Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words With Ellen Malcolm 20160424

Host and so database the period you must be very proud. You should be required reading at every college and university. What were you thinking about when you decided to write this book . Ask out and, weve had such a phenomenal change for women in politics on the democratic side at least over the past 30 years. People have been asking me to write this book for years and i thought you know, ive got to get the record out on what weve done and how its changed. Of course in the process was remembering all of these remarkable women, wonderful races and win in the world is a different place when you look at the congress now. Three quarters of the women in congress or Democratic Women, which were very proud of and they are making a terrific difference as you are when you see them in action all the time. Yes, absolutely. I think back about when i first came into office. I want to thank you because obviously we didnt spend as much money and those days being 60,000 was huge. Im appreciative as many women are. I want to ask you i think it was last year when he walked into the room where thousands of women had gathered of emilys list and we had that night. I think Diane Feinstein was there and of course hillary was their main guest. What did it feel like locking in that room . Guest it was phenomenal. It was our 30th anniversary of the gathering of elected women and members who had helped elect women. It was a real power. It was so much fun. Barbara mikulski had sadly enough the day before that she was retiring and i was introducing her. She was introducing me rather. And i gave her copies of the profile we sent out in 1986. She became the first Democratic Women ever that are to the senate of her own right. That was her first election. Its so poignant at the moment to have her retiring. Then of course maybe because hillary hadnt officially decided whether she was going to run for president. At one point i said to the crowd, do you want hillary to win . Everybody leapt to their feet. I am smiling down at her and looking over at nancy pelosi who was laughing. It was a very fun night. Host you know, i was watching you and i was thinking to myself what was she thinking . She created this bench is walk into this room with all of these women who received the support from emilys list with the powerhouse of women in the congress of the United States. But i also thought about how did she come to believe that somehow she had the power to determine that they were going to be elected to office and she had to do something about it in the group you put together to say no more women in the lives of men who have served but weve got to have a woman elected to the United States senate and around right. Well, i didnt think big thoughts. I was very frustrated and angry and a group of us to work for the National Womens political caucus on the equal rights commitment to share the frustration. Why arent there more women in office . We hear all the time about women that go to the party establishment, say im ready to move up to congress, will you help me . Ive got a district and track record in support and the guys that kind of leaned back and say you cant win. We are not going to give you any money. Of course when they couldnt get any money, the women were stuck. They were caught in this vicious circle appeared we couldnt raise money because no one believed we could win. This group of friends of mine simply said if we told the people we knew about women running, we could raise a lot of money for them. Lets start a network and figure out how to do that. So we begin in my basement with 25 people sending out letters. It was a far cry from our 30th anniversary. Host that is the point you decided to name it emilys list. I want to admit something to you. I thought it was probably the name of your mom or some thing. Some people thought you named it after yourself. No, i am alan. Not emily. We did that because we wanted to raise money and we thought if we gave women credibility are raising early money, that they could go on and raise the money they need to win. We were late political venture capitalists. We were the kick starter for women. Emily stands for early money is likely to make the dough rise and weve been doing that ever since. All of the people you know thinking its the name of her mom or some name. Guest and only as an acronym. Early money and we make the dough rise. Thats fabulous. Embarking on what you embarked on, of course you had wonderful wins, do you have had disappointment that you describe in the book. Area was was the first race in 1982 that galvanized us. We were so angry that she had one in the senate race because the democratic establishment never believe she could win the u. S. Senate seat. They withheld their money. She ran out of money in the last couple of weeks and months by only 25,000 votes. So they missed the opportunity to pick up the seat for democrats. We were so disappointed about that. We were motivated really to change that. In 1986 when her first election came, harriet ran again along with Barbara Mikulski and unfortunately herriot didnt win. So that was a tremendous disappointment appeared we were not to have the National Womens caucus who do so much for women in missouri, but of course her actor with senator mikulski. Absolutely. In reading the book, my heart is breaking as you describe how well she had done up until