talking about it, and i remember strong arming them back saying were not going to do this. Were going to give the time to the families. We will go through the funerals. 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 a manifesto, and hes holding up the Confederate Flag. Now the Confederate Flag flew in front of the statehouse in South Carolina. It used to be on top of the dome, and then they compromised in 2000 and it 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 Flag, not out of hate but out of the fact that its service and their ancestors and sacrifice, that was the way they look at it, and then you had obviously the small minority that saw it for what it was, but he hijacked what that was. Take it a step further, go another day or two days after that, and it was the first time the killer was going to be in the courthouse and facing the judge. 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 vigils. We didnt have violence. We had hugs. 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 get through a tragedy. [applause] out of despair there comes inspiration. 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 love with one another and not hatred and not violence, but love and forgiveness. So thank you for that. Were 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 u. N. Ambassador, and was it a difficult decision for you to make . And what we really want to know too what were those conversations like with president donald trump, when he was asking you to take on this momentous position . So its interesting, i actually knew the president a few years prior. After i won the primary, for governor, the first time, i received this envelope with this great gold trim, and it had a check in it, and it was a note that said youre a winner. And so [laughter] i had talked to him then, and we had stayed in contact over the years, and then we had a republican primary. 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 tweet that said nikki haley is an embarrassment to carolina. [laughter] in which i responded in a tweet bless your [laughter] [applause] but we really did have a respect for each other. I knew if you kicked him, he was going to holler. He knew if he pushed me, i was going to push back. Fast forward, he wins the primary. I supported him in the general, and i get a call from his new chief of staff priebus. He said i need you to come to new york. I said for what . He said the president elect wants to see you. I said about what . He said secretary of state. I said secretary of state. Im a governor. I cant be secretary of state. He wants to see you. We need you to come. I come the next morning. I go into his office. The first thing the president says is well i guess your guy didnt win. [laughter] he just couldnt help himself. He couldnt help himself. I let him kind of stew a little bit. And then we had a great conversation, but i said look, im not your person. I said we have a lot going on in the world today. You dont need someone with a learning curve, but i want to be helpful, supportive. Anything ki do to help anything i can do to help you, i would be happy to. Later priebus called me again, he said dont say anything, i want you to listen, u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. I said i dont even know what the United Nations does. I just know everybody hates it. [laughter] he said the president is going to call you on monday. I need you to think about this. We get home. My husbands on the computer, he said nikki i think you would be really good at this. It wasnt a good time. Our son was 15. I didnt it would have been a tough time to move him. Our daughter was a freshman in college. Michael and i, my husband, we take care of my parents. Theyre both in their 80s. My mom has parkinsons. It would have been a tough move to go to new york. The president called that monday. He said all right, nikki, are you going do this . I said sir there would have to be some conditions for me to consider. He said what are they . I said ive been a governor. I dont want to work for anyone again. I would want to work directly with you because it would need to be a cabinet decision. He said done. I said im a policy girl. I would want to be in the room when decisions are made, i would need to be on the national Security Council. He said done. I said im not going to be a wall flower or talking head. I need to be able to say what i think. He said thats exactly why i want you to do this. He was true to his word from the first day to the last day. Outstanding, i love it. [applause] i know we have a lot of young people in the audience. A lot of people ask me how i knew to ask for those things. And what you have to remember is theres one lesson that i have learned to live by, and that is push through the fear. When challenge comes in front of you, your reaction is naturally to step back, if you lean in and push through the fear, you find out youre so much stronger on the other side. If i wouldnt have pushed through the fear, i wouldnt have become a legislator. If i wouldnt have pushed through the fear, i wouldnt have become a governor. If i wouldnt have pushed through the fear, i wouldnt have said okay i can be a u. N. Ambassador. What you have to do when you push through the fear is set yourself up for success. I knew what i needed in order to be successful. Dont be afraid to ask for the platform that you know will bring out the best in you. Yeah, that is great advice. [applause] taking risk, right . Taking risk and challenging yourself and i think that is very good for so many folks that are engaging in their