Welcome everybody. Im Susan Eisenhower and its a terrific pleasure to be here today to have conversation with dr. Lynne cheney and karl rove. This is a real honor for me, and a real treat to be able to have kind of an intimate conversation about the executive power in the United States to actually wield power alongside of the president of the United States, and also to talk about what its like to be behind the scenes. Let me just say very quickly if i cough, im not sick. Im having a little you came back from wuhan with that cough. Are you feeling all right . Are you a little warm . Lin, do you want to change . I think the two women ought to be here. I had to clean out somebodys fireplace flue the other day and inhaled some fire smoke. In any case dont be alarmed if i find myself coughing. Let me just say that its really a thrill to talk to again, and as like some experiences as a child with what its like to be in the company of people who wield enormous power, to observe both the pressures of the job along with the loneliness, you might say, a power and obviously it comes with privilege but also great sacrifice. Lynn, u. S. Said over time that you have said overtime that youve carved out a remarkable career for yourself. But this power probably started for you when your husband rick cheney became chief of staff to gerald ford. And i didnt see him for two years. Thats just sort of the way it is. I was so interested in what he was doing that he learned to come home at night and done what he had done all day. So thats a really fascinating inside look. You and i were joking before, if youre the president of the United States, your called potus. If you are the first lady of the United States you are called flotus, first lady of United States. If youre the wife of the Vice President your called slotus. And my family had an enormously good time with that. I had finally shut off. Have you been tempted to turn into a twitter handle . There you go. I dont think that i really feel comfortable with twitter. I moes afraid i will send something that i dont know i said and thats not a good idea. Good point, thats right. Karl, youve been think in enoy powerful position in the white house and have as both of you if you dont mind. I think were battling bad need of humor today. I would like to know what the funniest and the strangest thing ever happened to you while you were in the white house arena. Me . To a lot of them but i still a car. He basically, their strategy was by the last bug with manufacturers in america consolidate and make a lot of money, and they did. He stepped aside from that to come in and serve as a National Economic council director. He had a really nice bmw, real nice. If youre at the white house are spent a lot of time in meetings and i had a meeting across the way from the west wing, Old Executive Office building and it ended and had a few two minutes before my next appointment and i was walking down the stairs across old executive drive, the street that between the west wing and the Eisenhower Executive Office building. Right by the entrance to the basement of the west wing, he parked his car and he knows he left his keys in it. So i got it and moved it up west executive drive. Remember, to park i was executive drive you have to be a senior aide to the president , you go through three checkpoint manned by people with automatic weapons. Your carcass went for months and you pass over some kind of a device embedded in the concrete that i dont know what it does but maybe it xrays you, i dont know. This is very secure. I took the car and drove it up w. Executive dr. About 755 yards and after 9 11 they had the sniffer trucks, they look like ice cream trucks that were part at the corners of the complex and a sample the ever chemical and biological agents. It was just large enough when i parked the car behind it in the vacant space you can see from the west executive entrance. I wasnt there but i eyewitnesses who said at the end of the day hubbard came up, took a look around and couldnt see his car took out his flip phone commit the speed dial to his assistant and said my car to my car is gone. They have stolen my car. He found it so the next morning at the senior staff meeting with the sort of tone, and edgy tone but nonetheless good goodnatue accused me of stealing his car. Big mistake. I kept stealing his car. And and i would work it out so e time i work it up with secret service so i i parked it by the loading dock. Can you imagine that . Mr. Holtzeakin, your car is blocking the loading dock and were expecting a load of surfacetoair missiles. Would you please this 104 great deal of time and it was every time i would steal his car he would accuse me of it at senior staffing but after the first time i would always get somebody else to be in the car with me so when he said you still my car, i dont appreciate. I dont know what to talk about. I saw someone else get out of your car which was true because i cut them to get in the car with me. Long story short final week i met the white house were flying back from reno, nevada, with president has spoken to the American Legion and we finally had television then on air force one and am watching television and im sort of mystified because theres a camera at the corner of the white house called pebble beach. And when you see the north portico of the white house that is being shuffled