almost election day when the polls showed all of that and the sheet only had the money to put in he couldve won that race. As it turned out, actually lost in the last day or two. Guest she did. Its so negative and campaign now. When a candidate doesnt have money to defend themselves and go back and set the record straight and remind people that there is positive reasons, they just become sitting ducks amassed what happened to her. She was doing great. She was up in the polls. She was actually pulling right into the lead and then they act itself. It is a terrible thing in 1982. Were sorry she did make it in 1986. Well, in the book not only do you describe that, but you kind of describe the National Womens political caucus. Thats how i first knew about you in the california assembly. You win a whole group of people were working with the party to get equal division the women are equally represented in all the Democratic Party committees and functioning. So yeah, he was a real breeding ground and activist ground. Another person that ive learned of them got to know a little bit from the caucasus and richard. She said very clearly she would not have become governor had she not gotten support from emilys list. But that she wonderful. She was. She had two classic lines and brought her to the national stage. One was poor george referring to george bush. He cant help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth. And then the other one, which is such a classic now is Ginger Rogers did everything only backward. And in high heels. She was wonderful. I loved her because of course she was confident and capable in all of that, but she shared her life with all of us. Guest she had a real struggle with alcoholism and she stopped drinking many years before she ran for office because she was very open about it and not the primary she was in, and her opponent attacked her for it with all these innuendos about her drinking and doing drugs and such awful things. The biggest funder of her primary race. We stayed with her through that and all the way through the election people honesty and openness and shared their lives. She was a real star for all of us. The type about a lot of key women in the Womens Movement at that time. Of course my friend [inaudible] these women when we talk about issues that equal work back then we were on top of those issues. Some of the young women knew that this was just getting started. You know, im sure you have memories. One of the reasons we support only democratic candidate is because women wonderful congresswomen had done a lot of things to help the good men and the congress to help provoke all these issues to support them in. When Ronald Reagan came in 1980 and republicans took over the senate, they started undoing all the things that we had announced the Womens Movement were trying to get past. When we started in 1985, we said it matters who chairs the committee is and has the ability to control legislation. And so, we decided to support only Democratic Women. We were the First National organization to support Democratic Women candidates. All the other organizations before that were bipartisan. So now you see this huge divide and its very difficult to understand why we might support only democrats. But he was a brave move. Absolutely. Not only were you supporting the national level, u. N. On to empower women in this example of a woman who was head of the elections Reapportionment Committee is a good example of how women make about policy to create change. Thats right. I was just in florida talking about the book and theres a wonderful woman dared by the name of Gwen Margolis who in 1990 was then the Center Leadership for the Democratic Party. If you help elect women, we can know for a drink takeover and then i will make sure we draw a Congressional District line. So in 1992, the Congressional District line. He was chaired by Karen Thurman and drug he districts for kerry make from miami and we ended up alike corinne brown. We elected three new women from florida because the work we have begun in the first time to ultimately get more women into congress. Thats a real example of power and organizing. And all of this, and numbers paint a picture. How many women do you count having been elect good . Well, let me put it in context. Theres never been a democratic woman elected governor of a large state. There were 12 Democratic Women in the house at a 435 members of the house. About 5 of the democrats in the house. Republicans are about the same level. And there have never been a democratic woman elected to the senate in her own right. We had an 11 Democratic Women governors during that time. Its welfare if only Democratic Women in the house we added 110 went into the house. It was phenomenal. And of course they help make teen Democratic Women get a to the senate. On the democratic side, you see a real shift of women in the room and im sure you see it when hes going to be leader. Theres a lot of women they are making sure its nancy pelosi. Her and she patted nancy pelosi . She has done a phenomenal job. In my estimation with the speaker eyes experience and even before that, she emerges as perhaps the most powerful speaker that has ever led the house. And so, shes done a great job. Guest she is a brilliant strategist. And when she was elected leader when the people were going to challenge her, she had congressional delegation that was so big and then all of the women we help elect to the