[inaudible] [inaudible] welcome. Thank you for coming out today. Im james taylor. Good afternoon and thank you for coming to the Commonwealth Club of california. The place where you are in the know. You can find us online at Commonwealth Club. Org or on facebook and twitter and on the youtube channel. Im james taylor, professor politics and director of africanamerican studies at. I also teach at uc berkeley. Your moderator for todays program. Today we have the pleasure of hosting david brock, the founder of media matters, politically Progressive Research and Information Center and a lot of other things according to. He is also the author many books but he is here today to talk about the latest coming killing the messenger, the right wing. Killing the messenger has talked about how far he sees the new rightwing elite will go in their efforts to control the media battle over the 2016 election. He has the unique political perspective because over a decade ago he underwent a political transformation from being a selfdescribed rightwing hitman to becoming a clinton enthusiast. He offers his his playbook for the engaged and informed citizen. On how to cut through the media frenzy and see each candidates real truth. This is turning out to be quite an election season so is there plenty to talk about. David brock is a proud graduate of uc berkeley, please join me in walking him back to San Francisco. Thank you very much. I want to thank the Commonwealth Club for having me here today. The two professor taylor for facilitating conversation which will follow some remarks ill make. Im going to talk today about Hillary Clinton. That probably comes as no surprise if you have read about or read my new book, killing the messenger. If youre familiar with the work we gave in one of the groups i run you know that defending hillary from false attacks is a fulltime job. It is when im happy to do. Given we are here in San Francisco which is always fair weather for politics and giving that it is the eve of the first democratic primary debate, i thought i would focus on one false attack in particular today. Thats the notion that hillary is not a true progressive. When i hear that, i cant help but think back on all of the years that conservatives work so hard to convince us that hillary was, and the words of dick army, a republican leader back in the early 90s, a marxist. Back then, i was working in the vast rightwing conspiracy myself and i piled on, once writing that hillarys political lineages could be traced back to veteran leftist, a big bogeyman to conservatives. Well, when it comes to caricatures of hillary, republicans never let consistency stand in the way of a good smear. Today, republicans are trying to turn hillary into mitt romney. Now, romney lost in 2012 because on the important issue in that election, the economy, his policies offered nothing to the struggling middle class. Even if he had offered a more populist platform, no one would have believed it. Voters perceived voters perceived romney as personally lacking empathy for his fellow american. Romney could have come out for actual literal socialism and he still would have been the guy who like to fire people, the guy who attacked 47 of American People were takers living off the american government. The guy with the guy with the car elevator in his house. The republican concedes that hillary is running to strengthen middleclass families, platform that speaks to democratic primary voters but to general electric. One that the gop, the gop, four years later still cannot compete with. So their strategy is about disqualified hillary personally as a personal messenger of these popular ideas. They they want us to think that hillary cannot be trusted as a vessel for progressive values. In the mangled language of former speaker to be Kevin Mccarthy, republicans abuse congressional power and squatter taxpayer money to make hillary look on trustable. That is why there is also an organized, wellfunded rightwing rightwing effort to dig for dirt on her familys philanthropic foundation,. That is why there is a rightwing super pack run by former aides to mitt romney, attacking hillary for her speaking fees, even though they were in line with the fees charged by other public figures and many were donated to charity. They even tried to make a make a of a writer and her speakers contract seek citing outrageous demands like having Room Temperature water available backstage. That is why, despite the fact that republicans want to repeal dodd frank entirely, republicans probably started attacking hillary from the left. Painting her as a tool of wall street. The Republican National committee put out a supposedly damning video featuring hillarys introduction of lloyd at a global Clinton Global Initiative meeting. That is why the rights suddenly fell madly head over heels with Elizabeth Warren. In february 2015, carl rhodes Crossroads Group run at 82nd antihillary web ad where the audio consisted entirely of a clip from from one of Elizabeth Warren speeches. After all, they can can vince senator warren to challenge senator in real life they could set up an imaginary conflict between the two. Weve heard a lot of talk about political dynasty, as if hillary was in counting on inheriting the presidency from her husband which is brazen coming from a party that, until recently seemed intent on nominating the guy his grandfather had been a member of congress and his father and brother have both been president. Whats about the charge about progressive policies that she spouses are not based in actual belief but in political posturing. In killing the messenger i tell you exactly what the republican playbook against hillary is. Theyre doing everything they can to undermine hillary support among democrats. Raising doubts, dampening enthusiasm, driving a wedge. Now, before that Campaign Began republicans and a lot of chest pounding about how excited they were to run against hillary. I hope you do not believe a word of it, none of them did. The Republican Party today is disordered and disoriented. Republicans know one thing, they do not want to face Hillary Clinton and the november election. They know what democrats know, that Hillary Clinton is the most formidable candidate we can nominate and the only candidate in either party with the clear political vision for a stronger america and the knowhow to get the job done. Its silly to suggest that other candidates in the democratic field are running as a favor to republicans, even if that could be a political effect. There are some differences among the Democratic Candidates. Theyre going to be debated starting tomorrow night, and voters can judge for themselves. But when i hear some progressives say that hillary is too timid in support of progressive priorities, i