pebble beach one of the cramps not to get the white house, it is looking at executive drive and its looking at a car that has messages spelled out and post it notes on all the windows forming letters in words and somebody has wrapped the car in industrial cellophane giant sheets of industrial cellophane and decorated it with stuffed animals. Its my car. Cnn is saying we dont know whats going on at the was executive drive but someones car has been whose car is that . Eventually we been told and Good Authority senior advisor, we dont know toilet. I get back to the white house. I call up hubbard and say fantastic, what a great you paid me back for every time i stole i stole your car, you may be back. I got the white house photographer, a way to get a picture of you, me and her handiwork. First of all he doesnt say like i did it. Finally he fesses up and and id this is the greatest thing youve ever no one is ever come close to this so we have to photograph. We sent word to the white house and people come spilling out of the ike and out of the west wing and its about 6 00 in the evening and people start applauding hubbard and the photog is having difficulty with this camera people are coming out and applauding hubbard and hubbard street to get into it. Yes, i did this. Isnt this guy . Really fantastic. Its good to know theres a a sense of humor amid all the pressure. You have to. The white house and the Vice President house, is a very formal places. Theres a reason why theres a downstairs official area and then the living quarters upstairs because there really is a difference between this public life and his private life. What about you, lynn . Im sure you have many funny stories but have you had strange ones as well . This is funny and strange. We spent a lot of time at camp david as karl knows after 9 11. It was the undisclosed location. And we had our kids. Its the same in the sense you find joy in life even though you in a dreadful time. We also had our dog, a big laboratory yellow lab named dave. Dave was the love of our life. We took them everywhere, cant david. Dogs are allowed and were at camp david. Except one day, karl, is a a laurel where we eat. Was yes. Laurel lodge. Dick walked in and he had paid within. There is almost powell, maybe joyce, and barney was the president of dog and and i kinf mean little scotty. Mean little bastard i would say. He used to bite me all of the time. So the asian the sun the present never had, barney. Date that he was probably a squirrel because he was kind of little. He set out after him. Barney being chased by dave is going around and around this table at high speed. The president walks in and he said, what is going on here . Deck, knowing this probably wasnt a good thing to have dave chasing barney, hold a dont or something off the breakfast trays said, dave. Dave always came for food. He got the donut. He got it out of there. We went back to our lodging, and ten minutes maybe a fellow knocks on the door. Hes in full dress uniform. Hes the Camp Commander and he said sir, to deck, sir, dave is not allowed in laurel again. Obviously he been sent by the te president to tell us not to bring dave to laurel again. But the president was really nice about dave but not about dave chasing barney. Pets play an enormous role. During my grandparents can in the white house, they brought heidi, ally minor, and heidi had an accident on one of the roxy got sent into exile in gettysburg. Ive also got to say one unknown fact about the white house is that there are ground of our pet parakeet who was on the third floor named pete. Pete died so we were about to give the bird a dignified burial in the rose garden and we put up a little, siblings and i put up a little pete, rest in peace. But they took it down to mow the lawn. I know. You have to wonder, roosevelt was first guy to head the west wing also had a gigantic collection of animals and yet enormous collection. Yet when how many of them can we know several of them died during the 30s and the white house. You have to wonder about the burial location for all the president s of the favorite pets because most of them are like, of course im going to have been buried at the white house. We had to have an archaeologist go over the grant. The problem is you cant go back and visit their great site. Except dave is buried at the Vice President residence, and we are sure we know where the site is and if we ever are invited back to the dpr we will go visit dear dave. Does have a little headstone . No. We thought that was to show we. Okay. Im feeling better. He has one in our hearts. Apropos of that and what an interesting things to me was how important both the Vice President residence and white house are to the political and policy business of the government. Both cheney and bush is working on sigar entertaining a lot of people, both formally a more portly informally. Its a little bit problematic because it going up 20 minutes of congress down just that some staff to jolly them up and all come down with lists of things they want to have done antiseizure to give it to you than the present. It was amazing to me particularly at the holidays how eclectic, youd have a party for the press and youd of the party for this issue interesting that Vice President s residence and the president s where youd have there be holiday parties really geared towards the official business and