For more than a century the Hoover Institution has been dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, National Security and democratic were excited to be able to connect virtually with you to showcase the work coming out of our institution. These policy briefings provide an opportunity for you to her directly from some of our nations top scholars on pressing issues facing the road during this difficult time. We hope you enjoy and find out in our discussion. We will be taking audience question state and encourage you to submit yours at the q a buttons located at the bottom of your screen. Todays briefing is from general h. R. Mcmaster, the senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was a 26 National Security adviser to the the president of the United States. He also served as commissioned officer in the United States army for 34 years before retiring as Lieutenant General in june for the 2018. His latest book is entitled battlegrounds and will be released in september and the disable for preorder now on amazon. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks. Its a pleasure to be with you and everyone who joined. It will be an outstanding discussion know. I know you been watching these briefings regularly and the coverage of aspects involved with covid19 took a lot of our discussions happen focus on the impact of the pandemic in the United States and our economy, et cetera. Today would you i would like to discuss the rest of the will, take with the geopolitical threats that of an accelerated by covid19. Ill ask you to take some to around the world so to speak which should be a lot of fun. Lets start with the catch everybodys mind, china. What to post coronavirus chinau. S. Relations look like . Will, thanks, tom. I think the looks a lot like the intoxication of the competition that was ongoing prior to the covid19 crisis. This competition i think is based mainly on what is motivating the Chinese Communist party, which is primarily, first and foremost is, it is the parties desire, effort to extend and tighten its exclusive grip on power as well as to realize its stream of national that competition i think is intensifying in four or five different ways. First, i think we can all see just in recent days and intensification of Information Warfare that the chinese commies party is waging against the United States with the narrative that the United States and of the free and open democratic systems have failed and china have succeeded. This is important to mask really the responsibility for how rapidly and how blindly this pandemic spread. And that Information Campaign by the chinese commies party intensified certainly. But they also become more aggressive militarily. Even in the South China Sea the last couple days they upon these municipalities to govern this bigger land grab in the South China Sea intimidating the Malaysian Navy and so forth. And a lot of violations of taiwanese airspace. What youre seeing i think, as result of this kind of behavior is a backlash internationally. I think thats a positive trend. This is germany trying to charge china 130 billion you see a backlash against china, twothirds of americans in a recent poll have a negative view certainly of the Chinese Communist party. So i guess the question of what we ought to track that is how does this competition play out and what is the internal dynamic associate with this . China has acted in an egregious manner. Of course harassing the doctors tried to warn about this, and in recent days arresting people who advocate for the Chinese People having a say in how their government, in hong kong and on the mainland. I think what youre seeing is the chinese comments party racing to put in place this orwellian state. What effect is that when you have on the chinese come across the chinese population . It is becoming more critical of the party, particularly in the way theyve handled this crisis. This will happen against the backdrop of a slowing economy, china not being able to make good on promises it is made to his own people under this program of national as the economy tracks, i think there will be a tendency of the party to double down on practices that exacerbate the weakness and vulnerabilities in the economy, especially doubling down on support for Stateowned Enterprises and so forth. What does this mean . I think we are in a decoupling competition, and the United States and of the free and open societies ought to do everything we can to protect ourselves against the efforts of the Chinese Commerce party to support a free market Economic Systems and our democratic form of governance and opening we can to strengthen our systems and to strengthen the Global Economy that is not directly connected or depend on the Chinese Communist party. I think the supply chain vulnerabilities weve seen will continue certainly and think you will continue seeing this, this decoupling out of china because the Chinese Government is not a trusted partner. Its not good place to do business and we can no longer have some of our critical supply chains rollable destruction by the chinese commies party. Got it. So the covid virus is going to accelerate the decoupling thats going on between the west and china. Are there any other implications between the coronavirus for how u. S. Or western policy will change towards china . I think its going to bring our free and open society together. I think there would be a much bigger International Cooperation on confronting the Chinese Communist party. I hope will happen is countries will protect themselves better against chinas efforts to gain a dominant position in the emerging Global Economy by capturing Critical Infrastructure including 5g infrastructure. And hope theres going to be an effort among countries in the socalled debt trap associate with one belt, one Road Initiative to protect themselves against china attempting to