wonder if they may not be listening closely, because such a claim flies in the face of everything we know about the kind of president hillary would be, the record shes amassed throughout her career, the very story of her life. All of it Shows Hillary to be proudly, even bravely and authentically progressive. And despite what the media tells us, hillary isnt moving in a progressive direction. She has been there all along. Hillarys the only candidate in this race on either side whos offering ambitious, specific and realistic plans to raise americans income, make debtfree Public College a reality for every kid in this country, provide paid sick leave for every worker, address Climate Change, combat the end epidemic of sexual assaults on campus and incarceration, continue the fight for full lgbt equality, address Mental Health and Substance Abuse issues, repair the Voting Rights act and, finally, deal with the ongoing tragedy of our kids being gunned down in their own schools by ending legal immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers. To be sure, our country is facing tough, seemingly intractable problems. And i know the pace of change can be us frustrating. So hillarys offering real plans that will work. As progressives, we all believe wall street must be reined in. Hillarys proposing new fees on the biggest banks, an end to shortterm profit focus and prosecution for those who break the law. A real plan that can work. As progressives, we all want to get big money out of politics. Hillarys proposing to take executive actions to exposes the dark doings of the greedy Koch Brothers, a real plan that will work. Indeed, who do you think the kochs fear in this election . It isnt going to be anybody up on that debate stage except Hillary Clinton. Hill city sided hillary sided with workers in opposing the Transpacific Partnership and sided with environmentalists in opposing the keystone pipeline. If any democrats shrug off hillarys advocacy for the kind of change we need suggesting she doesnt really mean it or this is just typical clinton maneuvering, then i know for sure theyve been influenced without even knowing it by the rights phony narrative. One of the downsides about having the kind of iconic renown that hillary enjoys is that everybody thinks they know you. Skeptics ought to take a little time to actually know hillary. Look at the facts of hillarys life, her career in public service, her record in elected office, and its clear that shes no crony capitalist, shes no puppet of big banks. Tough talk about these issues is easy, but we never have to wonder whether hillary will walk the walk in addition to talking the talk, because shes been walking the walk from day one. She came from humble beginnings, raised in park ridge, illinois, in a middle class family. Her grandfather was a factory worker, her father was a small businessman, her mother who had an abusive childhood never got to go to college. She went to public school. She worked from the age of 13. Everything from supervising a park near her house to gutting salmon at a factory in alaska. After law school she turned down the big money firms. She went to work at the childrens defense fund. She was the first director of the legal aid clinic at the university of arkansas in fayetteville. When she and bill got married in 1975, they had their wedding in their living room. Eventually, as bill embarked on a career in politics, hillary built her own career in law, but she never lost her focus on children and families. When he was elected governor and she became first lady of arkansas, she led a task force to overhaul the States School system. When he was elected president and she became first lady of the United States, she championed the cause of Childrens Health care. Elected to the senate in 2000, hillary was a strong progressive voice especially when it came to family economic issues. She fought to raise incomes. She was an original cosponsor of the Lily Ledbetter fair pate act. She fair pay act. She even wrote a bill to make sure congress could only get a raise when minimum wage workers did. She fought to strengthen the social safety net. She reached across the aisle to extend emergency employment benefits. She worked to expand access to Early Childhood education for children from low income families. She introduced legislation to expand the Childrens HealthInsurance Program that she helped create when she was first lady. And she fought to make the tax code more aggressive. She supported tax policies that required millionaires to pay their fair share. She opposed the 2001 bush tax cut, the 2003 bush tax cut, and she repeatedly voted against repealing the estate tax on millionaires. When it came to financial reform, hillary was cracking down on wall street before it was cool. In 2008 she proposed a Financial ProductSafety Commission to protect consumers, a plan inspired by a harvard law professor named Elizabeth Warren. When hillary ran for president that year, it was she who ran on a comprehensive plan to protect consumers from wall street abuses and insure fair access to credit on reasonable terms. On Foreign Policy hillary is simply the only candidate in either Party Running with a record to run on. And, again, she left a progressive imprint. As secretary of state, hillary declared that, quote, gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights, becoming the first secretary to speak out against laws against homosexuality. So hillary isnt saul olin sky, she isnt Elizabeth Warren, show she supported many of warrens reforms. And i hope at this point it should go without saying shes certainly not mitt romney. Hillary is the real progressive champion in this race. Shes the strongest possible messenger for a progressive vision of a fair and secure economy that works more all americans, and thats a for all americans, and thats a message the republicans will do anything to stop her from delivering. Hillarys a champion as well of a Broad Coalition in the democratic party, a party she spent three decades building, many of those Years Holding robert f. Kennedys seat in the United States senate. Maybe thats why a majority of selfdescribed liberals favor hillary in the democratic primary. And maybe thats why enthusiasm for hillary, among her democratic supporters, is higher than that of any other democrat in the field. So i speak today as a democratic organizer, but i became an admirer of hillarys long before i was a proud progressive. In fact, i was an admirer of hers while i was still a conservative republican. Twenty years ago a rightwing publisher paid me a Million Dollars to write a takedown of Hillary Clinton just in time for the 1996 elections. So i spent two years tracing every step of her life, doing more than a hundred interviews, reading