Transcripts For CSPAN Newseum Forum Focuses On Relations Between The Press And The Presidency 20170412

Him as bizarre as bizarre as that was, that wasnt the salient issue for me, personally. My problem is that he came in, shouted at everybody, and refused to take questions. That was a fundamental violation of the purpose of that room. Its not about questions, its about answers. I have heard sean and a lot of different venues and i think he was very subdued and contrite today, but i have seen a diminishment of that room over the last three months. That the Obama Administration sought to cool it down after robert gibbs was the press secretary, who would make news from the podium with great regularity. I dont think president obama appreciated that. I think that what we have seen is a series of missteps. I think it is entirely appropriate and unbiased to say that the level of information and the quality of information we received during these briefings, is, i believe, not up to the standard of what we believe ought to be in the Briefing Room. I would put this out for mr. Spicer and his staff. Receivingen on the end, many times, of lectures about what we need to do, professionally, in terms of dealing with our process. I would encourage he and his staff to do the same. Flex when i was White House Correspondent, a lot of the information came from outside the white house. Same logistics. Logistics . One of the things it you learn covering the white house over time is that theres information you get from inside the building but the information you are really after often comes from outside the building. It was something that took me a while to grasp when i first started covering the beat and it was coming back to the beat this year, after being off on the twoaign most of last year, of my resolutions were to go to the briefing less and spend more time outside the white house. You find that you just, i think, get a lot more depth in your coverage when youre talking not to the Communications Shop or policy shop at the white house, but to who is talking to them on capitol hill. Who is talking to them in the lobby and world . One of the great things about President Trump is that he talks to a ton of people. The traditional people in washington that you would expect him to. His friends and associates from new york, maralago, his business world. As reporters it gives us this great advantage to not only know the people surrounding him every day inside the white house, but to really get perspective about him from outside. [indiscernible] i agree with everything that julie is saying. Some of the best insight i have gotten into this president comes from his friends, who dont necessarily live in d. C. I think one of the things that makes covering this white house really striking is the sheer amount of energy that this president has and that sort of requires a 24 7 new cycle in a way that is on a whole new level. He tweets at 6 00 a. M. 11 00 p. M. He we are often reporting out stories overnight, literally until midnight, 1 a. M. In the morning. I think that you always have to be prepared, when Walking Around that white house. Because obviously he sometimes invites reporters into the oval office. I was invited in for an impromptu meeting with him. You always sort of have to be on your toes to make sure that you are getting the best information pushing the headlines forward. Jim, i mentioned that back and forth. Has it evolved . Jim i havent been invited into any private meetings in the white house. [laughter] jim perhaps you could have figured that out. He and i had that back and forth in january, which by the way, conferencey news during the transition, remember that. He only had one News Conference on january 11. Nine days later, during the inauguration, i was positioned on the north lawn of the white thee right in the middle in president and first lady walked right past me, i threw a question at him and he answered it. To some extent he knows television. He is not going to miss a moment if it is going to serve his purpose. I think that to some extent, thats what happened on january 11. He and i had this back and forth. To quickly go over that, my feeling is that our News Organization was being attacked on that day. Our organization deserved information. Things have evolved since then. You notice that there was that one News Conference where they went backandforth and he asked me if i was elated to alexander acosta, labor secretary. That did happen, you can go back and look at the tate. I think that to sign to some extent he enjoys the sparring. The one thing i do want to say, and we will probably have time to talk about all of this, we are told that we live in this nothing matters world or that we are in this posttruth world. That couldnt be further from the truth. Now more than ever, speaking truth to power means everything. That is what i was trying to do on that day back in january. That is what we at cnn and my colleagues here try to do every day. Would you do it the same way again . I would, yeah. If our if our News Organization is being attacked, my sense is that that cannot go without any kind of response. Really quickly, that night i heard from a news executive from another network who said hey, you did a great job today defending our network and i said i was defending all of us. Could be your network tomorrow charlie, you covered inside of the Obama Administration inside the white house, from the examiner to breitbart. Breitbart is obviously a Different Organization in that you have previous ties with someone inside the white house, steve bannon. You have to kind of separate that, i suppose, and how you cover the white house. Talk about the unique challenges for you . Absolutely. And the campaign the president made a lot of promises to our readers tom readers, to conservatives in general. He talked a lot about immigration, talk a lot about building a wall, talked a lot about helping the vets. He made a very long list of promises and we were one of the conservative outlets that took him at his word and really, just republished everything that he said as it was. We didnt suggest that maybe he was lying or fake on these issues. We have a bigger responsibility to tackle his work here. To hold them accountable to the promises he made to the readers. Is a unique, this white house, in trying to get information for you . Do you have more access . Charlie thats really funny. The frustrating part, i think, is that when people read the Breitbart News website and just assume that everything is coming from a steve bannon dispatch. I suddenly dont get phone calls from him. Hes now a source an pretty much a useless source in many cases. [laughter] talks toyou probably other outlets more than he talks to Breitbart News. He probably talks to other outlets more than he talks to Breitbart News. I think that steve bannon is pretty open on who he is and were going to cover him as a member of the white house. If he strays from anything that our readers believe in, we will definitely hold him accountable. Sean glenn talk about the policy decisions versus the process. Here in washington, obviously, we get a lot of behindthescenes about who is up and who is up into his down and what is going to happen. Many things could be inside the white house very soon, personnel wise. How do you balance that as far as coverage . First of all, i dispute the process the notion that process is an policy. Process is policy. That manifests itself clearly. When sean first started making the argument, if im not mistaken, having to do with the devin nunes midnight visit to the campus of the white house, where he kept saying as we were asking questions, really important questions about who he was meeting with, who authorized the meetings, did the president know about these things, sean would reduce that to us asking questions about how people were dressed, the gate that they came in. It behooves him, from his , topective of being a flak make a differentiation between process and policy. I will tell you that i started off my career, crazy as it might sound, improv an policy. I covered poverty in new york city for five or six years. I would like to engage members of the administration on serious policy discussions and i find it difficult to find people to engage at that level. So, i think in general the process in which this particular is in, itson important, as they have violated issues of process and in some instances i dont think they believe that having they fully understand what the appropriate process was. Were you surprised when the president called . I think he gets props for this. This is something he doesnt get enough credit for. Its funny, again, maggie and i and a bunch of other people who cover the white house right now come out of the crucible of new york city hall. I have said very often, having covered the Obama Administration and bush administration, this seems more like a national ty than a white house. Covering Rudy Giuliani and ed koch was not the similar. A lot of my colleagues who had covered the white house as the white house were like what the hell is this . I was like, this is an end koch 1987 press conference. Ed koch 1987 press conference. [laughter] we talk about and had the names of six or seven reporters he would call on and he never diverged. He would ask him a 32nd question 3032nd question and he second question and he would give a 28 minute answer. I think in general he is much more willing to engage and he deserves credit. What about access . Glenn is right, there is this perception that our access is being taken away. Because the president does reach out to reporters at times direct way, in that directly, in that sense he sort of differentiates himself. I never experienced that in the five years i covered the Obama Administration. At the same time i think the challenge becomes trying to delve more deeply into some of the policy issues and trying to get direct answers to our questions. You talked about the issue of process and that speaks to the very underpinnings of the white house it self. Thisve been following backandforth between steve bannon and Jared Kushner, and the reason that matters is because you look at the debate over syria. We know that is something that banning considers himself a nationalist and does not necessarily support. Those types of discussions matter. I think it becomes dangerous to downplay the significance. I am a guy who covers the process and i get that. I was just going off the sean spicer comment as he was leaving with greta. I want to go into the campaign and if that factors in your mind how to deal with the white house because a lot of us missed what was happening on the campaign and did not see it at the very end that it was going to happen. Does that factor into how you cover the white house now . I think it does, and one of my regrets from the campaign is that we did not take our anchors out with us on the campaign trail, or some of our executives. Perhaps i have post campaign stress disorder. We were talking about access, i am not sure access the issue so much as attitude toward the news media. The president , to some extent, has an unhealthy attitude toward the news media and i think i am being diplomatic and i say this. He referred to the news media as media, heest news called us liars and crooks and thieves and i cannot think of all of the other names. Ts of going after cnn that he would policy for and allow the crowd to continue those chance. Chants. Question, are you concerned about undermining american confidence in the news . We need people to believe what is being said in the mainstream news media. I think the president has to understand that he is doing real damage to what we do. He is doing real damage to the First Amendment in this country when he refers to the news media as the enemies of the people. I know some of that is production. He is from 5th avenue so there is a little bit of broadway. Maybe glenn has more insight than i do. I think words matter, and those kinds of attacks have to be taken seriously. I have talked to people inside the administration, why cant the president way off of some of this fake news and enemies of the people stuff . And they say, what do you guys do and throw it back in your face. At some point we will need a detente between this administration and the news media or else it will get worse and worse. We need people to trust us, and i think we have been acting in a way that garners that trust but the president does not like bad stories about him and this is how he responds. We have got to figure a way around it. What is so striking is there is the public perception, the Public Comments the president makes and then what actually happens behind the scenes. Agree, most of us would we have pretty good working relationships with trump officials. It is so critical to underscore the point, it is not just about the backandforth between the media and the president , it is about protecting our democracy. The point that jim makes about our First Amendment, i think sometimes that gets lost in the public debate. It becomes a fight between two sides, the press versus the president and that is not what the debate is about. On the campaign there was always this talk, this is where he is going to