Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Washington Center Discussion On 2020 Election 20240713

Plul reporters and Campaign Strategists discuss the upcoming president ial race. Panelists will mainly focus on republican politics. Hosted by the washington center. Live coverage here on cspan 3. Im anthony. My group yesterday went to go see freddie. They are a conservative think tank and they taught us the values and the what theyre trying to implement in congress as for term limits for both the houses for the house of representatives and the senate. You had a discussion about term limits. Thats interesting. Because that would be an amendment to the constitution. Sure. Okay. All right. Good morning, everybody. Its wednesday, of course, your first week here. Is anybody tired yet . Little bit. Little bit tired, yeah. Me too. And, of course, we come into this and, you know, if youve been following in the news obviously the president of the United States may be speaking at any moment. I dont think hes spoken yet about some of the events last night by iran with regard to iraq and were going to, you know, sort of talk a little bit about some of the Foreign Policy implications with some of our speakers probably not today but possibly today and a little bit later in the week and also next week. Obviously were paying attention with whats going on with u. S. Involvement overseas but yesterday we had a lot of impeachment, right, and there were some interesting analyses in our discussion yesterday with regard to how Party Politics works in congress in general and also with regard to impeachment. The two speakers, again, were coming from different potentially political sides in their analysis. They were both talking about, of course, some of the stuff that we had also been reading about in terms of the historical and constitutional contexts and jean healy highlighted the way that elected members seemed to have flipped sides in their discussion of the impeachments from clinton to trump. One of the sort of discussions that i found particularly interesting from mr. Burger was an analysis of the different ways that house and the senate sort of caucuses, the republican and democratic caucuses, are working and can anybody remember how burger sort of described it, particularly with regard to the republicans in the house, versus the republicans in the senate . Does maybe remember what he had to say about that . So he talked about how the house caucus, the republican members, have pretty safe seats, same with the democrats. Most house members have pretty safe seats. Theres a very high level of incumbency in the house and senate in general, but particularly in the house these days, so the house members who are republicans in a certain sense dont have to worry very much with regard to the folks in their districts necessarily being upset with them if they are if favor of the president. What he said with regard to them theyre more worried about what kind of a challenge, and this is also somewhat in your readings, a tea party stuff, challenge, right, that the republicans in congress, particularly in the house, are much more concerned about a primary challenge from the right than they are from a democratic challenger during the general election. That is how that sort of forms a lot of the way that they operated with regard to the impeachment process. Then he compared that in terms of how the republicans in the senate are operating because were now moving into the senate phase of the trial and we heard yesterday from the majority leader mcconnell with regard to the fact that he has a number of votes. What does he have a number of votes for, following this on twitter and so forth. What does he have some votes for . Set the guidelines for the impeachment so there doesnt have to be any witnesses or evidence. Right. So mcconnell has kept essentially the republican caucus, the republican majority in the senate, together on a lot of the rules and procedures with regard to the senate trial. One of the things that burger talked about with regard to how the sort of impeachment is operating in this sort of political and partisan context, is the fact that the people that mcconnell is most concerned about in his caucus, are whom . Who is he most concerned about . The moderate republicans. And the ones particularly running for reelection, right. So hes trying to make sure that they get reelected. He doesnt want to necessarily make them sort of take votes or situate themselves in such a way that make them more vulnerable in a general election. Their seats, because theyre states, not districts, are not as safe. States themselves have more of a multiplicity and complexity with regard to demographics than districts do these days. What he was teasing out in terms of that discussion was an interesting kind of setup with regard to some of the readings we did last night and what were going to hear about in the next couple days in terms of thinking about how elected representatives, party elites, representatives, house members and so forth, are party elites, how they operate in context and they may operate differently in the institution theyre in, what kind of job they have, and also depending on their connection to the party itself. So i want you to start, you know, put on your analyst hat as we move forward in these regards and think about some of the perspectives that were going to be hearing today and also moving into the rest of this week, we have speakers who are going to be coming and talking to us from a variety of partisan perspectives as to some degree political operatives, right. Weve heard from a couple reporters now and yesterday we heard from folks who are either scholars or working at think tanks at this point, so pro to using policy research, but now were going to be hearing from folks who are actually in the administration, had been in the administration, or are, in fact, active and were active in the campaign. So were hearing about politics and party in this regard. Im sure youre all excited not to have to read more federalist papers last night, my students are always excited web they dont have to read more federalist papers, i know its like eating your broccoli, its good for you, your readings moved out of the constitutional context and more into a discussion of contemporary Political Parties and how they work and to some degree dont necessarily work and what is going on inside the parties themselves. A lot of what were seeing right now with regard to the democratic primary is how the Democratic Party is trying to figure out its direction as it moves into a general election in 2020. And we saw some of that in some stark relief during the 2016 election with regards to the Republican Party. Its not necessarily one party or force, it is often trying to figure out which direction theyre going in. So we think about this in terms of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, obviously there are also other parties and well have somebody who is going to come talk to us from the no labels party, which is, again, a sort of group that has both democrats and republicans, as i noted i lived in minnesota during Jesse Ventura who was part of the reform party at the time. So what were looking at in terms of being an analyst is the lens of partisanship and Political Parties and how they contribute to how we see ourselves as citizens and political actors in a democracy. So you all are very active in terms of thinking about politics. Youre here experiencing it but not everybody is as active as you are. At the same time we are all political actors because we do live in a democracy where most of us have a means of influencing and engaging with politics. Lets think about the way we are sort of moving into this discussion of our speakers and think about the readings for today and some of the research that essentially is going to frame how we should consider Stephanie Hamill and peter waner coming to talk to us today. Lets dig foot reading a little bit and tease out some of what these scholars are coming. Sam burger actually kind of made passing reference that i heard and i dont know if you did until you started thinking about it or reading about it last fight, to the article on asymmetrical politics, the asymmetrical politics article written by dave hopkins and matt grossman, wrote it into a longer book with a substantial data set to sort of tease out their general thesis and i recommend it, but you also have read a lot of thesis at this point, is about the fact that parties themselves are not mirror images of one another. Anybody who did some of the reading last night how are they different according to the grossman and hopkins . Say it at the mic. Okay. How are they different in terms of grossman and hopkins analysis . They just mentioned that the gop had a defined philosophy of limited government, whereas the Democratic Party was more interested in the social aspects and what government could achieve for their individual interests. So not only are the parties not mere images of each other, but they also are, in fact, set up and driving at policy goals and goals in generale that are distinct. What else did they talk about in terms of the differences between the parties . We know that, you know, there are definitely different policies and we often talk about this side of the aisle and that side of the aisle, but hopkins and grossman also talk about the fact that there is not only this kind of distinction in terms of how they think about the government, but also in terms of how the parties themselves are composed and think about themselves. So when we think about parties in general, we often do sort of say what does the left think, what does the right think, what do the democrats thing, what do the republicans think . They question of asymmetrical politics and partisanship is something that doesnt necessarily figure in when we are considering the differences between the parties. Its something you should think about in terms of sort of not only the folks in the parties, but how the parties operate. So think about the way that hopkins and grossman also talk about the fact that theres an ideological drive and often demand for a kind of ideological purity within the Republican Party that hasnt been as marked in the Democratic Party which tends to be much more of a collection of different interests, but part of what youre seeing on the campaign trail in 2020 with regard to the democrats is some discussion of ideological purity and sort of where are you now were going back to 2003, in fact, the original vote to go to war in, where . Iraq right. Bernie sanders has been making the case that he voted against the war in iraq and that joe biden voted for it. Did we hear this before . Have we heard this before . When did we hear this before . 2008. 2007. Hillary clinton. Barack obama. Same kind of conversation. Since iraq is now back in the conversation, we are sort of seeing again some of this conversation about some aspects of having more, quote, purity in the Democratic Party. But it hasnt usually been in this generation or two of the Democratic Party the drive of the Democratic Party, but its been much more the case with regards to the Republican Party. That was also the reading in terms of the article with regard to the tea party. How did the tea party operate in terms of an Insurgent Movement inside the Republican Party and how did it impact, in fact, how the Republican Party operates . Anybody read that article and have an answer for me . What do you know about the tea party . We dont hear the term as much as we used to. During mcauliffes election they supported only Tea Party Candidates which caused the republican establishment to vote for the democratic candidate, and they considered it to be a success for the tea party because they were able to exert their influence, even though they may not have won that election, like their party may not have won that election, but as a faction they were able to exert their influence on the republican establishment essentially. And the tea party and the Freedom Caucus inside the Republican Party, inside particularly the house of representatives, has been able to exert a lot of influence and to some degrees h has been able drive a lot of the policy, sort of emphasis and to some degree the leadership that discussion that blum has and we sort of start out with regard to the assem mettrycle politics article are about fact that john boehner, who is on the sort of partisan scale quite conservative, was essentially pushed out of his position as speaker of the house by the Tea Party Caucus within the majority in the house of representative republican group. And paul ryan, who succeeded him, faced not exactly the same thing but something close to it. When we think of the difficulties that the parties have in operating, think