every piece of paper i could find with her name on it. But i just couldnt pull off the hit job. I didnt have to spend the 70 million ken starr spent to find that all the charges against her whitewater, travelgate, filegate, you name it were manufactured by political enemies. And not only that, much to my own surprise and certainly to my professional detriment as a rightwing hit man, i wrote about a woman with a steadfast commitment to public service, a lifelong passion for children and families and a deep well of personal integrity. I concluded then that hillary had the potential to be an even more historically important figure than her husband. That was 20 years ago. And believe me, i wasnt planning anybodys president ial campaign. Its just that against every incentive i had to conclude otherwise, i saw those special qualities. I see them more than ever today. And as this Campaign Kicks into gear, so will millions of americans. But dont let me tell you what to think. Watch the debates. See which candidate you believe has the smartest plans to solve our nations critical problems. See which candidate again and again has chosen not to quit in the face of adversity pause she believes because she believes in the project of empowering people to succeed. See which candidate is poised to break that last highest glass ceiling. Dont let the republicans tell you what to think either. If your hesitation in sporting hillary supporting hillary isnt about her message but about her as a messager, ask yourself if youre falling into their trap. Ask yourself why the loudest speculation about hillarys supposed problems with the left is coming from the right. Ask yourself why karl rove and the Republican National committee are suddenly so concerned about the unchecked power of big banks. Ask yourself whether you really believe that hillary is just another cynical politician or whether its the concerted effort to undermine her authenticity despite a lifetime of proof that is itself a cynical example of politics at its worst. And ask yourself why we are letting our foes what to think about someone who has stood up for our issues and our values our entire life. We have an opportunity in 2016 to make history again, and i for one dont intend to let the republicans bamboozle us into blowing it. Thank you. [applause] you have been listening to david brock about his new book, killing the messenger. Well now begin the talk with david from a series of questions from me and from the audience. And i guess ill start. David, thank you for your comments. And ill just start off with this first question. In your book you claim theres no evidence that theres clinton fatigue and that its affecting voters. How would you account for her recent decline in the polls . Sure. So about clinton fatigue, what i say in the book is that weve heard this a lot. You can go back to the 2000 election where al gore and his advisers made the decision not to have president clinton out on the campaign trail because they saw the country was sick of clinton. That, obviously, was a mistake. Clinton fatigue was brought up in her senate races. No polling ever showed thats the case. It is a hope that with all the scandal mongering they can tire people out on her. But that hasnt happened yet. On her polling, yeah. So i think a couple different things. One, she in the last few months the name Hillary Clinton has been on the front page of the New York Times next to allegations of criminal misconduct. Three times. Each of those stories false, wrong, unraveled, retracted, apologized for. But the truth is not everybody has the time to sift through the iterations of the story once it gets corrected. And so theres a certain amount of damage done in the first iteration of the story. And where these stories are coming from, the republican investigators on capitol hill in the Benghazi Committee who had a brilliant strategy, i think, of manipulating a paper that is the Gold Standard of journalism and on its editorial page is lib liberal. So its counterintuitive that thats whats going on. So i think a lot of this and im not whining about the media, im just describing a reality. That is what happened, and we in media matters, we looked at 30 days of just New York Times coverage. On every clinton story we coded 70 on email, 30 on everything else. So all the things i talked about in this talk that she is out there talking about that people actually care about is getting, cant cut through the clutter. Right. And thats been a problem. Thank you. So then i guess ill ask one of the questions from the audience. It says would you comment on the current wendy davis twitter war . Im not 100 sure whats going on with wendy im not east either. Do they mean davis down in kentucky . Lets go to the next one. How can we get the public, the media to understand and report the deeper narrative beginning with louis powell progressing through Citizens United and threatening to overwhelm the 2016 election . Yeah. Well, or so that question a reference to a memo that louis powell wrote before he went on the Supreme Court back in 1971 about the, what became a conservative effort to wild build a powerful propaganda machine. And you can trace that all the way from back then to, you know, in my book, you know, i say in the 90s there was a vast rightwing conspiracy, but it was a ragtag operation. Had some money behind it, but it was a seatofthepants operation compared to what were seeing today. Today is more like a vast rightwing conglomerate. Its much better funded, more sophisticated. Not as much in secret as it was in the 90s. Today the Koch Brothers hide some of what they do, but most of its right in front of our faces. And they have doubled and tripled down since Citizens United. And, yeah, the more coverage of that, the better. We are in one of my organizations, we to a lot of research on the koch we do a lot of research on the Koch Brothers and their Business Practices and the adverse impact those businesses have in local communities, and we try to get with press coverage of that. Thank you. So let me ask you this question. Do you think hillary, or in what ways do you think she will, and if so, in what ways might hillary influence the republican nominee and ticket, who they choose . Thats a good question. That came from me, thank you very much. [laughter] yeah. So you would think that the influence would be that they want, that the voters want to win, they want to beat hillary, and they look at from that standpoint they would look at electability in the general election. That is what youd think. That doesnt seem to be whats happening, which is a little hard to explain. In other words, earlier this year, you know, our view was jeb bush was the big threat, the most formidable candidate is he still . You cant count him