turn. This is where he is going to be different. Do you sense that President Trump is going to somehow evil in the way he can evil evolve in the way he handles this or is this how he is . This is how he is. He has lived a decade in the spotlight and there are things about him that never are going to change. We should not expect that is going to happen because he moves on to a new phase of his political career. At the same time, i think you are seeing a process in the white house where, i dont know if they are fully accepting at this point but they are learning you could you do get treated differently as president. Trump has relationships that come from being on reality television, that come from the business world, from the gossip pages of new york. That is how different different from how you are covered as president. I think that has been a learning curve for them. Sometimes im surprised when i hear from white house officials about what actually bothers trump in his coverage. Often it is not that stories are negative, it is the tone that a question was asked with. That bothers him. It is this feeling that he does not have the relationship with the Washington Press corps that maybe he had with the new york escort, but not press corps. If you are waiting for a policy evolution or personality evolution with trump, get over it, it is not going to happen. Charlie, does the serious straight syria strike change the dynamic and how is it perceived at your organization . Strikeainly, the syria was kind of a surprise for a lot of our readers but i think we covered it in a way that made sense, focusing how it was a little different than the America First Campaign Message he shared. I think in hindsight and the president even said, reassured people who are concerned about our foreign policy, he reassured them we are not going into syria. I just want to refer to his comments about the media. The president made these comments about the biased media and fake news, he did not do it to denigrate the press. He did it because it was popular among his base. His base has a real problem with the way the media is perceived and i think he was in a large way, playing to the crowd, something conservatives have complained about for a long time. But you think that he has gotten to the point where he knows he is the president , he won, he does not have to keep going back to the election . The campaign is over . Do you sense that he is fighting that pr battle still day today . We have an armada, what he calls an armada in north korea. I certainly hope he does. I think charlie is 100 right on the whole issue of it eating something be something that works with the crowd. Trump refers to people as customers, and i think he views it is a different mindset than we have had for a president ever. I think it is fascinating because we think of him, and he has held himself to being a businessman when in fact he is a salesman. Having covered new york real estate, you have got to sell the hell out of it. He has a remarkably he understands his capacity to sort of calibrate the kinds of, this balancing act that charlie was describing between what the base wants and what necessities the presidency demands. That is probably the most interesting dynamic, how does he reconcile what he has to do with the base versus as president . The syria thing is such a crucible. Liked, we like to be have to put that out there. The fact that this syria strike was well received on the left and right largely, and he was senators who from do not usually give him props, does that somehow, do you think, change his outlook on how he is going to deal with foreignpolicy decisions Going Forward . Possibly. I think he is the first person to tell you he got broad, bipartisan support for the strike. It was a real turning point for him because he had a number of rocky weeks and days leading up to that. A lot of people saw that as the moment when he really started to absorb those responsibilities as president. Based on my conversations with administration officials, they have acknowledged there is a transition going on with him, that he is starting to realize everything that worked on the campaign does not necessarily work in the white house. I think the syria strike was emblematic of that, the fact that it was very calibrated speaks to his internal conflict with engaging in some of these foreign situations. But absolutely, i think you are starting to see a shift in that regard of absorbing these responsibilities. I do not think he will change who he is but he is starting to accept some of the reality of being commander in chief. I think this is important for people to know about trump. His interest in knowing the realtime reaction to his decisions is so unique. President s have covered in the past are aware of their polling and aware generally of how they are being the, but trump wants to know minute to minute how he is being received. When you talk to some republicans, this worries them a bit because he is going to find himself in position as president to make a decision that he and his advisers think is right but they know will be unpopular. It is inevitable, it will happen. Where does he fall on that . Does he have the capacity to make a decision that is the right one even though the shortterm reaction will be negative . Can he deal with that and handle that it leaves people nervous, especially on foreignpolicy when the actual outcome is not known for years. I was going to say, if you look back at the president s tweets from 2013 where he was , theg, dont go into syria serious strike is an indication that he can change, he can change his mind on something, and that is not a bad thing. Sometimes when you are president of the United States you have to stop the campaign and start the governing. Wasnderstanding is that he deeply affected by the images of those children after they were gassed you have to give credit where credit is due. I am not saying this will be the best policy decision moving forward down the road, but when you have what we have had in washington where war crimes should be responded to and perhaps in a measurable way, on balance it seems he made the right decision. There is no sense he will change the tweeting. No. Live by the tweet, die by the tweet. He has not died yet. , io wonder at some point would love to talk to him at the end of his administration, what he thinks about these tweets. Honestly, they have gotten him in so much trouble. This issue of tweeting at that president Obama Wiretapped him, going back to watching spicer, one of the most excruciating things we have had to watch over the last couple of weeks is the white house trying to explain and justify the president s tweet, which is a misstatement of the facts that president obama did not wiretap trump tower. He says, we are talking about surveillance, it is a surveillance thing. Cnn is reporting that by talking to folks on both sides of the aisle and the intelligence communities and their staffers that no, the intelligence tells us at this point there was not even any unlawful surveillance going on and that susan rice did not do anything wrong, or conduct yourself in an unlawful way. These verbal gymnastics, i can understand why yesterday happened. The exhaustion, the level of exhaustion he must be feeling having to deal with this president who is just sort of unwieldy and difficult to corral. It must be a draining experience. If you wake up and see a tweet that changes your entire day, that is interesting in 140 characters or less. Second,ut that for a about covering a president who has his own printing press. [laughter] it is a unique thing. Anybody . I just wanted to mention, i think what upsets a lot of our readers is when you hear the media be so willing to exonerate using right as jim just susan rice, as jim justice, that they take jim just did, and they take a hostile attitude to the president. A lot of our readers see that is coming from one side. That is why they are comfortable with the president describing the media as the Opposition Party. They do not know too many of the president s supporters, and i think there is a difference in tone coming from the Mainstream Media versus breitbart. When you say i just let susan rice off, i did not let her off the hook. I doubt with her a couple of years ago where i did not let her off the hook. When the president recently tweeted that barack Obama Wiretapped trump tower, it is like watergate, do you think in the back of his mind he was thinking susan wright unmasked rice unmasked people and that is what i was thinking about . It seems the white house is fumbling around in the dark for a justification for these tweets which are just erroneous. My question is, why doesnt he just withdraw the tweet and the accusation . We have not gotten to that point. Why cant the folks on the conservative side of the news media see the facts as they are . Dont you agree, charlie, those tweets on their face are just wrong . The president was not wiretapped at trump tower by barack obama. There is an element of truth that comes from his tweets, and he was basing his tweet i am not talking about an element of the truth. I am talking about the truth. Why cant we just have the truth . [applause] cnnas much want to go after and beat up on cnn, which your readers do and your side of the aisle does, i was with steve bannon where he referred to us as the Opposition Party. We are not the Opposition Party, we are just trying to get at the truth. When you have a side of the news media that insist cnn is out to get the president or certain people in this country, it does a tremendous disservice to all americans. I do not think it is american to go after areas of the news media. Brett is a good newscaster. I watch him. I am not watching wolf blitzer. You can dvr. And i probably have. We have got to get to a point where we are not demonizing each other and cutting each others throats because we do not agree with one another. [applause] i am not trying to play to the audience here. I grew up in this city. People say, or member the days of Ronald Reagan and tip oneill . That actually did exist. Brett and i are friendly with each other, and i have a tremendous amount of respect for carl cameron and fox news. I would love for all of us to get away from this day where we are just ripping each other apart because of political differences. I think good people can disagree on the issues and it is time for good people to disagree in a civil way about how the news is covered in this country. I would love it to start down the street at pennsylvania avenue and i would love to see it in places like breitbart, and perhaps our folks can do a better job at that as well. I think there is sort of a go along, get along, everyone gets along in d. C. Climate is what americans are tired of. They are tired of the stories that everybody is hanging out and going out to dinner and partying. That happens with republicans and democrats too. It is not as if reporters are hanging out only with him across. But it is part of the establishment, part of the swamp. The Trump Supporters were verys egg of were very sick of. Charlie, the campaign is over. The best party i have been to in a year is the daily caller christmas party. I have a question about the president and his tweet. I think it creates a climate where the media is even more important, because the president has a platform as president obama did. President obama was very effective at trying to go around the media using twitter, facebook, white house produced videos, and present their side of the story. We probably could have been more aggressive as a press and making sure we were instantly coming in with fact checks and information to try to bolster what the actual facts were, not just what the white house spin was. I think we have stepped in and done a better job under President Trump. That doesnt happen without the press. The facts that get added on to the tweets, the context that gets added on, that does not happen without us. We play an incredibly vital role even when we have a president that has a huge platform. Glenn . Two data points. He is the least popular president at this point in his presidency, in modern polling history. A couple of reputable polls have him at 35 to 37 . Rasmussen hasst, him peeking occasionally above 50 . These are abysmal numbers. There is no honeymoon. Groups,g you hear focus primarily republican focus groups, they will tell you almost uniformly his supporters want him to tweet less. It is an incredibly powerful tool if he is able to evolve, and in the wake i notice the subtle difference, in the wake of the infamous wiretap saturday morning tweet, he has chilled it out a little bit and used his account more strategically. This i think is the overarching question of the presidency and a question that will manifest itself in its twitter account first. It has been my experience and the experience of other historians, the presidency shapes the president , not the other way around. I want to see how he fall. Evolves. He is not going to apologize, it is not the guys style, but his contrition is cloaked. What i want to see and i think we have seen it in the personnel roster of the west wing, and charlie knows this because his readers are probably hating