about these highprofile people, speaker of the house, you get that job because your party won the majority, right, and your people elected you to that position. Its a constitutional officer but it comes to you as a representative of the party itself. We have seen, to some degree, these tensions and difficulties in a certain sense within the parties operating and thats where i wanted you to look at the article by dr. Julia azari where she talks about, this was a shorter one so maybe a couple more folks read this one, weak parties and strong partisanship, and her argument in terms of weak parties and strong partisanship is something that has often been sort of not necessarily a criticism, but an observation about american parties in general, that theyre big and oftentimes considered, quote, big tents, but they dont necessarily have structures that operate in a way that keeps the coalition together. Azaris point at this point in terms of our understanding of partisanship is that the parties themselves are rather weak in terms of what they do, but at the same time, we have very high partisanship and how does the party operate with regard to that level of partisanship . Her point sort of is and we sort of see this in our discussions about party elites, particularly right now and in 2016, around the president ial nomination process, what is the role of the party with regard to the nomination process . This is so complicated. You go to vote in a primary or a caucus, how does that work . What do you do . How many of you have voted in a primary or caucus . What do you do . You vote. You go, vote, its like any other time, right. What youre actually doing is taking party in a party event, not necessarily in an election that the state or the National Government is saying has to happen. Its one that the party has said needs to transpire and the state, i live in wisconsin, the state of wisconsin provides me the ballots, organizes the polling place and all of that good stuff that were used to. This is a party event. Thats sort of the complication around how the parties operate, that they dont necessarily have these institutions we sort of think about as part of our operation. One of azrais points we get confused and it gets murky when we look at say the nomination process. What is the role of the party in selecting a nominee . Who is in the party . Anybody here in a party . You dont have to tell me which one. Bet lot of you might think of yourselves as being in a party, right, but what does that mean . Do you go to a lot of meetings . Maybe, maybe not. Do you vote for somebody who is connected to that party . That may be the way you think about yourself as being in the party, but all of that means, again, we dont have a very tight connection directly to an operating party, which is different than most of our parliamentary colleagues in other democracies where the parties to some degree have oftentimes more sort of direct connection with legislative outcomes. So azaris point is one i want you to think about with regard to these tensions that we sort of are seeing inside the parties, that we have strong partisanship, that partisanship is not all in one way, that partisans dont all think the same thing and that parties themselves are trying to grapple with that and also trying to effectively do what . What do parties want in terms of elections . To win. They want their candidates to win. Its not the party thats going to win, its their candidates that are going to win. Thats another complicating kind of component with thinking about parties and partisanship. Dr. Azari took us through that discussion in terms of thinking about this idea of high partisanship, which weve already heard a lot about and going to hear more about, but also what are how and what these sort of groupings of people who calls themselves the Democratic National committee, the Republican National committee, some of you are going to go up and see them on friday or the Libertarian Party or the socialist party or green party in the United States, all much smaller, but what do they do and how do they operate . So i want you to sort of be thinking about that as well. But then we also sort of, again, i gave you a couple more readings in terms of thinking about the Republican Party in particular, and we had on the shifting inside the Republican Party, right, and he sketch out the original, as he would say it, the Reagan Coalition of supply siders, social conservatives and internationalists and bringing these groupings of ideologies and adhere rance into one party, that they all influenced each other inside the party, but that the party is shifting, particularly under the leadership of President Trump and that trump coalition, to one that is a little bit different than that Reagan Coalition. Thats also where you see some of the tension and fissures that i think some of what mr. Waner will be talking about today in terms of his own place in the Republican Party, and moving into a different coalition of groupings inside the Republican Party. Levin also talked about power, and weve had that conversation a little bit because thats also around the question of impeachment, right, executive power in particular. The question oftentimes for the parties and the candidate, particularly the candidate for president is, how do they see the use of executive power . How is that fed through a partisan lens . What do we understand about that . We think about that in terms of the last couple days military power, which is again the president as commander in chief, but does congress have a hand in military power as well . Anybody . Yeah. I think so. Got a fellow nodding over here. And that gene healy talked about that yesterday as well with regard to impeachment as another mechanism with regard to how the founders thought about managing executive power, and so think about the idea of political power and how the parties sort of operate with regard to that idea. Where are they . Its not just military power, right. Its also about sort of the projection of america to the rest of the world and to us. How do we see that projection of power, be it in the house, the senate, the judiciary, the executive, as well as within the states. You know, what is the kind of power your governor has . Is it different than my governor . Theres a lot of differences in terms of gubernatorial power. The last two readings i wanted to just sort of talk about a little bit and then sort of opens up for the readings for tomorrow, elaine marks piece on emotion in politics, with regard to why Hillary Clinton lost, but will open up some of the conversation with regard to the readings tomorrow by Liliana Mason and kathy cramer and some of the other discussions and i want you to start thinking about when you hear discussions about partisanship also emotion. Partisanship and emotion these days seem to be very connected. We talked a little bit about this with regard to how identities in terms of your political disposition are becoming part of our internal operating sort of understanding of ourselves in the United States, and this is what is now becoming known as identity politics. Identity politics used to just mean sort of you are an africanamerican, you are a woman, you are a member of the lbgtq community, thats your identity and that drives your politics, but the absence in terms of understanding identity politics is also that you are a white person, you are a male person, you are a person from mexico, an immigrant, a person from latvia, an immigrant, and that in all of those ways those pieces of your identity form your thinking about politics. The idea of emotion connected to identity are parts of what we want you to consider as we move forward, thinking about partisanship as well. As i understand it, we will remain on television, you can have five minutes, but they will see you moving around. Go get a drink of water, we will be back here in five minutes. And know that youre still on film. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. We are now joined by Stephanie Hamill, a political commentator and Television Producer and currently serves as a video columnist for the daily caller and also a cohost of like it or not a talk show on wttg. Please join me in welcoming Stephanie Hamill. Thank you for the introduction. Im really exkrilgtsds to be here today. Im a little sick. Theres a horrible cold flu going around. Hopefully im not contagious. If i hack up a lung i apologize. I committed to this a few months ago and you never know when youre going to get sick. Im here to share my journey from arizona to working in National News and politics in the nations capital, but before i start rambling about myself, i would like to get to know all of you a little bit better. How many, for you, is it your first time in washington, d. C. . Welcome. Its kind of a lot of you. And where are you from . Any west coasters . Yeah. Not that many. What about new yorkers . Anyone from the south . Nice. Are there any d. C. Locals here . A few. You know, my twoyear anniversary in d. C. Is going to happen at the end of april, and i notice that d. C. Is a very transient city so i never really meet a lot of people that were born and raised here who stay here. Its a tough city, but its a beautiful city and theres so many opportunities out here if you look for them and if you work hard. How many of you want to pursue a career in politics or news . Makes sense. How about just news . How about fake news . Just kidding. And politics . And those of you who are raising your hands for politics do you want to run for office or do you want to work for the government, work for political candidates . Feel free to shout a few things. Run for office. I like it. More women in office, im for that, especially young people and millen yals. Who is a freshman and junior . Raise your hand . Im sorry, freshman and sophomore . Young folks in here. The juniors and seniors . Okay. Very good. And the reason im asking this is because once upon a time, i was in your shoes. I was trying to figure out what i wanted to do for a living, my life, what career i could pursue and actually be good at, and how i could make a difference. I just want to pause for a second and i want all of you to give yourselves a pat on the back for being here today, just even getting into a college that you wanted to go to and being part of this program and visiting d. C. Is a huge accomplishment. You know, dont underestimate yourselves. Its a big deal. I think youre going to learn a lot today from everything ive heard about this program and hopefully at least you will take one thing away from my conversation today. I wanted to tell you a little bit about what im doing right now and i will give you the details on how i was about to pursue my passions. I work as a video columnist for the daily caller. You may be asking yourself what is the daily caller . Does anyone know what daily caller is . No . You will learn today. And then you might be asking yourself what the heck is a video columnist . I didnt know what a video columnist was either. That title didnt really exist when i was in college. The daily caller is an online media outlet, its cofunded by tv commentator Tucker Carlson. Hes the host of Tucker Carlson tonight on fox news. Thats a very successful and highly rated program. In fact, tucker came in at second place as the most watched cable news host in 2019. The first place host went to sean hannity. Third place went to msnbcs rach rachel maddow. The other cofounder is neil patel. He is very involved in our daytoday operations. We get around 20 million unique readers each month, which is kind of a pretty big deal actually, so for me its an honor to have such a big, huge platform with so much flexibility on what i can cover, who i can interview and what i can talk about. For video columnist that didnt really exist when i was in college, as i mentioned and as you may have noticed the News Business is evolving fast. In college i remember actually getting a newspaper in the morning and reading it while Drinking Coffee and then walking to campus. How many of you actually get a newspaper at your dorm or your apartment or house . A few people. One person back there. Three people here. Its incredible. I mean i just cant believe it. Newspaper every day. Now were all on our cell phones. A lot of us consume our media from social media from twitter and facebook. I think the majority is something close to 70 last time i looked at the numbers. Not that im that old, im a millennial, by the way, not trying to age myself here today, so i also write and i shoot video monologues, mostly Opinion Pieces or explainers from a conservative perspective. I consider myself more of an opinion person, registered republican, but everything i talk about is fact based. Im careful and thoughtful about the things that i