Writers festival in california. Please welcome doctor lynn cheney and karl rove with the moderator. [applause] you dont want to call up the steps when you enter. You are on the right. [laughter] welcome, everybody. Im Susan Eisenhower and its a terrific pleasure to be here today to have a conversation with doctor cheney and karl rove. This is an honor for me and they treat to be able to have kind of an intimate conversation about the executive power in the United States to actually wield power along the president of the United States and also to talk about what its like to be behind the scenes. Let me say very quickly if i cough i am not sick. You came back with a bad cough. [laughter] are you feeling all right . I had to clean up somebodys fireplace the other day and inhaled some fire smoke so in any case dont be alarmed if i find myself coughing. Let me just say it is a thrill to talk to again as i had some experience as a child with what its like to be in the company of people that wield enormous power to observe the pressures of the job along with the loneliness you might say of power that obviously comes with privilege levels of great sacrifice. You had said over time you have carved out a remarkable career for yourself, but this probably started for you when your husband became chief of staff to gerald ford. And i didnt see him for two years. That is just sort of the way it is. I was so interested in what he was doing. That is a really fascinating inside look. You and i were joking before. If you are the first lady of the United States you are called flotus. If you are the wife of the Vice President of the United States, you are called flovis. I dont think i feel comfortable with later. Im afraid i will send something i didnt know i sent. Good point. Thats right. So, youve been in an enormously powerful position in the white house and i have to ask both of you if you dont mind, and i think we are badly in need of humor today. I would like to know what the funniest and strangest thing that happened to you while you were in the white house arena. I stole a car. I think that is the highlight. It was very funny because i had a colleague, head of the National Islamic council from jackson tennessee. So he spoke with a sort of southern accent and sort of like sounded like a slow minded. He started at a young age with a private Equity Partnership in indianapolis but was wildly successful. He basically, the strategy was by the manufacturers in america consolidated and made a lot of money. He stepped aside from that to come and serve as a National Economic council director. He had a really nice bmw. I had a meeting across the way from the west wing at the Old Executive Office building and it ended early and i had a few extra minutes before my next appointment. I was walking down the stairs and across what is called an old executive dr. Its the street that is between the west wing and the Eisenhower Executive Office building. And right by the entrance to the basement of the west wing, he parked his car and they noticed he left his keys in their so i got in it and remember to park on the drive you have to be true three checkpoints bandwidth automatic weapons, the car is swept for bombs and you pass over some kind of a device embedded in the concrete but i dont know what it does but maybe it xrays you. I dont know. So its very secure. I took the car and i drove up west executives are about 75 yards and after 9 11 they had to trucks that looked like ice cream trucks. You couldnt see it from the west executive entrance. I wasnt there but i had eyewitnesses that said that the end of the day he came out, took a look around, couldnt see his car, took out his flip phone and hit the speed dial and said my car is gone. Theyve stolen my car. [laughter] he founded, for the next morning of course the senior staff meeting was a sort of tone, and edgy tone of good nature he accused me of stealing his car. A im finally watching television in a sort of mystified because there is a camera at the corner of the white house. Somebody wrapped the card in industrial cellophane. We dont know whats going on but someones car coming into his car is that. I want to get a picture of you and your handiwork. We send word through the white house and people come spilling out of the ike and out of the west wing. He has a dissident to b deceptie difficulty with this camera. Then the white house photographer takes the picture. There is a picture of hubbard and its like am i really in trouble . There is a living quarters upstairs because of course there is a difference between this public life and private life. Im sure you have many funny stories but if you have had strange ones as well from the period various this one is funny and strange. We spend a lot of time at camp david as carl knows it was the undisclosed location. Its the same in the sense that you find joy in life even though you are in a dreadful time. We also had our big labrador. Add global launch, he walked in and ou had a date with him and maybe joyce was over here and barney who is the president s dog and kind of a mean little saudi. Scotty. The president walks in and he says what is going on here and knowing it isnt a good thing, he pulled up a doughnut or something off of the breakfast tray and sitcom and he always did. He got dave out of thei and we t back to our lodging. Ten minutes may be a fellow knox on the door in full uniform hes the Camp Commander and he said dave isnt allowed there again and hed obviously been sent by the president , but the president was really nice about dave but not about him chasing barney. They play an enormous role. They brought the weimer einar and have an accident on one of the rugs and was sent into exile in gettysburg. One unknown fact about the white house as it is a Burial Ground of the patch. Heat from the third floor so we were allowed to give a dignified burial in the rose garden and we put up a little rest in peace but they took it down to mow the lawn. Roosevelroosevelt is the guys the west wing and had a gigantic collection as children he had an enormous collection and you have to wonder how many of them. We know several of them died during their days in the white house and you have to wonder about the burial location because most of them are like okay of