their friends. It really was important how many a time you would have some hardnosed democrat who would be done at the white house smoking a cigar in the truman balcony and her spouse will be jumping up and down on the lincoln bed. It may not have gotten their vote but it helped establish a sense of community. Actually left the white house and the your sense i cannot tell the come Democrat Members of congress that ive run into said if he told me i spent more time at the white house with republican president , your guide in my guy, i would be surprised but they did and it was because the Vice President and the president both knew the Vice President from having been at the white house as chief of staff and the present as having been the governor of the stick with the democratic speaker and democratic Lieutenant Governor and democratic majority of the legislature how important it was to do what you could informally to reduce some of that tension. Thats an extremely important point and i know its virtually a given that we all recognize were living tremendously turbulent and uncertain times. I think we all have to recognize that. I must say that the 2000s were also very turbulent and uncertain. That of course what immediately comes to mind is 9 11, this extraordinary moment in American History when so much of change for this country. I had i have to ask you, lynn, t was that like to actually be trying to, first of all, you in a highranking position during those years at the National Endowment for the humanities. And i wonder what that was like also be supporting your husband and to be symbol a symbol of ts country during the tumultuous time . You are such a nice interviewer and im going to make a public confession, that i never made before. I was getting my hair done, and the nice fellow whos doing my hair came out and he said, you know, a plane just slid into the World Trade Center. What a weird accident. Then a few minutes later he came back and said, theres a second one. So of course the secret service hustled me off into a car. You could see smoke from the car. It was the pentagon burning but you dont know what it is. You just see it coming up from over the buildings. Unexpectedly to this day they took me to the white house which everyone else had just evacuated. But it was such a memorable day. The president ial Emergency Operations center, to be there and watch in the country. , watching manny lujan shut down all the planes in the United States, and do what happened norm minetta. All, thank you. A good friend to this day, thank you, karl. Condi rice was there. You were off with the president i think. Yeah. But it was at the same experience karl had only more serious. On the way to the peoc do a bunch of cabinets along the way, and he watched secret Service Opening the cabinets and grabbing very large guns and passing them on. Its like a movie. That was stunning to me. Then when the day was over i id take notes that day, which are subpoenaed or whatever. But it was okay with me. I didnt write anything secret. And moreover, i was shaking so much. I didnt even know i was. They are barely legible, but i at the end of the day we flew and helicopter to camp david. When you are lifted off the south lawn you can see the pentagon. You could see the fire burning. I couldnt help but think of the burning of washington in madisons time. Washington of course it was just a small village and this was much greater consequence but it certainly is a day lodged in the memory. Was it like after that . Because you go to an undisclosed location but speedy think about that for for a moment. Just think about that for one moment. The decision is made that the threat is so unknown and so dangerous that the president and the Vice President of the United States cannot be in the same place and thus absolutely essential, that the Vice President must be taken to an undisclosed location in the event the president is dead with continuity of government. That was the nature of that moment. Incredible. We were worried afterwards about airborne poisons that might get us, anthrax, ricin was talked about. Thats when the stiffer trucks show up and then they make their way around the white house staff. They walk in and say, they have little device and it says, punched a button and it makes some noise and they say if you hear this noise it means its a chemical attack. Then they headed be a a big plastic bag and said this is your mom suit. Take it out and put on the helmet and the mop suit. If you are the sound its a biological attack and what you need to do is take this needle, stab yourself in the heart at the put yourself in the mop suit. Suit. And i said sure, like thats going to happen. [laughing] and i said my sister susan is done either listening to this lecture, and i said okay, wheres her outfit . They said we have a limited number of suits. It will be several days before we have more. I told it, had it my dishes and said okay, dont tell me when you stab yourself in the heart. No warning necessary. I dont quite understand that. Could you help us without . What . Stabbing oneself in the heart. Its adrenaline. You stab yourself in the heart. You could run. Are made it was chemical. You just stab yourself with biological, you hope you dont people who are coughing from the visit to want. I cant help but ask what is a a like to be in an undisclosed location . Was it