put together. I take issue with a lot of the journalists today who pretend that theyre unbiased or have no agenda, no motive, and thats kind of what i set out to do at first, was i wanted to just tell stories, but as my career has been changing ive decided to take a side and have an opinion. So i interview a lot of highprofile people, senators, members of congress, Trump Administration officials, political candidates from across the country. I go to protests and rallies and talk to people there. I ask them questions. I talk to regular folks who have interesting stories. A lot of stories i get people just dm me on twitter or facebook and tell me about cohost for like it or not that airs on fox five in the d. C. Area. A weekly regular on fox business, fox news. Ive made appearances on msnbc, sky tv australia, local news in puerto rico, cspan which i think theyre running a live stream right now, hi, mom and dad, i hope theyre watching, abc 7 st. Clair, the daily caller was featured in an episode of showtimes the circus which was kind of cool. I was interviewed by abc nightline. They dropped by my office last year to interview me about a twitter feud i had with rapper cardi b. The feud was over twerking. And im not kidding. Like this actually happened. I never imagined in a million years that, you know, i would be on nightline talking about twerking. Before the daily caller i was an adviser for the National Diversity coalition for trump. In a nutshell its a group that strongly supports the president and his administration. The coalitions mission is to recruit, mobilize and educate citizens of all backgrounds. It was to be the voices for minority communities. The list goes on. I am bicultural, so dont let my highlights and high last name fool you. My mother is an immigrant from mexico. She comes from the state of halisko and comes from a very small town outside of guadalajara, the second biggest city, and the farm town like 300 people live there and she came to the u. S. Many years ago to come live the american dream. She did it the right way. She applied for citizenship and it was history from then. My dads side of the family is from michigan and i better than beto orourke. It was important for me to communicate with my family that still lives there and i visit mexico quite a bit and still communicate with my family there. The reason i talk about all of this, take a break for water for a second, a lot of people ask me or suggest to me that maybe i came from privilege or that my parents must be like well connected and thats not how i got my foot in the door in politics at all or in the National News at all. Its not even close to my story. My family wasnt well connected. I grew up in a middleclass family. Ive worked at least a parttime job since i was 16. I was the first to actually graduate college in my immediate family. I didnt have anyone to guide me through the process. I just figured it out along the way. I give my parents a lot of credit for being supportive and always inspiring me to do more and be my best. Youll find that a lot of people want to be a critic, they dont want to empower you, they want to tell you no, you cant do it or its too difficult, its impossible. I mean just wanting to study journalism people are like youre not smart enough to go to college. Journalism school is too competitive. You wont get in. Our teachers in Journalism School, a lot were great, but they were very honest and said, you know, a lot of you if you want to do tv broadcast youre not going to make it, youll never find a joe, its low paying. If you want to be poor the rest of your life this is the career for you. Its not worth the struggle, run, do Something Else fast. But i didnt like those answers, and i think that you have to ignore the negativity thats around you because even the people closest to you sometimes will hurt your feelings, shut you down, step on you, et cetera. Ive had a million doors closed on me, some like extremely soulcrushing moments through my life. Im sure i still have a lot more to overcome. You never know. A lot of you raised your hands when i asked who wanted to pursue a career in news and politics. We all have our own reasons and motivations. Hopefully theyre good ones. Yes. Okay. These are important careers and they both shape and influence the direction of our country. Somebody has to step up. So i think its really important to take on these roles. Journalists, theyre supposed to be the watchdogs of our nation and the world. Theyre supposed to expose corruption. Keep politicians in check. Keep us informed. Theyre supposed to be the fearless voices for our communities among other things, and as for the state of the news media today, well, we can get into that in a bit. I can just say that im very concerned and very disappointed. Now politics, as you already know, our political leaders play a key role in the creation of policies and all of those policies affect the way we live our lives. So that goes from how much we pay in taxes, from the health care that we receive, the quality of water, gas prices, education, our National Security, the air we breathe, literally everything, even the food on the shelves at the grocery stores. If youre at the National Level in politics, of course that affects everyone in our country, state and local, that affects our communities. I think you get the point. So all of that was fascinating to me when i was around your age learning about it and to be honest, i really couldnt articulate what our politicians did or our local officials did. I didnt know what the difference between the city council, the state legislature and our members of congress and the state senate. Like that was very confusing for me when i was your age. Maybe youre a little smarter than me when i was in college. You never know. I remember one of my classes they would have us cover the city council meetings, we would write stories as if we were real working journalists and we would interview some of the City Council Members and they would give us quotes. We would turn in our articles. It was very legit. Most of the students in my class thought it was really, really boring, but for me, it was like an eye opener on how everything works in our towns and cities and showed me what an Important Role that the people we elect have. From there i got lucky. One of the City Council Members saw that i had an interest in city government, so he invited me to intern for him. His name was rodney glassman. He was a democrat. I wasnt always a registered republican. My views have changed over the years, as i have had more time to examine some of the issues i care about and carefully think about what matters to me and what i think is best for this country. At the time i was a registered independent, and i was an independent up until around 2016. After that, i was approached by one of my university of arizona professors who told me about a paid internship at the state legislature in phoenix with arizona capital television. The state version of cspan, sort of. We ran the live feeds of all the floor debates and votes. We also did feature pieces on the elected officials and this was so their constituents could get to know them a little bit better. It was really a great experience and im so thankful for that professor who approached me and asked me to apply. It was a very competitive internship. I was one of two students from the Journalism School who was selected that semester and the reason i bring this up is because i think sometimes we dont realize how important it is to talk to our professors, have them get to know who we are, what were interested in, because theyre very connected. They can help you guys. They can connect you to these internships similar to what my professor did for me. It was life changing. I hope you take those advantages. Obviously youre here today, so like i said, step in the right direction here. How many of you have done an internship or are interning right now . Nice. For those of you that didnt ra hand, why are you not doing internships yet . Anyone want to comment . Exactly. Yeah, working part time. It was tough to balance all of it. But i would say that internships are so important and its really where you develop your skills. And learn about your strengths and weaknesses and learn about responsibility. And the more you do, the more connections you make, the stronger your resume is and youll have a better idea of what youre really interested in. So i know it is really tough to try to balance work and school and socializing and Everything Else about being college students. But you really got to make that sacrifice. So whether its just an internship a couple hours a week, that will make a big difference. So how many may consider trying harder to get one in the next year or two . One person. Two, three, four, five. Okay. Cool. So from the State Capitol i was after my internship at the State Capitol, i was asked by the same Council Member from tucson to join his statewide senate campaign. Wended up winning the four way democratic primary which was cutthroat. It was vicious. It was really difficult to win that in arizona. Unfortunately, we lost against the republican candidate which was the late john mccain. You may have heard of him. It was an unforgettable experience. I traveled ais kro the state from the Navajo Nation to the border cities. I had a chance to talk to elected officials. [ please stand by ] [ please stand by ] [ please stand by ] well, unfortunately, were having technical issues with the event taking place at the washington sent they are morning. Were working to correct the problem. We hope to return to live coverage here on cspan3 in just a moment. Is anyone from arizona, by the way . Any wild cats . Bear down. Did anyone go to the as uvenlt game over the weekend . Okay. Well, it was a home game. U of a crushed the sundevils and it was awesome and i was there. Great homecoming for me. So anyway, from there i went on to work for one America News Network in san diego, california. It was a new conservative leaning news network. I was a writer, producer, booker, reporter, and fill in anchor. I was so busy it was like i didnt even have time to go to use the bathroom. It was like hard to eat and get a break in. Probably not very fair. But thats life. And i actually started at this network before it even launched. It was a huge decision to leave the cbs affiliate. It was risky. I remember having a conversation with my parents. Its always good to bounce ideas of things you want to do in the future with the people that you love. My dad is like thats really risky. Why would you leave cbs to go work for some network that no one ever heard of. Go to san diego, National News. Thats what you want to do. So this was like a big 5 00 forth. I just to roll the dice and how i did even find out about this network . That wasnt on air yet . Well, there was a person i had had interned with at pbs in college who worked there on the entertainment side for the wealth of entertainment. He d. M. d me on facebook and told me to apply. So i did. Which brings me to relationships and how you treat people. I think that all really matters. The world works in mysterious ways. Not only not that you should be nice to people because youre expecting something in return. Thats not how it works. But just remember to treat people the way that you want to be treated. What goes around comes around, seriously. It really does. A lot of the opportunities ive had in my career come from the relationships ive had with former coworkers and people ive met along the way. So i really think it matters and you should always give back when you can. Never expect anything in return. Another big one is for political another big one for political and news people is social media. How many use social media . Anyone opposed to using social media . Theyre totally off twitter, dont use facebook . Why dont you want to use social media . It is. Big time suck. I know. Trust me. So the reason im asking about social media is i think its a game changer for our generations. People like me from a small city with no connections now has a National Platform and part of that reason is because of social media. I know its annoying. Theres a lot to manage. It also has a lot of disadvantages because everything you say can and will be used against you later on. May seem like a good idea to tweet at 2 00 in the morning after you had a couple glasses of wine or cocktails. But then you wake up and realize there is something called tweet tunnel. Right . Also were living in the cancel culture era. You say one wrong thing and everything you worked so hard for they want to just make you disappear. Its sad. Im for forgiveness, second chances. No ones perfect. Social media is how i got connected with the trump Diversity Coalition. They noticed a lot of the video clips i was