out, but he doesnt seem to be doing very well. You know, one of the big stories its not actually cae and effect, but theres been so much press on trump, i mean, bushs candidacy has tanked during this period. And so you dont know, you know, are we in a 1964 situation where the republicans are not in the mood to compromise and pick the most electable candidate, and they want to go as hard core right as possible . I dont think you can rule that out. I dont think the top insurgent candidates are going to get there, the ones with no experience in government. But i think you could see ted cruz nominated by this party. And in that sense, you know, i mean, i think democrats would be very confident. I dont think theres anything hillary can do to affect any of this, its just, you know, republicans have to make that decision when they vote as to how badly do they want to beat her. Im sorry to interrupt you. Do you imagine republicans might choose a woman as a Vice President ial nominee if Carly Fiorina doesnt give the nomination herself to counterbalance that of hillary . Sure, thats possible. It seems like fiorina, one of the main reasons shes in this race is because she has received money to be out there attacking hillary. So, yeah, you could certainly see that. Great. Yeah. From the floor, does it bother you that president obama isnt endorsing hillary yet . No, i dont think so. I dont, you know, he has spoken very favorably in interviews about her record and her contributions to this administration. And i think, you know, i think thats appropriate, and i would leave it there for now. Yeah. So there are severals, several question, and ill put them together in one. What rove you away from the drove you away from the gop . Were you a conservative spinoff . Obviously, you outline that in the book, but i guess theres a general question about your conversion. When i read through your bio, it was sort of like i havent seen as dramatic a transformation politically as paul the apostle [laughter] you know, going from being the persecutor of the christians thats very flattering. [laughter] so im wondering how you see yourself as a political or media figure. Sure. So to make a long story short, i wrote a book, the first book i wrote back in 1993 was a book that defended Clarence Thom against the anita thomas against the anita hill charges. Based on the accounts of his supporters, his friends. But i thought i was telling the truth in this book, so i wrote it. It came out, Rush Limbaugh read it on the air for three days. Thats how i got the contract to write the book on hillary. But what had happened was there was a competing book to the anita hill book that came out about 18 months after mine. And it had some new facts in it that would lead you to conclude that anita hill, in fact, was telling the truth. So i went back to my sources and his friends and said, well, what about these things . And at that point i think i was in the club enough that they said, basically, they never believed their own friends, and he did do these things. So it was i take responsibility for it, but i was sold a bill of goods. Thats the easiest way to put it. And once i became aware of that, it made it very difficult to follow their line again. And that is what happened with the hillary book where it clearly was supposed to be something that it ended up not being. And that was why. So it wasnt, you know, i didnt wake up one day and, supply side economics doesnt make sense what i realized later. [laughter] it was what it was doing to my character, and i just felt i am implicit in this, and then i have zero integrity, and i cant do this anymore. And then, you know, then you realize you were lied to about some things, and you start to think maybe you were lied to about everything. So this took years. I imagine hillary and her people had a real reticence to what you how does that, how do you end up in the room with hillary that fist time after all of these first time after all of these years of animosity . Whats that moment like . So, yeah. In the new book, i wrote about this. I wrote a book called blinded by the right that is a memoir. Partly an expose on the bad guys, but its also a confessional on my own effort to try to understand why i did what i did. And that came out in 2002, and the Senate Democrats have a weekly lunch where they invite a guest speaker. So i was invited by thensenator daschle who was the majority leader, and he had been given blinded by the right by bill clinton as a thing to read. And so i went in there, and i, you know, you get five minutes, and then its all question and answer. So i did my five minutes, and Hillary Clinton was sitting directly opposite from me in the room in a big square, and so everyone the thing is, they raise their hands to be recognized. And so it was very active. But she wasnt doing she wasnt raising her hand. At some point i payment aware that she was i became aware that she was not raising her hand, and i was wondering what she thought of what was going on. And then at the end she put her hand up and said, you know, listen, you guys, these are the three points david made and just rattled them off and, basically, endorsed the whole experience of the book. And that was my first interaction. This is the Commonwealth Club of california program, and we are talking to media matters Founder David brock about his new book, killing the messenger the rightwing plot to derail Hillary Clinton and hijack your government. Another question from the floor. Businessweek on october 12, i believe it is, has a cover page article entitled rightwing conspirator in which you were interviewed and stated, and had a comment. Please explain from their point of view the time is the perfect body for the virus . Im not 100 sure sure, yeah. So i said that the New York Times was the perfect host body okay, thats what hes saying, im sorry. Because of what i said earlier, that its so counterintuitive, its the last thing you would expect. But this is a really interesting article, because they go down to a boiler room in tallahassee, florida, thats funded through the Koch Brothers network called the government these names i always love the Government Accountability initiative. And thats, this book that came out a couple months ago called clinton cash which i call ko cash, that book came out of this operation. And so theyve got a few dozen people down there 24 7 just trying to dig dirt with the clintons finances and feeding it out to the press. And as we saw in this clinton cash book, there were a lot of allegations but nothing ever proven. Okay, great. This is a question. As a former military officer with highlevel security or clearance, i can tell you with certainty i would have been aggressively prosecuted if i had taken classified information