Transcripts For CSPAN2 Lincoln Project Founders On The Future Of The GOP 20240712

As we commemorate the profound and lasting expression of political convicted and took shape in this room exactly 106 years ago today. [applause]. As you saw in the video a moment ago, there is an important place in the fabric of our city. Sitting here tonight, youre not only occupying a seat on this day in 1860, new yorkers the send it to a statesman from illinois. The liver to speak would not only alter the course of the his life, but would impact the future of our nation. Since that day, scores of individuals have field your seats. Eager to explore the issues that define who we are as a country. And tonight, you have a seat to another perspective on americas next chapter. Inspired by the man who ultimately united the country after the most divided. In this history. Laura and preserve the Great American experiment. Abraham lincoln, later viewed that his speech is a turning point in his eventual election to the white house. Here he made an impassioned argument against the expansion of slavery in the United States. In treating his audience to have faith that right makes might need it his words did more than make a president. The moral clarity of his imperative has given voice to those employing others to do what is right for a greater good. No matter their political ideologies. Like tonights event, we will be featuring programs all season long the hearts on this theme. It will be featuring speakers election to movement. Right today wrong. Advocated for for justice. Inequalities, sustainability. But they believe is honorable ethical and furthers the common good. I hope you will find your seat again here are one of these programs. We are pleased that tonights conversation is happening on such a significant date. The Lincoln Project has undertaken a bold task in a current partisan climate. Advocating for the importance of placing country before party. In support of our constitution, and of our democracy. I would like to remind everyone that cooper union is a 50123, educational and prohibited directly or indirectly from participating in or intervening in any Political Campaign on behalf of or in a pot opposition for any candidate for elected public office. [laughter]. [applause]. But no seriousness, this is not about anyone candidate pretty is about the vibrancy of our democracy. It is about fostering an environment in which people with a range of perspective can debate those pews and service of a large bowl and in service of the health of our nation. And without further ado, please join me in welcoming the Lincoln Project. [applause]. Cheering and applause. [applause]. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lincoln Project. Rick wilson, reid, jennifer moore, and others. [applause]. [applause]. [background sounds]. Host with a designated mutual enough breeding and lead off our show. Standing here in this great hall behind this particular stage. One cannot help but feel the weight of the insistent voice of history upon us. It is history that is so often sought by our political leaders in this country. And so rarely obtained because it is so hard to do any good times. The mere ambition to be politically great almost never surprises. And almost ever comes without a moment of crisis. A catalyst. In Abraham Lincoln, spoken this very problem which by the way which raised the bar but you high for my performance. [laughter]. He taught us a lesson in that moment. By making and articulating what would become the foundation of the Republican Partys moment. By talking about the unacceptability of the expansion of slavery. He understood that the south, was ever going to bring on this question. He understood that the moral dimension of it would eventually would move a crisis that would tear this country apart and did. That lesson he taught that night was that political choices are fundamentally moral choices. And that is less than that is been too easily forgotten. They dont like the practice of both side is him on both sides. Try to avoid that but the american political culture, has accepted a disconnect between the political and moral dimension of our choices and were saying it right now in the white house. As i once was, and many women of the statement and women on the stage, and the storytellers a political system that we must acknowledge is broken. There must acknowledge that is broken beyond recognition and is insufficient for country that is great is ours. So well speak about the purpose on the mission in the future of the Lincoln Project and what it means for the future of the nation is in the crisis. It is a crisis of national purpose. The crisis of our character. Our national identity. It is that a crisis regarding the very propositional nature of this country. Anyone can become an american. The market is 90 and ideal, not a race, a soil or a blood type. We will be at the nation of ideas. Or and Justice Lincoln could never be described is never slavery. We could not be nation described as never trump. Lincoln was always american. I would like to thank the men and women on the stage are always america. The a change in our policies required each of us to walk away from relationships and friendships and work. In the have built them over years. Decades, thats how like a lot of minds. And i am old. It required all of us to walk away from comforts of our tribal past. Placing great and not so great, men and women that we work for and fought for. They base themselves and abandon their principles. In diversified about low corruption and high treason and since in the white house today. But we have some great political philosopher once said. A particular set of skills. [laughter]. Skills that make us a nightmare for people like donald trump. [applause]. We are called to this task. We fight hard. We fight very hard. Sometimes you might think we fight a little dirty. That is the battle that we are in today. But we fight hard and we strive. We dare, but is called the station to do, to do our duty pretty ladies and gentlemen, i give you the Lincoln Project. [applause]. Host it is always a challenge following rick wilson on the stage. So i appreciate the opportunity to be here. Speaking before you today from such a sacred ground. Minimus mike and i come from california. I do want to speak a little bit about the