it we have seen a normalization of the staffing of the white house. We have a National Security officer who was essentially handpicked by senator cotton, who was a conventional choice with a lot of conventional, militaristic, oldtime republican views. You have madison, the same old. You have steve bannon, whether he is your source or not, perhaps being moved to the margins. It was extraordinary yesterday when he told the New York Post he only knew bannon for a weekend. [laughter] if that is not writing, that is spray paint on the wall. Tillerson, picked essentially by gaetz and condi rice and others. He is chattering willynilly over the past 48 hours. Everything he says is incomplete variance with donald trump and what he said on foreign policy, which is perhaps why he wasnt speaking. For your readership, and that is support,of this mans the white house is moving in a much more conventional way. You could say, we have had three months of shakedown and this is moving in a fairly conventional republican direction. I do not want to overstate that because he is a really unpredictable guy but i think things are moving in that direction. I think that is absolutely right i think in terms of the thets, this is the way president feels he can have a direct channel to the American People. I was talking to one of his top officials who said one of the reasons why he reaches out to individual reporters is because he feels like it is the only way he can be heard, and cut through all of the noise. That is not to excuse some of the disinformation that jim described, but one of the things we are seeing why he will never give up twitter and i cannot underscore this enough we covered the Obama Administration and we had fights with them, not letting our cameras in to shoot a meeting. We would have a knockdown, drag down fight with the Obama Administration because of this very issue. Yes, it is important for the president to have a direct line to the American Public but it is important for the press to be part of that process as well. I do not think you will ever see him give up tweeting. His tweets have been more policybased to some extent, particularly in the wake of syria and dealing with north korea as well. I do not think we will ever see him give that up but i think it will be kind of an ongoing debate, more press access. Hei would like to point out has done i think eight interviews, six with Fox News Channel overall. I would point out that my request and Chris Wallaces request and shannon brands request, we are still waiting. So are ours, brett. And i know yours are too. If you could put in a good word. Maybe you can with me. I think we have a responsibility as the press to not throw up every tweet on the air in real time. [applause] to sort of process what is in the tweet, what does it mean to fact check it. I think we are having those types of discussions in our newsroom, how to better do that. What is something that we are not covering enough, from a White House Point of view or a white house relationship point of view . I think there is kind of a long list. If you look at a situation like north korea, which is getting covered on a daily basis in terms of the president s morning china, the president is warning china, the north korea story is massive and one that could potentially shape the entire direction of his presidency. Beyond warning china he will act alone, i dont think we have a great sense of what he is willing to do their. The consequences for the u. S. , for the region, for key allies in asia i think could demand a lot more of our attention. I think in terms of his relationship with congress, this is a political story, not a policy story. I am fascinated where trump will end up in 2018 when we are in an Election Year and he has this complex relationship with his own party. He wants the party behind him but does not feel beholden. Do we start seeing trump and his Organization Going out and primary people, are they going to start to raise money for primary challengers who were not with him . The idea of a President Trump without a fairly United Republican Party behind him for his last two years of his term, i think its fascinating. At political dynamic is something we should start focusing on. Your thoughts on what we are not covering enough . You have to give the president credit, during the campaign he tapped into something that nobody saw coming. This idea of the forgotten american, people who live in pennsylvania, wisconsin, ohio, indiana, folks in these towns where the factory was shut down. For eight years under the Obama Administration, they just did not address this issue. The Unemployment Rate was going down but people on the margins were suffering, trying to figure out how am i going to put food on the table and get my kid to college . President trump tapped into that and put some divisions out. He was dividing and conquering to some extent, it is because of the mexicans coming across the border and taking your job, and so on. I think it would be great for reporters to go back to some of these towns and find out what is happening, and are they waiting for President Trump to come in with some policies. A lot of those folks are on obamacare and you saw that flareup at town halls. One issue i am fascinated by and want to see covered, if he says hes going to build a wall and make mexico border pay for it, i want cameras on that wall and he has to be held accountable if that was just a campaign device, which Newt Gingrich called it, that was being used to get votes. Will we see a wall on the border . That is one of the biggest stories i want to see covered. It is no surprise i agree with jim on that. Our readers certainly care about the wall and whether trump will build the wall. It is have to started an hour readers will be happy. Start it and our readers will be happy. Maybe the future president will finish the job. I think jim is absolutely right. We in the media tend to focus too much on foreign policy, and we saw this during the launches in syria. I think you had a lot of reporters that got obsessed with the glamorization of going to war overseas, talking about the beautiful missiles. I think it was such a positive experience for President Trump, why would he think twice about launching another attack on foreign soil . It seems like we in the media are too comfortable with him acting overseas and do not question him enough. The mediahink that needs to focus more on domestic policy. So many lists do not even include creating jobs, and forcing the border, helping our that. Vets. These are things that resonated with all americans and i think that is why trump won the election. He needs to focus on that agenda. And hef happens overseas wants to act tough and make america strong again, and he wants to beat isis, i think the American People will have a limited amount of support at that but i think the priority should remain squarely on the United States of america. Yesterday he said he wants to go at health care again and get that done first before tax reform, and the relationship of of getting a fact legislative strategy to get from point a to point the seems to be where they have not line that up as of yet. I was just going to bring up health care. This was one of his Signature Campaign promises. The white house moved on rather quickly, made attempts to revive it, and we moved on quickly from that i think we need to resist the pull to move on quickly from one of his signature promises. He vowed to repeal and replace obamacare and this is something that a lot of his supporters want to see get done. Point,s he do it at this and are these efforts to revive it real . Other premises, on taxes, on infrastructure which might be the one point of bipartisan agreement, there needs to be some type of infrastructure overhaul in this country. While we are covering all of these other juicy headlines, it is important and critical to remember what he promised his supporters. I also think it is critical that we continue to track the way in which his family sorted into racks, plays a role sort of into racks, plays a role interacts, plays a role in this white house. This is something we have never seen. I think there are questions that have already been raised and will continue to get raised along the way. Listening to charlie talk about the notion, the prospect of having breitbart holding President Trump accountable for his Campaign Promises to me is fantastic. And i think represents to me, it is why i love media and i am the exact opposite of trump. I love reporters of all stripes working for all organizations. I feel like the loneliest reporter is morally superior to the most exalted flak lowliest reporter is more lease appear to the most exalted flak. Holding the president accountable is the ultimate validation of the way the system is supposed to work. I just think it is awesome. [applause] here is the reporting from the stage thing, as kristin was talking about, the family. This split between Jared Kushner bannon. He is why the president cannot let steve bannon get too far out of the tent do you want him in the white house working with you or outside holding the president accountable, reminding everyone this guy is not fulfilling Campaign Promises . He is turning into a third bush president he. That would be enormously damaging and the core support that the president enjoys to a great degree, has been consolidated as a result of the and the bannon coordination of that group than himself. What is interesting is watching Rebecca Mercer and the mercer family, a big republican donor, involved in breitbart, watching the daylight between them and what the trump agenda is will be an important space to watch. I think you are exactly right and whether bannon stays in the white house are not, he has a whiteboard with all the promises , andcandidate trump made that is easily transferable to an Online Presence that is hammering him every day. Julie, lets wrap up and talk about covering the white house Going Forward. Are you disappointed about the white house responded in her . White house Correspondents Dinner . You are on the board. We as a board invited the president , the Vice President , and the white house staff. There is a lot about the dinner that could change and is changing, and that is positive, but i do think that charlie made the point that there is a lot of coziness between reporters and sources. Yes, that happens to some extent but i think one thing that is nice about the dinner is it is an opportunity for our sources to come to a dinner that celebrates the press, and show that they respect us, that they respect the First Amendment, that they respect our role in these democracy. This democracy. The white house is choosing not to do that. I wish they would come. It would be good for everybody to come together and celebrate the First Amendment. To make our entire relationship with the trumpet frustration about the dinner Trump Administration about the dinner would be to overstate it. Maybe a late edition. Our invitation still stands. One of the things that is important about the dinner, i think we would all really welcome it if he would come. And if the white house staffers would come. We are also raising money for future journalists and that scholarship money is something that i think we all take very seriously. The fact that we are sort of paying it forward, that is one of the disappointing aspects of them not attending. How big is the 100 days and how big will it be lifted up as far as a marker, jim, for this administration . I was going to tell my story about how donald trump came by our table at the Correspondents Dinner a couple years ago and said, hey, good table. That did happen. Times have changed. And we are running out of time. I think the 100 day marker is very important and they are conscious of this inside the white house. The president would desperately like to see some wins on the scoreboard. It may have sounded a little crass but i spoke to a white house official who said, we feel really good about the way this last week has gone, referring to the syrian operation. Whether you want to call it a military strike or win on the scoreboard is maybe not the best way of putting it, but at this point it is really the only thing they can point to. Neil gorsuch. But it took the Nuclear Option for that to be done, which i think is an indictment of our political system. Is a wellqualified, yes, conservative, but certainly not objectionable from a constitutional standpoint, from a scandal standpoint. That it took the Nuclear Option to put him on the Supreme Court, that just goes to show you the partisan bickering and brinksmanship in this town is just nothing that we will see depart the scene anytime soon. Health care did not get done. The travel ban that tied up in the courts. Is the way they came into this administration is the way they were campaigning. That is to just tear everything apart, smash things, and show everybody who is in charge, who is the new sheriff in town. Previous administrations have had this town problem with things have not gone through and insight hindsight, had they done something with more bipartisan appeal they probably would have been in a better situation. Campaign isermanent something that predates the