great relationship with these countries. I have already seen the high degree of International Cooperation. Really, i know thats not the common narrative that is out there but theres a lot of cooperation going on between the european union, uk, japan, United States on confronting the policies in chinas Commerce Party but i think its going to grow as this crisis abates. Whats going on between china and north korea and and i was e Coronavirus Impact and relationship of north korea with the rest of the world . As you know, as we can with this crisis we have taken off some of these other key issues. The coronavirus has had in many ways et cetera but the trend of isolating the north korean regime under the campaign of maximum pressure. In many ways covid19 has been the best enforcement mechanism for u. N. Security Council Sanctions against north korea for its nuclear and missile programs. Of course the last couple days there are rumors of kim jonguns illness or maybe even demise that seem to have been greatly exaggerated, but you never know. You never really know whats happening within the north korean regime. Its clear and jump on and the kim regime is under pressure from the virus. Of course they reported no cases the north korean which is just not believable. And youve seen some signs of the crisis and effect its having in pyongyang, reported binge buying within pyongyang. And i think the dynamic to watch their in north korea is a dynamic within kind of this new elite within pyongyang, those living able to prove their quality of lives, quality of life under the kim regime and have more to lose if north Korea Remains in the status of a pariah state, isolated economically and diplomatically, and diplomatically from the world. Still i think we ought to realize north korea hasnt slowed down in its efforts to try to coerce us into making concessions. They fired more missiles than having any Previous Year and so far the Top Administration i think thankfully, incorrectly, has resisted, resisted to repeat the past pattern of failed efforts, right, to duty denuclearize by responding to the provocation with relaxation of sanctions and payoffs just an exchange only for negotiations beginning. We cant afford to do that again. And, of course, what follows that are this long drawnout negotiations the results in a week agreement and a week agreement is described as a new norm and then we repeat the same pattern again with the next provocation. Maximum pressure, theres a a thesis to it and the thesis is that maximum pressure can lead the kim family, kim jongun to conclude that he is safer without Nuclear Weapons than he is with them. Policy is still intact and effect its largely been reinforced ida covid19 experience in north korea. Rush is another significant area of the world. This was supposed be very figure four president putin now have the coronavirus. What will this mean for the future of brush itself and the relationship between russia and the west . This could be the biggest challenge i think for putins role in russia. It was supposed to be a big year. It was a celebration of of victory and the great patriotic war and a celebration of putins ability to rewrite the constitution and extend his role until 2036. And instead what they had at the beginning of the year, continuing stagnation in the russian economy and an economic crisis brought about by the severe drop in world oil prices. This is even for covert hit russia that was occurring. And, of course, covid has exacerbated it. I think the criminal will be seen as complicit in the drop of Global Oil Prices at least initially with the price or with saudi arabia. And then of course when the bottom is falling out, it is a severe economic crisis even before covid begins to expand within russia. Putin will become somewhat under additional pressure if covid expands more to the rural areas where the Health System is just not going to be robust enough to respond effectively to it. Remember, covid didnt create a lot of these trends but it is exasperating a lot of these trends. Remember back a few months ago when putin try to control who can run in the moscow elections. There were huge protests against putin and there were mass arrests and killing of protesters. So i think that the pressure on putin certainly will mount. I think something who will emerge as a potential new leader of russia, not that putin is going to lose power but i think power certainly is going to shift really away from him to others. And hopefully among others who view russias future more as aligned with europe and the west and with the Chinese Communist party. You are a student of military governments. We talk much i north korea, does the coronavirus pandemic strengthen the hand of them . We try to capitalize on this. Look at how china handled this initially. Suppressed the human transition transition aspect of the citys, most dangerous aspect of the disease. Lied to their own people, lie to the international audiences, subverted the world health organization, stop internal travel for the stop international travel. And now this hamhanded approach to promote china as the solution to the problem. I dont think its in china let alone the rest of the world and theres a real backlash against china for this. Okay, lets go to another of searching machine. We were taught that North Greenwich barely has no cases, which is impossible. And then i ran. I ran, because of its relationship with patronage to china, didnt shut off travel and they got infected in a in g way and then the government denied it, didnt put in place any measures that were necessary. And, of course, also in iran that had been protests against the government and the correct order that runs iran. And i think covid19 is going to make it worse for iran there. As well as how iran is perceived elsewhere, from iraq to lebanon, syria, to human. I really think its going to lets go to