and placed it on anything other than a secured government server. If hillary is indicted in the same way general petraeus and sandy berger were, what is our backup game plan . Do you think an indictment and conviction of on major security violations is survivable . Can hillary survive if they were to find something that really actually, illegal in the emails . Theres nothing illegal in the emails. This is a dispute ex post facto about what should or shouldnt be declassified as theyre releasing all these emails. And the fact is that in the petraeus case, for example, there was proven intent that he took this classified material and leaked it to someone or gait to someone. Gave it to someone. None of her emails that some say now would be marked as classified this is a much lighter question. In your book blinded by the right, you said you had a dog. Do you still have a dog . [laughter] yes. Yeah. I said when i fell out with the conservatives, i lost all my friends, and i got a dog. [laughter] so that dog did pass away a couple years ago, but i have a new one. [laughter] thanks. A question about the media. Were you surprised by the fox news republican debate, the quality of the questions . Yes, i was. You know, its interesting with fox because they, you know, its a successful business model. So they have a bottom line. And theyre concerned with ratings. And that can drive them to cover candidates that are, that are driving ratings from the conservative base. In other words, candidates of the conservative base that are not necessarily if youre running a brilliant political strategy the people you Pay Attention to. So if you go back to 11 and 12, Michele Bachmann had her fox moment in the sun and rick perry did. So if youre roger ailes trying to mastermind the republican victory in the election, youre in conflict with this idea of ratings. And so trump. So, anyway, yeah. They did a good job that night, and they asked some tough questions. And i thought that was great. I thought that was great. Great, great. The Koch Brothers, whom you devote an entire chapter to in your book, are now out of a candidate given scott walkers downtrodden exit [laughter] where will they and their billions of dollars turn next . So theyre going to spend at least a billion dollars, theyve said, on this next election which is twice what they spent in 2012. It seems that they will stay out of the primaries. With the exception that they really dont want trump, because the one thing trump is right about is they cant buy him. And thats, i think, a little bit of the source of his appeal. And trump is right, that the rest of the party the rest of them will all be puppets of the Koch Brothers. As long as somebody leads some kind of a stop Trump Movement or trump collapses himself, then i think the rest of the field, theyve all been out to these koch network, you know, fancy conferences and gotten their blessing. Even Carly Fiorina, some of the insurgents, theyre all paying their respects to the Koch Brothers. The Koch Brothers strategy which theyve done in these senate races is let the republican primary play out and start the general election early. So they start the negative attack ads on the Democratic Candidates while the republican primarys going on. So by the time, you know, that process is over and the democrat can get in, theyve already been branded for months in ways with a lot of false advertising. So were waiting for the kochs theyre going to, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of negative advertising onhill races hillarys head. Were waiting for that to start. But, you know, i think the most important thing to know about the kochs is that they lost the 2012 election. They spent a lot of money doing it. They analyzed why things went wrong for them. They got up, they dusted themselves off, theyre doubling down, and, you know, were doing everything we can to make sure they lose the 2016 election too. But theyre not going away. This is a unless we really fix the system, this is a permanent problem. They are willing, they have got so much money, its a bottomless treasure chest, and they are willing to take shortterm losses for the longterm goal of implementing this radical agenda and a total takeover of the Republican Party. This question follows up on that. It says, is the bottom line that the oligarchy class does not want their influence on government lessened . Someones asking that question. Yeah, sure. So, i mean, the interesting thing about the kochs is that their first involvement in politics goes back to the late 1970s when one of the koch subsidiaries got in trouble with the government and was facing some fines. And david koch ran on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980 to the right of ronald reagan. And they got less than 1 of the vote, and the kochs decided to give up on the Libertarian Party. And the truth is theyve gotten a lot of what they want already if you look at idealogically, if you look at the complexion years ago that you could have been, you could have had a reasonable conversation on Climate Change with some republicans. You cant do that now. And so they really have, they really have a chokehold. And its not just the federal level. We, you know, were working on the federal level, and so thats what i tend to focus on. But you look at the states and the destruction in these states. The Koch Brothers had a tenyear strategy of taking over statehouse, governorships, state legislatures. They are organized, and if they want to, they are organized down to local ballot initiatives. So the radical experiment in these states especially in a place like North Carolina or wisconsin, thats all kochdriven as well. They gave 25 million to the United Negro College fund recently so they can produce a group of young africanamerican nservatives. Yeah. Sure, theyve got the Libre Initiative is a latinofocused front group, theyve got one focused on youth called generation opportunity. Yeah. What is the upside and downside of joe biden as a president ial candidate . Are you afraid of joe biden . And do you think republicans want joe biden more than a minority of democrats . Whos most excited about joe biden, and whos most afraid of joe biden . Well, so its a little hard to know. I think that my peculation is as good as anybody elses here speculation. I think, you know, hillary never thought that she wasnt going to have to fight for everybodys vote. Obviously, it would be a more significant challenge, i think, for her. I have heard it argued both ways, honestly, as to good or bad. Ive heard, you know, maybe you up your game. On the other hand, not great to have the party divide. So im not sure how that actually will shake out. But i do think well know soon, and theres nothing to be afraid of in the competitive