Cooper Union Speech that we are celebrating hundred and 60 years ago this evening. It for me i know that i cannot escape the fact that it just here was fundamentally a moral pronouncement on race in america. Not just about the evils of slavery. That is what the very notion of our own american identity. Our americanness the concept that others beyond white content somehow joining the family of who we are. But the idea that those who could not join were born to a basic founding principles. In the history, should remember that while the first of the republican president s National Munitions work cemented in his speech in this great hall, the current republican president s ambitions were launched with a speech given not far from here as well. The speech at cooper union, and speech at the trump tower offered dramatically different perspectives on how republicans viewed and spoke about race and our american efforts to finding a few issues of the day. And indeed the speeches cannot be more diametrically opposed and substance. And in tone. And most importantly in character. There are two views that cant not exist and one park. The view of lincoln, bold, confident, righteous, and the view of trump, the call for cowardice, fear, and isolationism. As a californian, have seen with the future of trump party looks like. Passing the effects of a Republican Party that cowers in the face of change. I have seen a party that has evolved into fear and anger over open aspirations. Ive seen a party never crosses into one of the identity politics. A party that is become the home of an agreed racial minority. A party that is 80 percent white. In a state that is only 36 percent white. [applause]. The california Republican Party has become apollo show. The birthplace of aspirational reagan conservatism. Has become a wasteland of trump nationalism. Those of us working in the Lincoln Project will fight for a different future. And we want you to join us. [applause]. Is Abraham Lincoln on the side hundred 50 and entrant hundred 60 years ago, im speaking to our republicans, the average of republican voter, the people here in saint have dedicated their lives, their careers, to working for the values of the Republican Party and articulated here by Abraham Lincoln. We have worked alongside of you, registered voters with you and worse precincts with you and campaign with you and fought with the up and we know you. We know that many of you, millions of you, struggle with what you are saying every day. Wondering what this party has become. And like you, we know that what we are witnessing is not normal. It is not okay. [applause]. It is not who we are. [applause]. Most importantly, it is not who you are. And we know that you are feeling this way because you know you know, this is not right. [applause]. My advice to you my fellow republicans as this. Follow lincolns message. Do what is right. Do what is morally right. When faced with much harder choices, slavery, laura, lincoln compels us to rely on a better nation. He reminded us in these times, it is our character being defined. Right makes might he taught us. In fact is the only thing we can. Thank you. [applause]. My name is ron. I am a millennial. [laughter]. [applause]. It is well understood in my generation is not to be taken for granted some of the things that parents were with the economic stability and job opportunity. Now my generation is being forced to learn the democracy cannot be taken for granted either. [applause]. And that the balances and checks for our system require an act by public servants. And that sub service can be costly. The price of defending democratic ideals rises deeply 11 Political Party tries to get the political advantage. [applause]. As you may know, are the 60s, the gop realizes that its been possible for the republicans to win the national election. Ever again. And soon after came the southern strategy which exploited racism in the south. And then run the party at the church created the moral majority sentiment leaving a legacy of political hate that i experienced personally. Growing up gay. And with pastors parents. Going on to work in republican politics for 17 years. [laughter]. And. [applause]. As republican strategist, struggled to reconcile my hope with the reality of perverse bit evermore ideology and ideology that switched from the teachings of my religious cartage brain and aligned by identity as a gay man. So think suddenly became troubled but i did begin to change within. This modern Republican Party, initial influence has been built on exploiting been naughty groups and become unrecognizable from the work and for him lincoln. And can evolve from this podium, 160 years ago today. With a speech in which he meticulously laid out. You know the wrongness of slavery but the moral imperative of standing against it. And he says that there are moral truths rated and it is our duty to articulate them. Educated country that reflects them. These moral truths certainly included that sacred. And children deserve protection and people ought to treat one another with dignity. An uncontroversial democracy, the powers not assumed. The rule of law must be saint. And that lies corrupt. Allowing trump in tropism to prevailed and then and now, masto abandoning such a moral foundation. To improving the exchange of what is right for what is expedient to believing their own no rules other than the one to bed or break or make. To end. That winning is the ultimate virtue. My generation started life as civics were dying. In dilemma ethics were planting instruction and virtue. In moral relativism was lost. But this world we have inherited has taken us. We are learning in an era of fake news, the preciousness of truth. In the labor required to gather it. Witnessing. [applause]. Witnessing the court of Public Opinion so easily aroused. We are anxious for sturdier and moral grounds. And recognizing the threat of foreign interference in our democracy week long for a leadership rather than gladly accept advantage, will rise to her defense. [applause]. Holly night entrant now like to introduce the next person. [applause]. Thank you everyone. And to my fellow members of hair. I did those who are not here this evening. I would just like to say to the president s box and the others here from the cooper young it union i have to a close to actually attended this