Our conversation. Politics a watching long time and i dont think of ever seen an election like this one. The College Democrats and the College Republicans both internally split. College republicans couldnt agree on which candidate to support. Sharp emails were exchanged. And now both democrats and republicans trying to figure out what direction for the party. Where do we go. Who are we . To help us sort this out im delighted to welcome back our graduates i wont say one class, but a recent class of brown university, david corn. David is the Washington Bureau chief for mother jones, and if you read it, he has written in it. I think that is all that needs to be centered old winning journalist. I will plug your book. The inside story of spin, scandal, and the selling of the iraq war. Familiar face around the Watson Institute and brown university. He will take it from here and help us sort out the future of the Republican Party. With 2 republicans he will introduce our panelists. We are welcoming cspan2 our campus. If you feel moved to shout out and announce someone, feel free, but do it into the microphone. You cannot be heard if you are talking in general. And he goes without saying, as with all other classes, cell phones off. David, please take it from here. David thank you. We will get to questions at the end, so save your shouting for them. I will have a bias when it comes to questions, taking questions from students. Fair warning, i want students to rush of the mikes to ask a good questions. I am happy to be here as part of a series we had been doing through this Academic Year for the election, an election that was suppressing to both winners and losers. Now we are looking ahead towards the future. I will start with our 2 panelists and introduce them. Were going to try to not get too bogged down in the details of the last four or five new cycles, which would last three hours. But we will start with that. We will get to some of that. To my right, we have mercedes schlapp, who is a fox news commentator. And i have wrestled with her, figuratively [laughter] david not seriously, not literally, on Msnbc Mercedes and with my husband. David i was going to get to your husband. Shes a columnist with the Washington Times and a radio host on sirius patriot. She has also done real work and life. [laughter] david other than being a media with me as a commentator, she was specialty media for the bush white house. She is a firstgeneration cubanamerican raised in miami, florida. As she noted, she is married to schlapp, chairman of the american conservative union, which is best known for running the annual cpac convention, the gathering of conservative activists, which a week or two back held its 2017 gathering, which turned into a tremendous trumpfest. Mercedes and david corn was the keynote speaker, but he didnt tell you that. David no, i didnt make it. The most important thing about matt and restate is is they have five daughters. Five daughters. John weaver only has 2 children. [laughter] as long,t he has had probably a longer career in republican politics. He is now best known as the chief strategist for john kasich, the republican governor of ohio. But for many years he was associated and is still associated with john mccain, being a chief strategist for mccain when he ran for president in 2000 and again in 2008 he worked with him. He has also been involved with campaigns for campaignfinance reform and for how you treat prisoners under the geneva convention. He has worked on comprehensive Immigration Reform. Interestingly, after the 9 11 attacks in new york city, john oversaw the new York City Communications efforts, working with Rudy Giuliani back then. These are 2 republicans who could not disagree more at this on an issue that set a stagest for the future of the Republican Party, which is what to do and what to think about and how to regard Nowpresident Donald trump. Off with whatt has happened in the last couple of days, the last few weeks. It has only been six weeks into this presidency, but there will be a lot to talk about. If i were to pick up some of the things that at least made news can we could be here all day. But we started off with the president insisting there were 1. 5 Million People at an inauguration were clearly there werent up to 1. 5 Million People. That there were 3 Million People who voted illegally in the last campaign, which is why he did not win majority of the electorate, when you know voting expert says anything like that happened. We had the tweets this past weekend accusing obama of wiretapping him very specifically in trump tower. Again, no factual basis for that. I wont get into the details, but really probably not even possible to happen. We have had chaos of the First Executive order with the muslim travel plan. The most recent one signed yesterday has not created that chaos, to be fair. His attorney general has had to recuse himself and what perhaps is the most important controversy of the moment, the russian trump scandal. And his First National security adviser because he lied regarding that. Today we see the House Republicans release the much valued legislative effort to repeal and replace of obamacare, something President Trump has made a centerpiece of his and in 20 seconds, it aeturned to a pub republican food fight, with conservative and moderate the ryanns attacking bill, some people call it the ryan care, or soon to be rhino care, and it looks like it is doa and it is unclear what the president s approach will be because he was contacting republicans and asking them to support this legislation. I am exhausted just thinking about this. First question, you wanted donald trump to be president and you were a supporter. Is this a good start or not . Mercedes you have g you have go divided into two parts. A lot of deregulation, whether it was environmental deregulation, obamacare deregulation, the Dakota Access pipeline, bringing jobs back. He met with heads of corporations and union leaders, brought in moderate democrats to talk about different issues important to them. Is he isare finding basically in his agenda of bringing jobs back. You have a lot of other chaotic factors surrounding the transition of a businessman, someone who has never been a politician, becoming the president of the United States. I worked in the bush administration. Obviously