first career or looking at opportunities that exist after college. So the book is actually everybodys hopefully 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. Can you shed some light on some of the conversations that you had that would be maybe enlightening for the audience well, you know, a lot of people ask how i got out of the administration without a tweet. [laughter] 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 to serve the people. I wanted them to be creative. I wanted them to be speak up if they saw me going in a wrong direction. So with the president , i was always very honest with him. If he did something that i thought was good, i supported. I pushed through. I rallied, 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 x. And he would always say well how do you see that playing out . And we would discuss it. And he was really good about hearing other opinions, didnt mean i won all the time, but it meant that he was open to listening. But he would often make life a little interesting. This is one of many stories. But when it was the first high level week at the United Nations, so at the United Nations, theres one week out of the year where 193 countries send the highest people in their 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, and so this was the president s first high level week speech. So we had the 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 yes, sir, i did. It is fantastic, and it was. I said but you know i really want to set the tone for you. I said the u. N. Is a different kind of place. I said its serious. So when you give your speech, its not like a rally. [laughter] i said they are 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, got it. [laughter] and he said but i had this one thing i had this idea i want to run it past you. And i said okay. He said i was thinking about calling, what if i referred to kim as little rocket man in the speech . [laughter] i said sir, remember the part i said about church . [laughter] i said its really serious crowd. I said i dont know how they are going to take it take it, but you are the president , if you want to do it, they can. I tweeted it out this morning and it killed with my base. I thought it was fantastic. [laughter] fast forward a couple of days later, hes going to give his speech. We sit down, the north korean delegation is in the front row. [laughter] and then he goes and he says it. And everybody sitting there, and they have their translator pieces in; right . And all of a sudden you see them go [laughter] and then they started to laugh. But a few hours later, a meeting with the president of uganda, and he sits back and he goes, so ambassador, what are we going to do about this little rocket man . [laughter] one topic that ive always been very interested in, course theres later and then theres the latest chapter in the book, i dont get confused so as a woman, what does it mean to know the power of your voice . That something that you do quite a bit in your book. Can you explain that for us . I voice that people should use the power of their voice. You really can move things when you use it at the right place of the right time with the right tone. I think its something you learn over time of when the right time is, he always here pick and choose your battles and i think has get further along in life, you get better at it. I do have a 24 hour rule try to use, i dont always but i try to, something thats hot and moving you feel your Blood Pressure going up and it dramatic, if you can wait 24 hours, usually by the next morning, you are more tempered, your thinking more clearly and the right things come out. The other thing you have to learn is, use your voice to protect yourself. The book, with all due respect, came from a time where i needed to insert my voice and it came from the fact we had a Meeting National Security Council meeting and through the meeting, i decided we were going to put sanctions on russia. I talked the president the next day after that, we were Going Forward with sanctions and i never was on the sunday shows unless the white house asked me to be. They asked me to be on face the nation that sunday mornings article on their we are discussing the issue with russia and i say well, sanctions are coming down on russia and Stephen Mnuchin has sanctions coming down on russia if he hasnt already brought them down. Then we left it. I get a call from stephen, a great friend. He goes with got a bit of a problem. I said what happened . He said the president changed his mind. He said hes not going to do the sanctions. Its fun. The president can always change their mind, theres nothing wrong with that. I dont fault him in any way for that. He had another strategy in place and that was fine. I said well just fix it, go tell them that if he said they are going to come up with a statement in the morning and hopefully it will get addressed. The next morning, he doesnt fix it, the press is still asking the question, why did nikki say there were sanctions . What is happening . So i called multiple people in the administration chief of staff, secretary of state, National Security advisor, bolton at the time i said look, weve got a problem. Theres nothing wrong with the president changing his mind, just go out into tell the truth. Tell what happened but everybody by calling our office, you need to fix this. They said okay, okay. That was monday. Tuesday morning happens, its the level is rising. I said okay, this is the deal. Either you all fix it by 5 00 today or i will fix it by 5 00 and trust me, it will go a lot better if