another one in venezuela. These are all connected. These people are connected to each other in these regimes are connected to each other. Venezuela of course depends almost exclusive on oil revenue. Once the bottom has fallen out of the market the way theyve tn able to survive is really with stipends from china and russia in exchange for oil, Venezuelan Oil provide a belowmarket prices which in russia and china would sell at a profit. Hows that working out box thats not working at that. And russia has had to bail out within venezuela for about 4 billion and that does not play back with an rush and that is sort of exacerbating the sentiment against putin. I think guaido has an opportunity within the venezuelan to pose as a leader who actually helps them get out of this crisis, and really the key factor to watch is venezuelans. Especially among the former are they going to begin to attribute their grievances to the maduro regime . So i think its bad for dictators, i really do. I think what were seeing, tom, is a benefit of a free, open, democratic system. As dissatisfied as americans, governments and his response and so forth, we have a selfcorrecting mechanism. We have say that we are governed. And in these societies that dont, i mean, really as the peoples voices are suppressed, i mean, the only alternative to change might turn out to be a revolution of some kind. So im optimistic about democracy and free and open societies, as long as we Pay Attention to ourselves and do everything we can to strengthen our own confidence, democratic processes and institutions. Before we go to admit these comp john asks a very interesting question and has to do with this information more effectively thats going on and [inaudible] russia and iran. His questions basically should use be doing more directly to offset the disInformation Campaign going on rather sources and growth of the pandemic . I think we should. You know why . I think the best response, best response would be from our investigative journalists and former open press. Russia, russia and iran, they see our free and open society as a weakness, right . Basie freedom of speech and freedom of the press as a weakness. At our strength, its i think we have to be very active at exposing our really on media should come at exposing their nefarious activity and their dishonesty and disinformation efforts. But also i think government does have play in config at how to i pass these firewalls. I think we should try to bypass china and irans firewall with information that can allow them to me to form their own judgments based on the truth rather than disinformation and propaganda. I think abhorrent by the way that you associate Media Companies wont take down, wont take down blatant statesponsored propaganda and disinformation in the United States when they dont even get to have access into the chinese market. So i think theres a lot more we can do to defend ourselves. To answer the question directly, heck yes, i think we should do more to expose this disinformation and propaganda. Lets go to the middle east, the big enchilada, iraq, iran, syria. How is the virus and the pandemic affected that region . Just when you think they it t get worse in the middle east, it does get worse in the middle east. It is a humanitarian crisis of colossal scale that we are witnessing across the region and we already talked a little bit about iran, but what iran is going through a crisis of the regimes on making. It is a pariah state because it acts like a terrorist organization rather than a nationstate. Its reaping what it deserves at this stage in connection with a corrupt Economic System where imola associate with the Supreme Leader at the top, families at the top which are the sort of criminalized networks as well as Islamic Revolution guard corps with members of the guard corps being really the Beneficial Owners a lot of iranian companies. They are suffering from economic isolation and now covid, and now the collapse of oil prices. So the external adventures in the region, you know, their support for houthi insurgents in human, their support for assad with a proxy army in syria, their support for hezbollah, the militias in iraq, you know, the terrorist organizations that pose a threat to israel. I mean, this is really going to have to draw in the question, as it was before covid and before utter collapse of oil prices among the iranian people, what is the party of this government . Is this government the government that the want of the future . That will be up to the arming people but i think iran isnt l crisis. Iran has three choices here whe United States pulled out at the jcpoa and reimpose sanctions, those three choices were first, they could become like the grinch at christmas. The heart could get bigger and they could come to the negotiating table and change their behavior, stop the proxy wars. That wasnt going to happen because it wouldnt be consistent with the revolutionary ideology that drives the region. The second thing they could do try to wait out donald trump and work out with european unity. Thats up in heaven. The third thing is as clear and thats what theyre doing. Covid has hidden from our attention anyway a real escalation by the iranians in iraq and in the gulf. That escalation has resulted in about 20 attacks on u. S. Forces since the january 3 killing of Qasem Soleimani with the drone strike in iraq. So what you are saying is u. S. Forces consolidating also reprisal against iranian militias inside iraq. You also saw just yesterday the president tweeting that we will sink iraqis Islamic Revolutionary guards corps navy vessels that harass our ships in the gulf. And i think iran is going to continue to push it and pushed onto the limits. I think theres really a chance for an escalation that will result in a reprisal or directly against iran or iranian assets. I think the Trump Administration demonstrating