massively isolating . You can be around people all the time and still be very isolated. I was writing. You were writing . It was perfect. I sometimes describe my life as one long interruption. This this is a Peaceful Place we you could write. Our grandkids were there. Our children were there. That part of it was not onerous but knowing the state of the country was, and i was good to submit a go, i think i have the distinction of being on long to any other human being because it was thought to protect you from anthrax and other things that might be in the air. 90 days. When i tell physicians that, they say oh, my goodness. I think i can still use it though to affect. Which a member about that day . Everything. Its 8 48 a. M. Im standing 15 feet away feet away from the present outside of the Elementary School and the sarasota, florida, and the phone rings and its my assistant susan and she says a plane has slid into the World Trade Center, we dont know if it is just a prop, commercial or private. And i said what else do have . She said thats it. Call me back if you have more. I walked over and told the president of United States who was shaking hands with parents and teachers and administrators. About two minutes or three legislator condi rice National Security adviser called with exactly the same sketchy information. We walked into the Elementary School, walked down a long hallway of, walked into class of which was designated the staff hold whatever the president travels a day or so before he arrives at the l4 shows up with the two large cabinets, plastic cases and take out a device, two devices that look like a cross between a a typewriter and a telephone. They are called stews. They are secured still a poster they plug it a wall outlet. You were talking to a guy under Cheyenne Mountain colorado and they can connect you like that with anybody in the world and secure conversation. We walked in and there are the stews, the president dr. Cohen physician and nurse caring a little cooler full of the president s of blood. National Security Advisors office had a person on the travel team that day. The cia briefer was a young guy named mike morrell who later becomes the director of the cia. The president almost immediately leaves the room echoes into the adjoining room for a reading demonstration with third and fourth graders. Normally theres a Television Set for some reason it was no television so i spent the opening moments of the war on terror but up and down the corridors of his Elementary School if you like to find a with a Television Set. It was in to edit with an and it was on the rack so rugrats couldnt get up and play with it. I pull out of the wall and ran down the corridor or to the staff hold, rolled it in there, plugged it in, plugged in the power but then had to plugin the cable. Rolling around on the floor in the suit and a kindergarten classroom and rolling it and trying to make a connection, plug it in. I remember the first, there were three outlets and the first one made the connection and it went and so i had to unscrewed, screw it into the one. When they made a connection it went and a voice says what have we just seen . What if we just seen . The second plane flight into the World Trade Center. And chief of staff andy card at that moment decides he needs to go tell the president. I remember that andy walked over to the door literally the president is in the adjoining classroom and i remember when he got to the door, he paused and to seem like an eternity. I bet it was like 1001, 1002, 1003 but at the time he got to the door and he paused and it never understood until a couple years ago we happen to be on a panel talk about 9 11 and he said when he got to the door he said they realize he needed to know exactly what hes going to say so that the president would not ask any questions. So what dash ahead for the what is going to say and are members the famous photograph were he tells the present of the second plane fly into the World Trade Center and america is under attack. The president had to make a a decision. Should he stand up and walk out, excuse himself and walked out . He thought reading demonstration would be a matter of seconds maybe a minute or two at most from being concluded so rather than standing up and excusing himself in the middle of it, with 40 tv cameras and stuff, he decided he would wait until the finish but it took for five minutes. Can you imagine sitting there waiting for this to end knowing that so we got up. When it ended, quickly excuse himself, came to the room. Ive known him a long, long time but but a different guy came walking through that door. There was a certain anxiety in the room and he came in and he was cold as ice and very calm and low tone of his voice and he said we are at war. Give me the director of the fbi and the Vice President. We jumped on the stews. We got robert mueller, the fbi director of the couldnt get Vice President cheney because hes being moved secret Service Agents burst into his west wing office and told them they need to move the them to the peoc, the buffer. I had a weird day because we were sitting there, the president is sitting at a table meant for kindergartners. All the adult printers gone from the room so we city add a little table meant for kindergartners, its about this for all the ground in one of the full plastic chairs writing what is going to say to