you all fix it. Nothing happened and then i think it was like 4 45 p. M. Or so and my friend, larry kudlow goes out in front of the press and they asked the question about the sanctions and he said i think nikki just got momentarily confused. So that was it. I happened to look at the television and he was getting ready to come on fox and i called my friend and i said, can you call me real quick . She called and said hey whats up . I said i need to put out a statement. She said okay, what is it . I said where you just say one sentence . With all due respect, i dont get confused. [applause] she said thats it . I go, thats it. I said ill text it to you so you have it in writing. She goes and she does it. Within ten minutes, larry calls me. Nikki, i am so sorry. You know i love you, i had my tail between my legs, im so sorry. I said larry, what point do you say i am confused . He said i know, i shouldnt have done it. Trust me, ill make it up to you. I said no, you will make it up to me and you will do it by going out there and telling them you are wrong and i wasnt. Hes like i cant do it. I said yes you can and you will. He did. He immediately went out and contacted a reporter but what was surprising to me is how it went, a simple moment of me defending myself and how it went viral across the country on tshirts, mugs, and everything. It goes to show so many people have been in a moment and i hope the lesson you take from that is, no one is going to protect your integrity but you. So people can say they are going to do it and say they are going to do it but at the end of the day, you have to do it. Its all you have. You have to know how to protect yourself. That was another lesson learned. A powerful voice and we are glad you have been able to defend yourself. I love that. Its a true strength. You can always kick with a smile. Since you dont have to be hateful to get your points across. Absolutely. That power of your voice, you have used the power of your voice in certain circumstances to hold people together after tragedy, youve used the power of your voice to defend yourself but there are other times and i member this quite clearly when you used the power of your voice to have the backs of our allies when you are serving as master to the United Nations. I remember this, how many of you remember taking names . [applause] taking names of those who dont have our allies backs. I remember that quite clearly and oh my gosh, i was really impressed. If you would just explain to us, what does taking names mean to you . I really didnt think it was going to ruffle as many feathers as it did and thats when i realized it wasnt that much of a diplomat. But when i went to the United Nations, i obviously did a crash course in Foreign Policy and studied who our friends were and who are foes and conflicts work, what we needed to work on. I purposely didnt study the dos and donts of the un. I wanted to be able to go in there with fresh eyes, i wanted to know i had goals to achieve and it didnt want the bureaucracy to get in the way. When i went in first, went to go talk to the press the first time, i said look, its a new day, United States mission at the United Nations, it was important to me that countries didnt have to like us but i wanted them to know what we were for. I wanted it to be clear what the u. S. Was for and against and not give any great areas to them in the process. I told them, i said look, we are going to have the backs of our allies and we are going to take names of those who are not with us. I thought the United Nations was, he got 193 countries, most on any given day, every day felt like you had to put on body armor. He knew we would have a fight that day, he just didnt know what country it was going to be. But they with jab jab and jab me turn around and have their hand out wanting foreign aid. There was a part that bothered me. You cant have a perfect example, pakistan, we were giving pakistan 1 billion of aid for their military. They were turning around and harboring terrorists that were trying to kill our soldiers. It didnt make sense. That wasnt being a good partner, they werent having our backs and we no longer get that billing dollars to pakistan anymore. [applause] it doesnt mean they cant be our friend again in the future but it means we have to change the way we do our relationships. I went in there and it was almost like reliving that feeling when i was a 5yearold on the playground, sink the way israel was bowling at the United Nations was the most unconscionable thing i had ever seen. They share democratic values, all values we share and saw israel constantly kicked and kicked because they always had been. We have 20 issues in the middle east but all they would ever talk about was israel. I came to refer to is a visual bashing session. It is taking names of our friend of our foes it was making sure everybody knew we will holding each one of them to account. [applause] think, knowing that same thing, taking names and using the power of your voice, this one is really important, you are really an outspoken champion for human rights while you are at the un, including in areas such as is wava, syria and the democratic republican of congo. Much of your advocacys the came from time he spent visiting those areas by war and conflict. We thank you for doing that. Can you tell us a little bit about those experiences and how they shaped your work at the United Nations . I think that everybody deserves human dignity. The unfortunate part about the job at the un, you go to places that most americans wont grow, most americans dont want