house when she was sworn in, there were 50 Democratic Women in the house on the floor that day she took office. I was there. I was so proud. She has been true to her after shes organized women. She is still tried to seek out women. She is doing emilys list are having to encourage women to run. Thats right. How much money has emilys list raised . Guest they added it up and i think its more than 400 million. It happens with all of the money. Its kind of amazing because when we started, they were not political donors. Women didnt write checks to politicians. Barbara mikulski is to laugh and shed say id do anything to get money. Should that have excels for barb, boiled for bards, barbecues and women would give her five or 10. But that was sorted it. We had to kind of show women that it was okay to give politicians that they wanted to support and we would tell them a lot about what was going on in the campaign, what are we doing with the money said they had a lot of confidence about where they were investing in over the years we have turned emilys list into this powerful financial resource about 90 of our money comes from women. Absolutely. If you could describe in a little bit are detailed how you recruit women to be donors, how you put together the information and get it out to them. How does the process work . We essentially read and did Political Fund raisers. Back in the 80s everybody got their money from pacs and in fact they still are huge supporters. They have legislative agendas said they support incumbents and legally they could only get up to 5000 per election. We said thats not going to work. Weve got to get more help for women to give credibility. And our members were smart people. Consider contributing, why dont we raise money . So in the early days i would do event than a day with i. Q. To be a member of emilys list to pay 100 to be a member for two years and we will give you information about prochoice Democratic Women running her office. They will be women that have a real chance of winning. We are not going to waste your money and we would give you information on we set out a profile that tells you all about whats happening in the race and what the candidates positions were on all kinds of issues. And then each member could decide. I like this candidate ill make up my check to her. So if you had a thousand people writing a check to Barbara Mikulski, you could raise 100,000 as opposed to the 5000 it revolutionized politics. Host it sure did. It absolutely did. I was looking at some of the women have been the beneficiaries. When more we cant tell everything. But i was there. I went to help her out. And of course, emilys list i just love gwen. The story is a lot more fun when you read it in the book. But basically gwen was africanamerican woman representing milwaukee come in the urban core milwaukee. She was wonderful on food stamps and housing issues that help poor communities. But she had no capacity to raise money. She didnt do womens politics. So she was running an open savanna primary. The political establishment bad we had this guy. Hes going to be the front runner. Hes tacitly supported by the governor, by the strongest men in the congressional delegation. How do you get this for africanamerican women to be a front runner that everybody is convinced is going to win and has all the big people to support. Emilys list and when and her incredible Grassroots Network sat together and it was a phenomenal opportunity to add a great woman to congress. She ended up beating handily over 60 of the vote. The political world was in shock. Its a wonderful story. Guest its a wonderful story to read. I want you to know if you are describing her and what she cares about, she just had a conversation with me and says, you know, ive got to do something about welfare. She said you know i love serving on the Financial Services committee, but im really keen about the issue. I just feel that this is my responsibility and shes going to be then give up seniority on the financials of his days. Im so proud of her because not many people want to do about work. Guest and that is just who she is. Its a problem and she tackles it. Host absolutely. Look at some of the more recent women who come from arizona, who come with a very wonderful background. Shes a very smart woman, comes from a state thats basically conservative and shes been able to come and make her mark. What growth do you see from the time he first met us watching some of the women come in. Do you see all that we have grown in sophistication thats more competent . I can imagine some of us sane with got to do the best we can. Guest you know, one of the things ive been delighted by was that there is a whole group and the congress now for quite a while and youve gotten a lot of seniority that you have a political position of Financial Services. But we see that both in the house and senate. That is why Barbara Mikulski was chair of the Appropriations Committee when democrats held the senate. So you see these wonderful strategic women who not only were the first to go from that area, but learn and be smart and strategic and not a c. On the house side and if he is leading the way and now we are making a tremendous difference in these leadership positions. So that is just so exciting to me to watch all these women senators and congressmen chairing committees and make a lot of trouble when things are going on and its really phenomenal to watch. Youre absolutely