administration but is where we are today. I think the republicans will look at the 100 day mark and say donald trump has gone a good job done a good job. I am not sure there was a bipartisan feel on the democratic side after this election, and that chuck would have moved and done something differently. Had he put the ball in their court and said, lets do infrastructure first, had he not come out and said my inauguration size was bigger than Barack Obamas inauguration size, and had not tried to put a ban on seven muslim countries immediately and wiretapping trump tower, had he not done those things and tried a more bipartisan, that is what people wanted. Is that what your readers wanted . You talk about the bipartisan tone, the tone was very onesided. The overwhelming coverage was obsessed with the russia coverage. It is a story, i am not going to say it is not as tory, but the level of emphasis placed on that story, the details coming specifically from one side, the democratic party, that is where you have a frustration. That is why the president is always on twitter trying to combat these things, because how was he expected to move forward on any of these issues when 80 of the coverage is focusing on his campaigns relationship with russia, which the number one source of that kind of reporting is that you have to somehow believe the president would purposely sell out his country to get elected. I think that a lot of reporters are approaching it from that angle. It is important to point out, there are bipartisan investigation. It is not just democrats that are investigating. An fbi investigation as well. And the media is trying to do the investigating for everybody and squeeze out every little bit of information about it, and highlight it as the number one issue that should be important for american. I think a number of americans are frustrated. Your line of argument towns extraordinarily similar to me. , oh, the emails thing from every single clinton person. I am not saying there is no validity but suck it up. This is the big league, president of the United States. I remember at one of the trump events this nice lady grabs me by the arm and is, i wish says, i wish you would cover the clinton email story. I said, where did you hear about the clinton email story . I saw it on the news. I read it in the newspaper. Are we doing our job . We are covering the clinton email story and charlie, you have to agree, 11 days before the election the fbi director comes out and says, we are reexamining the clinton emails, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. I think that this story is going to continue to play it else out. Glenn was making a crescendo here. No crescendo. More of a face plant. Look, i think this is the big league. He got the job. You take a lot of slings and arrows. It is also the biggest bully pulpit and the world, and i think one of the real problems is they have diminished the stature of the office because partially that is how he got elected, running down washington. When you do that, you deny yourself the tools by which to amplify your own presence as the president so he is not capable of transcending these things, because of the way he has dealt with the crisis but also because and yell at them every night. The parts are wearing down, folks. Devin nunes, courageously or foolishly, stepped into the breach and got obliterated. Anybody who steps forward, steve bannon is working the one thing we can all agree, the man is working 18 hour days. [laughter] have an ice cream sundae. So people are wearing down. Trump wears people out, so the question is how can he reload, freshen up, and start using the office of the presidency to move beyond this . Lets say there is nothing beyond this russia thing, it is an a strange coincidence. You should be using the tools of the office and part of that, by the way is understanding the history of the place. It is one thing to come in and break the furniture and say you are going to do it differently, but have a sense of history so you do not have to reinvent the wheel every single time. Elected saying he would be the bull in the china shop in washington, and he has got the bull part down but he is trying to recreate the china shop you should trademark that. You have got to sell the china at some point and has something going on. Plus senatee 400 confirmable seeds that have not been nominated. And he is putting himself at a disadvantage. I understand him not wanting to do things the way other administrations have done it, but the government is massive and as president you cannot be involved in all the details every day. You have to have people in place that you trust, and by not filling those jobs he is putting himself in a weaker position. Broadly, one of the things that will be interesting to watch in the trump white house, can they thee. On the i beyond idea of winning the day and winning the week . You get that built in and are judged by the combination of your action and the decision to make, not what you made on a tuesday in april. I think that if he can get to that point, that will put him in a much more successful position four years from now. Last thing, is it possible for this president , this administration to succeed . To shoot the gap and actually do big things . Does this panel think that that is possible in this current environment . Takethink it is going to and i have been thinking it is going to take an act of contrition on his part. I think if he were to go public and say, listen, i have made some mistakes, tweets about wiretapping, some of these things were not thought out, i think it would do wonders. I think the American People are very forgiving. Look at what Ronald Reagan did during the iran contra affair. He came out and apologized to the country and immediately helped himself. President s who acknowledge their mistakes, admit the errors of their ways, reap the benefits of that because the American People are forgiving people, and he was elected. There are a lot of people out there who agree with some of what he wants to do, particularly on the economy. I think he would do a Great Service to himself, as glenn said, and i do not think he apologize once on the campaign, never admitted he did anything wrong. There could have been something about megyn kelly where he said reach weeding something about heidi cruise may have been a mistake. That is the only thing we heard during the entire campaign. To me, that would do wonders. He absolutely could succeed. It would take a little more selfdiscipline on the part of the white house, and some of it will be out of his control. The impactrestimate of a Strong Economy and a country that is not engaged in war, and the reverse of that when he is running for reelection in three years. He cannot control all of that. Charlie . Success,k he can be a especially since he has republican majorities in all three branches of government. We are anxious for a w. Exactly, and i think if he can wrangle congress to get behind some of his agenda that the American People loved, his agenda was very much a bipartisan, proamerica agenda. Fixing jobs, fixing thats, fixing problems with health care , i think absolutely americans can get behind that and he can be a successful president. Can,absolutely think he and part of that process will be learning how to get a deal done in real estate and business versus in washington, and figuring out who he can work with, who can be potential allies, and who are the democrats who will be willing to reach across the aisle. There are 12 Senate Democrats up for reelection where he won 82 support or more. Some leverage. Since i made a bunch of dumb predictions in 2016 i am going to make a dumber one now. I think his first term will be a tale of two presidencies. Guide, theys any are going to lose some see. Seats. Hink lose some but i think his presidency will follow bill clintons first term, where a midterm, and erosion of his support i disagree with charlie the will make erosion him a successful president. Doing deals when he has no choice because his we will save this tape. Thank you very much. [applause] analysts, thank you so much much. Lists, thank you so i am the president and ceo of the newseum. We would like to welcome you to our first symposium. We are grateful for the support from our primary sponsor and the kohler fund for their support. Perhaps no one has done more interviews on behalf of trumpate and president then our next guest, Kellyanne Conway, special counselor to the president. Womannway was the first to run a successful president ial campaign and it is really a pleasure to welcome her to the newseum. Interviewing ms. Conway is veteran media reporter mike wolf , currently running for the today, reporter and usa and spends a lot of time covering the district, the president , and the press. Please welcome Kellyanne Conway and michael. Michael wolff. [applause] michael it is nice to be here. Kellyanne and i have been having this conversation since early in the transition, starting the media,ation about the which appropriately started at michaels restaurant in new york. So, a report card. Media, lets make the f as steve media bannons Opposition Party, and the obama as honeymoon. Where are we now . Of foure as a mother who comes home with report cards routinely, i will just give and i, incomplete. I think it is too early to render a judgment and a grade on this president , this administration, and the press. I want to say that some of the words being used that you are repeating i do not use and have not used. I think it is important in a healthy democracy to have a free and fair press, and part of that democracy is to have a president the, no matter who the occupant, that is shown respect and is shown and openness to cover all of the items that he has put forth, and his considerable accomplishments in the first 80 some days that have gone uncovered. But ift want to grade you ask me one thing i would change, or one grievance i might coverage,s not biased because if there is biased coverage i have faith in the American People that they will see that and say, that is really unfair or, that is really over saying the you keep same thing over and over again and im not convinced it is news. I have faith in the wisdom of people. My grievance would be what i call incomplete coverage, it is the many things that we hear from americans that are meaningful to them and consequential to them in the first 100 days and do not get the same amount of coverage of say, this executive order or that attenuated, unproven relationship from the campaign with a certain country. That is really a thing, because if you are an american, and a coal miner who came to the white house or someone who lives in the northwest, if you are somebody who will benefit directly from the president having opened up the keystone Dakota Access pipeline, this all matters to you in a different way than you are hearing. Michael what about the tonal issue . How do you feel waking up every morning and you see democracy dies and darkness . Does that wrangle, does that send a message . Thehere a message beyond leads in each story . Kellyanne a few things, and i think they are different given that this is 2017. Theres this quest to make interviews go viral, where one has to wonder if the interview being conducted to inform the viewers with a Larger Population or electorate more broadly, or is the interview being done in a way that is meant to entertain other journalists or impress advertisers or executives . That is one thing. The other thing is, you can turn on the tv more than you can read in the paper because i assumed editors are still doing their jobs in most places. People literally say things that are just not true. [laughter] they are not even disguised as opinions. There are people who presume they know what is going on in the white house, how the president is thinking, what motivates him. They stated like it is a fact, and it is not, often, and that is all right. Tothe same time, i listened your other panel and there was a discussion about twitter and the president s use of twitter. It is true that the president regards his social media twitter, instagram, facebook, he has millions and millions of followers, he looks at that as a way to cut out the middleman and communicate directly with people. It is what i call the democratization of information which means you do not have to wait for the evening news to see what happened that day. Everyone can access it at the same time. It could be the guy on the job, the stayathome mom who is busy with her children, the billionaire ceo who has 20 people outside his office checking social media. Everybody sees it at the same time. Athink we have to have conversation about the use of twitter among the media because there are things said about this president that would never pass an editors test. Something i talked about on the campaign, it is just true and it continues on. I see people live tweeting at sean spicer while he is in his press conference. Michael obviously there has been other republican, conservative, and rightwing administration which the media in a businesslike way. What is the difference here . Ere an obviously continuing resistance and that has, iessage would certainly argue, not been there before . Kellyanne some of it is who this president is and the unexpected result that he is the president. I think people were not repaired for the result and did not prepare their viewers and readers the result. I am astonished that in a nation that many people, the media are constantly saying is divided, that so many people never even entertained the possibility that in a selfdescribed divided country, one of the other two candidate might actually win. I think of it as being caught unaware and leaning so far to the other side that the race is over, the path is gone and the Republican Party will be destroyed, you will take down every candidate with you. This is going to affect generations. If you go back and look at those headlines and see a lot of what was said on tv, it is unequivocally wrong and embarrassing, but we do not talk about it. In some ways, it was we did not see this coming so it must not be real. Lets try to make it not real. The other thing is there is so much media and this constant opportunity to engage. You have all the social media platforms. You have the media using them fileonly, not waiting to the story for the next day or the evening news. We just have an ongoing opportunity to communicate. We leave this event for a brief house pro forma session. No business will take place today. This is live coverage on cspan. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, washington, d. C. , april 12, 2017. I hereby appoint the honorable andy harris to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, paul d. Ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by our guest chaplain, the reverend Michael Wilker of the Lutheran Church of the reformation in washington, d. C. The chaplain lord, god, you hear the cries of those oppressed by violence and enslaved by sin. You bring us out of the narrow confines of ignorance, greed and death with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. We pray for jews who celebrate passover this week. Continue to give them life and liberation for generations. Thank you for blessing them to be a blessing to the nations. We also pray for christians who remember when jesus celebrated the passover with his friends. He was crucified by roman imperial power. As christians celebrate the resurrection of jesus, bless them with renewed joy, courage and compassion. Even as we remember your gracious, passionate and saving acts, we grieve that your children throughout the world are suffering famine, hard labor, Violent Attacks and statesponsored executions. Embold in us to join your divine work to heal the world and share your abundant life with all creation. Amman. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to section 2a of House Resolution 242, the journal of the last days proceedings is approved. The chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Pursuant to section 2b of House Resolution 242, the house stands adjourned until 10 00 a. M. On we go back to our live coverage of the event covering the trump white house. Kellyanne at least do not keep getting it wrong by covering the president the way you covered him as a candidate. The other thing is i saw during the campaign what i see now, that there is a comfort in sameness. I do not see the media as a conglomerate or stereotype them as one date group. One big group, that would be wrong. But there is a comfort in same ness. Familiarity breeds contempt. Questions 30e same different times. Clear when i came to the white house that is not what i wanted my primary role to be. They are all the same questions. On friday everyone wanted to cover palace intrigue. Do you know what happened on friday . For the first time in 11 years a republican to that Supreme Court was sworn in. 40 years ago no one will remember these staffers name, but they will remember deal gorsuch because remember neil gorsuch because he would have been on the bench for 40 years. Real news, what will impact people over time. You to divide and conquer a little bit better. Michael why is the internal white house story such a big story . I am not sure these names will be forgotten. They are being enshrined in Popular Culture in a way that other names and other administrations were not. Why is this such a big story . Kellyanne ask the people that are covering it. The exclusion of covering what happened the day before. This is a president who took the issue of trade and illegal immigration as a candidate and singleted them from digits trade was not even asked in many polls as the most important issue and took those issues and made them about fairness to the american worker, the american economy, to those who had suffered the 70,000 factories that had closed. As president , he and his secretary of commerce are taking a strong lead against abusers on trade. He has taken dozens of executive actions. There is one that gets all the coverage. It is about incomplete coverage. Beene will see what has done on jobs, the regulatory framework, can health care and tax reform pass . He will be judged by his accomplishments. When Health Care Reform passes. Michael on what basis do you him . The media judges kellyanne on what basis . They judge him according to their predisposed belief about what motivates him, what his personality is, how he makes decisions, what is important to. Im i think a lot of the right questions are not being asked. There is a comfort in sameness where people are afraid to go first. There are a couple to reporters aboutre doing a good job covering things slightly different. If you are all looking out of a pane of glass, you only have to tilt your head 20 degrees to 30 you are seeing what everyone else is seeing, but through an entirely different light. Michael what do you think the media wants . Kellyanne what do you mean . Michael they are in business like everyone else. Trump toy want donald be less rightwing, maybe they want him to be a democrat, often the media wants more access. Clearly, there is a deep discontent on the media side. Ask, am just trying to from your point of view, what do you think they want . What can you give them . Give them . You im trying to do a Little Family therapy. [laughter] kellyanne most members of the media want to get the story, want to get it right, want to have access, want to have access to the president , Vice President , cabinet members, senior officials. Some in the media want to prove they have been right about him all along. You have a couple of people in the media openly questioning if they should refer to him as President Trump. When have you seen that before . I was not raised that way. You respect the office of the presidency and its current occupant. You are pointing to individual people grappling with this big question. Some people are openly the heused to describe him is someone i believe has made tremendous sacrifices to become president of the United States, and for the right reasons. He has a way of connecting that is very organic. ,hat we were out spent understaffed, but he and mike atce were so good connecting as people. The media has not gone back to talk to those people. Some have. If we are just talking to each the coverage of candidate trump, nominee trump, president elect trump, President Trump, look relatively the same, we have not progressed on how to cover him as an administration. It feels the same many days. Michael the issues that have , many from thed president down, issues with the , a real sense of acrimony toward the media. I think this administration has characterized the media more negatively than any i can remember. Kind of think this administration talks to the media more than any other administration. Negativeu balance this view of the administration of the media, but the eagerness to talk. Everyone wants to talk kellyanne . Kellyanne if youre someone that the i never talked to media you are free to talk to the media as much as you want because no one would suspect you talk to the media, which is fascinating. Do you think he is covered fairly and objectively . Michael not at all. Democracy dies in darkness. Every time i look at this no, as someonent of view who writes about this time we are in uncharted territory. Having said that, this administration is more media crazy than any i have ever watched. You talk to the media all the time. You want coverage all of the time. When the coverage is bad. , there is this interesting kind of thing. It goes the other way, too. The media hates you, but cant get enough of you. You hate the media, but cant get enough of it. Is it the administration . Because you are looking at me. I have 4 kids, you cannot scare me. Michael i have 4 kids. Kellyanne we can be scared together. I do not want to overgeneralize the media at large. I see the White House Press corps, and a lot of people are there predawn and post dusk. That there are viral ,nterviews, but i am surprised the same word used to describe the president , the cabinet give thesethey will great interviews. The headlines will immediately orstruggle to explain, contradicted. Those are already written. People want to know what it means and why should i care. Ownle will find it on their if they cannot find it in the news. Hostile talk about the relationship, with a free and fair price, it comes with a responsibility to be fair as well as free. If you read peoples twitter feeds, i talked about it first during the campaign on a morning show. Important point. It would never pass editorial muster. Are in0 15 a. M. And you the building where you work, the tweets are not your own. Presidencying this objectively. You spent an hour of your day responding to people on twitter, tweeting nasty things to other journalists, that is not covered at all. When one thinks about one talks about the president tweeting, those covering him are tweeting. Some of those twitter feeds are a hot mess. We want the relationship to be better. I am a pro press person because i love democracy and the First Amendment. There is a reason the president decided not to attend the dinner, and we will stand with him. There is a twoway responsibility. The other thing i would say is there is a selectivity to reporting. The politico poll shows the president s Approval Ratings are higher than disApproval Ratings. You wont hear that. If it were the other way, it is every screaming headline on every cable station. There is a selectivity. What do we choose to highlight versus what do we choose to allow to recede into the background. Michael the New York Times appears to have a virtual beat. Which is often a frontpage story, the beat is the president. President trump is an aberrant president. Is largely owned by haberman. I know the views of maggie haberman, yet why does he speak to her . Kellyanne what do you mean his views of her . Michael he doesnt like her. Kellyanne why would you say that . Michael because he has told me. [laughter] kellyanne that is not true. It is inappropriate to say who the president does and does not like. Pointst made my entire about how he is covered like the guy sitting next to you on the bus. He is the president of the United States. He obviously respects her. He gave her an interview last week. Michael im wondering why she you cannotrites, follow what she says and not conclude literally, it is a beat. The aberrant presidency of donald trump. She is the writer of that beat. I know what the president has said about her. Yet, he reaches out to her. I am wondering, maybe that is a good thing kellyanne it certainly undercut the ongoing premise that he is not giving access to the press or is fair to the press. He does. He gives interviews. You mentioned someone by name who i regard as a very hardworking, honest journalist michael it is on me. Kellyanne a hardworking honest journalist who happens to be a very good person. A mom of 3 who works hard and seems ubiquitous in print and on tv, and has had a nice profile written about her. You mentionednce someone by name, it felt uncomfortable. Donald trump is a successful businessman, a wellknown new yorker who had vision when no one else did, who is a master someone who has always dealt with the press. This is not uncomfortable for him at all. He is a natural with the press. What is different is him seeing in politics. What is different for the press is covering someone in the presidency who is not a typical politician. Who you were not used a covering when they were a governor or a senator. You had the relationship with them and their staff that was government in nature. Everyone is still trying to find their way in that regard. President trump is someone who has had a relationship with the media, and frankly, had a lot of positive press when he has been interviewed about his businesses or his real estate projects, or other products he has put out there. Courses, which people love around the world. What is new is he is the typedent, and it is a new of coverage. I would implore everyone. When you think about how the first 100 days will be covered, i can close my eyes and tell you how they will be covered. Then i can tell you how america would want to see them. We will talk to america. If you can see the long list that matters to people, it is impressive. When people feel like jobs were created, or employers decided to retain a workforce here rather than bringing jobs