course im going to have been buried at the white house but we have to have an archaeologist goat. You cant go back and visit the gravesite. Except dave. We are sure we know where this site is anthesite is and if we e invited back, we will go visit. Does he have a little headstone . No, im feeling better about that. Apropos, one of the interesting things to me is how important. Both formally and more importantly informally. How in the holidays you have the party for the press and for th this. Would there be holiday parties that were geared towards their official business and friends and it was important how many times you have a hardnosed democrat. It helped establish the white house since. I would be surprised that they did and its because the Vice President and the president both knew the Vice President from having been at the white house as the chief of staff and the president as having been the governor of the state with a democratic speaker and the quebec Lieutenant Governor and how important it was to reduce some of that tension. What comes to mind is 9 11, this extraordinary moment. What was that like to actually be trying to first of all. What is it like to be supporting your husband. You are such a nice interviewer and im going to make an admonition that ive ever made before. You dont know what it is. And to this day, they took me to the white house when everyone else was evacuated. To do that with great command what happened. A good friend to this day condoleezza rice, you are off with the president i think but it was the same experience only more serious with a bunch of cabins and cabinets along the way. You watch the secret Service Opening the cabinet and grabbing very large guns and passing them on. Its like a movie. That was stunning for me. Then when the day was over i did take notes that they which were subpoenaed but it was okay with me. I didnt write anything secret and i was shaking so much. I didnt even know i was. It was barely legible. But at the end of the day we flew in a helicopter to camp david and when you lift off the south lawn you can see the fire burning, and i couldnt help but think of the burning of washington and madisons time. Washington then of course was just a small village into this with which greater consequence. But it certainly is lodged in memory. What was it like after that . You go to an undisclosed location dot lets think about that for one moment. The decision is made that the threat is so unknown and so dangerous the president and Vice President of the United States cannot be in the same place unless absolutely essential that the Vice President must be taken to an undisclosed location and in the event that was the nature of that moment. Incredible. You were worried afterwards about airborne poisons that might get us, anthrax and ricin. That is when the sniffer trucks show up. They have a little device and see if you hear this noise, that means that it is a chemical attack. What you need to do is take this needle, stab yourself in the heart and put yourself in the mob suit. And i said sure, like that is going to happen. Dont tell me when you stab yourself in the heart. [laughter] i dont quite understand that. Its adrenaline. Or maybe it is just chemical and biological. What is it 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 and it was perfect. I sometimes describe m describes one long interaction. This is a Peaceful Place where you can write. But because it was fought to protect you from anthrax and other things that might be in the air, 90 days. I told the physicians had a say mike is i think i can still use it to go to that effect. What do you remember about that day . H. 48 a. M. In the Sarasota Florida the phone rings and its my assistant and she says a plane has flown to the trade center we dont know if it is just or prop, commercial or private. Call me back if you have more and i walked over and told the president of the United States who was shaking hands with parents and teachers. About two or three minutes later, the National Security adviser called with the same information. We walked down to a classroom that was designated into the air force shows up with two large cabinets and take our advice devices that look like a typewriter and a telephone. They are secure telephones and then you are talking to a guy in colorado and they can connect you like that with anybody in the world and to secure conversations, so we walked in and theres the physician and nurse carrying a cooler full of the president s blood. The National SecurityAdvisers Office had a person on the travel team that they and their was a younger guy named mike morrell who later becomes the director of the cia. And the president almost immediately leaves the room and goes into the adjoining room for a demonstration with third and fourth graders. Normally there is a Television Set, but for some reason there was no television, so i spent the Opening Event of the war running up and down the corridors of this Elementary School to find a classroom with a Television Set is empty and i pull it out and ran down the quarter, plugged in the power but then i had to plug in the cable and a rolling around on the floor in a suit in a kindergarten classroom and trying to make a connection. I remember there were three outlets i and the first one made the connection and then noise so i had to unscrew it, screw in the second one and when it made the connection, the voice said what have they just seem. Then the second plane into the trade center. The chief of staff decides he needs to tell the president , and i remember that he 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 it seemed like an eternity, i bet it was like 1,001, 1,002, 1,003. He paused and i never understood until a couple of years later we were on a panel talking about 9 11 and he suddenly realized he needed to know exactly what he was going to say so that they wouldnt ask any questions. So we had to formulate what he was going to say and remember the photographs where he tells about the second plane flying into the World Trade Center and then america is under attack. The president had to make the decision shoulposition should hd walk out. He thought the demonstration was going to be a matter of seconds, maybe a minute or two at most from being concluded