posting, some of the things i was saying. So thats how i got connected with them. Its obviously how i got connected with one America News Network with my former friend intern who i hadnt talked to in a long time. He was watching my work on facebook. So people are watching you. We can all help each other. And now im here. I also wanted to warn everyone what its like getting your foot into either business as i was told in college, little pay, no pay, a lot of like, free internship not free but working for free in internships, very long hours. Major sacrifices. I told you about the soul crushing moments. I have so many sad stories. But im not going to tell you today. Its wind of weird. Ill save it for my first book. Of like horror stories. There are so many talented and intelligent people in the political and News Business world. I think what really sets people apart is work ethic your character. A College Degree is great if youre if you can afford to get one which all of you are here. Youre in college, so you took out some huge Student Loans or you have some nice parents that set aside a little cash for you guys to go to school. My parents helped me a little bit. I had to take out Student Loans. Its rough. So depending on your profession, of course i guess i always tell people this too. I dont think college is necessary to be successful in life and youll hear a lot of stories of people that have done well. But college is great if can you go to college. I say stay in school, get your degree, but know that thats not going to guarantee success for you. If youre a brain surgeon, i think you do need to finish medical school, by the way. As for my politics going from wait, quick question. Time wise . Okay. Q a. Well, let me just read this really quickly then the q a. As for my politics, going from supporting democrats to republicans, i dont want to get too political on you guys. Im respectful of other peoples opinions. I think its important to hear other views. And i think its good to have people challenge you. Its okay to be uncomfortable. I love america. I deeply care about our country. I believe that we live in the greatest freest nation in the world. I hope to help and preserve what makes our country great for future generations to come. I stand for the National Anthem and our flag. I believe the u. S. Constitution is the greatest document ever written. It remains relevant now and in the future. Im pro Second Amendment. I volualue free speech, im agat trying to transform america. I think democratic socialism which is what our favorite congresswoman promotes is dangerous and its misleading. Im for law and order i supported donald trump because of his focus on putting america first. That really resonated for me. Not that im for america alone, but what trump was talking about was fairness when it came to trade deals and tariffs and defense spending from nato countries. I think they all have to pay their fair share. We need to tackle the illegal Immigration Crisis in our country. I dont think our country will survive with open borders. I say this has a daughter of an immigrant from mexico. I dont think our laws are racist. We need to take care of the naem live here. Think about the homelessness crisis. Tunz acceptable that there are third worlds Living Conditions in states like california and other cities in our country. I think we can do better. I will jump to q a. So who is first . Hello. Im a student from us is exuniversity in boston. So you mentioned you with are not always a registered republican and that you did change party affiliation. So my question is, what experiences did you have that were very significant in your change of thoughts . I think they say if you are a republican by 35, you have no brain. Thats what i was told. I started looking i was socially liberal and fiscally conservative. So some of the main issues i always cared about remain the same. And when i was an independent working on democratic campaigns, i just mentioneded one campaign i worked on. I helped several other democrats on their campaigns, whether it was working at the Democratic National committee in arizona and doing phone banking and going door to door dropping off flyers for a congressman which i consider one of most radical leftists in congress right now, i mean i have several examples of this. But so i was socially liberal. I was always prolife but when i was younger i was prochoice for women. My views on that changed, i guess, as i started to learn more about the issue ive always been pro Second Amendment in arizona. I grew up, like shooting guns with my dad. He was really into hunting. I kind of got a better understanding of regulations and taxes and how that affects all of us. And my parents werent political. They didnt lecture me on what i should think or vote for. I remember asking my dad when i was starting to learn about politics, i was like how do we vote in this household . And as a middle class family, my dad said we vote republican because at the end of the day, we have a little extra money in our paychecks every month. Or every week. And i know for some democrats like House Speaker nancy pelosi, she calls them crumbs when we get a tax break. For everyone else not living in mega mansions, that makes a difference. The so some of the issues i had a chance to look at closely. And i think that its important to be learning all the time. And i love what i do because i basically get, you know, paid to research and really study and examine issues every single day and talk to people and learn. I think living life is about learning. If it youre not learning, youre dying. Thank you. Hi. Im mark shepard from Central Michigan university. In the beginning of your presentation, you said you take issue with people who claim not to have a side and you are open with your opinions. Do you see a danger in news outlets showing opinion piece thats viewers can interpret as fact instead of their own ideas . I think news organizations should be a lot more careful when it comes to how they present opinion pisses. Hell have a lot of my friends who are democrats will reach out to me and panic with an opinion piece they read from the New York Times and theyre just like up in arms and oh, my gosh, did you see this . Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Calm down. Breathe. Thats an opinion piece. This guys opinion. Its not fact. Could be maybe fact based. But based on his views. And so i think in general, yeah, we should be more careful on how those Opinion Pieces are presented because a lot of people are confused. They dont know really what the difference is. Like they just see it and they assume that if its published by something let unitable like the New York Times or cnn that its just it is what it is. Its a fact. Okay. Thank you. Hi. My name is drew cole. Im from King State College in new hampshire. I was just wondering how your experience as the former adviser for the National Diversity coalition for trump has translated or carried over to your job at the daily caller. So the daily caller is a diverse newsroom. We have democrats that work for us, people who arent trump supporters, people who are have no opinions. Theyre just straight News Reporters. They like to bring in different voices. So they brought me in as kind of a trump voice. To give a little different perspective and opinion. And also to launch this video project that we have right now. When i started at the daily caller, we didnt have much much of a video department. So we helped create it. And a lot of the news sites if you might start taking notice is that a lot of them are going to videos. They like to share quick one minute, three minute videos. Im sure your facebook feeds are full of informational videos whether it is from vice news or now this and other outlets. So i think that definitely helped me. I had a platform. I was already doing National News hits, speaking on behalf of the Diversity Coalition in defense of trump. So it was helpful. Thank you. Hi, my name is quinn caruthers. Im a graduate student at harvard extension school. Is there any push back at the daily caller for what the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a White Nationalist problem or if there is any push back on the publishers who publish articles from White Nationalists. Well, so there was a time where somebody was found out to be like a white supremacist or something. They were fired immediately. We take racism and White Supremacy very seriously. There are no White Supremacists in our newsroom. If there is one to be found out, they will be terminated immediately. Our company is minority owned. And as i mentioned, our newsroom very diverse. People from all backgrounds. It just something we dont tolerate. I think its a smear from the left organizations who dont like what were doing. They dont like that we have a different opinion, a different voice. Even though were a 24hour news publication and do straight news, dhoent like ththey dont. That we have a conservative opinion angle. They hate. That they hate that we give people a voice. So i think were, you know, i would never want to shut down or smear any other sites and thats not something i would do. We know that the New York Times has had trouble with antisemitism. But that doesnt mean that everyone at the New York Times is for antisemitism or that theyre antisemitic as a whole organization. Thank you. Hola. My name is gabriella. Im from Suffolk University from boston. Weve been reading about how identity shapes political views. And there was a data set that we that was in one of the readings. It showed that College Educated women as well as people who identify as hispanic or have some minority identity tend to vote for the democrats. And as a female and the daughter of a mexican immigrant, i was just curious how has your identities shaped have shaped your political views . Yeah. So we get that a lot. You know, people ask me, oh, your mom is from mexico . And youre a trump supporter. Like doesnt trump want to send you back to mexico and send your mom there . How you could support republicans . Theyre racists. So the racism thing is kind of like the easy button for the left and democrats to scare people into voting for them. And i remember even when i was in the campaign trail back when i was working for democrats, that was like a buzz phrase back in the day. I never said it. I didnt think republicans were racist. People would use that as partst campaign speeches. Theyre like theyre racists. I said did you talk to them . Do you know if theyre actually racist . They try to, you know, compare Illegal Immigrants to legal immigrants. They try to blur the line there. And i think that, you know, some people say well trump is trying to keep brown people out. Like Illegal Immigrants are not all brown. Its like, its so crazy and its so misleading and so dishonest and so devisive. I hate. That i think that democrats need to sell a better platform to voters if it they want people to vote for them. I think the race card obviously didnt work in 2016. I dont think its going to work in 2020. I was looking at some of the numbers. And you start youre starting to see a lot more minorities are leading toward Republican Party because theyre seeing some of the things that are affecting them. They see the 401 k s are growing. Thats great. Theyre paying less in taxes. They feel pretty secure when it comes to Border Security. I mean the list goes on. Our economy is on fire. Weve had had the lowest unemployment ever. And that includes for minorities, for women, for everyone. So i think that, yeah thank you. Hi. My name is mari. Im also from Suffolk University and i also speak spanish. Hola. Hola. My question is, you mentioned and we were talking about it before too that your parents immigrated here and that allowed you to get an opportunity and be here today. How do you, like, if the borders and you talked also about the Border Security and how it needs to be more controlled. If it was more controlled than the past, do you think that your parents would have still came and, like, you would have still got the opportunity you got and have been here today . Because im an immigrant. I immigrated here myself. I feel like i have such a privilege to be here and to be able to have this opportunity to get an education. So how do you feel about that . Yeah. I mean, well u. S. Has always been strict on immigration. I think it was stricter back in the day. But i mean its such an honor and blessing to be born and raised in the greatest country in the world. And my mom is so thankful to be in america and shes, you know, lucky she was able to get citizenship. My dad is actually from michigan. Like i said, im bye cultural. Half lives in michigan. Half lives in michigan and the other half lives in mexico. So i think that at the end of the day, you know, if in a Perfect