abroad, the investments that were sitting on the shelf in billions of dollars with some of these employers, this is a president who did something for the jobseekers and job holders agree is intended to convey that message, whether or not it is covered. There is a story that has been talked about infinitely on tv that is almost gone this week, but i would argue there were always other things that would fill the vacuum. No one wanted to cover them. It is not exciting to cover energy independence. Common sense environmental regulations. It is not exciting to cover tax reform. It is not exciting to cover how to get tax on track with Health Care Reform. The forgotten men and women did not come out of nowhere. They still feel forgotten at how this president is being presented to them. Question. Process you have a quantitative increase in news outlets. Quantitative increase in the news you are producing. More news comes out of this in myhouse than any recollection. Kellyanne he is doing more. [laughter] michael he is making news, certainly. [laughter] in that situation dont you get to a point where you can never keep up so many news outlets, so much more news . Kellyanne you are asking me why this coverage question mark it is a sign of the times. There are so many outlets. So many ways to be the media all the time. Social media platforms come alive outtakes on a tv show, it is different than from decades ago. Even different from the last republican presidency with george w. Bush. There is a more disparate media. There are additional opportunities to always be on and covering. Michael how does that change , and thee of coverage nature of this white houses relationship with the press . Kellyanne people have a responsibility to look at everything done and attempted, that iste it in a way responsible, honest, and give people full information. I saw it during the campaign and now, theres a disconnect the what people are being told is important to them and what people think is important to them. That has not changed in covering President Trump, to candidate. Rump, to president elect trump people are being told this is what is important to you so we will have headlines and talk about it on tv. Important to you because i keep saying it is important to you, so do the 10 people on the panel. Theres not a lot of evidence. If you look at their own polling, what is important is not being covered. Jobs, economic growth, Health Care Reform. When i say covered, i do not mean check the box, i mean the issues at hand. There are people who say immigration is important, the border is important. One outlet covered attorney general sessions at the border. I understand why they do not want to cover the attorney general of the tarmac for an hour, but why not cover him at the border . Because it is not as exciting as palace intrigue . Michael if we had more time i would talk about the nature of message and who is responsible for that. How you clarify your message, and tell you get the media to hear your message, but we have no more kellyanne i still think our best messenger is donald trump. I favor him doing press conferences, giving interviews. None of us can be a substitute for that, not in the campaign or in his administration. He is the best messenger. He and Vice President mike pence are the best spokespeople for what is happening in this administration. Delivery, what is different is that delivery is not just a style. Color tie are they wearing, who is behind them in a shot, system. Is a we in the administration are delivering the message through different outlets. That is the point. Social media, traditional networks, newspapers, other that people have online. People are getting information through so many different sources. It is a system. Unique toink, is these times. I believe that President Trump is a unique, wellpositioned messenger to meet that new call of the different systems, different opportunities, to message directly with people. Michael thank you, very much. [applause] thanks very much. Thanks to Kellyanne Conway and Michael Wolff for that great interview. What is the future of news in this divided and connected world . Have heard multiple participants say the news environment is changing rapidly. That is the big question for the next panel, moderated by a man who covers the ins and outs of the media story every day. The host of cnnss reliable sources. Brian a live edition of reliable sources this morning. In reaction to what kellyanne was saying, let me start with the editor of politico, the former editor of politico europe,. Next to her david kirkpatrick, the founder of techonomy and the facebook effect. Is a senior White House Correspondent for abc. She was covering the clinton campaign, and now covering the Trump Administration. Conway just said the press is presumptively negative. Are you presumptively negative . Presumptively cynical, but that is my job. Cynical. T just we have to with this administrations relationship with the truth and how tough it is to get at that. Cane start our day and i speak for all of us who sit in the Briefing Room in a negative manner . Absolutely not. That is not the town, from my perspective, of our coverage. Perception that there is an adversarial relationship more comes from the white house than our end of the Briefing Room. They want an adversarial relationship, or they perceive it to be the case. We are just doing our jobs. I do not think the complaints they have is any different than the Obama Administration, the bush administration, or any before that. It is the nature of the beast. Same complaints, but louder about it . Of what about the issue policy coverage. Just now, kellyanne was saying Jeff Sessions at the border was ignored. Im not sure why she said it wasnt covered. What is that your impression about the complaint of lack of policy . I covered him for about six years and i heard the exact same thing from the obama white house. Way and i would go to them and i would basically hear the same thing and sean spicer said this morning they want us. O cover policy the challenges the white house is focused on is up and down. It is not just the press that is engaged. I would say this is a longstanding complaint. We do cover policy. Reporters who cover policy alone. That is a huge investment. Point inive them a that the palace centric stories do pretty well. The difference is this white with ourlly engages reporters to talk about what is going on. Backee sean spicer push talk toto say dont reporters when they themselves are talking to reporters. When that give them reason for backstabbing or leaking . Yes. We had a story two days ago where we quoted six people in a thisng of 30 talking about strategy of 100 days. Do you know the sources yourself . I typically ask. I talked about this a lot. It seems like it is happening more and more. Every story, the number of sources being reported gets bigger and bigger. Says theygton post spoke to 18 sources. It is a sign of how much people are talking. Policy. About i would say until syria last content 70 of the that gets asked about these white house briefings is the press corps asking about whos doing what to whom inside the white house and can you clarify something the president tweeted about. A lot of this is self generated. One more question before we talk about the future of news. More broadly, the president s antimedia attacked him a came up attacke earlier. Hasnt hurt us with our audiences or has it not . I think it has created a more challenging environment. You are talking about the pages, but our people trusting . I dont have the data, but i feel the pressure in my response to that is how i set the tone for a newsroom and how we report and reminding reporters and editors that the basic rules of journalism still apply even in an environment where does not feel normal. It is imperative that we conduct ourselves as journalists would in any era. You verify information and try to get as many sources. You try to be transparent about how we got the information. Giving people a chance to respond and engaging with them. That does not change. If we do our jobs, i believe that is our best insurance for the longterm. We are in a weird environment right now. It may not be like this and 510 years. All i can do is make sure my newsroom is living up to the standards of journalism i learned 25 years ago and i think getting as many sources as possible you really want to have andreponderance of evidence feel completely confident about what you are putting out. We are under a lot of scrutiny that requires us to respond. It invited, but also connected world. We are wrapping up a morning of the future of news. Case that hishe tweets dont matter. That the only matter when cnn or politico report them. I can also make the case that this book and twitter allow him to go around the media. Have you see it how do you see it . Landscape ofe twitter and Facebook Changes everything. Somebody one a Pulitzer Prize for using social media to include his sources i mean his audience as his source and to create a collective process because the fundamental difference of a connected world, in my opinion, it is a participant is age. Everyone will participate whether you like or not. Every Single Person probably has one of these every Single Person in the room probably have one of these for it i think trumps tweets matter a lot. Would the things i comment on is this thing that was said in the Journalists Panel about how trumps tweets can be responded to. ,hats a legitimate complaint but if you listen to farenthold when he used trumps handle in a andt about his philanthropy then trump called him immediately. You connection direct a comment to the president and i might argue that it is a counter balancing factor. Regarding facebook versus , i think it is easy in washington, in particular and given we have a president who is so twitter centric, the primary way people get information is on agh facebook and oddly global level, the primary source of information for people is facebook. In all that like three or four countries and that is a big is going to continue to change the landscape. Youre saying facebook is the internet and is the news to a degree we may not appreciate . It is a place where people receive the news and because it is a to a medium, it creates a context that is fundamentally new. In my lifetime it is fundamentally new to have the ability to react and a position where you were formally a passive recipient. Rights some reporter suites are a hot mess. Do you worry . Do you think before you tweet . Without a doubt for it because back to how we started the conversation. The pressure is on all of us to not screw up and get everything right. Twitter as a medium is no different thing going on the air on world news or nightline for gma. ,ou cant screw up on twitter cant screw up on air, cant screw up online. There is no differentiation between the outlets in the of us are on, but i wanted to go back to what you were talking about right now in terms of how this social media impacts us in real time. Briefing,in the press when ensure all of us are aware sean spicer made the comment about the holocaust in syria that has since blown up, he made it and it landed in the press briefing. None of us really knew what to do with it. It took about five minutes or so. Im looking on my phone and suddenly we are seeing on twitter and from our news desk that this thing is blowing up. Said,e back around and sean do you want to respond to this . It was in real time that the comment was gaining traction and we gave him the opportunity to clarify. Itd not go very well and he ended up doing an apology. House i think is even struggling with how to deal with this and it certainly impacts our reporting on a second by second basis. Thats a fascinating example because i didnt know that is how that happened. We have heard a few times that. He press is biased i found that an anachronistic point of view. In fact, fox news is a number one cable channel. We cannot have the session we had here this morning without breitbart being represented. We are in a new landscape where there is a much broader range of voices in the media and it is because the internet has made this possible. Show thedote goes to world is much bigger than the press and i think the internet has brought in the range of voices dramatically and included everybody. There is a professor at harvard who did a study of the landscape of the internet and actually the landscape of the right is bigger on the centercape and the left. Basically, theres almost no communication across the divide. It is deserving. The biggest story is those alternative realities. Is there anything facebook or other companies can do . This is a very big question right now. Anyone who has read and if you havent read it, you should read Mark Zuckerbergs 5000 word late or he can try acknowledge that fake news was a problem. Go back to november. You had him on stage. I was interviewing him and he said it is a crazy idea that fake news has affected the election. He has now retracted. I have a lot of respect for mark zuckerberg. Aboutwrecking his brain this. There are a lot of conscientious people at facebook who are asking themselves what does it mean that we are the fundamental landscape of information and what is our responsibility . I think it is healthy they are asking that question. I think it is scary and decided that a commercial enterprise is in the position of having to make many of the decisions that they are going to have to make about how they prioritize public dialogue and it is truly a global issue. There was a great story in the guardian about a week and a half ago about how this fake news problem is almost in every country. In germany, there are 500 people working for facebook and berlin just combating fake news in germany. Taiwan government is worried. It is hard for a company to do it and im not sure topic should do it, but that is the position we are in. We invited them to be here today and facebook decline. Summer, folks said we dont the responsibility and out sounds like they do have the responsibility. 