primary, i dont think. Youve explained this, but i want to respect the question. Why do you support hillary over Bernie Sanders . Enter well, because i think well, because i think that she has the experience to get the job done. She knows, i mean, shes got a lot of actual, real achievements under her belt. And when i hook at some of her plans, like i look at the Campaign Finance reform plan, shes got executive actions in there that you can take because youre not going to, you know, i mean, you know, you can propose a constitutional amendment, you can propose legislation, but in a republican congress, its going nowhere. But she can do certain things, forcing disclosure, for example, that when the kochs when a light shines on the kochs, they shy away. So there are things a president could do. Shes got realistic plans that could actually work, she knows the system. I think were all in agreement and, you know, she and sanders are in agreement on an awful lot of things as well. Its not so much the ideological contest, i dont think, as it is whats the plan of action, you know . Youre going to face, i mean, because of the way theyve gerrymandered this house, shes going to face at least one branch of government thats republican. And then i think the final thing is, you know, if we look at her senate record, she has effectively reached across the aisle on some things. So the learning curve no learning curve on what the republicans are all about. This might be a little bit of a gotcha question, not to embarrass you. Im wondering, you focus mainly on winning and on the elections, not so much on governing policy. Yeah. Could you see yourself in a Hillary Clinton administration, and if so, where . No. Nope. I dont want to go into the government, honestly. You know, i am very happy doing the kind of accountability work were doing on the outside. Of you know, media matters monitors not just elections, but a crossrange of issues that everybody cares about from lgbt rights to Climate Change where theres terrible misinformation in the media, immigration reform. And, you know, if people are interested, you know, they can sign up for media matters, if any of you care about and [inaudible] anything you care about is distorted by the media. So thats where we get into policy work. Im not a policy wonk in that sense, no. And the other groups we have are political and campaignfocused. Ladies and gentlemen, the next press secretary of the United States government under Hillary Clinton [laughter] all right. So another question comes from the floor, and it says what are the chances the republican president ial campaign will be made at the Republican Convention . Im not sure what the term will be made, but yeah. That probably is could there be, like, a convention, the republican nomination go that far. Yeah, you know, its a very volatile situation, and anything is possible. Now, i referred to cruz earlier, so let me just explain that. I still occasionally will have conversations with people on the conservative side of the aisle. Very occasionally, but sometimes i do. And so what they think is probably more important than what i think x. What they have said and what they have said is they think theres one establishment lane, room for one establishment candidate, and bush and christie and kasich all fall by the wayside, and that becomes marco rubio. And this is one slot for the surging, and thats cruz, and you have a rubio cruz race. And thats very interesting. It is. And thats what some of the better minds think is actually happening on their side. Interesting. Phenomenal. This is the Commonwealth Club of california program, and we are talking to the media matters founder, david brock, about his new book, killing the messenger. This next question asks, makes a point. It says we need dramatic governmental and political reform. Not just getting out big money and substantive policy initiatives. Where is hillary on this broad reform agenda . Well, i mean, on the reining in of wall street, on getting the money out of politics, shes, i mean, shes got some very, i think, big, bold plans. And, you know, my point earlier was just that, i mean, i think theyve got some of the most specific and creative policy solutions that she has been rolling out on an ongoing basis since april. And then the next day that gets one little story and there, you know, theres no, theres no, theres no real conversation about it. You know, the cable airwaves are full of things, are just full of controversy and scandal. So not enough people know. But i think shes right where mainstream america is on these things. And i think real change and i think one thing shes said about real change that thats often overlooked is, you know, she will make history. And theres a whole chapter in my book about how sexism works in all this. And the reality is its more difficult for a woman candidate well, let me ask you that. Because the obama reaction has been sort of this racial tumult weve seen across the country, weve seen it. Right. Do you think theres going to be a gender backlash generally in america if Hillary Clinton becomes president . Are we going to have the same kind of, a similar kind of reaction to the new reality of a black man in the white house with the reality of a woman in the white house as president . Yes, im sure. I mean, i think that what was interesting about the 08 experience was that it seemed that hillary had the tougher time than obama. And if you looked at that media coverage, you know for sure that there was a lot of sexism embedded in that, and we still see it. And so it really is the, that last, that last glass ceiling, and its a revolutionary thing. And i think a lot of its not even conscious. I think theres a lot of sexism. You know, ive been out, this is my im doing a 28city book tour eventually, and i think this is my eighth stop. I hear otherwise totally reasonable people, informed people. You know, theres just something about hillary i dont like. What does that mean . There is a total double standard, and its not necessarily anyones fault here, but were not used as a culture to seeing women running and being in office at that level. So we dont, theres some level we dont quite know how to receive it, what to make of it. Thats really interesting. Word association. John boehner. Name association. John boehner. Okay. Well, you know, i guess we havent seen the last of him. [laughter] you know, this is such a mess. Its such chaos. And it really is terrible for the republican brand, i think, Going Forward into the 16 election. But, you know, you couldnt have asked, you couldnt have made be up really finish made up really, i didnt i dont write fiction. Some people have said i did in the past. I could not have made up Kevin Mccarthy going on fox news and, i guess, thinking