with the soleimani strike that when the proxy attack us, we know what the real address is. And so i think that its a dangerous time in the gulf as a result, but what you are seeing in iraq, a country in crisis, as a backlash against iran as well. You had the political crisis associate with the iraq iraqis peoples dissatisfaction with the government, when the next Prime Minister is supposed to try to form the government, hes really blocked by the iranians. Now you have another one coming in who is a good leader i think. Hes not iranian public. Hes an effective leader but hes going to be stuck with a very difficult situation. You have the collapse of the oil prices, the iraqis budget is a least two times bigger than revenue they will taken this year, and thats probably an understatement. And then you have the covid19 crisis as well as the iranian infiltrations some subversion of the government. Its going into an even worse crisis and think what to try to maintain our influence and support. I think the iraqi people are going to want that more and more as they see that their fate tied to an alternative to this iranian influence. Theres a good sight of that initially. The iraqis government has refused iranian demands to open the border to protect their people from covid19. In syria, you know, were seeing kind of the latest episode in what is a serial mass homicide of the syrian civil war, enabled by russian and iran, and i think this is obviously a humanitarian crisis growing about 1 million refugees displaced by the indiscriminate mass murder and bombing of the idlib province. Covid19 hitting the camps there and in turkey and in lebanon and in jordan, thisll be disastrous unless we can provide some kind of assistance there. Turkey is probably having some buyers remorse. They are aligning with russia. Russian enabled operations have killed turkish soldiers in syria there may be diplomatic opportunities there to isolate assad, and the sponsors russia and iran. And, of course, in lebanon theres a crisis again and underreported these days because of covid but covid exacerbating it. Mass protests in lebanon led to the Prime Minister stepping down there. It also, these were mass protests against iranian influence. They are also, the lebanese Financial System is in freefall and it was before covid. Because it was corrupt and theres a ponzi scheme essentially being run out of the National Banking system. Assad and rgc had a lot of money in that. When you get one at 3 return out of a Checking Account until a a whole ponzi scheme collapses. When youre seeing, you are seeing this acceleration of trends in the region, is it going to get better . I dont think. It will get worse before it gets better but there are opportunities especially associated with isolating these nefarious actors, assad in particular, you know, from external support. Got it. You mentioned irans escalating aggression in the region. A question havent do with a Reading Technology and the launching of the new satellite. Do we have the ability to combat the new threats posed by their Technological Advancements . They are pursuing the Missile Technology aggressively, and they werent even under the Obama Administration with the jcpoa was in place. This is one of the flaws associate with jcpoa is it did not block irans to the range of capabilities necessary to threaten the world with the most destructive weapons on earth. I think we dont have an answer to that threat. I think that what has to happen is to resist any of these calls to alleviate sanctions on the regime. I think the Iranian Regime has to be forced to make a choice, right, make a choice between acting like a normal nation state and being treated like one, or acting like a terrorist organization. And its waging essentially a proxy war for 40 years and being treated like that. Yeah, maybe a couple of quick reactions to different regions of the world. Were not reading much about india and pakistan and the tensions that exist along their borders, even though the countries are increasingly threatened by the pandemic. What he is going on there . Pakistan is a country that seems like its always on the verge of state collapse maybe because they start at such a, you know, a low level in terms of governance, that they never really collapse fully. The situation just keeps getting worse. I think that covid hitting pakistan of course will be disastrous because of the population, the population density, and the lack of health infrastructure. When, you know, when the Pakistani Army meets any kind of a challenge . What do they do . This he lash out against india. Almost like the geico commercial, its what you do, they cant help themselves and its the reason for existence and so forth. I think because there already is a continuing simmering conflict in kazmir, that there could be, you know, as the Pakistani Army feels the need to act out, there could be there could be a clash there. Within interidia, its a countrf great promise and great problems. There are huge numbers of the population who suffer from water insecurity and food insecurity. There is a threat to the indian Agricultural Supply chain now. I think it is in al of our interest, interest of the free world, for india to succeed. So, i think this ought to be one of our top Foreign Policy priorities. As were doing everything we can to assist and deal with this crisis because everything that happens in india is a huge scale because of the size of the population, but we ought to also be trying to convince Prime Minister modi, certainly, but the whole bjp to abandon these hindu nationalist policies. I think what can really be disastrous if we saw replicated in india, the sectarian civil war that weve seen create this destructive cycle of violence across the greater middle east. And of course, you know the security in south asia is connected to what is happening in afghanistan and