the country and three of us, dan bartlett, Eric Fleischer and i are there talking only screensaver 80, that of the secret service came in, little guy, not very tall, very slim, very softspoken comes and says mr. President we need to get you to air force one and airborne as quickly as possible. Because they were afraid that the president s whereabouts were known and they were worried somebody was going to crash a plane into the Elementary School and he wanted to give him the hell out of there. We went to the motorcade in orbit i would be in a car two or three behind the president ial limo, stagecoach as it was a been codenamed but for whatever reason that they as walk at oue door he turned around, with celebrity and point to the backseat of the car. I spent virtually all of 9 11 with him. That close. When we got to the airplane he pointed, he whistled at me again, point to the seat across from him in his private office. So i was there. As were going to the airport rather than going for miles an hour like the normal motorcade were going 85 miles an hour. Nobody is saying anything. Andy is on the bench looking at us. The president is on the side of the car. Im here. Eddie is in the jump seat in the front shotgun and the driver and thats it. We are rolling 85 miles an hour to the airport. The phone rings, a little fun on the side of the backseat. President picks it up. I can only hear one side of the conversation but i know its bad when he says is rumsfeld alive . A strike on the pentagon. And at that moment i could look at him. And i looked to the side and realize that about a foot away from us was a police carpet in fact, the reform act police cars. I hadnt hadnt recognized me with their were maybe a foot and half away from the car and were going 85 miles an hour and these guys are matching us that close. If you could hold on the winter it was a bear. Later in the day i said to eddie composer all about . I never saw it again peace and we worried about a car bomb and we wanted the car bomb to go off ten or 15 feet further away from the president , even a better chance of surviving the blessed of my first thought was what the hell was i doing in the backseat . But that was the day. The day was, we got on the plane. The the president , we list off. When we lifted off literally the plane began to roll when the door is not even shot we got on the plane and normally it takes like ten or 15 minutes to power did a bit in her seat and power it up. We got on the plane and im buckled and across from the president. The reporting on the door. The last person comes pouring up the stairs about five seconds later i realize the stairs are disappearing because the plane is beginning to move and we need to get the stairs out of there before the wing clips of the stairs. The door is open and somebody is screaming to somebody that the doors open at and evan comes running up the hallway, grabs a start, linked out over 30 feet of air, pulls the door shut and arms it and we are like rolling. We get to the end of the runway and the colonel flips around the 747 like it is a piper cub, stomps on stomps on the brakes, powers of the engines just, they are blowing, and lets go. We go rolling down there. I didnt Aircraft Carrier landings and takeoffs. That was the closest thing ive seen to aircraft takeoff. We rolled down that thing and he gets their board and stances on the tail. Im looking up at the present like this, yeah, im okay. Hows your day going with hes looking down at me like this. But almost we are heading up the west coast of florida and the president says we going to washington. The Vice President calls him from the peoc. Rumsfeld leaves the pentagon and coast to the command center and says dont come back. The president is not a guy whos got a temper but they are arguing about whether or not to go back to washington. They are saying we dont know. There may be some guy with a shoulder launched missile waiting for air force one to come to final approach. The entire day was like that. Ill tell you one quick forcing install. The president is sitting there, andy and i are sitting across from him. Weve all been on the phones talking to giuliani, pataki, everybody. We have a quiet moment where we reported on some conversations and the phone rings. I think it was the Vice President. The president listens for a few moments and says yes. Listen for ten or 15 seconds more, says you have my authorization. Another five or ten seconds says yes. Another five or ten seconds, says you have authorization, and hangs up. And looks at andy and i and in a voice like youre announcing your grocery list says i have just given authorization for the military to shoot down in the aircraft inventor critical target that is not under command of its crew. And i was so shocked, i can member exactly what he said next but he reflected on how horrible it would be to be the pilot who got that order. Later that day we flew to nebraska. There were trying to keep them away from washington and not a briefing of looking at a map, giant map two or three stories tall in this book underneath the nebraska prairies as aircraft are launched from a new jersey airfield to intersect one of the seven aircraft inbound across atlantic with which should not be able to make communications and were watching to see if these fighters can make contact with the pilot, the aircraft is inbound to philadelphia