great institution. [applause]. They were both electrical engineers. I am not sprint. [laughter]. I had written some words there were about party in politics and the practice of it. As i was Walking Around the lobby here, i started thinking about something that i really thought was both indicative of the president lincoln and indicative of the sacred ground that you have invited us here to tonight. As cooper said, in his words, a union was a collectivity of people with a shared purpose and the will. And i think at least for this small band, an event that grows every day across this country and with the help for folks like you. I dont think that we can have a better definition of the union and i think that its appropriate that president lincoln was talking about the union that was on the verge of a massive rupture in one he would ultimately help to reunite than it hope to bind up those wounds although we know he did not have the opportunity. But we know also this is a call in a school of builders. President lincoln was a builder. Frederick douglass was a builder. They might not of built buildings. With developed belief, and adult movements, and the runways, they built a politics of so many others knew about it and expected for so long. The home we have, ratty. Has two sides that dont talk to each other and one side lately on fire at the moment. [laughter] so we must decide what that even looks like. We know that we will not all agree on what this house should be. We dont agree on the design and we wont agree on how many rooms are with the windows look like but heres what we know. That must be big enough for anyone who wants to come and join us. [applause] it must be built with a wide open front door. It must be built with windows that allow both the sunshine to come in and for those people in it to look out and see a better day. And i would say this, thats when we think about these things the people that we hope to help us build this house will not read working in a vacuum. There will be plenty of folks who live in those houses that exist now who will be famous, who will try to stop us and they will tell us the house is not the right size and not the right color and its not the one they want and they will do everything they can to stop us but heres what we know. In this country its not the homogeneous coalition that ultimately succeeds. Its the heterogeneous coalition that always succeeds. [applause] People Like Us today who might not otherwise agree on everything. No one agrees on everything. This idea of purity regardless of party is irresponsible and its unrealistic. [applause] so i would ask is we sit here before you tonight is just to think that we will try to build this house not for today, not for tomorrow, not for next month but for next year and beyond and we hope that you will join us in this construction project and we thank you for being here. [applause] thank you read. When Abraham Lincoln stood here 160 years ago today the United States was the nation of 34 million people. 25 million lived in the north and 9 million in the south. 5 million lived lived in freedom in the south and in 4 million in bondage. Abraham lincoln knew a great storm was coming. He knew that the union was going to fracture and he knew that there would need a great and costly war but the idea that it had to be saved is the idea that breathes life into a new nation in 1776. And the idea was the most radical expression of Human Dignity and freedom ever put on paper by the mind of man, that all men are created equal and are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights and amongst them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the great war that would kill 600,000 people on the shores of our lands lincoln reconsecrate it the idea of america. The only nation in the history of the world founded not on ethnicity, not on land, but by and idea which is why when somebody takes the oath of citizenship they are as much an american in that instant as a descendent of the mayflower. [applause] one of the great battle captains of the civil war was William Tecumseh sherman. In 1861 he was a colonel in the union army and in his letters he was deeply skeptical of the potential leadership of a backwoods barbarian as he was described from illinois, uneducated, unsophisticated and not up to the test. With months left in the war with the outcome clear Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address talks to the country not of retribution, not of an imposition of cruelty but he said it would now be time to bind up the wounds of the nation, to care for the widow and the orphan with malice towards none, and Charity Towards all. And when he was martyred weeks later sherman who had gone with grant and city point to virginia the great union Army Headquarters was asked to reflect on Abraham Lincoln. What he said was that he had met all of the great men of the world, the kings, emperors, the industrialists, but he had never met a man to possess more of the qualities of greatness and goodness then Abraham Lincoln. When we think about this despicable and filed chapter in our history we must do as lincoln instructed from this very spot 160 years ago, have faith. This season of malice and meanness and indecency will pass. [applause] a president not long remembered was james p. Cannon who if you were with us today would be grateful for donald trump. [laughter] because at long last for the 15th president the title of worst president in the union would dissipate. [applause] is again up for grabs. We dont remember the incompetence that preceded the greatness and the restoration of our greatest president because we are an optimistic nation and a not domestic people who understand that at our core that our best days are yet to calm and this is our responsibility. We are americans and there is no inheritance that is richer, greater, more powerful than that. It has been bequeathed to us through sacrifice and suffering that they agreed the imagination and what we are asked to do is to be stewards of that great gift that has been handed down through the generations to preserve it and to strengthen it eerie at the great act of optimism in American History was lincolns insistence at the height of the civil war where the outcome was by no means certain, that the unfinished dome of the capitol be completed. That under