you are very familiar in that world as well. Goneay the transition has is you have to have your staff in place, and you have to make sure it is a fine oiled machine. Are not all, they staffed up and we saw that with the First Executive order p or what happened with the second on this temporary ban, we saw tillerson in place, and there makes sense the second time around. I think it is a lot of growing pains for the Trump Administration right now. In thef people never beenion have in the white house before. At the same time, you see the positive side. He is focused on his agenda. We saw this with the joint session address the president gave, which shocked conservative and liberal pundits. He says it is a finely tuned machine. I am not he. Concerns,you have any not about whether or not it is staffed up enough, but the way he has been comported himself and what seems to be a degree of erratic hayes grier . Mercedes i think he is transforming the presidency. John no doubt about that. Mercedes in the trump world, the Trump Supporters are thrilled the president is going after mainstream media. They want him to go after and republicans. There is a disconnect in america. There are in elites that are appalled by his actions, and then there is the guy working in pennsylvania or in a coal mine saying this guy is fighting me. That is where it lies. It is a lot about division in america where we can sit here and answer philosophical questions but the trump supporter out there is saying, go after the media and the yourself and dont change, trump. David his Approval Ratings are at a low for president. How could how do you look at the last six weeks as someone who was very critical of trump before he was elected and pointed to what you considered to be instability and a lack of andliarity with a policy fax. Worst, better . It is what we saw in the campaign. People who say there will be a he will be different in the way he has conducted himself over his lifetime, are either fooling themselves or they are fooling the American People. He will not change. Butthing that is accurate that concerns me, yes, we have two camps but only one country. Responsibility to rise these divisions and not play to them here that has been my major concern about him and his conduct, that he is unwilling to accept the role that he is the father of the country until he is no longer in the office. As far as staffing, they dont have the proper staff and they dont have enough staff. There is hubris and inexperience mixed in with that. Organizations, brown university, fox news, mother jones, they take on the leadership and the characteristics of the person at the time. The same can be said for this white house. Is erratic and lives in a false state of reality. It is not truthful. It is helping corrode civic discussion in our country. It is the worst in my lifetime. I give him a little difficult break because he has not been involved in government before but he shows no interest being curious about policy and about growing in the office. Grave concerns about what happens when we face a world crisis the it National Security. You have been around politicians a long time. There is a certain degree of spin and trying to create a narrative to your benefit and putting your best foot forward. That,ceptability for within government. We had Kellyanne Conway talk alternative facts and sean spider came out to the podium several times to defend a remark said were just completely untrue. Do you think this administration as we have seen so far, is pushing the envelope, setting not being terms of honest or having a different attitude or approach to responsible discourse . Of course. Me to of my clients asked go out to the public, i would resign. That is what is so befuddling about this. I question why they continue to go down this road. The president owes it to all americans but especially people who voted for him to tell them the truth, not what he wants them to believe but what the truth is. Tot is only how we are going solve the problems facing us. To continue to try and divide us based on a false narrative that appeared on a website or worse, is morally wrong. Mercedes on the republican side, during the election, the feeling was that the democrats were trying to divide us by identity and gender and sex and they pushed it through, it did not work and did not sell for the American People because those particular battleground states, they were looking for how will you solve my economic problem, how can i get better , and ir a better job think trump spoke to that. The democrats, Hillary Clinton presses campaign, it was the pushed nationally on divisive identity politics, where trump is able to sell a very simple economic message to the American People. We have to stipulate this was a very close election. Margin, most people did not accept his vision. In terms of what the American People want and do not want, i do not think we could make old on theseations based results p he won with a that message in those states and that worked there to a limited degree, but to another degree, but i just wonder after listening to john, if you think President Trump in the white house has any credibility problem or any problem with hiness, as Stephen Colbert would say i think President Trump, and his team having to defend him, he gets, located. He might think a certain way that does not make sense to the rest of us. Or it might be like you were saying not accurate. The question becomes when you look at the Bigger Picture of what he is trying to sell in terms of relationships he is holding in congress, much better than what president obama has done. In terms of working on the Bigger Picture of repealing obama care, tax reform and school choice, it is when he gets boggled down, who is going to take twitter away from President Trump, whoever can successfully do that should get paid like 900. John you are being very generous, i think, but i will leave it at that. President s who come in before have lost the popular vote, they have gone out of their way to Start Holding public support and youre busted that. He lost the popular vote and famously contested the election. Tohard nixon in 1968 tried move to the middle and unite people. President kennedy. What concerns me mercedes stop right there. Obama fails to have a relationship with senator