and if they cant their orders are splashed before it gets to the new jersey coast. That was 9 11. Boy, i know. My office was in the White House Security perimeter on Lafayette Square so we all had some sort of public reaction to the spirits but the most extraordinary i would just say very quickly is for a long time you were not allowed about to t of your seat if you were leaving a washington airport. And only in america or their authorized to shoot the plane down. Only in america would you be going, either bca which is Reagan National airport or dulles without a translator translate this into multiple languages. There was a russian who was starting to get up as we are taking airborne and thank god i speak some russian because i told him sit down right now. But you know, nobody was really prepared for that. Id like to ask you, lynn. It is an extraordinary thing to be associated with such decisionmaking, to be an intimate part of this power circle, to wield power yourself in the publics mind and also by virtue of your relationship to the Vice President of the United States and, therefore, the president of United States. What do you do to keep yourself going . Because we are living in tough times now from the perspective of criticizing other americans, but i think it was dirty tough back then, wasnt it . Yes. But like karl you leave with so many stories of the unflappable he of the people who were leaving us. It looked like a navy uniform. Whoever. Tall, distinguished looking man with gray hair who whispered in dicks year this is the other end of what you are hearing and stick said take it out. It was the airplane. They came to dick and said what should we do about this airplane that is full of people . We have reports they may hit the capital, they may hit the white house. It was a time we were personally in danger but i dont remember anybody being shaken by that but the navy captain went take it out and came back, wanted to be sure he heard right so dick said take it out. I remember that so clearly because i understood what it meant. As carl said my goodness, you have a military aircraft shooting down a passenger airliner. I dont think it is an ethical decision because of that airliner had gone down at the white house flight 93 we are talking about. I am sorry, that is exactly right. They went down in shanksville. Not to dwell too much on that but as we came back to washington that night the president finally at the end of the briefing in nebraska said i am coming back to washington, but we dont know he said no, i am coming back, the nation needs to hear from me from the oval office, not a bunker under a prairie and i cant sleep in my own bed at night. He wasnt very jocular at that moment but we flew back to washington and were occupied with the speech he was going to give to the country but 20 minutes outside of washington he said im going to take a quick power nap, went up front and the speech was pretty well put to bed in two of us were standing outside the private office and we were just talking and up flies an f16 aircraft that take station at the left wing tip of air force one so close you could make out his face. We were exciting, there he is. My colleague said get your camera and take a picture and i went into the cabin to get it out of my briefcase and there was one on our right wing tip. We had entered the National Capital airspace cordoned around washington that existed even before 9 11 so we were sort of excitedly talking about how cool this is and both of us stopped because all of a sudden we realize what this was. This is not a ceremonial escort. These guys were the last line of defense. If something came out of the ground or somewhere else in the space their job was to put the aircraft between that threat and air force one. So we come into land at andrews and come in like this and we have these two f16 fighters on our wingtip as im strapped in looking at the president like this as we come in and at the last moment, colonel tobin pancakes this plane off its runway in these two f16 fighters simultaneously turn on thereafter burners to push ahead of the craft of air force one so they bloom like this 50 feet off the ground. A couple years later i was walking through the airport in atlanta in the stream guy, midtolate 30s comes up to me and says are you karl rove . I said yes i am. We were together on 9 11 and i said remind me where, he said i was on your left wing tip. Air force reservist, a stockbroker doing his activeduty. On the launch line on 9 11 and this was his job. These are such very very moving stories. Since we are here at the ranchoh mirage writers festival i cant help myself. You have both been at the epicenter of events of the 2000s, a dynamic period, going into iraq in 2003 but you have also written history. I am wondering how your own personal experiences during this time informs the way you look at historic figures. Does or does it not . My own personal experience, i was writing a book on education and i was halfway through when george bush asked dick to be Vice President and the president to be, his main cause was education so i couldnt finish that book, i couldnt go out with a set of opinions that might conflict, might not conflict so i started writing Childrens Books. I thought this is the least harmful thing i can do. Will get mad about a patriotic Childrens Book . I wrote six of them while dick