it, the government of the United States, the government of the people, by the people, for the people would be reconsecrate it. Under that dome is a sacred place. It is where we sat to represent us, people who should feel great privilege for the opportunity to be part of the story of america. We see an abdication of duty, a responsibility, a forfeiture of decency and a basic misunderstanding of concepts like right and wrong. [applause] but this will pass. Now all of us here are called to action, not tested to be. We are called as lincoln reminded us 160 years ago in his words ringing through the ages that right makes might and we are called to do our duty to participate, to fight but when that fight is one to understand what will always be true is this. Whatever our differences may be, we are all americans and we are bound together and have more in common than ever can be sundered from us and thats the mission of this organization and we look forward to fighting with you to make this country great again. [applause] [applause] thank you. Its hard to be the last one following all of these guys. My name is Jennifer Horn and in the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. More important hi mom. [applause] that is what leads me here today. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end they are to our duty as we understand it. These were the words of Abraham Lincoln standing in this hall at this podium 160 years ago today. In that address lincoln made the most persuasive, most effective argument against the continuation of slavery in america and that propelled him to the white house. By invoking the brilliance and inspiration of our Founding Fathers lincoln was able to inspire his audience and americans across the country to join him in doing what was right, what was moral, what was most american, that is fighting for freedom and equality for all. Lincolns address at Coopers Union changed the course of americas history and so to determine the path of the Republican Party for lincolns presidency are party charted a course towards freedom. We were the freedom partners who stood not only with lincoln and suffrage in and the right to vote and with Martin Luther Martin Luther king in the fight for support to Ronald Reagan as he confronted communism. This is the Republican Party that i probably called my own for over 30 years. But this is not the Republican Party of today. Ours has become a party of fear, division and fealty to a corrupt and dangerous leader. [applause] the party of trump is him cannot also be the party of lincoln. [applause] i am a republican because i believed the principles on which our party was founded the principles of lincoln strengthened and raised up everyone in our community regardless of who they are and how they vote, republican or democrat, straight or married or single black or white but im a republican because i believed for all those years that people were fighting for the same principles Abraham Lincoln so eloquently anticipated in this great hall so many years ago. Ours is a nation of great ideals built on the shoulders of exceptional men and women not republicans and democrats but extraordinary americans who led with strength and courage and sacrifice. Lincoln was not alone at this stage. Frederick douglass Elizabeth Cady stanton. Or Roosevelt Susan b. Anthony and so many others who crossed the sports to give voice to the american ideals of freedom and opportunity for all. My husband and i had five Children Together and the unshakable belief that america is truly the greatest nation on earth, a beacon of hope for freedom loving people everywhere everything we do, everything my husband and i do our jobs, our volunteerism, what and how we teach our children is fueled by the commitment to a better world for them and their children because yes im also now a grandmother. And my grandchildren are beautiful and perfect. [laughter] i believe that the overwhelming majority of americans are motivated by the same thing. We all just want the best world possible for our kids. Thats why i stand here today joining these other patriots on the stage with me not just in the fight against a president that i believe poses an existential threat to the republic but in the fight for, for what is true, what is honorable, what is constitutional. [applause] in the words of Abraham Lincoln fighting for what is right, that right makes might and in the end we will all come together in dare to do our duty. Thank you. [applause] i want to start a saying thank you first its our great great privilege for us to be here this evening in this extraordinary space, in this really critical moment in our nations history. We are going to continue from here and have a nice conversation amongst ourselves and hopefully one that is engaging and that will bring all of you into it as well but i want to start by saying thank you to some special people here at cooper union. Amazing gina cooper who has worked closely with us and made us feel so welcome. They all deserve a round of applause. [applause] president laura sparks. We are per family grateful to the invitation to participate here and for your strong leadership of this historic institution. Thank you president sparks. [applause] a special thanks to the talented folks behind the scenes creative director mindy lang and Media Relations director kim newman. [applause] my personal gratitude to the great falls producer tim marbach. Not only is he incredibly talented he is patient, he is kind and he has just been a joy to work with and he deserves a round of applause as well. [applause] most importantly want to thank all of you for caring enough about the history of our founding and the future of our great nation and what that means to all the future generations that we could be part of this important conversation to so thank you to all the as well and now we are going to get started. First of all i need to say unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances a couple of our family members were not able to be here today are george and jon wanted to be part of this but were unable to. Sort of like the beatles george and jon. I am confident that these gentlemen will more than make up for all of us. Im going to try to moderate amongst these people. Its a little bit like herding cats i think sometimes but hopefully it will be