right. Nancy has helped put women in position to do good work. But in the kitchin czajkowski and some of the other women, they are exercising power because theyve been enabled by Women Leaders and you cant help but be so very, very proud of them. I want to say one thing about that. Theres always these women that they dont help other women. And that is not true. Nancy is the greatest example of that because she has opened doors for women all the time. She expects you to do a good job, but she really makes sure women have a fair chance to lead us while and appoint them to critical positions over and over again. Guest issues in this power position where shes been pulled in all directions. Not all democrats are progressive. She has to work with all of that. But she remains progressive and she worked with me, for example the Financial Services committee on the very difficult issue where often times we have segment of our own caucus, but she has not wavered and she will come to you and not only offer it to be of assistance often times. Im very pleased now to have the opportunity to serve. But here you are. You are the founder and the creator of emilys list. Guest i call myself pushy broad. Got the job done. Host history is going to record you as of course the founder, the visionary who really understood even when you didnt know a lot about politics. Something is wrong with this picture. And so, not only were you a young woman. Someone left the himalayas. I dont even know how you, you know, it didnt end up a republican, but you didnt. Guest thats what my mother said to me. Host i am sure. You wanted you wanted to be able to exercise business knowledge and you wanted to be able to use your inheritance. You have the power to inherit money and you wanted to do it right. We went back to school. You were a determined woman. Guest i think we were so fortunate and away because i graduated from college in 1989. It was at the height of the antiwar movement, civil rights movement. We were in this active, crazy time to beyond and to learn. I remember going up to philadelphia and knocking on doors for Jane Mccarthy because he was an antiwar candidate. It was the war in vietnam that got me political. We learned a lot. We got skilled in everything. Theres a lot of conversation now about millennial voters. Of course i support hillary. Thats what happened to me when i was in my 20s and beyond and starting nod and i think it great that these new people are getting political. They are learning skills. I hope they have the bugs just like i caught it. Theres a lot of bulimia women who are leaders in who knows, maybe even run for president. Host you were concerned about women. You had Something Special that happen to you and Martin Luther king that helped even motivate you even more. And no, it is one thing to arrive at this leadership position and have resources and be able to gather more resources, but its another thing to use the power for the good of people. Guest well, i got up from my mother. My mother was a woman of her generation who believed when you got married he stopped working and he went home and started your family. But she was always very active as a volunteer in the organizations in our community. She ended up being the head of united way, chairing the board care, Mental Health association. So while during my childhood, and i saw this woman giving back, believing she had a responsibility to help and that became my role model. But it was a little funny in the beginning. One year in college i decided i wanted to go work a job training because it had been my naive 20yearold way i thought if we could only get people skills they could all get jobs and poverty would be over. I said could you hook me up with somebody at a job training place. She called the head of the Government Agency and they had me come in as a volunteer over the summer. I taught people how to read and i did a lot of administrative work. Im sitting in a cubbyhole one day and this person comes by and kind of walks by and looks at me and goes back. I said can i help you . She said are you the volunteer . I said yes. She said i just wanted to see what a volunteer from the government looked like. So i actually became a tourist attraction in newark, new jersey has been the only volunteer in a Government Agency. And he said, you know, when you start a company you cannot take on your big politicians here he said i cant take on Procter Gamble headon, they would swat me like a fly. Its like sailing. If you want to get anywhere you have to path to get where you are going and i thought that was a delightful moment. Thats what emily twist does. Some people fail right into the wind and they dont get anywhere and they scream and yell at the wind, but emilys list and i know your self we attack to where we are going and get the power of the wind to move us forward and we get to where we are going eventually . Host thats an Excellent Way to describe how to get to where you want to go. Well, you know, how does it feel to know that the next president of the United States is going to be a woman . Guest it feels good, but im not celebrating. We have a lot of work to do. Its going to be a nasty general election. Host of course it is going to be. Are we prepared for the struggle . Guest i think we are. I think we are. Hillary clinton is the most phenomenal woman i have ever met and i know people say that about politicians, but i am telling you this woman knows us so much