mitch mcconnell. The fact that they barely john d out to republicans i agree with all of that. I am talking about mercedes who was in charge of the house of representatives and senate and republicans . I think those voters out there their voices were not heard during the obama administration, they felt it was being dictated from washington what they need to believe, it was a rejection of washington and the gridlock. I think you are having someone coming completely from the outside, not necessarily loyal notither party, and he will play politics the way it is normally played. John no one is asking him to play politics the way it has been played, that is true, his conduct, i dont call it a new form of being president. He is degrading the white house. Lets call it what it is. Is not telling the truth. I could spend hours talking about issues where he has plainly not told the truth. That is not the conduct anybody around here would excuse. You do not accept it with your girls and i do not ask at it with my kids. While we want to accept that as president like he is different, that is not fair. Obama did not reach out to republicans and the big problem with obamacare is it was pushed through without republican support and a big problem we will have now conversely is republicans will try to push through reform of it and neither side is the right approach. But we should hold the president to a higher standard and not just a lower standard because he is odd. As a nonrepublican on a panel, i do not want to dwell on the past, but the first major legislative initiatives from barack obama, he did reach out to republicans, more if researchers spending, he tried to work with a gang on the Health Care Bill. You are talking about the immigration bill. No, that was later. The Health Care Bill with susan have been asay not successful but these were greater initiatives than what we see trump doing on repeal, replace, executive order, and everything else. Thatan go back and look at that i would like to see if we could move ahead here. And ask this question now. The donald trump ran primaries, he was derided by many conservatives. It a cancer oned conservatism. Works for thew man. Marco rubio called him a con man and again and again, you have intellectuals and pundits on the right saying he is not conservative, and we will talk but myhe issues perhaps, question now is we look ahead at future of the Republican Party in the conservative movement, it has often been intertwined, so is it fair to say the conservative movement is the Trump Movement and the Republican Party is the trump party . To a certain extent. I think the conservative movement is a bit divided into two cancer. Goldberg from national the leading conservative and head of the weekly standard. Right. They are pretty much part of the trump world in terms of, we would make the argument, those of us who feel in the grassroots world come make the argument saying compared to Hillary Clinton, who would you have more of an influence on in terms of policy, donald trump or Hillary Clinton . When donald trump chose mike his Vice President ial candidate, it was a clear indication to the conservative movement that he wanted and outreach to conservatives. Then you have when he gave up a supremeconservative court nominations, another outreach to conservatives that he was serious in terms of saying, im willing to listen and i want you to be a part of my campaign. Have thestill conservative movement in general keeping tabs on what the president is doing, so far with the Supreme Court nominations, an it comes to tax reform lot of issues there that conservatives do not like, prolife issues, they like the direction he is taking this. About funding popular with democrats, conservatives get nervous about spending. It is not just you are all in, but i think they did make the right step with the Supreme Court nomination on gorsuch. On Foreign Policy issues, on , deadlock, and even on issues of debt spending, we see theure, of the reviews substitute, it would actually create more death more showing no loyalty and then you look at campaign promises, nothing for the National Debt except to expand it. I think you have to understand how the conservative the social conservative, the fiscal conservative, and the neocon. Hawkish and more like senator marco rubio or lindsey graham. You could be mostly a social conservative for evangelical christians, conservative catholics, they will be focused on the prolife issues and the family issues. Then you have neocons again going back to senator marco rubio, more hawkish. They would not be happy with the direction President Trump is going but they do not want us negotiating with iran, they do not like that it nuclear deal, and they want to get out of here. Then you have the free traders. Those individuals will not be happy with the trade restrictions. There will be parsed they do and do not like. She should work for the president. I like her so i would not wish that upon her. Conservatives and republicans are intertwined totally and completely. Side,n the conservative we do not know where we will be on tax reform. Special interests, the way washington works, the supreme pick, and was a good the reach out to mike pence make sense. The republican , it makes sense he did those things. Side, republican installing numbers run 38 . In washington among Republican Office holders, as long as his stable inld somewhat the 45 percent mark, not a good place for a new president but it is what it is, he will be fine, but there is nervousness. If there is a special his numbers fall below 38 where you lose people who did not want to support him but could not vote for secretary clinton, you will start to see republicans start separating themselves from him. We are only five weeks into the administration. It is hard to say that. We ares me to say that, handcuffed to his failure at the moment and the future of the party, we will talk about that, we will have to take the handcuffs off. No future of our party growing in the demographic groups we have to grow and, if we are linked to donald trump permanently. David lets talk about that after the 2012y, a very, Reince Priebus bad choice of words, the autopsy. About whytion review the republicans have lost the , it came downions , the party did not seem to be welcoming to American Voters of and