enjoyable for everyone. Im going to start by asking to expand a little bit more on where the things youre talking about. Only talk about right makes might what is the immediate application the contemporary application and what we see happening in this moment in our nations history . What i think we have all seen over these last couple of years and certainly its the case for me is that the foundation of our democracy is a lot more fragile than i ever thought it was and we look at donald trump unrestrained since his acquittal by the United States senate and we see the drawing up of enemies lists. We see what would have been covered by the news media in a foreign land not long ago and something you would see in the Banana Republic somewhere playing out in washington d. C. We see the blatant interference in the criminal Justice System by the executive and removing very close to a line where the awesome power of this institution could well be unleashed against americans who speak and away that the politically powerful find offensive. Retribution with the instruments of the state. The elected members of congress, the members of the coequal branch of government took an oath not to donald trump, not to trump tower, not to the trump family. They took an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. We see interference in our elections process and their sovereignty from hostile foreign powers that are aided and abetted by the american head of state. We see a willful lie and i buy the men and women in positions of power and responsibility who are afraid of the tweet. Im happy they werent called to swarm normandys beaches. [applause] so the preservation of the American Republic and the American Democratic experiment and think about that word, experiment. Thats what we have always called this because no democracy in all of recorded Human History has endured. We are the oldest republic that has ever existed in the history of earth. So we shouldnt take for granted that it indoors on our own without participation. So i will conclude by saying lincoln warned that if the country was ever to be destroyed it would occur from within, not from without. The great tragedy, the great threat to american democracy turns out not to be the fascists or the communists. It turns out maybe to be the difference of too Many Americans at the hands of a con man from new york city. [applause] ron, can you build on that click to talk about the imperative standout nu and i were chatting about this before this all started, that everyone in the audience knew that slavery was wrong and lincoln was calling for them to stand up and do something about it. Kind of building an steves contemporary application of lincolns message. Yeah. He was not talking to an audience of the posts. The Republican Party was not going to win any of the candidates. Everybody in the room knew slavery was wrong. It wasnt controversial. He actually in most of the speech if you read it and it is rather tedious, you know but if you read it most of it actually is about reminding them that the federal government does actually have a role. There is nothing stopping the federal government from regulating slavery. But he closes by reminding them not just the that slavery was wrong because everybody agreed with him but it isnt enough just to know its wrong. Its not enough to know something is wrong that is very wrong and not do anything. [applause] the idea behind right makes might only works if you put it into action. You have to stand up or you have to stand up for what is right and so the reason i think he got such a huge applause is because people believed that win or lose its very likely to be a losing battle at that point. Thats why it was so despairing that win or lose standing for what was right was more important emphasis on the standing. [applause] spent following on one thing that ron said he closes is another that ron and i were talking about. We launched december 17 and we probably, we launched what is probably the 250,000 oped about why donald trump is a bad president. And rick writes one literally every 20 minutes. [applause] but i think i think that what we saw what we were so so prized by and heartened by was the overwhelming organic response to just having stood up and it didnt have to be us. And it didnt necessarily have to be that day but it did catalyze something that i think folks either republican democrats independents not affiliated not voters were looking for someone to stand up and say enough is enough. I think what ron and i were talking about earlier today as what lincoln did in that speech was provide the courage of the conviction that so many people as ron said new were in that room, in this room but didnt know how to articulate it and didnt know what to do about it. I think what i think we have seen at the beginning so far is that people were looking for that. Its not our courage on the stage. Its our courage collectively as ron said another said. We have to do something about it or you facebook doesnt count. [applause] i was going to direct my next question to you reade. We talk on our web site the Lincoln Project was founded to be trump and trumpism in America Today at the ballot box. To beat trumpism at the ballot box and we need everybody to join in the effort to make it happen. Its easy to understand what and why. What is trumpism and it sort of one of the beginner really the starting point of this whole Lincoln Project thing putting a white sheet together and sharing it with everybody. What is trumpism and how do you define not and how do you defeat that at the ballot box . I guess the flexibility of trumpism is given the moment. Its got a pretty broad definition. For folks up here and others involved in no fewer either apostate republicans like rick is a a. Apostate some of us dont belong to the party and theres a reason for that. For me anyway if this is what it takes for the Republican Party to get nominated you can count me out. [applause] i wasnt far right to begin with so what we now see is a steve likes to say why was the Republican Party one of the greatest institutions that humankind has ever known . Because it had a positive outlook. Politics is ultimately to be successful as a game of addition not subtraction and optimism not pessimism and growth. Are we see now is the gop with many of us have work collectively