about so many things. Host absolutely speak to she is so committed. Shes a child of the 60s who committed herself to making a difference in peoples lives and she has done it ever says the Childrens Defense Fund of web to writing for the president of the United States, so im excited about it. I am nervous and i wont be happy until its over , but i can sometimes imagine going to the inauguration and deceiving the woman raise her hand and take the oath of office. Host i also think about that and i envision that and i listened to her last evening when she won arizona and she talked about her vision for what is possible and she said i think in the most profound way that this is gloom and doom that is being preached about how bad we are, how we dont have favor in the rest of the world and how we are not respected. She said, no, this is a great nation and we can look forward, you know, to Better Things even and if so it was very hopeful and i think we needed that and she did a wonderful speech with that last night because she is so smart. Guest i think this will be in incredible contrast in the general election because it looks like it will be donald trump. He is certainly the voice of anger, i think blaming people and dividing people and she is the voice of, how do we get to where we are going. Had we come together as a United States of america . So, its going to be a big debate. Will peoples anger come forward and say we reject that or will people say, you know, its true. This is a powerful country doing phenomenal things than we are proud, lets move forward. Host that was her message and it was so welcoming. I felt so good listening to her with that hopeful message and i thought that his hillary. But, the other thing that is happening with this campaign is a lot of the young women are learning a lot about how women have been treated and how trump continues to be disrespectful and dismissive of the women and this is a great learning lesson, i think, for a lot of the young people who thought that was behind us. Many of these young people probably will be at emilys door. Guest i hope so. Host inspire them to run for office and to be appointed to offices etc. Etc. And so i think emilys list is going to continue to grow and continue to inspire women to be elected to office and continue to raise money and be as powerful as any other Lobbyist Group in washington and thats exciting and i know that you have to feel good about that. Guest i do. Host everyday we go to bed every day when you in the morning and think about it and i wanted to tell you that you are an example of someone who has created something powerful and, you know, made it grow and watch what has resulted from your work with these women being elected to office. I did you decide you were going to turn the leadership over . Thats hard to do, to say well, i have done it and its time for me how did you decide to do that . Guest well, it took a while. Host it must have. Guest i was giving it a thought. I was the head of emilys list president for 25 years and i thought it was time for new leadership. I thought it was time for a younger person that could speak to this next generation coming up who was very internet comfortable and savvy. But, i also wanted someone who could do the political strategy and its very hard in politics to find people that both get the Marketing Fund rating fundraising piece and the political strategy and i found the perfect woman and that is Stephanie Shri auch who has been president since 2010. She was howard deans finance chair when he ran for president , was the first internet fundraising Success Story in politics and then she ran to senate campaigns, montana and al franken in minnesota, two of the closest senate races taking back senate seats. She is brilliant strategically and i could not be more proud because it really does say to me, emily list will continue. After five years we have 3 million members and are doing phenomenal work. We will be a big force with the women of voters in campaign and stephanie is the leader of the future. Host ellen, how much time did you spend with her when you decided you would make this big transition to do new leadership . Guest we did a lot of conversations in the beginning. Then, i had to step out of the way and let her go and become the leader of the organization. It was not easy for me. Host i can imagine. Guest everyone told me no founder leaves an organization. Its always a failure. Sometimes the first person is a failure well, the good thing is that stephanie and i are both very competitive and we were determined to make it work. Host fabulous. Guest and we did, so i am very proud now and i chair the board, so im still involved, but it is very clear now emilys list is led by stephanie. Host thats very good. What advice would you give to women, young women in particular about running for office do you talk about and help them to understand that it is extremely competitive and have to be involved in raising money and that you are going to have good days, bad days and people you thought loved you are supporting some else what do you tell women about how to navigate this . Guest the first problem we have and it is a big hurdle is to get women to run. Its not because they are not interested in running, but we are to differential. We would talk to women into this training all the time and i used to talk with members and i would laugh and i said if you asked a man in your community to run for