also because of social conservative issues but also the way republicans vote about these issues, putting off liberals. And talked all about how the party had not a dress these, it was dead in the water. Come 2016, the shocked really nailed white workingclass voters who had trouble economically for the last 20 or and talked about going k Ronald Reagan. Time, he said many things that were offensive to latino voters. Things that were offensive to women, boasting about heually assaulting women, a tracking muslim everything reince and is said dont do, like to think this as, you watch football with the kickoff, it tends to bounce but every once in a while, you do a kickoff and the ball bounces straight, going in the same direction over and over again. Seemed to be waiting for these republicans. That demographics will pose a problem, that this , and iwas the last raw would argue his whole rise to prominence as a conservative leader was based on racist but he didtheories, not make efforts to reach out can the Republican Party when with that strategy . Mercedes these are deep questions and everything is so competition it. I remember about 500,000 new hispanic voters, a bit concerned that there was no way President Trump could win florida. It was clear there was an energized effort in florida. What happened was in my d percent you had 50 of cubans voted for donald trump , they felt betrayed by had that obama and you generation of my sister in her not political, he was successful, he was going to bring change to washington, a lot of them vote for president obama back in 2008 and 2012. Rake it used to get 84 of the cubanamerican vote here and were down to 68 now for donald trump and it worries me because i come from the bush world where we used to be thrilled to get 45 of the hispanic vote, and donald trump got 29 and they were cheering and on and i was like, wait a second, this is not good enough and we need to do better. I think it is trying to figure out, becoming the worker party, wheress they brought in a lot of people in the working class who voted for obama and decided, i will give this guy a try, is this a no, lasting relationship, because i think these are mostly independent voters who could easily switch. This has always been the case. We have talked about this in every election that i can remember, reaching out to the hispanic community. Absolutely. Donald trump spent zero dollars on Hispanic Television and radio. I remember, how do we not spend thinkin this area and i the rnc spent maybe 250,000. Millions of dollars spent by Hillary Clinton and yet she failed to provide enthusiasm. You had not enough hispanic voters, not enough africanamericans voted for her and key states. The enthusiasm is not there. It is driven by who is the leader of the party. Could trump replicate this four years from now . It will be difficult unless he is able to bring people, unless we have a booming economy and he is able to hone in on his agenda, 3 growth in the economy, and families are saying, my life is better today than it was 45 years ago. There are headlines about the Trump Administration, parents of sevenyearolds, they round them up at the border, and you know know,s is my, just so you my background is on his to Hispanic Media and this is my area. We are very much part of under the bush world trying to push forward comprehensive immigration. A shocking thing was the joint session of congress where he said he wanted to talk bipartisanship on Immigration Reform. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. That was called a misdirection. I think it came from him. He said it in his speech. It was very much on Immigration Reform. When it comes to hispanics, immigration is a very important issue but not the only one. Economics, jobs, education are the key issues. On immigration, we have to solve the problem. There is nobody who does not support enforcing the law. The issue is how do you do it, and whether you are rushing into schools and taking parents away from kids, how you go about doing it sends a message. This is going on for six weeks p record only imagine if this becomes the norm because the lack of Immigration Reform we have not had for decades am a that we ended up in the situation we are in. There needs to be a revolution. Right. Trump ran against the Immigration Reform and chided marco rubio. I do not think he has read the autopsy or that he cares about the autopsy. Seems to be speaking to a very small part of the base not an agreement with you. Is not possible to replicate this nor should we want to. If the election had been a wednesday or a monday or a saturday, he probably would have lost. He was one of those one and 100,000, that he was able to win the election. Hillary clinton ran a not inspiring campaign. There was nothing she said that inspired young people or people around the country. Then she had the distractions of james comey and whatever happened with the russians. You cannot qualitative saying one thing or the other. Lost theor states, he popular vote, lets not kid ourselves about this at all. Two years from now, the country will be 2 less white thegraphically and while cubanamerican vote has gone from 86 for president reagan down to the high 50s for aesident trump, mexicanamerican vote, the Central American vote in the United States now, folks from the crib in basin, those are trading much more against us. Millennial voters are trading against us here firsttime voters are against us. I could go on and on and on. Asian americans who used to vote in big numbers for president reagan are trending against us in big numbers. It is not sustainable. Today, policy is politics. We cannot ignore the average concerns of average americans like we have done. I could go through a litany of policy issues and voting about all of them tonight. We had been cynical about solving them with Bumper Sticker slogans. And that will catch up with us. We have to start going to the marketplace of other demographic what are youring concerns, here are conservative or centerright solutions to your concerns. Right now, all they hear is the leader of the party calling whole groups of people names, or a judge of hispanic origin, or a gold star family being degraded by the leader of our party. As long as he is the leader , he tops them all in terms of the megaphone or whatever you want to