for hundreds of years just on this stage is a party for the rest of the ideological underpinnings. So if you have no ideology and merely a vehicle to gather power and territory we have a name for things like venice called gangs. [applause] i remember near the end of the 2016th cycle it was chairman of the party at that time was a very difficult cycle for me. I believe it was when the tape came out about the confrontation on the bus and it was between a republican nominee and billy bush. What world do we live in when we are talking about things the president of the United States and we are worried about being familyfriendly . Oh my gosh. I was driving to a rally or Something Like that and this had come out and the direct your, state director for New Hampshire trumps president called and said i know youve heard about this. Your staff to me were really upset and i started to Say Something and i had heard many things leading up to this end he was trying to calm me down saying you know we finally got it good working relationship to train your office in our office and can you just not say anything . It might at and just about the worst thing and i remember saying to him very quietly not at all trying to start a fight, i said look i made a promise to myself a long time ago when i got started in politics that i would never say or do anything that i couldnt say to my children at the dinner table. [applause] and thats where this president has led us and were you the one talking about just basic human decency, the dignity of each life than each individual. Talk a little bit more, kind of moving on from what regis said about trumpism and where it sitting today, you have a unique experience to any of us. Each of us have our own unique experience. If you can expand on that a little bit more. C i find it fascinating that we are here on stage talking about some pretty broad ideals. We talk about dignity and we talk about rights and what is right. Unfortunately i think we are in a time when people are starting to take some of these you are versatile truth and come into their own limbs are their own filters. I think to me the most striking thing and there are a lot of striking things that have happened in the past the lack of courage from the elected leadership from the party that some of us as bork with for years. [applause] i never thought it would be the Political Consulting class of would have to stand up and yet here we are. The idea of right makes mite again the celebration of the lincoln speech here tonight. To do whats right in the force of power of being righteous is what ultimately will be a rallying point for people to follow along and we could build a National Movement from the principle. When i saw the u. S. Senate because of its numbers the republicans numbers and those republican members so many of whom we all know and watching them publicly i dont want is a struggle but we are deeply concerned as we say, right . And thats really the definition of might justifying what they view as right. Its literally the exact opposite about was articulated here on this stage. Saying because we have the numbers we will justify whatever it is we are doing and i could not, at that moment, that was in february like 106 years ago from a month to the catalyst nation of this movement of the party. That to me is the most profound change of elected leadership where one stands up and every one of these fights and my hope is when this band of warriors decides to jump together and look we have all put up, there are a lot of us if you know anyone of us lets head into the fight here. I think the hope is reed was saying that meets needs to be the rallying cry that when people stand up one by one and say enough, i am done. Those voices join a larger chorus, those drops become a flood and thats what we need to be sure is happening at this moment in time. [applause] i remember when trump one, genuinely believed the republicans in the senate would be either one as the protectors but that they would become the voice for republicanism. I believed it. I believed it and as i watched each one fall one after the other he was just one after the other after the other. It was genuinely heartbreaking for me for a time and then it became something that made me so angry i didnt know how to express it. Rick, youve been following this. You have had the opportunity to come in fairly regularly. What the heck happened to our republican senators . What happened . You know jon f. Kennedy wrote a famous book called grow files encourage. [applause] for my third book i think im going to write a book called profiles and chickens. [applause] and kidding aside there are a couple of groups in the senate and i have a typology with the senate today. Theres a fairly large group are robustly despised donald trump that they are terrified of him. Its what i call fear of mean tweets. They live in absolute terror at all times that donald trump will get on the twitter machine and say senator jon smith doesnt like enough. You should have q1 nonaward to run for u. S. Senate in this causes their whole day to go south. Theres a smaller group, and they are particularly egregious characters and they all believe they are going to be president. This is josh hawley Marco Rubio Ted Cruz Mike Lee and joni ernst who honestly think that once trump is gone they are going to cleanup trumpism run it through the carwash and get elected to the white house. Ive got news for them. First off the trumps are never going away. And all these ambitious young men and women in the senate who think they are going to be president one day understand the nature of them mobster. They understand the base of trumpism that adds fealty and loyalty to donald trump no matter what and i promise you sue collins could twist herself like it teenaged hungarian gymnast around anything donald trump does. I saw him kill the girl but you know im going to have to think about it. Im kind of concerned. And the guys in the senate, this younger class who believe that they are going to be president one day, they honestly think im just going to standard the radar and say the right things and some day i can recon this whole thing never get to undo this. This is the world they have endorsed. Theres a small group of the senate and thats Mitch Mcdonnell and Lindsey Grahams who have a broader ideological