to go. You see some things you cant un see. I would always make it up point to ask when we go to an area to sit in an area with a group of women. No offense to the fellows in the audience but the women had away of you could sit down with them and they could tell you what the problem was, how they got there and how to fix it. They were very clear on it. In many cases i would always go refugees and in many cases, they had started their own businesses, they were focused on their kids, they just really always had always needed. For example, when i went to jordan and turkey, we talk to refugees and have put women were able to tell me how their children needed psychological help because they had seen so many things. With they were dealing with in terms of finding jobs, when went to the south sudan refugee camp, there was one woman i talked to and she started to tell me the story about how she had six kids and she couldnt look them in the eye. In the mornings for breakfast. She started to cry and i said why cant you look at your children . They saw me get raped in front of them. So you hear these stories it was at that camp, there were 100 women and men and i was sitting on a chair and these women would start to tell their story. Before one would start crying, before we know it, whole room started crying because they had all been traumatized. 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 freedom and the ability to worship and to be safe in all of those things. There are a lot of laces in the world that dont do that. My parents reminded my brothers and sisters and me everyday how blessed we were to live in america. Hugo to those places and you come back and realize we truly are very blessed. [applause] thank you very much. We are going to move into some audience questions and this is a current event one. One that we have just experienced here in recent weeks but audience question number one was, how do you feel about removal of our armed forces out of syria . What next actions would you personally recommend to the United States government to do next . This is a tough one because i think i disagreed strongly with us pulling forces out of syria. The reason is, the kurds had been there and fought alongside us against terrorism for years. They lost a lot of blood, 11000 have lost their lives. It goes back to the taking names. You have the backs of your allies, who take names of the enemies, they had been allies with us, they fought alongside and i understand the president points of wanting to get out and none of us wants to be at work. The asset of having troops on the ground, especially for intelligence purposes is so important, when you saw the terrorists get killed, its because the troops were on the ground. Its because they had the ability to communicate and know where he was pretty i think we have to remember, we have military forces, japan and south korea from all over the summer because we are in a one, it is to make sure we dont get into another war. Its for intel to make sure we know whats happening on the ground so im glad the president decided to leave forces there whether its to watch the oilfields or keep intelligence on the ground but in hot spots like that, i strongly believe we have to have a footprint, doesnt need to be a large one. Look at afghanistan, we had well over 100,000 troops at one time, now we are down to 14000. I hope we get lower than that. Having those people on the ground, my husband is a combat veteran who served in afghanistan and having those people on the ground i can report back and tell you whats going on and you know it better than anybody, its so important. I hope we can continue to keep it on the ground and i hope we can continue to let them know we appreciate the partnerships over the guest. And we do. [applause] we do need those forces on the ground. We could use a few more of those dogs, two. [laughter] our second audience question, ambassador, what led you to conservatism next. Thats an interesting question. When i was running for office the first time i didnt know about the, if i was were publican or democrat. I remember my friends think well, i told her i wanted to run for office. Actually, when my mom said do something about it, i decided i wanted to run and i started talking to different people. Everybody gave me a reason on why i shouldnt do it. I was too young. I had small children, i should start at the school board level its not the statehouse level. There is all these reasons i cap sink not to do it. Interestingly enough, i went to a womens event at the university and Hillary Clinton was there. She happened to say, for all the reasons people tell you not to do it, thats exactly the reason you should. [applause] Hillary Clinton is actually the reason, i may not agree with her on a lot of things but shes the reason i made the jump. So then i had to figure out what i was were publican or democrat. My friend said well, you think government should tell you how to live your life or do you think you should decide it . I said well no, i want to decide how to live my life. She said well, do you think government should control how you spent your money . Or should you control how you spend your money . I said if i work hard, i want to spend my money. She said well, do you think government can fix more things than not . I said no, government messes up more than affixes. She goes honey, you are a republican. [laughter] [applause] the next article question we have is as a first generation american immigrants, a southerner, a female and conservative, how would you respond to those who dont feel in party is welcoming to minorities and women . I think that the Republican Party can always do better. I think we should always want to be better. No matter what situation we are in and i looked at the fact that you are a strong republican woman, we have some strong republican women, we need to continue to encourage women, i want women involved, democrat. 