so rather than standing up and reducing himself in the middle of it with the tv cameras, he decided he would wait but it took four or five minutes. Imagine waiting for this to end so he got up and ive known him a long, long time but a different guy came walking through that door. There was a surg certain anxietn the room. He was cold as ice after he called a low tone of his voice. He said we are at war. We got the fbi director that he couldnt get Vice President cheney because he was being moved and they told him they needed to move him to the bunk bunker. I had a weird day because we were sitting at a table meant for kindergartners, all of the adult furniture is gone so hes sitting at a little table meant for kindergartners about this far off the ground in one of those little plastic chairs writing what hes going to say to the country and the three of us are already talking with him about what hes going to say. And at the head of the secret service came in a, a little guy, not very tall, very slim, very softspoken comes in and says we need to get you to air force one and airborne as quickly as possible because they were afraid the president s whereabouts were known and they were worried somebody was going to crash a plane into the Elementary School and they wanted to get him the hell out of there, so we went to a motorcade. Normally i would be in a car two or three behind the limo, stagecoach was then code name, but for whatever reason that they come as we were Walking Around and he whistled and pointed to the backseat of the car. I spent virtually all of 9 11 with him, that close. When we got to the airplane, he whistled again, pointed to the seat across from him, so i was there. And as we were going to the airport, rather than going 40 miles an hour like the normal motorcade, between 85, and nobodys saying anything. And he is on the bench looking at us, the president is on this side of the car, i am here. Eddie is in the shotgun and the driver and thats it. We are rolling in 85 Miles Per Hour to the airport. The phone rings, the little foam on the side of the backseat. The president picks it up and i can only hear one side of the conversation, but i know its bad when he says is rumsfeld a live, the strike on the pentagon. At tha the moment, i couldnt lk at him. I looked to the side and realized about a foot and a half away from u us was a police car come in fact there were four cars and i hadnt recognized they were there. They were maybe a foot and a half away from the car and we were going 85 Miles Per Hour and they were matching that close. If you could roll down the window, they were there. Later in the day i said what was that all about, because i never saw it again and he said we were worried about a car bombe the cd we wanted it to go off ten or 15 feet further from the president to get a better chance of surviving the blast and my first thought was what the hell was i doing in the backseat of the car. [laughter] but that was the day. We got on the plane, the president , we left off and when we lifted off literally the plane began to roll on the door wasnt even shot. We got on the plane and marmalade it takes like ten or 15 minutes to cover everything, in their seats, cover it up, we got on the plane, and i buckled and across from the president. People were pulling on the door, the last person comes up the stairs and about five seconds later i realized the stairs are disappearing because the plane is beginning to move into the need to get the stairs out of there before the winged clips the stairs and the door is open. Somebodys screaming to somebody at the door is open and an air man comes running up the hallway, grabs a strap, leans out over 30 feet of air, pulls a shot and we are rolling. We get to the end of the runway and the kernels with surrounding 740 sevens like it is a pumps on the brakes, powers up the engine and lets go. We go bowling down and i got Aircraft Carrier landings and takeoffs and that is the closest thing ive seen to an aircraft takeoff. We rolled down nothing, he gets airborne and stands on the detail. Hes looking down at me like this. The entire day was like that and i will tell one more quic do ong and then stop. The president is sitting there and weve all been on the phones talking to giuliani, everybody. And we had a quiet moment we are reporting on some conversations into the phone rang his. And i think that is the Vice President. The president listens for a few moments and says yes, this is from ten or 15 seconds, he says you have my authorization. Another five or ten seconds he says yes. Another five or ten seconds, says you have my authorization and he hangs up and looks at us and in a voice like you are announcing a grocery list, ive been on authorization to shut down for the critical target that isnt under the command of the crew. They got a briefing and were looking at a gigantic map, two or three stories tall. They are watching to see if they can make contact with the pilot and if they cant come and orders us blushing before it gets to the new jersey coast. They had a sort of public reaction to the most extraordinary idols they quicky is that for a long time if you are leaving a washington airport and only in america are they authorized would you be going from dca to the Reagan National airport and without translating this into multiple languages the risk they were starting to get up as they were taking airborne. We are living in tough times now from the perspective of criticizing other americans. If it was the navy or the coast guard. Disses the other end of what you are hearing and he says take it out. They made the capitol or the white house. I understood what it meant and he say said my goodness you hava military aircraft shooting down a passenger airliner. I dont think that it is a closed ethical conversation because it had gone down in the white house. The president finally at the end of the briefing in nebraska said im coming back to washington and they said we dont know, we dont know. And they said no, im coming back. The nation needs to be from the oval office, not from a nebraska prairie. And i want to sleep in my own bed at night. We flew back and we were occupied most of the way working on the speech that he was going to get to th give to the countrt 20 minutes or