thing think it was jane who described Lindsey Graham is the pilot fish that follows along with the shark. I like to think of them as a seagull picking at a garbage march but this idea that they are going to use trump as a vehicle with attention and affection and foreignpolicy and from aconda lets judges and tax cuts. This opportunistic part of the gop, they dont understand no matter how much fraction you feed the alligator we were sitting on the docket still going to come up on the dock and eat you. You cant make him happy. Theres nothing that will satisfy him. Short of our crown in roses perhaps but all of the things they keep giving trump because they think its going to keep him happy they will never suffice. Just acquitting him in the senate i guarantee whats next . Would be going to help me with the next . Dont be the first guy to stop clapping when hes speaking. Theyll live in a world where there are constantly required to look at the absurdities and the corruption and the evils of trump and say well you know kids in cages is bad but you know whats worse . Are health care so much worse than that. You might have a democratic judge on the bench somewhere, god forbid. This idea that they can never stop bowing and scraping has defined their character. It has become what they are and they are low men endorsing and empowering a lower man. It is a true lack of our smell and moral courage because they are afraid of twitter. [applause] these guys may not have enough opinions to fill an hour and a half. [laughter] continuing the conversation about the republicans in the senate and the fact that not only when they voted as they did in the impeachment trial, not only did they essentially deny it was stacked there was enough information publicly available and it was that i believe they have proven that the president did this but asking a foreign power to help them become elected as president does not rise to impeachment click thats the message we got from a lot of them. We are on a path where donald trump could in a realistic world become a second term president. It could happen. And not as we all stand together and dont let it, thats exactly what its all about, exactly. [applause] but my question is steve in a realistic way and thinking about the impact of individual americans those institutions that make us what we are as a very unique nation what does a second donald trump term meme . What does that look like . He will be unrestrained and he will be validated and what i would say is we talk a lot about the Republican Party and the implications for it as an institution with its wholesale corruption and fealty as an agent or agents of a cult of personality. But its really hard to ponder what happens to the democratic hardy if it fails for a second time to deny the white house. Gov donald trump rally will be an institutional failure of a magnitude thats beyond my ability to describe that the Opposition Party would be unable to offer the American People Something Better than what we have. [applause] i have to tell you i sit and i watch these debates and its not aching me feel good. At all. If you cant tell im normally a happy person. [laughter] and so you go through debate watching joe biden get compared to George Wallace and watching not a single word be said about trump or trumpism, about that the finding issue thats facing the country. This is an exigent circumstance. Its an emergency. When you look at the impeachment trial and the counts of impeachment, heres what i find terrifying and i think it was undercover and part of the story because most of the focus was on the russian interference. When we think about these republican members of congress who just dont just bow to donald trump butter on television repeating verbatim Russian Intelligence Agency misinformation. [applause] but the bigger issue is this. What he tried to do was to instigate, to conjure out of whole cloth a criminal proceeding against a u. S. Citizen in a foreign country that he is sworn to protect. Now that u. S. Citizen happen happened to be the former Vice President of the United States. If you can do that to that guy, you can do it to anybody and that ought to terrify all of us. The last thing i just want to say about all of those is man i wish jon mccain was still here. [applause] because i promise you good people, i promise you good people that they old man wouldnt have tolerated this for five seconds. [applause] i want to echo something about what you said about the different democratic debates in ring and Jeremy Corbyn on your radar. The labour party in britain running against an unpopular nationalist populist conservative on the brexit platform which sounds a lot a lot like wall building and throwing out people managed to destroy the labour party in britain. A fairly longlived effective party by choosing the wrong candidate and by having the wrong debate. And so its important to remember a fundamental rule of all the elections. All the elections are referendum on the incumbent. This guy or somebody else . The this girl or somebody else . Whether its dog catcher our president. What is not part of the referent of . Whats on page 611 of our Health Care Plan . They are drilling down in this last debate on issues that are so obscure that i assure you if we had a focus group going everybody would be calling out for food. Uber eats would be knocking on the door because theyd be so checked out of the debate. They need to focus the selection on what its about. Do you want four more years of a robustly corrupt kleptocratic in the oval office or do you want Something Else . [applause] if the democrats dont understand that i may quickly that they have to consolidate the field, get on message and make the situation, do one donald trump or do you want Something Better and brighter in this future . Dont give them a laundry list of promises. They are going to believe it anyway. Get out there and fight against a corrupt and corrupting force and are policies. [applause] im searching im searching through the stacks. Again no f bomb. Im searching in the text of lincoln speech for the word and im not finding it here. I dont know where that came from. We gave our powers on twitter the opportunity to offer up some questions over the last 24 hours and i want to made sure we dont get to the end of the program without giving one or two of