Democrazy. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the 33rd printers row lit fest. I would like to give a special thank you to the sponsors. Todays program will be broadcast live on cspan2 book tv. If there is time at the end of the session with the author, we ask that you go to the microphone and ask your questions so the audience back at home can hear. Before we begin todays program, we ask that you silence your cell phones and turn off your camera flashes. Please welcome the editorial book award member. [applause] thank you so much everyone for coming. This is a great book to have to be discussing. It is really engaging. Even if you are looking for a fun summer read and funny stories. Welcome to congressman trey radel. [applause] i bartended, and i still have some friends like three of them here. The only people that would be here today so a huge thank you so much for being here today. I was going to quote a little bit. I didnt realize until i started getting into the buck and right off the bat, this is how he described chicago. A hardcore democratic city but its run like a ruthless Rudy Giuliani regime. Instead of being transparent and honest like Rudy Giuliani who would announce he was going to clean up new york and even bust the petty criminals, they were full of crap. They started the rhetoric of equality, justice and fair share while uprooting entire minority communities that were too close to the people in the magnificent mile to make way for expensive condos. So as you can see it doesnt ask words. Tell us a little bit about your roots here and how chicago sort of shaped you. I was in the 1990s going through freestyle hiphop when it was a big thing, and i began to hang out with people from all walks of life and political stripes and i was a student at the university where i had a 20 somethingyearsold given airwaves in the city of chicago. I had no idea how they did that. And i began interviewing people like those that had ties to the criminal Justice Reform or grassroots movements in the city. As we go through, i went through a dark period in life but the other thing i want to make clear is i am an equal opportunity shop taker when it comes to both parties in this country in the way that theyve treated the American People especially the elites in washington, d. C. And that was just as much for republicans as it does democrats. So i began to shape what were overwhelmingly my libertarian beliefs that i just dont think the government can be the solution for everything. I dont believe the certain crisis situation we have in the country today whether it violates or education, whatever it may be that you can continue to throw more money at everything. And i also dont believe the things on the left side or the right side where the republicans try to step into social issues and say we want the government not involved in anythinis not it all. Prt party. Except in your bedroom, thats where republicans want to be. [laughter] so i reject both parties and the way they handle themselves into one of the policy that theyve have on both sides and thats why i form my overwhelmingly libertarian beliefs right here in the city of chicago. I adore this city and its great to be back talking about this. Talk a little bit about, as i was reading the book i realized you could have written a book by the time you turned the age of 30. You would have been a radio reporter, you bought a small newspaper, sold it, made some money and traveled. You saw poverty like most of us have not experienced. Talk to us a little bit about what you were doing up until age 30. I was an intern and i fetched lester holt coffee when he was the anchor and i began t my carr at the fort myers and naples area. So, there was a general assignment reporter and i was the idiot at every hurricane that was my first sort of National Time on cnn and fox and msnbc. We make fun of people like that. Like what is that idiot doing telling me to get inside, im out here showing you how terrible it is. So, i did that at any time i had the opportunity to travel, i would say chicago planted the seed for my love of culture. I came from the side of cincinnati as i write in the bucket is pretty vanilla. I would always make fun of how a lot of people wore khakis from kmart and here seeing women walking down where you smell literally the food from around the world this is amazing to me and when i was here in chicago after i got done studying at loyola and later in life when i would eventually sell the business, i wanted to go see the world. So, one of my passions is absorbing as much culture as i ever could so i learned a few languages in the process and ended up studying at italy and i learned fluent spanish and troubled pretty extensively. Extensively. Id been helive been held at gi eating bugs and brain tacos off the streets of mexico in particular but its been a fun ride. Tell us about, you got a phone call to come back in anger a television station and from there you somehow transitioned into life clicking where you decided to run for office. So talk to us about that. I left a very comfortable gig in the Southwest Region of naples ft. Myers. As im sitting here in the summer does anybody go there in the winter. I left tv news to the Communications Consulting in boston politics. A radio show opened up to do political talk in the morning so i would do the radio show and it was a conservative radio show but i would often try to push the envelope to share my more libertarian beliefs. I got this radio show and i began in one way or another building up a bit of a following that specifically among republican primary voters. While im doing radio the current congressman at the time you may know him his name to be the father is the congressman called the essay im going to run for the senate. You should consider paying for congress. Its how you build up your own campaign. I have some assets that a politician and candidate needs. If you do not have the name identification, you need money and tons of it. You as a candidate are nothing more than a plug. You have to market and brand your self. You try to literally go out to the crowds and say pick me, i want to your congressman or be r governor or whatever it is. But, the part that comes with that is money. In the book i dont get very judgmental on heres what we should do to get money out of politics. What i hope if you get a chance to read it i try to lay out how it is. What youve got to do is go out and raise boatloads of cash. And it starts with three groups. Youve got your friends and family, believers and people