the state senate he would probably say no, im running for president. To have time to run for the state senate. You go to a woman about running for office and she will say things like, i have always wanted to do that, but no one has asked me to run. So, one of the things we do when i going to do it right here in this conversation, we want you to run. If you care about whats going on in your community you care about issues, go ahead and give it a try. We will help you. Other organizations will help you, but its important that women step up and run. We need women to make policy to work better and make elected offices work better, so thats our first challenge and im happy to say when they feel that someone is doing it with them, emilys list and the other people in our training sessions that are not alone, they jump in and they start running on a witchs it is terrific. You have a few women who decided what to run and im wondering, do you get does emilys list get cold calls and say i heard about this organization. And not so sure of everything you do, but i heard you help women, will you help me . Guest absolutely. Host do you get cold calls . Guest we do and we have a Training Program for state and local races. One of the problems we have is there are thousands of state legislative races, so we wish we could do more. We wish we could do what we do for congressional races. We dont have the resources for that, but we can be helpful giving people the skills, understanding what it is to run for the state legislature. There really is very little out there that helps any candidate knowhow to run, so we do that for our women and get them started and, of course, we are all his getting calls from people who want to run for congress and stuff, but we are looking for women all the time and no matter what the level the minutes there is a political opportunity, we have someone there falling into the community, who is out there, who would be good for congress, who should we talk to. We are always in the process of looking for good women to run. Host does nw pc still do that kind of searching for women . Guest i think they do. Host because that was their mission. Guest that was. Host at one point, not only to encourage women to run, but to encourage women to go after appointments to commissions and other kinds of opportunities that women just never thought they would have access to, so this business of outreach and encouraging and supporting women and helping them to understand it is possible as part of the job that emilys list is all about in addition to raising all that money. Guest right, right. Host again, if women are interested in running for office , they can call emilys list and give this conversation. Guest lets get started and if you want to know who is out there running, go to emilys list because we will tell you who the candidates are that are running the have a chance of winning and need help and we will help all kinds of people become political venture capitalists. Host okay. Will, i guess the days of being told, you cannot run, who will take care of the children, whos going to prepare the food and how are you going to get the kids to little league, is that just about over . Guest i think its not totally over, but what hasnt changed, i think in the beginning when you are running in the early days and we had not seen it women in congress, when a woman would run people did not know what it was. What would a woman in congress feel like, you know. Can even imagine such a thing, so they had no Reference Point and make revert to the gender stereotype roles, so for candidates would get those conversations. Who is taking care of your kids, wheres your husband, you know, like how could you be doing this. So, when voters got used to it because now, we have elected so many women to congress, congressional candidates dont usually get that kind of nonsense anymore. But come i think when you move up to the next level and break through another part of the glass ceiling, it becomes all back, so when nancy became the first woman speaker there was six station on her clothes, the grandchildren. Host everything. Guest are you tough enough to take on president bush, are you smart enough to figure out how to bring democrats together, you know. Its all this gender stereotypes, you know, they would never ask a man are you tough enough to take them on, i mean, so when hillary ran into thousand eight, it was awful. Frankly, even knowing this i was shocked. I mean, conversations about her voice, her ankles and these nutcrackers that look like her that you could die in the airport just awful awful things fair its not as much so far. Theres still conversation about her shouting, which i think is bizarre. Host i am so pleased that some men have come to her assistance in dealing with this issue and recognizing. We dont ask me in that. Guest no one says to bernie sanders, why are you shouting so much. Host yacht. Guest i will take what im worried about, im worried about the general election and i think donald trump who has managed to hit every divisive button there is is really going to go back to that. I think whats going to happen, though, is he will be in for a shock because i think your right, women and men will now say, dont go after that. Shes done so much stuff if a woman challenges him he immediately makes comments about their appearances and its awful. His ongoing obsession with megyn kelly, so you know i think hillary will be a