2 billion users, its not that easy to police. The existence of these platforms should be put on us because we are using them. I think facebook takes the role seriously. I dont think they have the answers yet for many of these problems. Politicon outlet like where pizza gate is real or the pope endorse donald trump. We feel the need to report on pizza gate ord createdrump claiming he 600,000 jobs. Tot is not the sole mission but when we are presented factualring inaccuracies, i think we have an obligation to make that clear in the course of our writing and reporting. Interesting to watch the 89 ofion of this into day Donald Trumps presidency and candidacy. Have struggleda to correct the record. Have we struggle . I think it has been. Lets take the tweet on wiretapping. Do we have to . At wellpoint do we say in our stories, print them a broadcast, digital or otherwise it is not to not true . The point wee at are doing that. I think it took us a while to get there because there was this sense of is it our job to be fact checking. We we fact check everything are reporting on. I dont know we can, but i do think we are doing it much more than we were. When he says he created 600,000 jobs, what is he really saying . You could make the case that this white house has been pretty conventional. Live showsthen doing for the president , not creating a new form of media through social network. Agree with that. Amas and folks through different platforms using the white house media apparatus to do videos and their own news focused projects. Seen that yet. We are only three months in. It is early going. I think we saw a more nimble media out of the obama white house. Fact that does seans sean spicer does do daily briefings i support that. They were threatening not to do that. You get in there and you realize the power of commanding an audience for 45 minutes to an hour. He is changing the way. He reads off a lot of prepared remarks to get out a message and they are using that. When the president decided to bomb syria, the value of the pool was clear. It was 10 00 or 11 00 at night and he had a press pool to be able to broadcast what he did. Speaking of that, was there anything to learn from that night of live coverage . Some shoddy audio when he did speak. Did you see anything about media tactics from the white house . Nothing that comes to mind. I was disappointed for the quality of audio. I dont know. I guess all give them a little bit of slack on that one. It is the first time anything like this has happened. He was at maralago. Ms. To get the technology together. That is not the biggest offense in the world. Coverage, terms of when it comes to military action. We will tell you about it. In our last few minutes, the future of news. David, what sort of predictions to you share and or conference and will and you share with this audience about what we will see happen between now and say, 2020 when we are talking about reelection . I think any politician with a head on their shoulders should be in writing trump as much as they can on social media. I actually think it is a major tweets soator that he much and it is a good thing. Frankly, good leaders should probably do that from now on. One of the ironies about the Obama Administration that many of us were technique critical electedat he got because of social media and once he got into audience once he got into the white house, did not use it. Trump is if only doing that. Whatever you say about the. Riefing it is a little bit besides the because thereoint is another set of channels that exists and ultimately, media is going to have to operate more on those channels than the old ones. I do think when i heard fleischer and mary talk, they are sentimental for something that is no longer landscape. Yes and no. I think as a reporter, we need that briefing. I think there is a huge value for both sides of this. Sure he can circumvent the media as much as he wants to the atwitter, but you cant get a Briefing Room message in 140 characters. I will say in terms of us Going Forward, to me the mission in terms of reporting for this administration and beyond is no different. It matters now more than ever and we cant script trying to get there. It is just stay in your lane and do your job. It is no different now than it was 2040 years ago. Enough . Mply that it is that being onair is enough . As opposed to what . Can i say so . Is not anative alternative, but an addition is including the voices that were not available before. It is a new landscape and if you dont recognize that and operate accordingly, you are not going to do as well. . What about politico how does the coveney change to adapt to what we are describing here. An examinations of all the stories we put out or the stories we believe are going to have a higher impact or get a lot of scrutiny. I would say were looking for new ways to reach new audiences in new forms of storytelling, new platforms to get that message out and thinking about the diversity of my newsroom, in late chill and gender diversity. That is important as well. It is also a time or i spent talking to reporters on how theyre doing. Our newsroom has gotten threats and things mailed to their homes and they are in a very difficult their jobs and that can wear on a newsroom and i have to be conscious about that im almost a psychologist for some folks and monitoring the room to see how people are doing. It is a different environment than the white house i covered and they are doing very important work in the can be adversarial. There is a lot of access and that is a good thing. I think it is maintaining that sense of doing a good job. We have to stick to the in be above four. Her business is we are a nonpartisan newsroom. What your describing is the evolution, not revolution. Doesnt sound you see revolutionary changes right now. I believe have to say we have to stick to, but im always wrapping my brain around those conversations because it is challenging. I think we are all grappling with that. Up by goingto wrap. Ver the entire event as think we could make the case there has not been had there some maythe threat, have feared before inauguration day. Not yet. I dont know that they will come in fact, somebody tweeted on my page today i wish President Trump would carry out his threats and kick you out of the white house. You dont reply to that person, do you . That just reminded me why dont check my facebook. It could happen. I dont know that it will. I know that part of my job is to hold the president accountable for the things he has said early on in his campaign that got him into office and i think they is rightporter they want a border wall, pick your controversial that he campaigned on. Ive given up predicting. Sure you are all lawyers you thought about these issues more than in the past. Is there anything to say so far as how they have gone . Theres a lot of education going on in terms of me and my other top editors about the possibility of more leak investigations and preparing now for how we can protect ourselves. You talk to sources, agree what to do and how to protect ourselves that we will see more of an investigation out. F this white house there are Technological Solutions to some of the problems proposed. What he referring to . New apps what are you referring to . New apps, messaging. Some of these highly encrypted messaging systems. Yes. Tools that can be used to evade a lot of things today. Only more divided or more connected in this world . Guest i think guest i think were more connected. It has allowed voices to come to the surface, but we were essentially repressed before. In the long run, i think that is healthy, even though i dont agree personally with a lot of those voices. Something the president and the press have in common, reckoning to hear from f1 at all times. To the panel, thank you for being here and thank you all. [applause] that was great. Thank you brian and thank you panel. To close out this great morning, we turn to one of the wiseman of washington journalism. Just as he closed out face the nation for many years with bob isful commentary here to share some closing thoughts on what we gear where weo from here and what we can do better. He has spoken for decades about what is happening and how to make sense of it. Hes been thinking a lot recently about the future news and that is the topic of his overload , entitled deluge ofe truth in a news. Welcome back. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you all so much for being here and i want to congratulate control. Ur bladder i understand a lot of you have been here since 8 30 this morning and im greatly honored that there is still somebody there. Good device is like news. It is where you happen to find it and i want to start this talk with some of the best advice i ever got. I did not get it in my 60 years as a reporter on the job. I did not get it at a journalism school. I got it at an art school, my love of to journalism is my love of art. Was shovelingy i to find my style, and our adjuster gave me some of the best advice i ever got. Yourid stop worrying about just find an artist you like and copy him. Copy everything he does. , if their air if there are any aspiring reporters, News Executives who are wondering what is it that a reporter is supposed to do . What is the role of a journalist . I say this. Get the story that dave parent all wrote and copy everything he did. If you do that, youll be just and. That is the best advice i can give you this morning. I really enjoy the discussion. I thought the Previous Panel was one of the most pertinent to of the morning and i thoroughly shelterhearing reince Brian Stelter and his crew. I want to try to put some of this into context. This was my 14th president ial campaign and i will say this, it was not like the others. Normally, a campaign has some olden or something that always comes to mind when you think of the campaign or a remind you of a campaign. Nixons the one all the way to lbj. The question i was asked most often in the things that comes for this campaign is have you ever . The answer is no, i have never seen anything like this. It became a drinking game between the younger colleagues at cbs. Every time i said ive never , theynything like that had to take another drink. We had a top of designated driver so it came out fine. This was truly like a Campaign Like no other. It was a campaign where it seem like for a long time were money did not matter. Partiesgn for the two in which a majority of people do and wereor distrust attitude often counted more than fact. It was a campaign that provoked the former speaker of the house ted cruz as lucifer in the flesh and the devil worshiper society challenge that said no, he is not one of us. Strong letter to follow, but this was in my opinion the Worst Campaign ive ever had to cover. Donald trump one the president , but the biggest winner was this growne industry that has up around our political campaigns. Once again cut this year a lot of people made a whole lot of money. I dont know what the voters got out of it, but they did really well. Motion feltoverall by most people on Election Night was one of surprise, even among the trump people, when told on Good Authority that there are pollsters gave them a 20 chance of winning. T were surprised too those of us in the press were around the criticized by both sides. There were lessons to be learned this time. We lost also keep in mind that this is nothing new. Its mediaaign has phase. We were the pointyheaded intellectuals that could not park our bicycles straight and this year some clever, but really nasty names. This is all part of the job. It is something that we all know about and expect. It is not that part is not to be taken seriously. Lets talk about this years criticism. Accused ofpress was election trump because we gave him some much exposure and then we were excuse of accused of missing the story because we do not taken seriously. Toally, we were said not really make much difference because trump used social media to go around us. Pick your said he can own adventure here, but all three of those things cannot simply be true. And they are not. My own belief, opinion clearly becauses that trump won he played by the new rules and his opponent played by the old rules. He understood, and this is sort retrospect, he understood that if he offered himself to enough television programs, he would be invited to and that isf them precisely what