call it. Are as long as he is in that position, in view in your view, will ever be a republicans to present to potential Republican Voters that view . Yes, it is hard. And he breaks through. Through on Foreign Policy and immigration issues, but we have a lot of good, you cannot compete with a president. I think it is important to understand the dynamics of the Republican Party. I think there is a sense of a try Club Republican remembergot to [indiscernible] there you go. It is the disconnect, the ryans , where youonnells have republicans say, i cannot be part of that. I think actually john kasich was a perfect example of someone who was able to understand the grassroots and understand the people happening at the local level. Disconnecteen a between Republican Leaders and what is happening. It is important to make that distinction. I think that is why a rejection of marco rubio and these washington types because of the fact they are mercedes came out tea party because we said put us in power, we will restrain government, and we have the president and we had congress and we put two wars on a crib on the credit card, we the tea party it, came because of our in action, and what do we tell the tea ty, we did not have enough votes. He said yousecond, would repeal obamacare, will sohnically you really cant, i think there was definitely a sense we have a Health Care Bill that is dead on arrival. We end up the legislation we have had for another year probably. Do you think republicans as we moved to the 2018 elections, luckily for inublicans, on the senate but they should fully identify with trump and the approach he had to ward winning in 2018 . Mercedes i think each will be different. It is favorable to republicans. Many areepend on how successful in their legislative agenda. Will the transition of going from obamacare to will the transition of going from obamacare the impact. Thet gets rid of obamacare, if you see the, jobs coming back to america, there is a possibility but history shows midterm elections always a goal against the party in power. David would you be happy if from finds a way to work with republicans to pass a replacement bill and an act some sort of cap some sort of tax reform . He is the pilot and you want the plane to land safely. Of course we want him to be successful. But i dont anticipate that happening. I see it is likely he will cut on infrastructure deal more quickly than i see tax reform. David and if you were working for a republican, up for reelection in 2018, about how they should be positioning selves, john unfortunately, republicans in the house, they will be the ones that will be most distant from the president here they for pay the biggest price his positions and his conduct. Every senate race will be different. The headwinds, im not anticipating a big economic up turn between now and 2018. The president s Approval Ratings, what they are now or even lower, it will be difficult. The house, we could lose nominal control of the house if we are thecareful here in leadership their need to score some victories not just for the party but for the country. Too much talk about the Republican Party. If it is good for the country, it will be automatically good for your party. If someone believes trump is not a stable leader and could do things that might be dangerous, would you not want to see one of the two house of congress with the ability to keep him in check . [indiscernible] just in terms of having decent investigations. Weise we see the financial conflicts of interest. The house committee, keeps complaining about it. I know you care about these issues public pressure ultimately. Selectnally support a becausee in congress that attack is an attack on our democracy. I take great offense we seem to be dragging our feet on that. Im not ready to turn the keys back to speaker pelosi. David let me ask a big picture question and then we will go into questions so start thinking of questions now. The Republican Party and the conservative movement, they have to identify themselves above all with Ronald Reagan and reaganism. There was an optimism to reaganism, a shining city on a loyalty that one although it back to the goldwater days and bedrock conservative principles, all three legs of the stool. When he sat on that stool, there was no tipping. It was his stool. As we move to a trump Republican Party, the conservative party, is it darker, is it meaner, is it less ideologically coherent, internally coherent . He is hawkish in some ways and not in other ways. Thehe goes act and forth, same issue. Ask him about syria three times and you get five different answers. To figure was hard out where he and the people who supported him with land. Now, i watched cpac and they talked about Ronald Reagan and they talked about trump. Has trump pushed, pulled, and nudged the Republican Party and the conservative movement into a much different place than where reagan had it . We had to separate where donald trump stands for and separating himself from the rest of the party. He is the president of the United States right now, but his conduct and so far his foreignpolicy has been erratic and dangerous. Ronald reagan and then president not onlysucceeded him, did our allies know what we were ultimately, led to the downfall of the empire. On domestic policy, same thing. We have a president who comes from a business world. But a blank slate, based on his mood swings and what we saw on fox and friends or read on a website, that is not how we conduct policy because real lives are at stake. Be people who will no longer be alive or free a year from now because of the actions of this president. It is not something we should take lightly. It is not something Ronald Reagan were people who knew Ronald Reagan appreciate when people try to join this guy with president reagan. Tillerson and the National Security foreignpolicy advice to him. We just had a security conference in munich where the Vice President , secretary of defense, mercedes John Mccain John that is not what happened. Saying, thecain was president of the United States [indiscernible] explain how you saw what happened there. John a security conference in nato allies, now it has grown, the russians come, kind of ridiculous, you have all of the Security Leaders of Different Countries coming to speak and it is a chance for us with