World everyone could come here. But with he have to be realistic. And the fact is we cant just open borders and be a welfare state and give everything out because we have like a 24 trillion national debt. We really just cant take everyone in. Thats just not how it works. There has to be a limit. When it comes to immigration, were already the most generous nation in the world when it comes to green cards. By far. I mean were letting in a Million People a year. And i think that one of the big issues i think going into 2020 also is fixing the immigration system. I think what is going on is really unfair. We have people that have been living in this country for 30 years, living in the shadows. I think Tucker Karlsson has kind of stated this pretty clearly. Democrats and republicans have been profiting off the backs of Illegal Immigrants. Something needs to be done. They need citizenship or some amnesty. We need to talk about those issues. We cant have people just living in the shadows like we give out drivers license but youre not allowed to be here but you can work here. Its very confusing. And so i think we need to treat the illegal immigration population better. We have like 30 Million People here. And so, yeah, i guess your question was, you know, if my mom could come here, why cant anyone in the world that wants to come here come here . There is a limit. Do you have a number on how many people that could come here . I dont. But i also feel like i got the opportunity, why shouldnt someone else in my country get that opportunity. I would also like to see them good as good as im doing now. Unfortunately, not everything is fair. Same thing with universities. They only flet a certain amount of people. Its unfair for those that couldnt go to their choice university. Like at some point there has to be a cutoff. We need to take care of our people that are in this country first. And like i said, were very generous whether it comes to immigration. So there is definitely room for improvement. That is something i will continue to fight for. Thank you. Hi. My name is megan dire. I gloss to Suffolk University. My question for you was being a Strong Female republican and n. This day and age, how do you feel about the lack of female representation within the Republican Party . I think there is lack of representation in the Democratic Party too when it comes to women and government roles and politicians. I think that theres obviously an absence of women. We need more women involved. Im not for like identity politics. I think that the person whos most qualified should get the role. I think that there are a lot of women that are extremely qualified who maybe arent getting out there and or maybe they want to, you know, raise a household. Its tough. Politics is tough. This is draining. Im 33 years old. You can google it. Im not hiding my age. Im not married. I dont have kids. So its a real sacrifice and its a real grind to be in this business. What wo i like to be a mom and raise a family . Yes. I dont have time for that right now. And so its i think it is something that women have to died because, you know, do you want to stay at home and raise a family and have kids . I think that more women are inspired to get involved and i hope that we can have a better balance. Weve seen, you know, a lot more women coming forward. Mostly democratic women. We saw some of the wave of like Young Millennials like our congresswoman. I give her credit for being brave. A lot of people tolder how much i disagree with her, a lot of people told her, hey, its not your turn, dont run. She didnt take no for an answer. And she went out there and she did it. I think more women, whatever stid youre on, get out there and go be a voice. Thank you. Hi. I also go to Suffolk University. My question is framed around how did you narrow down what type of journalism you wanted to pursue and how has politics influenced that throughout the years for you . For journalism, i thought i originally wanted to do be like a general News Reporter or like news reader. I guess. And then as i started studying journalism, broadcast journalism, i told you about that class i was taking that would invite us to the city council and they would have us write the fake stories. And thats what opened my eyes to politics. And how important it was for our communities, our states, and for our country and for the world. So thats what helped me kind of figure out my way. And, you know, things are always changing. I dont know what im going to be doing next year or i know what im doing tomorrow. But, you know, things are changing. But im kind of like back and forth with politics and news. So would i ever run for office . Would i join a campaign . There are a lot of things i will do. Its in that same circle. I think ive always like some people just want to take some sort of leadership role. I hate sitting back and letting everyone else do it. If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. Thank you. Thanks. Hi. Im lexie. Im from ilan university. I similar to you come from a bye cultural family. My mother is mexican and my father came from european dissent. My question to you is similarly both of us have the luxury of hiding the fact that we have mexican heritage when it seems convenient. Because during the Trump Administration there is a rise in intolerance of the mexicanamerican community regardless of legal status. How do you respond to that intolerance, specifically those that show theyre mexican and have legal status but are discriminated against regardless. I certainly think that there is discrimination in this country and it comes from all sides. Its from latinos to whites, its from blacks to whites, whites to blacks, like its just totally comes from all sides. So that, you know, i dont want to down play racism in america. There is horrible racist people. This are very good people in this country as well. Think we focus a lot on the individual stories. When you say like i have the luxury of hiding my identity. Not on purpose. But in the sense that if someone was to be intolerant of mexicanamerican community, meaning, you may not face it so much of the discrimination that they might face because were not really look mexican or part of that community. We dont see as much of that hate that they might see. Yeah. I mean rephrase the question. I want to make sure. I dont want to discredit you. I want to hear this question again. I wanted to know how you respond to the intolerance that Community Faces because i think that there is a tendency for us to identify with the Mexican Community but not have to face as much of the discrimination that they do because we dont have the color of the skin that they do. It just depends. You know, a lot of my family members my exboyfriend is mexican. He lived in this country for 20 years and his english was terrible. I dont think he was discriminated against. But hes light skin, i guess. But hes mexican. I dont know. I guess i i think that there are intoll ranlt peoperant peop down racism. I havent really experienced it or maybe i have and just havent noticed it. So its something that, you know, we should all be aware of and treat people equally and, yeah. Thank you. Hi. My name is owen. Im from Central Michigan university. Im an economics and finance major. So i was particularly interested when you said you were physically conservative most of your life. And i would also say the republicans, the more conservatives would label themselv themselves fiscally responsible when it comes to the economy. On this being said, every year of the trump candidacy, the deficit has risen. And that also being said, the economy is doing amazing. But does this deficit rising affect your opinion of the president . Does it weigh in at all in how you view him or how you view his policies when it comes to the economy. Yeah. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, its something im keeping an eye on. Somebody i interviewed recently as a senator rand paul, he came out with the government waste book and he just talks about how much our money, our taxpayer dollars are mismanaged and wasted on just like silly projects, the bridges to nowhere. Its an outrage. We need to get a better handle on. This President Trump cannot do it alone. We need members of congress. We need republicans. And we need democrats to participate. We cant keep just spending and spending away because theres going to be serious consequences for future generations to come. Im glad that youre bringing it up. A lot of young people dont talk about it. And has it changed my views about the president . You know, i still support President Trump. I think he is has a better message when it comes to fiscal responsibility than the democratic president ial candidates. With the very some candidates talking about a government take overof health care that would cost 30 trillion. I mean where is this money going to come from . Even senator Elizabeth Warren couldnt explain how it would be paid for. So you have to kind of compare what your options are and right now i just dont see that the democrats are taking fiscal responsibility seriously at all. Thank you. Thanks. Hi. My name is mark nealan. Im from seton hall. I have two follow up questions. You talked about the Democratic Party using certain trigger words such as racism and thats race as a kind of coverup to bring fear into voting for their party. But several times during your speech you talked about open borders. Where necessarily no democratic candidate or very few of them actually advocate for open borders. Instead, they advocate for decriminalizing and making it a civil offense when you cross the border which would essentially stop the mass jailing of these immigrants coming from different countries. And so i want to know what you thought about that and the kind of double standard that comes there. And also how you felt about earlier in your speech you talked about your mother coming here the right way and doing everything correctly. Meanwhile, wait time for immigration has more than doubled in the time since 1991. So its not necessarily the same process. So i just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah. Well, we saw some of the democratic president ial candidates all raise their hands for Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrants. I think that is kind of an open invitation to, hey come to this country. Not only will we rollout the red carpet for you, were going to give you drivers licenses. Were going to give you Free Health Care and this and that. So why wouldnt people come here . And then if you decriminalize it, crossing the border, then its like a total open invite. So i dont thats what i mean by open borders. The if there is no punishment, no penalty, then thats not going to stop anyone from coming here. We saw the numbers go down when it came to apprehension ts at t border. We have a lot of people coming in from south america and honduras and el salvador, everywhere. They think that theyre going to go directly to the United States and they want to, you know, could am in, get a little ticket that says come back to court and well hear the hearing. They never go back. They end up just, you know, being let off loose in the streets. And then we just never see or hear of them again. Thats just not the right way to operate things. There needs to be a system here. So if i get that, you know, Asylum Seekers, there are different rules. A lot of people are taking advantage of the asylum laws. They have internet. They have cell phones. They hear the news. There attorneys on our side that are like helping them, you know, find the loopholes and to get through all of this so that they come here and, you know, get a pass. So we have people that are taking advantage of the asylum laws which are hurting real Asylum Seekers which is an outrage. There needs to be in control of that. And the second question was, you know, its taken a lot longer. Yeah, i think we and my family, we tried to get citizenship for some of our other family members. Its like paperwork has been there for 15 years. Unfortunate lishgs y unfortunately no luck. Its unfair. But at thend end of the day, te has to be a limit. Im pointing that more to the a sigh l Asylum Seekers that are fleeing danger and violence. Mexico is a great country. The why cant they stay there . My family lives there. You know, theyre being offered a great place to stay. Stay in mexico. But they want to go to the u. S. And thats because america is a great country. You can come from nothing. And, you know, build a business. Can you really pursue any passion and any dream. Mexico. Its difficult. There is huge wealth inequality like there is in this country. Its a lot harder to make your way in mexico. But i will say im really proud of my moms sister. On scholarship she was able to get herself through medical school and be one of the most influential doctors. My mom grew up poor and on a farm and no one ever imagined my tia would be the most successful doctors in mexico. Unfortunately she passed away at a young age. But again, life very unfair. Thanks. Hopefully that is what you were looking for. Its great. Okay. Wait. Let me get a selfie with you guys before i leave. And we have three or four minutes before the next speaker if you need to stretch your legs, do it quickly. And thank you guys for being so respectful of my views. It aint easy being a conservative these days. Even though im a woman and minority, people are very mean to me. Awe, very sad. Its okay. I have a thick skin. Im used to it. Good. Take your seats please. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please sit down. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. We got a couple more who im sure will be coming in. I know were sort of having abbreviated breaks because of the filming and so forth. But we do end a little bit earlier. Id like to introduce peter wayner who is Vice President and senior fellow at the ethics and Public Policy center. Hes a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a contributing editor to the atlantic magazine. He has written for numerous other publications including time, wall street journal, financial times, weekly standard, national review, commentary, National Affairs and christianity today and he has appeared on m sichsnbc, cnbc, cd cspan. He is also from duke university. He served in the reagan and george h. W. Bush administrations prior to becoming Deputy Director of speechwriting for president george w. Bush in 2002. He was asked to head the office of Strategic Initiatives where he reached out to public intellectuals, published opeds. He also served as an adviser to several president sial campaign. So please join me in welcome being him. Thank you. Thanks for the interduction. Good to be with you. Good morning. Thanks for your attendance. Mostly im looking forward to the q a. Steve asked me to give a quick overview of my life. So well be here for three days. No. This will be just about a few minutes. This is about my political journey and also very briefly some thoughts. This is in the age of trump. As i say, we would love to engage with you all. I grew up in Washington State. And developed an interest in politics at a very early age. We had a cabin in the cascade mountains. It was on the east side of the state. I still remember as a kid driving with my parents to our cabin. We went every weekend. And we would talk about Public Policy. We always listened to the news at the top of the hour. And i was just a question asker. So i would ask my dad, why do the israelis and arab world not get along . And what about president nixon and Henry Kissinger and so those issues really fascinated me along with sports. And then when i got to high school, i was i got into debates with my social studies teachers. They were liberal, i was conservative. Not because i thought through political theory but mostly because my parents were conservative. And so that was always a passion. I went to university of washington. And my undergrad was political science. And a big deal to me, it was critical to my own career was actually internships. I was an intern at the Washington State senate when i was a junior. I worked for a state senator in owe li olympia and then came to d. C. Whether i was a senior at university of washington. And interned at the center for strategic and international studies. That is one of the big breaks that i got. I assumed i would return to seattle. I guess i assumed i would go to law school even though i didnt want to be a lawyer. I can use thats is a credential. But i did have an interest in getting involved in politics. I used to go to the library, the main library on the camps, beautiful campus in seattle. I would listen to john f. Kennedy on my own time. It was not for credit. But just because i would listen to them so often. I really fell in love with language. With the power of words. And i thought kennedys words were very powerful. I read biographies and autobiographies, people that worked in various administrations. It would be great to work in a white house. And i ended up making my way to one. Internship at csis. I got some jobs in the think tank world including when i was just a young buck at the policy center. Eventually was hired as a speechwriter for the secretary of education for Ronald Reagan at the time. Ways intimidated when i went over. I remember calling my colleagues at ethics and Public Policy center and said if i crash and burn wosh burn, would you take me back . I felt like i was dropped in the deep end. And i didnt know how to swim. It worked out. I developed a Good Relationship with bill. Then worked in the george h. W. Bush administration as a aide and speechwriter for bill when he was the drug drug czar. Then in the 90s, i was policy director at empower america which is jack kemp. Very large figure in the conservative movement in the 80s and 90s. Jack tragically dude years ago. Bill and gene kirkpatrick were the founders of empower america. I was there through the 90s and then hired as a speechwriter for george w. Bush when he came president after the florida recount was taken care of. The chief speechwriter was one of my closest friends. I got do know mike when i was at empower america. He hired me as Deputy Director of speechwriting. I did that job for two years. Just an anecdote on the speechwriting side of things, mike would normally go to the senior meetings in the roosevelt room but when he was not there, i would go in his stead. And i remember the morning of september 11th being struck of that this is one of the most uneventful days of the bush presidency. And the big topic of conversation is there was supposed to be a congressional barbecue on the south lawn of the white house. The tuesday Late Afternoon of the 11th. And so when i got back to my office, i did what i always did with smmike is wrote him an eml summarizing what had happened in the senior staff meeting. And i first line of the email was nothing much is going on today. And that was sent precisely five minutes before the first trade tower was hit. Mike was actually had been at home working on a communities character speech because we had gotten a number of our main initiatives, taxes and education passed by that time. And we were thinking through what is the fall agenda going to look like sow is working on the communities of america speech. The plane hit the first power. And like most people, i thought this is a tragic accident. I went down and got coffee. I went back up to my office, a few minutes after 9 00 the second plane hit and, of course, you immediately knew something was on. We were attack. I called mike and he was on 395. He said man its like a parking lot. Im just stuck in traffic, nothing is moving. He commented on how low a plane had had flown while he was on 395 and that was the plane that hit the pentagon. And in a moment like that, you find out where you rank on the totem pole of importance in the white house. So if youre important and significant figure when they evacuated the white house because of getting all the reports about the attacks that were coming in, we said the capitol was being hit. State department was being hit. And so if you were important, they took you to a bunker, secret bunker. If you were me, you ended up on the corner of 17th and pennsylvania avenue alone. I remember having this feeling it was a beautiful day. Crystal blue sky. And looking up and thinking, i feel like im in a movie except in a movie it has a script. And you know how it ends. I thought this one doesnt have a script. So i dont know how this thing is going to end. Anyway, i was there. You can imagine, it was an eventful time as a speechwriter. The wordsst president matter. They particularly mattered after september 11th. Then win the on to after a couple years josh bolton who became chief of staff recommended me to become director of something called the office of Strategic Initiatives which is an inHouse White House think tank. That job was perfectly aligned for my interests and skill set. So there i was involved in policy, politics, communications, it was an in House White House think tank. To the extent that i had influenced in the white house at that point. It wasnt because of where the os office fit in the flow chart. It is based on relationships with people in the white house and other offices. But i get along well with everybody. It was a really good experience. And i was very tl early in 2007d then i went to where i am now and that is a think tank here in washington. And many i world now is primarily writing. I write for the New York Times and the atlantic and do commentary on television and so forth. When i got involved in politics, i wasnt cynical about it. Im still not. I dont think im naive about politics. I understand theres there are down side to it. And there are people who are involved in politics who are not embodyments of virtue and high mindedness. But thats true in every profession in life. I think that politics matters. I think politics is finally and fu fund mentally about justice. Thats not all its about. But in the key moments in american hist rain life of a nation, politics can have a big bearing on justice and Human Flourishing and the human good. It m matters. Most of the people i come across in politics, including the people i disagree with philosophically and in terms of Party Politics are generally good people. And most people get involved in my experience politics for the right reasons. Some of its mixed. Motivations are mixed. Personal ambitions are there. Again, thats true in every profession. Its the naturest human condition. But most people that i know want to get in politics because they have some ideas that they care about, some causes they want to pursue. And my attitude is good. Good for you. And it matters. And stay involved and keep fighting. Just very quickly, ive been as can you figure out, a life long republican from my earliest days. My first vote was for Ronald Reagan in 1980. And i worked in three administrations. Naent george w. Bush white house. Philosophically, im a conservative and have been my entire life. I am a, however, a sharp critic of donald trump. Im not really particularly aligned with the Republican Party right now. Theyre a group of us could be servetive critics of trump who at this point can fit in a phone booth. And so its not a large group. But were making the arguments s that we can. I dont disagree with all of Donald Trumps policies though i disagree with some of them. But i think the danger he poses is in a whole realm of other areas. And i think hes a threat to the country, to the conservative cause and to the Republican Party. I say that as someone who still a conservative. Im not one of those who became so disaffected by whats happened that i changed my political philosophy. Im actually a critic of the president in part because i am a conservative. But its made life interesting as can you imagine. I have a lot of friends over my lifetime. Who see things very differently than i am. I am a person of the Christian Faith. And been involved been associated with mostly evangelical churches most of my life and white evangelicals are overwhelmingly supportive of donald trump. Im out of step there as well. So part of my life these days is trying to make sure that relationships stay intact even though we have disagreements. I think friendships are more important than politics. And i think that its extremely important to actually have relationships and friendships with people who dont see the world the same way you do politically, thee logically and in every other way. Because i think thats part of the way we learn. And its important to be able to see other peoples perspectives even if you dont agree with them. I dont have a clue whats going to happen in 2020. Im happy if you want to have a conversation about what might unfold. But as for me, you know, im a writer on contemporary affairs. I write on politics and also on faith and sports and other things. And as a writer, you just try and put these things in perspective. You call them as you see them h you have an obligation, i think, to tell the truth and to speak the truth as well as you can. To be open to being wrong and hopefully amending your views along the way. But as for me, there arent many jobs i can imagine, one i could do particularly well and also ones that would be as satisfying for me as ive been involved with because these conversations, these debates, i think, are important. Its a chance to learn. And a chance to talk about things that matter. And there are worse things in life than that. So thats basically my life. And in eight or nine minutes. And other