happened. I disagree with those who say the host did not push back. They push back many times, but he was going on so many programs so often that the exposure overwhelmed the pushback. Back people were pushing on something he said yesterday, a program. Ady on whether or not he knew it, he was practicing the political Strategy First identified by an way it works is no matter what the conversation people are having, if you throw a dead cat in the middle of the table, the conversation immediately turns to the dead cap. Donald trump through dead cats on the table every time the narration went this way and suddenly the attention was back on what he was talking about. Clintonnk hillary did it the old way. In other words, never leave your with a question that does not fit the team of the day, respond with old questions with focus group tested answers. After trump had been on morning joe number of times, i called and asked why dont you ever have Hillary Clinton . Interviewaving an with Hillary Clinton is like getting an interview with mother theresa and i think in a way that some of the whole campaign. That was a sort of the campaign and by the time the other candidates understood what was happening, it was simply too late. People were discussed. Isgusted with the gridlock the number of people who identified themselves as democrats and republicans is that an alltime low. People do not like the choice, but they wanted change. Complicated no more. It is and people are just tired. She may have been right. I found many people last year who either really liked or really disliked both of these candidates, but i found no one who said they needed more information before deciding which one to vote for or to vote against. In that sense in a believe that is some evidence that perhaps did our us in the press jobs. Even so, there are some really serious lessons to be learned. I think too much information the nationalonto conversation and once they got there it was difficult to remove. We have to be quicker from now on and more vigorous in challenging what we all came to know as fake news. Only now are we beginning to understand the danger that it are the bigly now are theyion companies recognizing that they have to take some responsibility to what the information is that they are distributing. They are News Media Companies , washingtons news post, New York Times. We take responsibility for what we distribute. They will have to find a better way to do that too. Balance, i think too many socalled circuits and strategist made their way onto television and were given for more credibility than they deserve. I cap wondering. I would see someone on tv and it would say republican strategists or democratic strategist. Mean . What does that mean . It didnt take long to understand they did not have reason. For whatever perhaps to add drama, we tended to make too much of slight in the poll. We talked about one candidate leading by a single point when in fact, the ships were within the margin of error. Theres no such thing as a onepoint lead in any poll. Intonk we also placed much polling. As where it good once was. Dont want anything to do with pollsters. Fewer than 10 of the people willing to actually talk. That race that raises really serious questions for it i dont care how you write these polls. The 90 of people who refuse to talk to a pollster. How do you determine what it is they had to say . She writes for the new yorker and she said we look at polling data has some sort of higher truth and she brought up an interesting point. With the closing of some innate newspapers and staff, she says to many times we are replacing a lot of beat reporting and men on the street interviews simply because News Organizations dont have the people to do it anymore. With polling data, we are replacing it with what many News Organizations use to do. They would go to the local pta meetings, the local bar. They just talk to people. What he really think about it . Dean the, the wall street journal abc poll. Peter says he agrees with what joe the core says. He told me we are starting to think and statistics, dynamics, and that just doesnt work. Analytics will tell you certain things. Able to you where someone was shot or what movie they like, but he said they dont to you what are in peoples what is in peoples hearts. That is something that i think we an immediate need to take to heart. We need to get back to knocking on doors and asking people how they feel. We need facetoface participation and checking with these people with these worries. What really complicated this whole situation was that all of by thisbeing played out campaign, which was the most. Nusual i can recall in the midst of a technological revolution that is happening a profound effect not only on how we get news, but on our entire culture. The web gives us access to more from nation than any people who that has haded access. Are we so overwhelmed with information we cant process it or are we biased . I think at this point were just overwhelmed. So much information we can deal with. Thiseb gives us unbelievable access, but there are downsides. For one thing, nuts can all find each other now. , yout care how bizarre can find someone that agrees with what you are thinking. It can go around the world in a millisecond. The coming of digital has also brought local newspapers into a downward economic spiral from which many will not recover. 126 newspapers in this country the last 10 years. This had a huge impact on politics and how politicians campaign, how people are finding out who is running. I think unless we find some do whathat can somehow weve always expected of global newspapers, we are going to have corruption in this country not just in politics, at a level we have never seen in this country. The great crisis in journalism. The good news is some of the bigger news the great crisis in journalism. Organizations, especially the New York Times and washington post, are finding ways to exist in this new and very different landscape. They are no longer just newspapers. Companies that provide breaking news, video coverage, running commentary, podcast, newsletters, they are looking for more ways to reach people in the good news is, this is working. While circulation of the newspapers is down, during the timesf last year and the post in one month were reaching as many as 70 million people. 70 million were reading or finding contact with those organizations. Organizations executives will to you that while this technology is giving them this great reach. If i ability will depend if they thativing if you can do. If you can make your News Organization relevant by providing information that people have to have, then they will survive and there must be new concentration on that by all organizations as we go forward. Many of these things the big newspapers have figured a how to do, they can be a pattern for News Organizations at the local level. At cbs, for example, we have inaugurated a 24hour all News Streaming Network that you get on your phone or your laptop or your computer. You dont get it on your television blessing go through hulu or other organizations like that. During both conventions last summer, we would sometimes have more people looking at that than were watching cbs news on the television network. And we wille ways find a way to accommodate. This is like we are in a place here now where the world was after the invention of the printing press. Martin luther said it was gods , but that grace gift took a while to get through that her if there are also 30 years of religious wars. Eventually, equilibrium was reached. We are in another. Much like period that. People your room equilibrium has not been reached, but i want to close by in this new and very different world, what is the fault of the individual journalist . It hasimply, it is what always been. We are not the Opposition Party as some would have to believe. Nor is it our place to sit down and let the world passes by is some wish we would do. A politicians government officials and journalists all have very different roles. Politicians are there to run the campaign, government officials are there to run the government. They are there to deliver a message. Our job is to simply check out the message, determine if its true and if so, what will be its impact on the government . In a totalitarian society, there is only one source of news. That is the government. In our form of government, and independent press gathers Accurate Information and provides it to citizens and they can take that information, compared to the governments version of events and then decide what to do about it. Who would undermine our honestly and i mean this directly undermining the foundations of this country and what it was founded on. Remember ands never hold ourselves out to be the exclusive source of wisdom or morality. We are not. Our job is simply to ask questions and keep asking until we get an answer. That will not always be easy, nor will we always speak the , butpopular in the room that is what the founders it is as it as vital to our form of government as it is the right to vote. I been a reporter for six years and have never been hotter of my profession than i am today. Thank you. [applause] never been prouder of my profession than i am today. Thank you. [applause] bob, thank you so much. That is a hard act to follow. Of you like it aint all for participating today. It has been 82 days since donald was inaugurated. Over 1000 days until the next election. I was heartened by many of the reporters who said they had access and they were reporting and doing their job. That the initial fears of we wouldnt get the information have not or have not yet been realized. At the same time, i think many of the reporters and government officials repeated over and over that we were having problems suggesting all the information that was now available to us on all these different platforms and we had to do better. Had to do better to go beyond palace intrigue. As we heard several times, how to do better to take advantage f all the platforms i know you believe the First Amendment is not the responsibility of the people on say today, but really all of us that is the foundation of our democracy and something we need to celebrate and defend at all times. I hope you will join with the museum in the months and years to come to participate in the discussion as we continue to evaluate how the freedom of the press and other freedoms that are essential to our democracy are faring. We hope you will participate in more programs like this. We hope you will follow our social media platforms. We hope you will support our mission and most of all, we hope you will be part of this conversation that bob laid out so well on how we all must discuss what is happening to our country now and the days to come. Most of all, thank you for participating this morning and this conversation. [applause] this morning in this conversation. [applause] if you miss any of todays sessions at the museum, they will be available to watch on our website, cspan. Org. Turning to syria, secretary of state Rex Tillerson in moscow today. We understand the secretary of state has been meeting with the russian president , vladimir putin. That was not a sure thing. That meeting is taking place and later today, the secretary of state tillerson in the ocean foreign minister will be holding a joint News Conference. We hope to bring that to you live here on cspan when it takes place. The Un Security Council also meeting today on syria and we will show you a portion of todays meeting that just wrapped up a few minutes ago. An exchange between the u. S. U. N. Ambassador and the deputy Russian Ambassador to the united nations. Everyone in the wind knows this well that you are afraid. You have been losing sleep over the fact we might be working together with the United States, cooperating with the United States. That is what you fear. You are doing everything to make sure this kind of cooperation is undermined. This is precisely why look at me when im speaking. Why are looking away . You didfor cicely why not say anything about the political process. You did not even listen to the briefing on purpose. Ou make insulting demands what have you done for the ceasefire . You welcome various opposition groups in london and paris. Illegal armed groups. You are afraid things are moving towards peace. Basically, you support the interests of armed groups. Many of them have been murdering christians and other minorities in the middle east. Theyve been committing terrorist acts in churches on palm sunday. Thats whose interest you are advancing. What you doing . Doing what are you doing . Russianillerson in the foreign minister holding a News Conference. We plan to bring that life here on cspan. Now a portion ofhost we are joe president of the American Action or. He served as the former director for the Congressional Budget Office in 2003 and 2005. Guest good morning. Host we are hearing stories about continue attempts by the Republican Party to pass a health care bill. What do you think happened with the last attempt and what went wrong . Guest this was almost to be expected. If you look at the bill, it is a historically large undertaking. There is the chilean dollars in tax