was Vice President. It is one of the best things i have ever done. It was that long ago and people still give a is for abigail, in america, patriotic trimmer. It is my go to present so it affected my life in quite an important way. Im not going to answer your question directly but i will tell a dick cheney story. It is june of 2000, bush is thinking who his running mate should be and we are looking at nine people in the head of the process is Richard Cheney of dallas, texas and during the course of all this bush becomes convinced cheney out to be the guy and he knows i am against it. He calls me up in iowa and calls me up and says i am coming home tonight, i want you to be at the Governors Mansion tomorrow at 10 00 and make the case why i shouldnt go with dick cheney. I show up at the Governors Mansion at 10 00, it was built in 1854 when there were comanche indians 20 miles to the west, not very big. We were in the Austin Library which is twice the size of the stage. Im sitting on one side of the room and bush is on the other side of the room four feet away and wearing comfortable chairs and tell me why we shouldnt go with cheney and i said number one, wyoming, three electoral votes. We need to go with somebody from a battleground state. Number 2, cheney had his first heart attack at the age of 34. I used to know the details. He has had three since. Is working on perfecting the heart attack, people will say hes not going to last. Number 3, a conservative congressman from a conservative state 18 years ago and every one of his stupid votes is going to be brought up like one of three members of congress to vote against the resolution calling on the Apartheid Regime of south africa to move Nelson Mandela from the island prison where there is no doctor to the mainland prison where there was a doctor, three guys vote against it, hes one of them. Number 4, we worked hard to identify you as your own man, not your dad, lets pick a guy who was secretary defense at a time of war for your father. People in the midwest and northeast are concerned about you being in oilman. Lets double down and get the guy who is running the Worlds Largest oil field supply company. Twelfth amendment problem, bush is not a monologue are, this is like World Wrestling federation. Nobody is ever going to bring up that vote. So this goes on 35 minutes and at the end of it i realized i cant unbutton my jacket because i have swept through my shirt. He says got anything else . No, that is it. The guy next to him says got any questions for carl . Cheney had been listening to me. As we were walking out of the room he says to me, i have so much to say. That night bush calls me and says really good today, he literally came, was there for 6 or 7 hours, met with the Vice President and left again, called me that night at 10 00 and says really good today. You outlined ten serious political problems and i hadnt thought of some of them. It was really good. Figure out what you are going to do about them because i am going with cheney. He says your job is politics. These are all political problems. Figure out what to do about them. That is not my job. My job is to figure out who will be the best partner to me in the oval office and if something terrible happened to me, who would the country have immediate confidence in and that is dick and im going with him. Dont tell anybody i made the decision or i will kill you figure out what youre going to do and did a couple days when i get back i went you to tell me how we can prepare for each of these eventualities. It was a testament to her husband. I have to add we are out of time. Dick was the other opponents of his being chosen and argued strenuously against it for many of the same reasons carl did and the president finally leaned on him on the hot porch, dick was sweating and the president was sweating and finally dick said okay. He never held my bluntness against me. He could not have been a colleague and a better mentor. I am terribly sorry we are out of time. This is a terrific opportunity. It was fun. You are watching a special edition of booktv airing now during the week while members of congress are working in their districts because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight a look at crime. Joshua hammer tells the story the black market, animal smuggling operation and reports unrelated International Domestic trade regulations. University of texas journalism professor kate winkler boston looks at the life of edward oscar heinrich, americas first forensic science. Jack goldsmith, former assistant attorney general in the george w. Bush administration recalls the life of a stepfather who was an associate of teamsters leader jimmy hoffa. Enjoy booktv now and over the weekend on cspan2. The coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on the congressional schedule. House majority leader steny hoyer announced members will not be back for legislative business and monday may 4th. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell has announced the same, two weeks after the chamber was originally scheduled to return. Members have been advised about sufficient notice returning to capitol hill as legislation related to the coronavirus was to be considered before may 4th. The senate, on cspan2. Good evening, everybody, welcome. I am mike freedman, the president of the press club. What an honor that this is the