hes only talking to fox news [laughter] and were not watching and taping it and putting out what he says. And admitting that the whole thing was a political charade. You didnt know whether to laugh or cry when you saw that. So, yeah. So i think, you know, boehner was never, you know, the best leader. He really came up through the ranks because lots of other people got knocked off by scandal, and, you know, he was best known for, you know, distributing lobbyist checks from the Tobacco Industry on the house floor. So he was never this great. The media now is like, oh, my god, hes such a nice guy. You know, he never was really. [laughter] well see how they fix this. I dont know if paul ryan will step up and be the answer or not. You know . And the other thing is i saw Newt Gingrich saying somewhere that you dont have to be a member of the house to be speaker, so, you know, maybe theyll end up there. [laughter] all of those are good outcomes. Talking about going back to the 90s. Yeah, right. What was your reaction when you heard about Kevin Mccarthy this last week . What was your reaction . Well, you know, it was a mixture of, you know, we put out in media matters a book called the benghazi hoax two years ago next week. And we say right in there exactly what this is. And part of it was, yeah, tell me what i already know. Part of it was, it was one of the first if not the first interviews he had done since he was in contention for this, and it was just mindboggling. And then i was thinking, well, maybe hell get the job, and hell keep telling the truth, and then well really be in a great position, right . How can republicans be accused of racism and misogyny when they have elevated a black man and a woman into the top three out of a field of 17 . They are the most diverse. Well, i dont know that theyre the most diverse, but they do have, i guess, two of their three frontrunning candidates. They have latinos, women, woman africanamerican sure. Look, there are lots of, there are lots of women, you know, running for office or running various advocacy groups who take positions that at least democrats see as much against women. Look at Clarence Thomas voting record. Theres no real answer to this. And theres also no blanket, you know, charge that everything is racist and sexist. But, you know, Carly Fiorina with her imaginary fetuses [laughter] is just, you know . Shes not, shes not advocating anything that i believe is in the best interests of women. So its capable to be doing both at once, be a woman and have the opposite effect. Whats your opinion of the culture of apology which seems to have become endemic in american policy . A pressure to force hillary to publicly apologize for her emails is just the latest instance. Do you see any southern of undercurrent sort of undercurrent of sexism in trying to force hillary to humble herself, to apologize for something she says she didnt do wrong . The reason i would say part yes is on the email thing theres a double standard at work. So colin powell went on National Television and said that he used his personal email account at the state department, and he destroyed all of his emails, both the workrelated and the personal. So were never going to see any of it. Mitt romney, when he left the Governors Mansion in massachusetts, his aide took computer hard drives and smashed them. Jeb bush, seven years later violation of florida law also personal email on a personal server released just a portion of his email. So there are a lot of email issues out there. Why is it sticking to hillary . And that is part of the answer. You know . And then, of course, theres the press wanting a pound of flesh. And is so thats where a lot of these apologies came from. Say youre sorry, youve got to do something. And then she did it, and in talking to reporters covering her in the few days after, well, suddenly they were ready to start to move on. So they got what they think they needed, and a combination of her accepting some responsibility for her role in this, and were still waiting for the republicans and the New York Times to accept their responsibility. Then people are seeing the emails. And the more that have. Com come out, theyre that have come out, theyre totally benign. Theyre about wanting skim milk in my tea and saying to an aide, you know, pack warm socks for your trip. So the theory that she went and made this system so that she could hide the email, it never made any sense. But as we see the email come out, it makes even less sense. And people forget that when she was using the personal email account, she was communicating with everybody else in the government on their government accounts. So 90 of all her email was being archived in realtime anyway. So anyway, yes, i think theres a double standard. [laughter] so switching a little bit to fox news, angela [inaudible] your Vice President at media matters, recently said that the war against fox is over. To a large extent, we won. I wonder, do you consider media matters as to having won in general or some major victories against fox . What impact have you had on fox . Yeah. So i think that, so in 2009 when president obama came into office, it became clear in foxs own words that they were waging a war on him. Roger ails called it the alamo. They hired glenn beck. This is nothing like what a news channel would be, and it certainly wasnt fair and balanced or anything like that. So we doubled down on our monitoring effort on fox starting in 2009. We were part of several groups that organized an advertising block against glenn beck that got him off the air. We achieved two things. One, through the Successful Use of economic pressure, because theyre not going to respond on the grounds of journalistic ethics. But if they can feel some pain to their bottom line, you can change some of their behavior. But the real strategy is as i said earlier its a successful business model. Youre not going to change it that much. What you can do is change our others view how others view it. When we started on fox, foxs case, all sorts of false and wrong stories from fox. Youd see them two hours later on cnn. You do not see that phenomenon as much as you used to see it. And so its hard to measure, but i guess what i would say is theres a general recognition now that fox isnt what it claims to be, that its basically propaganda for the republicans. And, you know, shows like jon stewart have pushed this into a kind of conventional wisdom now. So at least we know what it is. Not saying you have to go away, but you cant misrepresent yourself. So theres an undergraduate student at the university of San Francisco where i teach thats interested in becoming the next david brock, what would you tell that student in terms of a track, what would you tell them in general that