who want something. Those are the groups that you treat when you are announcing your campaign. I know i havent seen you in three years but you are great, thank you. Then you go to the believers and they use politics and barack obama and president s trump have the small dollar donors who may be in tough times of their own but they will still write that check and you build these types of donors and then there are the people that want something. In my experience in politics i never had anything out of a hollywood movie where you get this especially among republicans you get white men with cigars. It was never anything like that but they would throw a fundraiser for you and eventually should you get elected the next day they are in your office in a different capacity because theyve separated the office and campaign. Heres the policy we like and they know that you know in the back of your head that person just raised me 20,000 last night. So these are some of the components with a little bit of breakdown and its quite frankly dirty how politics can be. Even for someone that is close i read and write about politics, it is still stunning to me to have the curtain pulled back as much as it is on the two main areas. You talk about not just the specialinterest money that the special interest money that the money that you are expected to raise from your fellow congressmen and how that is a judge of your merit. I want you to tell the story of when you walked into that meeting. The house of representatives each of the politica has a polir their members of congress, the democrats have the Democratic Congressional committee, d. Triple c. Then it is the nrc. You have to keep your federal office and federal lawmaker rules separate from the campaign. You are forbidden from even talking about the campaign and the federal office. You cant use the same to solicit contributions or anything like that. But to share something with you that again i dont pass judgment. Im happy to if you want to talk about that, but it to layout for you what happened in washington, d. C. If you think your local member of congress whether you live in the suburbs were here in the city is getting their stellar seats on the Committee Like the head of Foreign Affairs or the ways and means, the most powerful committee, the reason that they got there is not because they are the most eloquent and that person is a policymaker. Its because they can raise money and a lot of it so let there be no question that the politics and the raising money plays a role in what you end up doing as a federal lawmaker what you achieve, what position you become even if you want to go on to the leadership you have to raise money for your party. Talk about the wall of shame. I remember my first meeting i go in there and our campaign after the general election we raised 25,000 because again, i reflect on this and it feels a little dark to talk about, but we raised 25,000 because i wanted to be a player. When i went to washington i wanted to work hard and connect with democrats and serve the country but i knew there was a game you have to play so i started early and raised 25,000 for the nrc see. Theres a giant poster board thats got every republicans name. And its got how much money you have raised. I did more than these other freshmen and i literally start going no, no. Like shes got a million dollars, paul ryan has a million dollars, then 50,000. I looked over at the end of the board and there is a big fat zero. I go to the other members of congress and say what is going on, why do i have a zero. We are in a new cycle. It is what it is. We can offer money all day about how it affects it or doesnt. You will never find a solution because there will be arguments about free speech and how you can express your self and do so with money. I dont believe they are human beings we can get into that at a later time. But whether it is democrats or republicans, this is how it functions and how you get on good committees. I dont think it is the healthiest thing but it is what it is. It is kind of depressing to read the book and we sort of notice intuitively that we pay more attention to which special Interest Group is given to this person and getting this in return and not so much about the Party Contributions and demands. The other thing i found disturbing about the system is you hear a lot especially from the fiscal conservatives how they are sleeping on the cost in their office and saving the taxpayers money that the royalty that comes with especially leadership positions, security like Kevin Mccarthy had security detail and suvs pulling up and these lavish dinners. Talk a little bit about i think you compared to the roman empire how dc feels as depression and what did you see . [inaudible] [laughter] the screen goes to black. There is a lavish lifestyle. I do think it is a little stupid for the republicans that are like barack obama wants to take your guns but he has people with guns protecting him. Its the president of the United States, i understand the armor plated suvs and how the leadership at these kind of things. There are leadership people i wouldnt have express would have this. We get to the darker parts but in my own life there are Death Threats and ive had them but to go to the lavish lifestyle, one of the things that is so ridiculous about the way that washington, d. C. Operates is this you have these fancy dinners all the time and industries put money towards them, the parties put money towards them, but one of the craziest stories i go through in the book is being invited to one of my first big parties up to dc. I just won my primary. In the United States, districts are drawn overwhelmingly to support hardcore left or right. So in my primar primary that sam done i dont need to worry about the democrats. That is also a conundrum of the problem the country has with putting george bush into a room and saying compromise, have fun with the fact. Because you have the far left and far right are not going to agree. I am hanging out and meeting people and then we sit down to have dinner. They start putting out all of these huge trays with chicken and shrimp on skewers. Can i get a stateoftheart at a steakhouse. No, no. When the democrats came into power with barack obama, they implemented rules because of all of the scandals in the lobbies. In their infinite wisdom, they said lobbyists will not have as much influence when we stop them from purchasing a plated dinner. Instead a lobbyist can buy a steak dinner if it is on a stick. [laughter] this is not even a joke. Think about