potential and real adversaries. Mccain for 30 years, has led that conference and led to that conference this year. Governor kasich when as a delicate delegate. A lot of europeans there were distressed. They are not hearing anything out of mr. Tillerson, they are distressed about the president. You can send mike pence theyre all you want in general mattis there, but our allies need to hear from you. It is not a criticism. It is a fact. He needs to get back to being president ial and step up and understand that words matter. Unfortunately, tweets matter now. He has to accept responsibility for this. Speaks and has to set the tone. Mercedes one john mccain went and that, it being critical of the president , i dont think it is helpful. John what he said was do not lose faith in the American People. With you if you are in the ukraine or the baltics. You might take that as criticism, but it wasnt. One big issue is when john mccain says that, i am not saying true or not, but he is speaking from his perspective and we have seen from the president we have seen from the president back and forth on nato and ukraine. And it is quite well known, he has yet to say one critical , and about putin ,ppressive thug on a good day he has attacked nordstrom and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rosie Odonnell and the list goes on and on. One thing that really puzzles me when it comes to the national , how conservatives support trump and what they think about his approach to russia. Im not a hawk and have always should try to find ways to lessen tension and find areas where we can work together. Time, ihe same recognize putin has a sickly declared war on democracies throughout america and back at who, People Like Us disagree with him, would have to flee or fear for our lives, and yet, trump, again, it is just uncanny, could not say a negative word about him, could not talk about oppression in critics of putin, could not say anything about russia in western europe and elsewhere. To me, it is mindboggling. Mercedes nikki haley made United Nations made, settler critical. But he cant. Thinkstion is what to you about mercedes former bush National Security official. Like, whatause i was should we do with russia and he was like, when you have senators, they will have a stern all theseaking comments, understandable. The president of the United States is in a position where it would be to the benefit of the United States and russia to try hillary used the word reset, but how to have a better relationship with russia. It cannot start on the footing of that comment. It has to start with building that relationship. [indiscernible] mercedes a schoolyard bully. What im saying is there is one thing Vladimir Putin understands. Her here,ands more of that is one. Andnderstands strength, some conservatives say we need to just work with a conservative we need to deal with them, meanwhile, the key strategist of the white house has been meeting with albright and white supremacist leaders in europe going against our allies, some of whom are funded by putin, also sending signals that are totally inappropriate. Nato alliesd with and stand with americans are at we need a foreignpolicy based on values. You parseit is just it the way you want to parse it. Look at that speech. Some lets go to questions. There is a microphone there and a microphone there. Some questions. There is a microphone there and a microphone there. Talked about how divided our country is and how there are two sections of it that trump is talking to. Like they hear one and we hear something else. I am wondering what we should be doing on our side to bridge that we and on your side, how bridge the gap when the president consult costly walks into non controversial anders and objectively lies in terms of fox news, i check every morning just like the president. I rarely see overlap between them and the times as well. Are those things helping to create the ultimate reality . I think, obviously, starting from the top, there is foxnse, and youre watching once in a while, and you are able to get as much news as you can and see what people are helpful things a in general. Block int is the conversation. We have been debating on live , the reality is you howly have a discussion on to find common ground. The first person i call is my worked where i work and he is a democrat and im a conservative. About where we can go you are finding that with President Trump, he is not an he will try to work with different sides of the aisle. Would it help if he could control his tweeting and not go with a gut reaction and realize words matter . I think that would be incredibly beneficial for him. He is who he is. It is how he wants to and not necessarily use the media which anyone who has had personal contact with him will tell you he is not. The whole idea that he wants to be a dictator, he says it all the time. He is focused on what i need to do to get the economy going. Why is he up at six clock in the morning tweeting at Arnold Schwarzenegger . Get is that he is not going to be focused on the policy stuff. [speaking simultaneously] press, andating the it is only the Big Press Conference in so far in his presidency. We interrupted policy, but how come you are not being fair, doing this . How can you send a message to sean spicer while he is trying harder . He is not always on the in being no interest friends with the press. That is a concern. You know past press secretaries, and stan perino is a friend of mine, they had helpful relations with the press. This position. Analyzing itself for like days whend when donald end donald trump kept calling people. They kept analyzing folks. Why are we the enemy . John i mean the president of the United States calls anyone or anything an enemy of the American People . Mercedes but it was about the independent press. [speaking simultaneously] whether the new york times, the russian post, what they report. Mercedes but it terrifies them. That doesnt say they are wrong, but misguided, which is fair to do, but probably be the enemy of the American People, do you believe that . Enemy of the American People . Mercedes i dont. That is an opinion. David you talk about being divisive. What could be more divisive than saying that . Call for coming together, and we all want the country to be less disive, then give a pass to