they need to do to prepare themselves . Well, dont get recruited into the conservative movement at a young age. [laughter] and then i would say, you know, a good background and a combination of history and journalism is what i had, even though i applied it maybe in the wrong direction for a while. And, you know, sign up our groups have free web sites, media matters, american bridge, correct the record. And, you know, start to consume all this material. You know, when we started out in 04, there was no real progressive media. Now theres like, theres a very vigorous progressive media, so the conversation is actually much more balanced than it was 10 or 12 years ago. So get informed, get active. We have seven minutes left. Im wondering if you could sort of speculate. Jim webb has gotten a lot of press today in the leadoff on tomorrows debate. What is the relationship between hillary and jim webb, if you know it, and could you see a clinton webb ticket . I dont really know anything about their relationship, and i would seriously doubt it. If there was some press this morning, i didnt see it, but i dont think that would change anything, i dont think. Yeah. Another word association. Barack obama. Well, you know, against, against a concerted republican strategy of no and gridlock that was instituted, you know, they met about it the night he was sworn in for president the first time. Hes made major progressive achievements. And one of the reasons that i am for hillary is that some of those achievements need to be cemented. We, you know, every election they say is the most important election, but this one is really, really important. Protecting the Supreme Court, protecting the Affordable Care act. So, you know, a lot of progress. And then i think cementing that and pressing forward. Who do you see as hillarys Valerie Jarrett or david, you know, the assistant to obama . Yeah. I dont know that theres one person. You know, one of the things about the clintons is that theyve been in public life so long that they have a number of people around them to draw on. And theres not, theres not one particular person, at least right now. Obviously, when she becomes president , shell make certain appointments, but theres not an overall dominant figure. Do you see any interesting differences or overlaps between jeb bush and his father . Or brother . And hillary and her husband . Good question. So, yeah. The other question is why do these same two families dominate the field once again . So with jeb bush, seeing his lack of ability politically to stand up to a donald trump, for example, someone is going to have to do that. And hes also weak in his response. What i was reminded of was the wimp factor with the father. Yeah, yeah. So, i mean, thats one comparison i would make. I think that, you know, hillary itll be interesting to see. Hillary is not a carbon copy of her husband. And were in different times. So even, you know, policies that may have made sense 20 years ago may not be completely the right fit for this moment. So i think there are some similarities in approach, but, for example, on trade shes always been somewhat more skeptical of these free trade deals than he has been. So shes not running for his third term or president obamas third term. And on the dynasty question, you know, it looks like the republicans dont want jeb. Now, that could somehow change. Hes still got a lot of money, and he could somehow come back. But, you know, James Carville says the dogs dont want to eat the dog food. [laughter] and thats about right with jeb. So i dont think were going to see that dynastic succession. And i just dont buy that somebodys wife constitutes a dynasty in the way that theyre talking about. So we have three minutes left, pretty much our last question. Sure. Im wondering, in your assessment, and this is for the audience too, i wonder, has there been a president ial candidate more qualified, shovel ready in over 200plus years as Hillary Clinton would be on day one . In your opinion . Well, its certainly hard to find one. Its certainly a more modern times in more modern times. Shes, you know, shes more than a resume. But when you look at the qualities of experience and leadership, yeah, its hard to imagine who can top that. And on top of it, incredibly resilient. I mean, everything has been thrown at this woman for, since for over 20 years. And vetted beyond, you know, everyone, you know, i dont know if someone was earlier, well, what if something you know, i am telling you, you know, two years ago two and a half years ago when hillary left the state department, eight republican super pacs and organizations were formed in the spring of 2013 to try to figure out how to damage her so she wouldnt run. Be okay . I was in arkansas giving a speech, and the place was crawling with these researchers. Nothing to be found. So i think the story ends with the same in the 90s. How did the 90s end . President clinton had sky high ratings, and Hillary Clinton went into the senate. Weve reached the point of our program where there is time for only one question left, and that is to ask you whats left for david brock as to 2016 . Well, were going to, weve got ive been involved in creating infrastructure that is permanent, that is not comes and goes with election cycles. Its a permanent, Permanent Institution to influence Public Opinion in a more progressive direction. And were certainly going to need those institutions if we have a democratic president. Therell still be some divided government. And well still have the unrelenting Koch Brothers. And, you know, were going to need all sorts of work on Media Accountability around the new president s agenda. So i imagine i would just, you know, keep on doing what im doing. Im very happy doing it. Our thanks to david brock, founder of media matters [applause] author of the new book, killing the messenger rightwing plot to hijack your government. Thank you as very much. We also want to thank our audience. I am james taylor, and now this meeting of the Commonwealth Club of california, the place where youre in the know is adjourned. [applause] so the book signing will be in the back. [inaudible conversations] longtime washington journallest marvin kalbs newest book is called imperial gamble. Putin, ukraine and the new cold war. Mr. Kalb, whats the gamble . The gamble is that putin was rolling the dice in a very dramatic way when he decided to take crimea and then move troops into ukraine. Ukraine was and is ap independent an independent country. You move across an independent international border, you have violate the rules. That was the gamble. But he got away with it. He got away with it because nobody in the west though the west despised the operation nobody in the west would pick themselves up to stop him