your taxpayer dollars but you pay every year, the money that goes to washington, d. C. I had a great idea, we will build and then that is the ethical rule they came up within the guidelines for the other members to abide by. In chicago you recall they were no longer going to be allowed to get the tickets so they found that these ways of what if it is fair market value in these ways to make it legal you cannot accept a gift worth x. Amount of dollars or more. With every rule and regulation there is a room full of attorneys and they are figuring out how to bend the rule and get around it. My biggest thing and i say this to my hardcore liberal and conservative friends, if you want to stop this or stop pitting people against each other, stop the government from picking and choosing sides. I know that in practice it is a lot harder to do but whether you support massive subsidies for green energy which all of us believe in a healthy environment, i understand ideas for research and development but if you dont like that or you dont like a bunch of brakes going to big oil, youve got to stop having the government pick and choose sides based on the tax law. If you want to lobby to get out of the office of your member of congress, then if you take away the brakes or the incentives the lobby is fighting for, they cannot be there anymore. Its those that poke and prod the rules or member of congress to fight for what they want in their interestonly. You can clap. [laughter] [applause] there is a state lawmaker i remember interviewing once who said she doesnt do it. She doesnt go out for drinks and she picks up the tab every single time. Is that possible and does it made a difference you are putting down the marker that im not going to mess with the disclosure im just not going to be part of that its never even appeared compromised . Tha part of that i began wrapping up in the book is we can argue all day over the money and influence and what is happening in washington, d. C. There is a human component to this but i believe in witches sometimes you go to these and see the person of an opposite party or a lobbyist that may be able to give valuable information. They fight for what they have been hired to do because the government created the job. They also can provide you valuable information and i would say someone who lobbies can talk to republicans and say that it may broaden the scope but one of the things missing in washington, d. C. Today is just relationships. We spend so much time yelling at each other instead of talking with each other. I am not a perfect person but one of the things i most proud of is my first 30 days in office, i made it a point to go meet every florida democrat and that is because i knew i would be spending time with republicans and i would be meeting with the political agenda but ive met wit they mey florida democrat. First of all it was like he wants to meet with Debbie Wasserman schultz, the head of the dnc is this like basis asking for a meeting with the pope, like whats going on here. I ended up striking out a great relationship with democrats all over the United States starting with floridians and to go back to my libertarian beliefs like criminal Justice Reform the Immigration Reform and things like that but you dont get a lot of that in dc so whether it is the social aspect people can interact it is incumbent upon members of congress to remove themselves out of the Political Echo Chamber we all have. We have kind of a conservative area and you get trapped in the speaker chambers Somebody Just wants to watch rachel matthau and then get active in the Democratic Party and then i guess bill oreilly or whoever on the right and we lock ourselves in the eco chambers. I would encourage you to tell your member of congress and it sounds contrary to what you may believe that stay in dc a little longer. The compromise every single day in our own lives with our spouse or children, our boss, coworke coworkers. We need more members on the left and right doing that. [applause] they are coming to dc with less and less and as you mentioned in the book but even our congressmen. They were still able to show restraint and you were not. Not so much. You talk about how the balance has always been something difficult for you. I have personal stuff i went through including the fourth thf my mother. It was undoubtedly a lot of pressure. She died on my wedding reception floor. There was a terrible accident. You can read the book. So again i have self deprecating humor and a par part of it is ie been to a lot of things and i believe that we all handle grieving and loss in different ways. For me, one of them is i try to have a sense of humor. Whether you are democrat, republican, looking at politics today. I dont do all these things in the campaign and i then found my wife and child of thousands of miles away and my child at the time was 2yearsold and i was living like a bachelor. I would have some cocktails. Red flags were going up left and right and the bartender saying heres persona that i didnt even order yet. I worked like a mad man. The pro and con about my own personality is ive been a madman about everything i do. When i go to work on something i go not. I would work from 8 a. M. Until six at night and i loved what i did. I loved serving this country, meeting with constituents, while making, policy, the relationship part of it and i would go hard but i would go out drinking like a mad man. Like most normal members of congress they would maybe have a cocktail and a glass of red wine. I would find myself at a bar talking about sports or something other than the debt to gdp ratio. I would throw the word out. I dabbled in cocaine. So the decision after decision, night after night i purchased and not only is it an idiotic move, you are a father and a husband and a member of the United States congress. I bought cocaine and i got busted by the fbi. They said they heard there was a member of congress that was doing this and it was a sting operation. This is one of the things i do in the buck i dont go into detail with the guy looked like whether youve been through your own ups and downs i try not to dwell on the past. I dont arrested and i remember specifically the road i was walking down when i heard my name and they knew better than to say congressman because i probably would have just kept going. I was inebriated. I had beers on the hill after i dig at work and i went to a fundraiser with the majority leader, then i went to a bar and bought this and after i walked out after purchasing it i heard my name and i