so, 30 minutes outside of washington he said im going to take a quick power nap and went up front and we were pretty well put to bed. Applies and aircraft. There was one on the right wing is the fighters we are sitting there talking about how cool this is and then suddenly both of us stop as we realized what this was. This wasnt a ceremonial escort. They were the last line of defense if something came up out of the ground. We come into the land of andrews and we had these fighters on the wing tip and we come in at the last moment to push ahead of the craft and like this, 50 feet off the ground. I was walking him through the airport in atlanta and in the mid to late 30s they come up to me and they argue karl rove and i said yes i am. He said we were together on 9 9 11. I said remind me where and he said i was on the left wing tip. My goodness. Isnt that a story a stockbroker giving his active duty and on the line on 9 11 this was his job. These are such very, very moving stories. You have both been at the epicenter of events during the very dynamic peer co in response to 9 11 of course as we went to iraq in 2003. You both also rich in history, so i am wondering how your personal experiences during the time informs the way you look at historical figures. I was writing a book on education and i was about halfway through when george was asked into the Vice President. The president , his main cause was education cause i couldnt finish the book. I couldnt go out there with a set of opinions that might conflict or not conflict or finish the book. So, i started writing Childrens Books. I thought this is the least harmful thing i can do. Who is going to get mad about a patriotic Childrens Book so i wrote i think six of them. Its one of the best things ive ever done. People are still getting a is for abigail for bp presents. Its my go to baby present. So, it affected my life quite an important way and i dont think that he speak to im not going to answer the question directly but im going to tell a dick cheney story. Its june of 200 and hes thinking of who the Vice President ial running mate should be there looking at people. The head of the process is richarprocessesrichard cheney o. Hes become convinced that cheney ought to be the guy and he knows im against it so he calls me up and says okay, im coming home tonight and he says i want you to be at the Governors Mansion tomorrow at 10 010 00 and take the case whyi shouldnt go with cheney so i show up at 10 00 into the Governors Mansion in 1854 when there were a comanche indians off to the west, so not very big. Big. Here in Austin Library which is about maybe twice the size of the stage and im sitting on one side of the room and bush is on the other side of the room about 4 feet of a. He says okay, tell me why we shouldnt go with cheney. I said well, number one, wyoming. Three electoral votes. Havent lost them since 1964 and now worried about it. We need to go with somebody from a battleground state. Number two, cheney had his first heart attack at the age of 34 or so. I think that he said hes working on perfecting a heart attack and people said he isnt going to last. The three, he was a conservative congressman from a conservative state 18 years ago and every one of the votes is going to be brought up like that boat was the three members of congress to vote against the resolution calling on the Apartheid Regime of south africa to move no sin mandela from prison where theres no doctor to the mainland prison where there was. Three guys vote against it if he is one of them. Number four, we worked hard to identify you not many so lets take the one that is the significance at the time of the war, that is going to b to erase that. People in the midwest and northeast are concerned about you. What the hell, lets double down and get the guy running the largest Oilfield Supply company, lets do that. The 12th amendment problem. Bush isn isnt a monologue so s is like World Wrestling federation. Nobody is ever going to bring up that vote. You are ridiculous. So, this goes on for about 30, 35 minutes. At the end of it, i literally realize i cannot come but in my jacket because i have swept through my shirt. [laughter] he says do you have anything else that and i said no, that, for it. Do you have any questions for carl . Dick cheney had been listening. As we are walking out of the room he says to me. Thats m mike bush calls the answer is really good today, back on the road, he was there for six or seven hours a minute with the Vice President and then left again. Calls me that night about 10 00 and says really good today. You outlined ten serious political problems to figure out what you are going to do because im going with cheney. [laughter] he said your job is politics so these are all political problems. Figure out what you are going to do about them. My job is to figure out who would be the best partner in the oval office he did something terrible happened, who would the country have confidence in and that is dick cheney and im going with them. Dont tell anybody that ive made the decision or i will tell you. [laughter] could figurbut figure out what e going to do and in a couple of days i want you to be repaired to tell me how we can prepare for each of these eventualities. And it was a testament to her husband. I just want to add we are out of time. He was the other opponent that is being chosen and argued strenuously. The president finally leaned on him on the hot porch of the ranch house. He could not have been a better colleague or a better mentor. Im terribly sorry were out of time. I hope that you will agree with me that this is an opportunity. Mitch mcconnell announced the senate will return from legislative work this monday. They will vote on an executive nomination and later in the week could work on coronavirus related legislation addressing the lawsuits. House majority leader steny hoyer said after consulting with members in the attending physician to house will not return for legislative work next week. Instead they will continue to hold pro forma sessions every three days negotiations continue on different options for voting remotely in the committees and on the house floor. Up next on booktv a look at the Vice President who became president due to thpresident s df their predecessors