someone in authority who creates that division with his tweets at his words without any consequences. That is my speech. [laughter] john you said it very well. David lets go to questions. Speak over here. I am sure it is about the extent to which you think the strategy is being pursued by both parties ok. [indiscernible] check one, too. The extent to which you think the strategy being prepared by that republicans and democrats have been regional and that a lot of the de facto leaders of each party like to say the republicans, general mcdaniel and speaker and Vice President and chief of staff, are all from the midwest, and for the democratic party, schumer and warren, booker and sanders, are all from the northeast, and how that can play out geopolitically moving forward with some of the fors that are sort of ripe the taking are not being responded to in terms of people from those places being elevated to the forefront of the discussion . Governor kasich is also from the midwest. John the democratic side will not have a leader of the party until they have a new standardbearer running for president in 2020, so we dont have 18, 20 people running for that. Who knows what that will be. Both parties are in search of identity, quite frankly. We started upon mr. Trump, and he was able to win. Hillary clinton, and i said earlier, she moved around to try to beat back senator sanders. Socialist72yearold who almost won the nomination. Energy to most of the the primary battle. Then you had our situation. Both parties currently are still searching for what they will be in the next 10, 20, 30 years, but we will see where the democrats are, what they will be when they have their primary battle for president. That is how that works. On our side we will see what happens if this president serves out his term or if he runs for reelection or is president for eight years. We dont know. So we cannot really do much about our situation until it is the post trump world. It is my opinion. It could just be the trunk world. Is that what we will stick around for . Mercedes yes, for now it will. Is he going to be the party for the next 14, 20 years . The leaders to shape the party. So if he is bringing in more white working, workingclass individuals into the party, maybe so, but you want to make sure you talk about the big ten, women, ringing in hispanics, africanamericans. One of the things donald trump should focus on in terms of helping build intercitys inner cities. Donald trump has done a terrible job of even talking about it. He does not have a problem going to self africanamerican leaders south africanamerican leaders. David there was months and months went by when he would talk about that, then did not. Mercedes i dont think they do enough. They give up the africanamerican vote to democrats. Is the caseink study to watch in the state of texas, which is a growing hispanic population and jobless, and what does it mean in terms of when you saw the map, it was not trump or hillary. Are we changing the demographics, and will they tell us where republicans need to go . Right now it is the republican governor, abbott, is there. John cornyn, who they have very high standards in the community. That is the trend you want to sustain. Julia castro will be running against. You dont think so . Interesting. Both forank you coming. I am a sophomore here. I had a question about the comparison between trump and the reagan administration, and i would love to get your thoughts on this, how you can get that comparison given the 1980s approach with reagan and Margaret Thatcher with World Politics and what we see from the Trump Administration and chief bannon, economic nationalism. And i was at a talk with you and your husband, and donald trump talked about pipes that can be just for American Companies and create products here. That is a drastically from worldview from the reagan approach of the 1980s, solving problems of those time, the end of communism in europe, and i would like to see how you can see and reconcile both of them as conservative. Mercedes i know it is not on the economic growth, they want the growth in terms of jobs. They would go about in different ways. Less speculation, which is what trump and reagan would agree on. Tax reform. Remember the last big tax reform was in 1986, so a better economy in terms of tax reform. I think reagan spoke to the working class. The reagan democrats. He effectively did the same thing in the battleground states. The rust belt states. There is comparison there. Foreign policy is where we have been trying to figure out where trump will go. He is more isolationist, but at the same time, which is not like he wants togan, but show the strength. They talk about in the trump world, very much taken from reagans Foreign Policy position. So while there is a lot of there are solid differences because i think trump will not be one to want to be going into like iraq. Ellie george w. Bush. Georgeot his not like w. Bush. It is not his style. This is similar though with the military buildup to reagan. John it is complicated. Do you want to talk . David it is a fair comparison. Was notn Foreign Policy for interfering in world affairs. But he had a Firm Response dealing with the soviets at the time i continued what president s and did president nicks and did with china nixon did with china. And you focus on the evil empire, latin america and elsewhere, promoting marcos in the philippines. I want to make sure it is not all just the glorious reagan days. Trade,ut on the topic of there is a big difference with the reagan administration, but those were different times. Nafta was successful in this country. ,t was successful for canada for mexico. Tpb would have been successful in moving away from the chinese shadow and more to america. And from the strategic National Security point of view, that would have been better. O there are major differences with donald trump there is a mishmash of policy. David this is the last question. You get it. Oh, two. Quick questions, quick answers. My question, thank you for being here, let me give you a background first. I am from dallas, texas, and i go to brown, one of the most liberal colleges. I understand the perspective, and that is one of my strengths. Is, after looking at, after evaluating the facts, the alternative facts, and the facts, taking