bit of a shock to him and i think when he tries that stuff he will find out that there are a lot of people in this country that say enough about nonsense and if you are going to run for president lets get serious. Host is going to backfire. Well, ellen, when i ran for office i remember using the phrase, why not a woman. I dont know if i got that from emilys list. I may have, but when i discovered when i was running many africanamerican women in my community were not accustomed to supporting women. We had one and when i started to use that phrase im running for office, you know, its time, why not. I started repeating that in the literature and it still works, doesnt it . Guest it still does. Host was that coined by guest i think it might have come out of the caucus chairs i dont pick it was as but it was in that era. Now course when you see sony women doing wonderful things ill give you an example because i do think women govern differently and we have a concept of a Representative Democracy that says if you bring all kinds of people together and elect them to office, then we have policies that take care of our very diverse culture country. Host absolutely. Guest women even now are only 18 of the congress. We still have a long way to go to get equality, but even having said that you see all of this fighting and nonsense and gridlock. When the budget was shutdown of the government was shut down , it was a couple of women on the republican side of the senate and on the democratic side coming together, finding a compromise in getting the Government Back to work. Even john mccain said it was the women who really got the Government Back. Host you are absolutely correct , not only the ability to come together and have a consensus, but on Public Policy Barbara Boxer lead on making sure we had money in nih for a research on heart disease. Barbara boxer, hillary clinton, help for the children, you know, i created the veterans Womens Center because better and women not be taken it really makes a difference in Public Policy. Guest it does. I will tell you a wonderful hillary story that just shows what a woman will do to help women. She told me when she went and traveled as first lady and even in the senate during that period when the host country was putting the schedule together and she would sow went to meet with your Women Leaders, so she would go into the middle Eastern Countries and the third world countries, african countries that were so disrespectful to women and sam went to meet with your Women Leaders. Well, you can imagine that shock of the leaders in those countries, like where are our Women Leaders, go find me a woman leader. But, they were forced to deal with the fact that there were not women it gave the women so much power and confidence. Host absolutely. Guest a tribute that they deserve because the media was following hillary around and they learned who these women were and he gave them a tone of safety in these very difficult communities and she would do that over and over and over again. Host what a wonderful way to empower women and what about the great speech in china . Guest womens rights are human rights and human rights are womens rights. Host thats right and i think we should not forget that she led internationally that way, you know, as first lady and again going into areas where they were not even accustomed to shake any womans hand. Guest thats right. Host and so, okay, here we are 2016, emilys list powerful with great leadership. Thank god you are still serving on the board. I like that. Guest thank you. Host we look forward to more women seeking out opportunities to run for office and because of emilys list they have someplace to call and to ask about what it takes and what to i need to do and what kind of support can i give and i want to tell you, i dont know how you get advice whether or not its a serving on the board or women calling you or picking up some story, but dont ever stop. Guest thank you. I wont and enjoy the book because it has wonderful stories of victory and progress and social change for women and families. Host it absolutely does and i meant it when i said i think it should be required reading because not only does it remind us all of the sacrifices that women have made and the work that they have done to get us to this point, but it also inspires other women and younger women to take up the mantle and get involved in this struggle port equal and just representation and as you have said and you have pointed out, not only women getting elected to office, help to bring about change, it would not take place but for these will amend went to work across the aisle, willing to basically take a Public Policy that others would not take up, but you have proven that this country not only is a better place because of women, but you have shown the power of women. You are recorded in history and our very special way and im proud of you work so many women are proud of you. Guest thank you. Host with that, just tell us what else are you going to do . Guest well, i believe that social change comes in little steps and then you go backwards and you have to fight to keep moving forward and if so what i think you will see from emilys list is phenomenal wins in 2016, hopefully with our first woman president , but i think women will help take back the senate and maybe even the house. We are strong candidates , but we cannot take anything for granted. At some point the pendulum swings