frankly, im very concerned about the socalled deal with the taliban. And this, i mean, what ive seen is this sort of strange, you know, phenomenon in which now we seem to be partnering with the taliban, you know, in pursuit of peace and at times asserting against the afghan government, right . So, i think its sort of a the inverse of what we ought to be doing and the reason why im concerned about the situation in afghanistan is weve kind of created these false assumptions about the situation to fit, really, what we would like to be the reality there, right . We like to draw this bold line between the taliban and al qaeda. What if that bold line doesnt exist . So what is the stake in afghanistan . What the stake is, if there is, you know, a collapse or a severe weakening of the afghan government, you will have a talibanlike regime back in place, the Islamic Emirates of afghanistan and once you have that, thats a physical victory for an organization that continues to provide safe havens and for support based terrorists and al qaeda it had from the very beginning and a psychological victory as well. Of course, because this problem exists on the pakistanafghanistan border it could bleed over. Southeast asia is an area of great concern. Were not going to solve any of the problems, but i think its worth the investment, you know, the tip diplomatic investment the small military that we have in the region to prevent this from happening. If there is a collapse the consequences will be quite severe not only in the region, but as we know, right, from the syrian civil war, these problems dont adhere to las vegas rules, what happens there doesnt stay there. Those problems migrate to other areas as the grave effect, for example, this humanitarian crisis has had on europe. On to the western hemisphere, monica asks an interesting question. Will the u. S. Redirect efforts to latin america . It seems that in the last 20 years, the u. S. Has abandoned the hemisphere. Will the coronavirus have unrest in our hemisphere. When you look at the broader sweep of history here, at least from the late 20th century to today, our relationship across the region are pretty darn good from a historical perspective. When i was in the job of National Security advisor, just had wonderful relationships with the leaders of the many of the countries in the hemisphere and certainly counterparts within those governments and we worked together on some really critical issues. Venezuela being one of those and trying to shift the venezuelan people and reestablishing constitutional governance there. And a cooperative relationship with mexico despite the you know, that the president s tendency to insult mexican leaders and so forth, you know, below that, we worked extremely well together. Now, of course, theres been a change of government there. And mexico is really worth watching closely, so right now, mexico, i think they declared 8,000 cases of covid, its probably ten times that amount of covid within mexico. Their Public Hospitals arent in great shape and the government is trying to respond to that, but really whats of concern in mexico is the economic response there, right . Now, of course, i always use the caveat im not an economist or a i think its worth noting that instead of quantitative easy, instead of a fiscal stimulus, the president has instead chosen prosperity. And thats obviously, its just not going to work, and so even though a left wing politician, he feels that, you know, that a stimulus package is only good for company. Antibusiness in his predisposition, so i think what youre going to see is mexico is going to have a tough time recovering from this economically and of course, what are other Big Industries there, oil and tourism, its not looking good. Now, the opportunity in the western hemisphere broadly is as theres a rethinking of Global Supply chains. I think a lot of manufacturing could move right to move into the western hemisphere and in particular, if we focus on effective implementation of usmca, the nafta follow on, it could be beneficial and benefits us from all different perspectives, including migration problems and so forth. But the combination of problems, right, of violence and criminality, this kind of left wing government in mexico that may be actually prescribing the exact opposite of whats necessary for an economic recovery, i think, is going to lead in a very difficult direction for mexico. More broadly in the hemisphere, i think that brazil, columbia, others arent engaging stimulus programs to get through this. And of course, also very much affected by oil. But again, what predated covid was again, a competition between free and open free market Economic Systems and more socialist, you know, statist Economic Systems. In mexico, thats played out with the shift toward more of a status model. There werent, as you know, and still are even during covid, protests going on in chile over this and a shift back to the left in the statist model in argentina as well. Im sorry to go on about this, to answer your question, these are going to continue. I think we ought to support our friends in the region, our democrat countries, colombia and the relationship with colombia and help all of us succeed and to demonstrate to the people of the hemisphere that what works is rule of law, strong Democratic Institutions and a free and a responsible free economic market system. As we come out of this, and ensure equal amount of opportunity and getting Economic Growth going again and employment, we ought to take a look at it from a hemispheric perspective and see how we can help each other. Yeah, got it. I have a few remaining questions, but first i want to remind everybody that youre listening to h. R. Mcmaster, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and you can access hoover. Org. Talking about your time in the white house, i want to ask you a question