trump out of the picture and looking at what he does, what he says, a lot of the Little Things are bothering me. Not showing up to the National Security briefings, taking away the spanish part of that website. Spinning the russian communication into a league of National Security. Leak of National Security. These, i at all of just want to understand, i want to learn why i should continue insupport someone like that terms of the United States and what i can say for myself or other people to convince them to continue supporting him. Before the election, i understood if you were a trump supporter, i get it. I respect that. Now i am confused why i should thank you think he is capable. Think you think he is capable. Mercedes the relationship is in terms of you will see the broadening democrats. He is a relationship guy. If you are able to negotiate the deal, bring the jobs back, he is very much focused on pushing forward his agenda. You can believe in his campaign promises. That is where he is going. There is a lot of other noise which makes it very difficult, and it would be wise if he could talks about what he gets done. He did get to work. I really is about, how can focus on helping the guy in the or wherever his heart is. I do think he gets a little distracted with things like necessarily dont really matter. In terms of nuclear weapons, he is so easily distracted. [speaking simultaneously] john i want to say be involved, speak out, participate, watch fox, read the new york times, go outside your ecosystem. Be openminded, make euro decisions. If you are opposed to it, speak out and participate. Americanal for the clause that people get involved in democracy and matter what your views are. David and this is our last question. My name is naomi, i am from las vegas, nevada slash tijuana, mexico. A few days ago, the president met with a lot of leaders from historically black colleges, within the same leaders came out with official statements on their websites talking about how they felt played and nothing came out of it except for an Instagram Photo op. Ou can go on the website it is not alternative facts. So i am a firstgeneration mexicanamerican. I dont want an administration who looks at us to fill a quota. You say, those numbers are good enough. We are not numbers. We are human beings. How do you think this administration actually reach if to us and care about us that will be putting people in the administration who represent us, not just white men . What steps will it take beyond a photo op . Mercedes i am working closely with a hispanic who is secretary of labor nominee. His keythat for one of advisers in the white house, the public liaison, someone who i worked mostly with him during the campaign who has done an outstanding job reaching out to hispanics in key battleground states in particular. I know it is important. It is an important part of what they want to do in terms of reaching out to the hispanic community. It will start with the jobs. That is where the key is for them and helping to this dark in helping to start this school choice, which would benefit in thates more so than case as well. It will be based a lot on policy agenda. And it is unfortunate because i scenariohim that is a he wants to focus on, and he has got good people in place that this is what they have done. They moved over to the white house. We have someone else also hispanic running as director for Media Services to the white house. These are people i know and trust and work with. They get it. I know they will be very vocal voices, and so is Reince Priebus who supported them. David let me ask you. What are you looking for . What would convince you that this president and people around him cared about you, your community and your concerns . Like he said, the Little Things, not calling out entire groups of people and having hateful rhetoric. That is a big issue. But also policy, like she said. Having aation, just token hispanic or token africanamerican is not enough. Reaching into the local communities, asking us what we want. I have not been seeing a lot of it isbut hopefully something they will start considering. John we need to do more of that , and both of us have been longterm advocates of that for a long time. So we as a party need to do it, and people need to do it as well. David let me thank our panelists. [applause] david thank you, all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 tonight at 8 20 p. M. Eastern time, conservatives talk about hollywood, pop culture, storytelling and the conservative message. Here is a preview. Hollywood,tream there is still a tacit blacklist. When it works is this. I have worked a lot in hollywood. You walk in, you are trying to sell a script, and their assumptions made in a room. It is a friendly conversation. You are trying to sell something. The odds are against you all the time. I walked in during the , and aobama election Fairly Famous director called me about an old script i had written. He said, i like it, would you come in and read with me . I walked in to read with him, and within two to three minutes of the meeting beginning he said, republicans dont really care about mitt romney. They just want the nword out of the white house. He did not say nword. That puts me in a position of either sitting there and letting him assume i am a person that thinks like that, or politely as i did correcting him, ending any chance to sell. That happens 30 of the time. And to tell one other quick story of a woman i know with story ideas, she ordered someone to run the pitch, she said, on my way to a hillary fundraiser, pitch it to me then. That creates an atmosphere that is difficult for conservatives to operate. The arts are a difficult profession. I have lived in the arts for 30 years. It is a tough job. Everything is harder. Steve joining us on newsmakers is congressman phil roe. He is the chair of the House Affairs committee. Thank you for being with us. Phil roe thanks for having me on. Steve and joining us with the questioning is conor obrien from politico and Kellie Mejdrich from cq roll call. Dr. Roe, i want to start with one of the questions that was given to the v. A. Secretary, and he said one of the problems in the department is it can take six to eight months to fire or discipline v. A. Employees. Is that one of the inherent problems . Phil roe