back, they start taking away our rights. We see this incredible assault on planned parenthood, the war on women, so its a constant process, social change. Theres no one victory and thank you very much ive done, no, its a constant commitment year after year after year and so what i will continue doing is to stay in that fight and i think the members of emilys list will because we have learned sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but we never stop and we just keep packing that sailboat to get to where we are going. Host well, thank you for reminding all of us that even though you make progress, that you should always be aware that going back is something that could happen. Guest and it does. Host and it does happen, so if we are reminded of that and we keep that on our radar, we wont get so focused on the progress in the same we have done this that we always be prepared to fight that fight because there are those forces that will take us back. Thats a good good lesson to share. Guest is a critical lesson because otherwise we will win and it will be gone before we know it. Host ellen, do you have a final word you would like to give to the women that are semi thousands of women that are listening and watching you today . Guest you know, i think politics as we see it is tawdry and awful and makes us angry a lot, when women when trying to when women win and there are number of good things in politics and women can produce bait at all levels whether you are a voter, run for office yourself, but the country needs the involvement of women. It makes our country better. Host thank you so very much your cry have a copy of your book here and you have not signed it for me. Guest im going to do that. Host this will be a very special addition to my library, so im going to give you my book and someone will hand you a pen in a few minutes and you sign my book. Guest i will do it. Host so i can say i was here today and i had this wonderful opportunity to interview you, reminisce a bit, talk about the future and enjoy your company. Guest well, thank you. Host you are so welcome. When i tune into it on the weekend, usually authors cherry new releases. Watching the nonfiction authors on book tv is the best Television Television for serious readers. They can have a longer conversation and delve into subjects. Book tv weekend, they bring you author after author after author and spotlight the work of fascinating people. I love the book tv and i am a cspan fan. Is a look at some authors recently featured on book tvs afterwards. Our weekly Author Interview program. Am i called her collation of emilys list, a Political Action committee which works to elect prochoice Democratic Women to local office. Former congressman jc watts talked about the principles he follows in his professional and personal life. Mary frances berry, professor and former chairwoman of the Us Civil Rights Commission explored the history of voter fraud and suppression. In the coming weeks on afterwards, aol cofounder steve case will discuss how emerging technologies will receive sheet the internet. Peter marks will tell us about the career of the late aig ceo who turned the company around during the height of the financial crisis. Also coming up, don watkins, fellow of the institute will argue that measures to alleviate income inequality hurt lowerincome americans. And this weekend, sue klee bowled, mother of Columbine High School shooter dylan klee bold will discuss Mental Health and recall how she dealt with the tragedy. In the beginning i was feeling very much a victim of the tragedy. I was bewildered. I did not understand what happened or why. I could not make a sense of any of it. I was humiliated. I was grief stricken. I was terrified. And as time went by and i began to understand a little bit about how he died, a little bit about how his own suicidality, the guy became more of a survivor. I identified with other survivors of loss from tragedies or suicide or murder suicide and i became a little more active, a little more interested in all of our welfare together. Afterwards airs on book tv every saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous afterwards programs on a website, book tv. Org. This is the tv on cspan 2, television for serious readers. Heres our primetime lineup. Starting tonight at 7 30 p. M. , back to back profiles of the boat president John Quincy Adams and first lady louise adams. On afterwards 9 00 p. M. Eastern, sue klee bold discusses her son, dylan, the columbine shooter. She traces her journey to understand the junction tween filings and mental illness. At 10 00 p. M. , terry explores the life of missionary john birch. We wrap up book tv in prime time at 11 30 p. M. With bob greisinger who took viewer calls about prison and incarceration. This program is from the recent los angeles time festival of books. That all happens tonight on cspan twos book tv. You are watching the tv on cspan 2, television for serious readers took the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this past week or two of the winners were both featured recently on book tv. Before we show you those programs, in 2013, book tv sat down with James Mcgrath morris to discuss his biography of joseph pulitzer, the namesake of the award. The book pulitzer a life in politics, print and power. Guest im James Mcgrath morris and we are here today in the palace press and behind me stands early Printing Presses and this seems like a perfect