those a voice. We are a leader not getting to the end of the program so i need you guys to answer now in lightning fashion. I will try to get several of them here. They want to know more about the Lincoln Project or just a quick yes or no answer. Are we going to only focus our ads on wednesdays read reed . Will focus there at the places where they mope make the most sense from electoral perspective and as you saw on our oped no matter who the democrats nominate donald trump could still win. Where will we focus our resources quick so we talk about defeating the people who have taken on trumpism that will be republican members of the senate who are up. [applause] and that will be the district that went from red to blue in 2016 and 20 teen defending those seats they are so should trump when a second term at lease we have tried to put some firewall up around him. [applause] with the most nutshell answer possible michael lind was the moment you said enough is enough i have to do something . I think it was when i happened to be again in california vacationing then thats beautiful city curiously at the exact same time that donald trump dissented the escalator in and about running my vacation. As a young latino who joined this party because of the idea that it could lift my community up and work towards a better america there is something profoundly personal about what is happening. We all have because we have all been affected personally by it. For me it was immediate and it was visceral. There have been those crazy cranks in the shadows of conventions that we have all known there with peculiar conspiracy theories who harbor bad sentiments towards people. We know that. Thats as part of the political process. What ive been most a solution and most are by his people ive worked with for 20 to 25 years. How on the rationale to continue to work toward a broader aim of what the trump agenda is doing. That has been the most i think personal come personally painful element of what is going on the loss of people you thought were friends and people that you thought were brothers and sisters in arms and people who actually believed what was articulated on the stage by Abraham Lincoln and its clear they did not. I dont even like going on escalators anymore. [laughter] [applause] i use the stairs. It comes out well but a different rate. Silver, silver, silver. [applause] i am talking millennial here and again encourage you to be as brief as possible. You and i had a conversation last 24 hours about crossing the rubicon when we talked about what im hoping and praying every night that democrats will accomplish what they will offer the American People as a choice but ron you made it clear to me that you are going to vote blue no matter who. [applause] i appreciate the applause because that was not an easy thing to do. It was an easy conclusion to come to for obvious reasons. But im more terrified and i am terrified for all the reasons that steve laid out about what could happen in a second trump term but im also really terrified about what lessons both parties will learn if trump is reelected and parties learn lessons after every single election. Whatever work and whoever one, everything we did was right. Thats how works. Thats just how the institution functions. So if trump is reelected in 2020 the Republicans Party is going to learn that they get to do whatever they want. Not just trump that the people who work there, the several layers to see whats happening now in a victory in 2020 for trump will cigna to all of them that its okay. That to me is far more dangerous than Bernie Sanders third term frankly. I get this is hard for all of us to reconcile with the reality that he might be the democratic nominee. Thats difficult, sorry thats difficult for me. But im far more afraid of donald trump for former years i could just explain the name of Bernie Sanders in the white house or Democratic Senate that is probably not going to let him get anything through. And then we live to fight another day. I will leave it there. [applause] we go whole list of topics and ideas that wed hoped wed be able to discuss and we havent been able to get to which i guess we should have expected. I will try to rap things up although i cant simply do better than all these gentlemen here in expressing this. You know we talk about the constitution for example and the desecration of the constitution of this administration and so much, everything that we are all talking about and i know all of you are truly sincerely deeply concerned about or you wouldnt be here has to do with weakening and ultimately destroying those constitutional foundational Building Blocks upon which the american experiment is built and what happens . We have all referred to it in different ways. What happens when we allow those Building Blocks to be destroyed and they fall out from under who we arent what we are as a nation lacks how do you rebuild the foundation of the building . I think thats what is the most frightening and how do you get it that when its lost into you get it that likes is it possible to get a back . When i talk about my fear for the future for my children, my commitment to trying to assure a better world for my children and i think that is what we are all motivated i think that is exactly is at the core of that, that we are and always have been the greatest nation on earth, the greatest idea that was ever conceived this extraordinary despair meant that continues decade after decade after decade to not just me but to far exceed any expectation that we have ever had for the site of a constitutional democracy assuring freedom equality and opportunity for all. Thats who we are as americans. Thats what we are all fighting to preserve for our children and for our childrens children for generations. Thats why its on port and to all of us and thats why we are doing this and why we are here and we are so glad that you are here and part of it as well. Thanks to the cooper union for having all of us here this evening. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] i want to thank all who are participate in. We have business with the committee today and this is the second in a series on International Response to the covid19 pandemic and what we can do about it the future prevention and prepared this and response. Let me take just a moment to tabo