than that, i will just open up to q a. You can ask anything you want. And either my own experience, politics, theology or anything else. Okay. Sure. Lets start over here. Okay. My name is kristen. Im from the reevely. Im from the harvard extension school. I was curious, weve done some readings today on how the tea party has affected the Republican Party. Right. And as well as weve had a few conversations about donald trump, not necessarily being a very conservative republican. Right. And so i was curious, since youve been a lifelong republican, selfstated, if you thought that these sort of i dont want to say conflicts but challenges to the republican line, if they result in a strengthening of the Republican Party down the line or if its something that you feel causes too much disruption to the party and takes away from its overall value . Thanks, great, both good questions. The tea part first. Its a reel fascinating journey of the Republican Party in recent years, because the Tea Party Movement is really i guess grew i guess the genesis of the Tea Party Movement was the bailout of the banks after the 2008 financial crisis which i actually think was an almost unmitigated success. Theres by the way a really good documentary called panic, the untold story of the 2008 financial crisis, its advice that puts it on, i dont think its hbo. In any event, they actually interview the key pro tag nests during the 2008 crisis, paulson, geithner, bernanke, president bush, obama, jeff bolton and others. Its a fascinating account of what happens. Simplify dramatically, they had to bail out the banks of what was a very, very nasty recession. The bailout caused a tremendous populist anger and upsurge. Why are the banks getting boiled out when we as individuals dont . That was a completely fair question to ask. If banks went belly up so would the rest of the economy. That is what catalyzed this populist revolt. The tea part was a very strongly limited government movement, populist antiestablishment. And that really drove the 2010 midterm elections, which was very damaging to the Democratic Party. Because obama retire to that president obama had control of the senate and house and lost control after the 2010 midterms. But the tea party is really kind of petered out. Whats interesting is that donald trump is in many ways the antithesis of the Tea Party Movement, because he himself is not by any standard a limited government conservative. He was the one person that ran in the 2016 that said hes not going to touch reforms, never going to cut spending, never artic laits the case for limited government. And himself has certain views that i think are probably contrary to capitalism, certainly the size of government. And yet hes wildly popular within the Tea Party Movement. So its an intellectual movement doesnt exist anymore. What i think it embodied was this populist anger, which trump masterfully tapped into in 2016 and has really ever day since hes been president. And so theres a kind of connection i think between the Republican Base and trump, at least as it speaks to the tea party, not policy driven, intellectual, i think much more affecttive, almost that its psyche logical and cultural on the level that they frankly revel in the style of his politics. So i dont think the tea party is a force in the republican right now. In terms of trump not being a conservative and whether it will strengthen or weaken the Republican Party, its a mixed bag. I think if youre talking about judges, the judiciary deregulation, prolife policies, the tax bill that was passed in 2017, those fall generally under the canopy of the Republican Party, tradition laul policies, conservative policies. But in a lot of ways hes not a conservative. His basically is a americafirst sort of quasi isolationist instincts are not as conservative as has been understood in the modern era. Hes a fierce protectionist. He refers to himself as tariff man. As long as ive been alive, conservativism has stood for free trade than the issue of limited government. Trump cant i dont think be understood as a conservative. I think he has to be understood as a populist. Thats what he has tapped into. He himself is not a populist. I dont think hes anything other than a narcissist. But he tapped into this populist movement. Will it strengthen or weaken the Republican Party . I dont know because i dont know how its going to play out. Im worried about the Republican Party because one of my warnings to the republicans during the nomination when trump was running and then since hes become president is that he would redefine it in his own image, and he has. And ive had plenty of conversations with republicans in congress who know better, have views of trump close mine but they feel they cannot speak publicly about that. For a variety of reasons. I think its a mistake. But i understand their position. Its easier for me than them. I really dont know. I think the Republican Party right now is in a fairly precarious position. One of the reasons, the trajectory of the events is not good. Trump is taxic with rising number of voters, people of color, younger voters, women, suburbs. If you look at the results of the 2018 midterms, you can see the coming catastrophe longer term. I live out in virginia, the 10th district, our representative house member was barbara come stock. In 2016 its slightly democratic so purpose lish district, and Hillary Clinton won by about four or five points opinion and barbara ran and won reasonably comfortable in 2016. In 2018 she got obliterated, lost by 12 points. That is a classic republican will have leaning suburb. In 2020 every republican god mowed down. I think thats going to happen. Whether trump leaves in 2021 or 2025 or somewhere in between, there will be a big fight for the future of the Republican Party. Okay. Thank you. Hi. Hi, im yasmine and i go to sufficient oak university. My question is referring back back to september 11th. Since that day, did you see the evolution of nationalism and politics, and specifically within the Republican Party . And if so, do you see it Getting Better or worse in the coming election . Yeah. No, i certainly didnt see it in the aftermath of 9 11. The Republican Party was just a very dramatically different party. The country was different, generally united after 9 11. When i began to see the changes within the Republican Party, and how it was changing toward a sort of ethnic nationalist flavor, id say probably right around the mid2000s, we were pushing a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. We ended up after the reelection of president bush, which was 200 four, in 2005 or big effort was to Reform Security which went nowhere. We tried Immigration Reform lighter in 2006, and almost got that Immigration Reform bill through, but it ended up failing. We missed the sequencing in retrospect, we should have led with immigration rather than social security. But for the purpose of your question, what was interesting is you began to see or you could see this rise of antiimmigrant feelings, some sense of ho hostility, cultural displacement, beginning to build in the party. And that just didnt exist in the 90s or early 2000s. I was never able to locate what catalyzed that. There was no event like if an undocumented worker had a massacre or something at a mall that catalyzed the response, that i would i understand that. But there were factors going on that i didnt really fully understand. Honestly president bush understood what was beginning to happen within the base of the Republican Party, because i remember talking to him and others in this is conversations and he would talk about nativism, protectionism and ice lationism, these things that were beginning to rise up. Other thing which was interesting kind of ka nairies in the coal mine where it was conservative talk radio. If you listened say to Rush Limbaugh Went National in 1988 where for most of his career the binary choice was conservativism and liberalism. But near the end of the 2000s you begin to see the shift where it went from that to establishment, antiestablishment. By the 2010s, 11s, you were almost as likely to hear criticism of john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell as barack obama. There was a feeling of anger towards the establishment and things were not as they wanted. So you could, if you were tuned in, you could tell that there were these elements coursing through the country in the base of the Republican Party, which now i think is manifested in people like, you know, Tucker Carlson. And theres a sort of ethnic nationalist movement. People, goes by various names, not specific just to america. You see it across much of western europe, as well. Whats interesting, so trump got into the race in june of 2015. And my first column in the New York Times was july of 2015. And it was the headline was President Trump, question mark, just say no. So this was three weeks after he got in. I later learned from my editor that it was hard to get the piece published because people at the times thought, why is he writing about donald trump . This guy is going to dissolve in a matter of weeks. Hes not a threat. I knew he was. I didnt think he would win the presidency. But i knew enough about the conservative movement that i knew he was tapping into something that i thought were pernicious. I didnt think he should be underestimated. Lo and behold, hes president. My name is shafbaly con goals. Im from miami college. I would like to know any impactful, experience, challenge or hard decision you have made as a christian in the political world . Sorry. Yeah. Hard decision or challenge as a christian in the political world. Its a really good question. I must say for the most part i have not i have not found myself in a position where i felt that my christian beliefs or my christian ethics were in conflict with life and politics. To some extent i think im probably fortunate because the people i surrounded myself were people with integrity. Doesnt mean we didnt make mistakes along the way. But i just wasnt around people who i felt like were had defecktive character, were asking me to do things certainly as an individual in terms of personal integrity to lie or cheat or in fig lianything like ive never had that kind of issue or conflict. Policy wise, i will tell you one issue in which i remember having debates with colleagues in the white house, and this was informed from a christian perspective. That was on the issue of enhanced interrogation techniques, critics called it torture. I wasnt involved in the genesis of that program, very few people were, and they were all you can imagine that was just a top secret program. But it was when it came out, was this defensible or not . And so i remember, you know, maybe theyre releasing our emails from those years. I dont know when those things get released. But talking through with colleagues, a number of whom were christians, which is, what are the pros and cons of this . Can this be justified or not . It was using very limited circumstances to a very few number of people in an effort to try and get information to try and potentially prevent catastrophic future attacks. But, you know, its an age old question which is means and adds, which is where you draw the line. I actually had lunch with a friend of mine, gary howland, who runs International Justice mission, and gary, whos a close friend, a friend at the time, was concerned about it from a christian perspective. So i brought him into the white house and we met with some people of the National Security counsel and elsewhere to talk through those issues. I was always uncomfortable with the program. I could so often you can come up with scenarios here in which you could justify what was done, but youd have to do so with a certain kweeziness because that is not a type of thing you want to normalize. But most people can come up with a scenario, you know, if you say look, youve got a highranking terrorist with information. Lets assume for the sake of the argument that waterboarding will elist information. And that information would save 50,000 lives. Is that lets just for the sake of the argument, is that something that could be justified morally . I think it could, but again i think tough be wary about taking those steps. That was one as a christian i was thinking it through. But as i mentioned, ive not really felt much, much really virtually any tension as a person of the Christian Faith. I think most of it is being alert to the temptations of power and how easy it is to justify, and in my own appearance with having been involved with a lot of christians who are involved in politics, theres this real i guess it is a temptation, to sack rilize, baptize, Public Policy, and to think that youre fulfilling the will of god and that god is on your side rather than you trying