51 of the voting population and i think we need to have as many women affect using the power of their voices as we can. [applause] do i want them to be republican . Of course i do but having said that, really tough right now because what i have found is the less the left is really hard on republican women. They really give us a hard time if we dont think like they do. You can turn on the tv and you see how toxic it is and you can see all the reasons it would be tough for women to do that but i constantly and being hit from the left for being a woman being indian, i saw sonic yesterday with screen hit by the left as well and we just get factored. The only way to fix that is to get more of us out there and more of us using the power of our foisted it. The one thing ive always said, being Indian American is republican shouldnt wait for minorities to come to them. We should go to those groups. I always said, you should go to places that are uncomfortable to go. One because you will learn something and do because you will open doors of communication that you never had. Just community, i see it with so many that i do think the Republican Party needs to do a better job of going out there and i think the Republican Party needs to do a better job of voicing the left hits us. They can have a double standards of saying of women on their side and bashing the women on our side. [applause] bipartisanship is dead in american politics. What can american politicians do to bridge that divide more stability back to american politics . Very toxic time right now, it is uncomfortable. You know its bad because if someone puts down a good piece of policy, everybody wants to know whose it is before they decide whether to support it. Thats when we know weve hit kind of a low. The part that i think bothers me is we have watched those parties now refer to each other as equal. That hit it with me because ive seen evil. Ive been to the democratic republican of congo where they use rape as a women weapon of war. The south sudan wife met with women who have had military came and took their babies from them and threw them into a fire. And forced them to eat the babies flesh. Ive been on the bridge, watching thousands of venezuelans walk hours in the heat, holding their babies to get the one meal they might get that day. The average adult lost 24 pounds. Ive had to look at pictures of children chemical weapons by asad and 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 that through all of that real debate, still, on our worst day, we are blessed to live in america and we need to be grateful for it. [applause] before we end, i want to take personal privilege, you cant write a book like this and pouring your heart and soul out without having a fantastic partner to write it with. I had an amazing collaborator with shes here with us tonight, jessica, will you stand up please and let everybody see your face . [applause] this has been a very, very enjoyable evening. Thank you so much and before we release the audience, one must think we would like to do in addition to our thanks, again president , thank you so much for the wonderful hospitality you have shown here at gw university. Sj again, thank you for your wonderful leadership as well, its a pleasure to get to know you. What we would like to finish with, would you like to explain what we are going to do . We are going to memorialize the moment. With the selfie. [laughter] everybody hold up your books. Coming, youre all spectacular. [applause] [cheering and applauding] weeks night this month, featuring tv programs showcasing whats available every weekend on cspan2. Socialism in turkey revoking senator rand paul discusses his book, the case against socialism. On the history of the rise of socialist ideologies in america. Its Current Affairs editorinchief, Nathan Robins robinson, author of why you should be a socialist. After that, economist Robert Lawson and benjamin how socialism sucks about their travels to socialist countries. Book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2 tonight on the communicators, from the annual state of the net conference, internet archives creator kale talks about documenting the internet. We talked about 800 million pages every day from the total collection about 800 billion urls. Actually thats kind of huge. It turns out on the part of it we do. We also Archive Television but also International Television if you go to tv. Archives. Org, search clips of what other people said and be able to put those in blog posts, the idea is to make it so people can compare and contrast quickly about what happened on television. March the communicators tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Its all available on demand. Cspan. Org coronavirus. Once white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime from unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Tonight, special evening edition of washington tran11 federal response to the coronavirus crisis. Join us at 8 00 p. M. Eastern with john, author of the great influenza, the epic story of the deadliest pandemic in history. Porter congresswoman Debbie Schulte on the response to the violence in her district. During the conversation on the coronavirus crisis