thats really related to recent criticisms of the administration and some of the leaderships at c. D. C. And health and Human Services for kind of inadequate preparation or responses to the outbreak of the pandemic. When you were serving as National Security advisor for president trump, how did you prepare for the pandemic . It important to go along in the government for quite some time. As in your interview with secretary rice, she mentioned how president george w. Bush had read a book on pandemics. We have to really focus on this. There has been work across multiple administrations on pandemic preparation. We continued that work in the first year of the Trump Administration. It was one of our top, what we called National Security channe challenges to focus on and strategies. And to summarize we identified three priority tasks to prepare for a possible pandemic. The first of these tasks was that we would have to try to improve global surveillance and to try to contain these problems where they originate. Right . Thats the first half. Well, of course that effort was foiled by the fundamental dishonesty of chinas communist party, but of course, this has to remain a priority for the future. Seeing it quickly and containing it. The second area was it innovate, to be able to develop solutions to threats, either man made, you know, bio threats and hazards or pandemic like this. And theres been considerable investment over the years in the capability and the capacity to develop therapies as well as the all important vaccines, rapid vaccine prototyping and the capacity to manufacture, to produce vaccines at scale. I think those investments are going to pay off. Im optimistic about that, i dont know how much more investment is necessary, but theres significant investment that i think puts us in a decent place with that. The third area, weve got to be able to mobilize a response to this pandemic. This is where weve fallen short and youve seen really we didnt have enough of fill in the blank, personal protective equipment, ventilators, you know, and so forth. So whats really important, i think, now is to understand better what we have to do to ensure more effective coordination and integration across the departments and agencies and to improve our ability to respond and shift resources. Mobilize and shift resources, including people with the right expertise and so forth in connection with this kind of a problem. I think everything ought to be on the table in terms of how do we organize and what capabilities do we put in the National Guard versus the army reserves. What do we need in terms of the national dashboard, with i we which we should be able to do, to monitor everything from ventilators to icu beds, to you know, where we have enough respiratory therapists. Do we have what we need to cope with this kind of a crisis and i think that can be done relatively easily. And then of course, what youre going to see is, you know, in an effort to reduce the vulnerability of our supply chain. Our medical supply chain. And you know, as scott has pointed out and scott and i have an upcoming oped on this topic, this is a big issue. These supply chain issues medically for routine health care, you know, as well as in the time of a crisis. So, theres going to be a lot of work to do on the back end. I am confident in how were catching up to this problem and of course, what we have to do on the back end, how did it fall through in implementation, right . You can write the best policy in the world in washington d. C. But its not going to implement itself. So, i think, i think there ought to be more focus on implementation, what do we learn from the failure to implement. And i think were fundamentally sound plan. I think those priorities are the right priorities. Where do we, you know, with are do we perform unsatisfactory and how do we improve. The good news is, tom, hey, were a democracy and we can criticize our government. We can put pressure on our government to get better, right . I think that the disadvantage to the Chinese People or the iranian people, they cant do that. Thank you for the discussion and your comments and insights. We appreciate it, we had a good time. Thanks for the opportunity to be with everyone. I want to remind everyone the next policy briefing tuesday, 11 a. M. Pacific and 2 p. M. Eastern time and it will be with george 0s burn and well discussion the effect of covid19. A visiting fellow, he was the britains chancellor of the exchecker. And he also served as britains first secretary of state. Prior to that, george was a member of parliament. You can join tuesdays briefing at the same link that you signed in on today and you will find the Hoover Institution joen line at hoover. Org, twitter handle hoover insd. Thank you for joining us, see you next time. Please stay safe and healthy. Tonight, on book tv, a look at best sellers and Award Winning books. Beginning at 8 p. M. Eastern, author eric larson discusses the splendid and the vile that looks at Prime Minister Winston Churchills leadership during the london blitz. Then James Patterson and his latest book on the politics. Kennedy family. Later the announcement. 2020 jay Anthony Lucas prize, the book black radical. And an american summer. Watch book tv tonight and offense the weekend on cspan2. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and policy events from the president ial primaries, during the impeachment process. And now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. And be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television km as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the bay area virtual book festival. For the next hour were going to be talking about voting right and the rules unrigging the rules to the american electorate. Im joined by steve, host of the podcast democracy in color, thanks, steve, for joining us. Thanks for having me on