to be on gods side. And of all the groups that ive been involved with in policies over the years, theres no group i dont think that has been as susceptible to the said ukss of political power as the christians quite frankly in politics. Its an odd phenomenon. Because if youre a person of the Christian Faith theres very much a sense that were citizens of two kingdoms, my kingdom is not of this world, jesus said, and theres supposed to be a distance between life here. And yet for reasons that are complicated, i think a lot of christians are very easily said used. Chuck colson he was kind of a political hitman for nixon before conversion, later said they were about the easiest people when he was in the Nixon White House to said use. You basically had to give christian leaders a picture of the president. Labor leaders at least you had to negotiate over something tangible and real. But i think for christians it was access to power that really rang their bell. Im from the university of san diego. Hi. I had a question about how you feel from your lens of analysis working underneath the Bush Administration, how do you feel about the contrast between the Bush Administration and the Trump Administration with escalations in iran . Yeah. The well, i feel quite a contrast with the bush president bush and President Trump on all sorts of grounds. Because theyre completely different human beings. And i have a much higher view of one than the other in that realm. In terms of the strike on iran, i mean, we could have taken out soleimani just like president obama could have taken out soleimani if we wanted to. Im wary about the decision to have done it. I understand, i dont shed any tears for him. He was a really malevolent figure and has figure rative american blood and lots of blood including nonamerican blood on his hands, so he was really wan of the nastier actors on the world stage. And so the fact that he is gone, i dont shed any tears for him and i dont think others should. If it turned out, and i just dont know, as im not dont have access to the intelligence, and even as you do as we learned the hard way sometimes intelligence is wrong, was he planning imminent attacks . Thats the phrase that the Trump Administration used, against americans and american targets. If that in fact was true, that could change the cal clous. If he was deciding that he was going to escalate these attacks, hit embassies, hit american personnel, you could make the argument that maybe you needed to take him out. How he was taken out, the celebratory nature of it, the way trump embraced it rather than a covert operation, i think there are questions about that. Obviously it escalated the situation massively. Anybody could have figured that out, given how prominent he was in iran. Is it worth it . I suspect not. I think theres several lairs that tough look at it. Theres obviously the kennetic military aspect of it. Do we get into a hot war with iran . We dont know. Is either side going to take the offramp here that the iranians struck us with, you know, yesterday with the in iraq . Apparently no americans were killed, may have been intentional, main not. Is that the end of the story. There are a lot of other things catalyzed. What happens in iraq . There was a nonbinding vote there to get rid of the United States troops. If we were to leave, that would not be in americas interest. Ive been in conversations with highranking people including some that served in the Trump Administration. Theres trechldus amount of concern and worry among certain arab allies who are now lining up to make deals with iran because theyre afraid trump basically said, you fenced off attacks on american interests but not our allies. So theyre worried. Theres just a lot of chaos in the region. There was growing antipathy to the Iranian Regime just a month or two ago, the sanctions were biting. And now of course this has ended up being a galvanizing point for the iranian people around the Iranian Regime. So my hufrmg is that as this played out, the cost will be higher than the benefits. That was certainly the calculation that both president bush and president obama made. I think they were right. I think you could say that taking out soleimani was morally justified. That doesnt mean it was wise or prudent. Those are two different questions. Finally if i were to design a president to have in the oval office during a period of crisis of any tindu kind, particularly international, im not sure donald trump would be the president i would design. So that concerns me as well. I just think hes volatile. If you talk to people who have worked with him, he doesnt listen to advisers, hes extremely impulsive, and i dont think thats a good quality in a crisis. Agreed. Thank you. Over here. Hi, my name is mary miller, and im from central university. You stated that you and some others have not been disloougss from trump in their Republican Base on your conservative values. For 2020 if and probably when trump gets the republican nomination, would you still consider voting for him or would you vote for the democratic nominee or go third party and why . Yeah. Well, i said i wasnt disillusion the with politics. I have been dissolutioned with donald trump. Maybe not because i didnt have any illusions about him. But i wont vote for him under any circumstances. I didnt vote for him in 2016. I was no fan in Hillary Clinton. In that case i voted for Evan Mcmullin who was running as third party. What will i do in 2020 . Fends on who the democrats nominate. I havent figured that out other than i know i wont vote for trump for a whole variety of reasons. But well just have to see. You know, the way i try and think about this, im certainly not im sure my annal siz isnt even perfect in how i think it through, but one has to think first about the good of the country. And theres the realm of policies, then theres the realm of the political and civic culture. There is the temperament of the person thats president , if you feel safe with him or not. And a psychological and emotional makeup and wellbeing. Theres the future of the Republican Party. If hes reelected, it may be a pairen the siz in the Republican Party and politics, become Something Different . If his mode of politics become ratified i think were dealing with Something Else. I find his nonstop assault on truth and the categories of truth and falsity to be extremely dangerous and harmful and i think theyre having an effect. You know, if it were bernie sanders, Elizabeth Warren, i am philosophically opposed to them. So it would be hard for me to vote for them and be consistent with my beliefs. So well have to see. I understand the arguments, you know, of i honestly do understand the argue ument of people who vote for donald trump, who are if youre a person conservative, youre a conservative christian and feel like his policies will do more to advance what you believe is the moral good, economic good of the country, thats a fair and reasonable place to be. Its not where i ended up, but i get that. I think my main criticism of republicans in general and particularly of evangelical christians i must say isnt that they would vote for donald trump. Its that they become his sword and shield, seem incapable of holding two ideas at the same time or at least giving voice to two ideas at the same time, which is we agree with his policies and judges on deregulation on stakss and abortion but we think he is a moral and ethical rack, and that really troubles us, and he acts in ways that are reprehensible and need to be challenged. You cant hold those two ideas at the same time. Theres no trick to that. But republicans and christians in particular arent doing. Theyre not only soto voech ai, they will defend him in and in a weird way its slightly amazing to see these people who use morality, moral integrity of president s like a two by four against bill clinton in the late 1990s, many of the very same people are will defend trump no matter what he does. And attack those who dayen to criticize him. That double standard is the way they deserve to be criticized. Ive never heard of a good response to that criticism. But part of what it indicates i think is the degree of political tribalism, polarization that we have. Its fascinating psychological phenomenon, which we all suffer from and deal with. Which is this ability that we have as human beings or pro pence it pencety to wall off facts that are contrary to what we want. Thats always been part of the human condition and always will be. It seems to me that its particularly acute now and when you see somebody like donald trump its in such sharp relief that it really underscores ive said to a number of friends of mine that i think its much more important now to have a good understanding of psychology to understand this political moment than it is to have an understanding of politics. Because i think a lot of whats going on has to be understood through the prism of psychology. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. Hello. Im sarry, and im from elan university. In terms of trumps policies, you mentioned that there are several youre against and some you support. I was wondering which were in each category and why . Yeah. On the plus side, generally his judiciary appointments have been i think solid. Hes outsourced it to the federalralist society, which is a group that started i think in the 1980s. And they are judicial intellectuals. And basically theyve got a list of judicial appointments of whom theyre generally very, very well qualified. And trump has taken that list. Im quite certain that he doesnt know the writings of any Supreme Court nominees or his federal judges. But hes doing what hes being told and thats fine. I wish that happened in more areas with him. The judges i think are good. People i trust in the world of economics and business tell me that the deregulation has actually helped a lot of companies, helped the economy grow. So i think that thats that area has been good. Im prolife, and his policies there i think have been good. Tax bill, i was sort of mixed on. But you could argue i think that on balance maybe it was a good thing, but im not certain about that. Downside on the policy, where do i disagree with him . Hes a, as i said, protectionist, and im not. I think protectionism is a bad idea and it can lurch you into some very, very bad economic situations. I think hes removed morality not only as a centerpiece of Foreign Policy but from anything at all. I think the way that he treats dictators is often offensive and weird. I dont know. If you can have a love affair with a foreign leader, i dont know why youd choose kim jongun on any number of grounds but he just seems to be infatuated with whats arguably the most and the chief prosecutor of christians. He doesnt believe in reform and entitlement programs. If youre not going to reform entitlement programs youre not making a serious case for limited government. I disagree with him there. I think he is making appeals to nativist, appeals, as well. It was his, if you will, trump card during the election. Every time he got into trouble, what did he do . He would point to the other, whether the other were mexicans or muslims. And he played to that. I happen to think that tough disagorigate. There are undocumented workers and legal immigration. Im certainly sympathetic to the latter. And i felt likely on the former, we needed to find a path to citizenship, but not amnesty. I thought that was reasonable then and now. On a general matter im somebody who has i guess an emotional affinity for Illegal Immigrants. But i also think on the merits its the right way to go. And i think you can make adjustments to whos coming in, sort of high skilled workers and whats best for the economy of the country. So thats where i disagree with him. But as i said, my primary objections are not in the realm of policy. Although the separation of children from parents is something that i found deeply offensive. But i think hes psychologically and emotionally unwell generally so, and that worries me. As i said, this assault on truth and reality and the conspiracy mongering i think is really, really bad. And i think hes unfit on all sorts of different levels. Thank you. Uhhuh. And we have come to time for our program today, so thank you so much. You bet. Thank you. Thanks for being here. [ applause ]. You know where youre going, and ill see you all here tomorrow. Thank youp. The u. S. Commission on International Religious freedom holds a hearing to discuss u. S. Foreign policy and antisemitism. Watch live today. Online on cspan. Org or listen live on the free radio app. Natural gas and oil Industry Experts along with Discovery Channel series dirty jobs host mike row he participated on a discussion in the 2020 outlook at a conference in washington, d. C. This is 45 minutes