turned around like whose party is it now. Fbi. Your life is about to change dramatically. And that was the understatement of a lifetime. You dont talk about that much in the buck. People made fun of you on talk shows. I never used the words t. Party. There are common values that the teen party had at one time and i believe there is a good belief in a lot of what theyve done but never associating with it, you bet id t. Party cooking congressmen and that was the moniker i got. His first name was henry said he was hoping no one would think that connection and of course it isnt possible so what kind of a dark spot you must have been out of your mind. Im going to walk down. Hello, i am trey radel, United States congressman. My arrest has not been announced but i still went to work and i was an Insane Person for weeks this went on. It ended up coming out and i went through crazy thoughts. Has it changed how you view other people that make mistakes like jesse from illinois who for all intensive purposes if you knew him he seemed he was sincere but got caught up in Campaign Spending and his wife went offtrack. Do you view situations like that differently . Yes. Im just thinking of recent let me bring it home, aaron shock who also allegedly because the court has to figure all that out. Hes a great guy. If all of this ends up being true, this is a young guy that came to washington with the greatest intentions and who serve you in one way or another and got caught up in lifestyle mistakes and choices. But he worked with democrats and was by all accounts a great guy that wanted to do good things for the country. When i see these things happening to, you see delmore use a racial word recently and Kathy Griffin who cut the head off donald if you havent seen that, this is a tremendously colossal stupid thing to do. She shouldnt have done the second followup press conference. If she made a genuine apology and would have disappeared for a year and that is a good thing to do when you do Something Like that, she could probably come back. But she made a big mistake of getting a lawyer saying that he was ruining her life. One thing i would share it was the hardest for me to digest is you see the world destroying you, piling up on you and one of the things i still think about today friends tha praised or and politics you hear voices of people who were destroying you and you wish there would be Somebody Just as loud standing up for you. Look at the politics. So then you move on in life. We want time for a few questions. I wanted to close with you went to rehab and turned you turn yoe around and are now doing consulting. Do you find that moment in time will define you always, are you accepting of that . I dont see it defining me. Everybody has ups and downs. Any questions at all and open, personal, political, nothing is out of line. I dont think it defines me. Its part of what makes you. You cannot let the past way you down to the point you are not able to move forward and you cannot be so anxious about the future that you are also unable to move forward. I will just try to live a little bit more at peace and strike a balance in my life and live in the present. It is a great book and there are some out front. Hes going to stay and find some after. Im pleased to have you here. You think about the choices today especially young people are all about choices whatever you want to do is in the palm of your hand we have choices for everything and in our political system today we have two parties, thats it. Because the way the infrastructure for the parties has been. I went to some of their events and they have a successful where they get politically active here and there. Unfortunately with the infrastructure its going to be a while before we get to a thirdparty. I have many students are that ae skeptical about what politicians can do for them and benefit their lives so what would you say to recommend to help them of the script code and want to partake in politics and get involved . Whoever you dont like an office there are consequences for not voting and that is what i think people do not understa understand. Or make America Great again, you dont have to do that but youve got to vote. Every vote does count. It matters what you do or dont do with respect to not voting. But the overwhelming thing now without sounding cheesy, both democrats and republicans in the United StatesCongress Today as much as we want to point our finger at everyone and say congress is terrible, i didnt help with that by the way i brought it down further. Democrats and republicans with men and women i interact with these are people for the same reasons to improve america and most especially for their constituents they are there for the same reason. Its how we get there. More government or less government. If you were the president of the United States was the first thing you would do . Let me use the war on drugs in particular. How would you culture we get to it . I tried to speak to the people that still think its a good idea and that is republicans and conservatives. If you are a social conservative, but war on drugs is breaking up families, pulling people out of church. If you are a fiscal conservative we are spending 80 billion to overwhelmingly incarcerate people that are nonviolent offenders. That means they only hurt themselves. But to bring it back to chicago, i shudder every time i hear about another murder here in this city. Its a very dark time right now in chicago. One of the reasons we have so much violence is because the war on drugs in particular has created a black market and you know what i will say something, i will talk about a group of people that are the biggest victims of the war on drugs. Republicans and conservatives wont talk about this group that takes the biggest because it goes to show the policies failed. The biggest victims are cops. Most especially in the cities between communities and Law Enforcement is absurd, ridiculous and doesnt need to be there. It is a colossal failure no matter what set of eyes you are lookinwerelooking for, conservar liberal and it is one of the reasons i think its created a cultural mess. That wraps up our time. I think that people stick arou around. Thank you. [applause] thank you for attending todays event. Book signing will be outside of the auditorium. [applause] [inaudible conversations] former congressman trey radel discussing his book democrazy. More coverage in just a few minutes. Thank you for your patience, thank you so much for sticking around. If anybody is watching on twitter i will try to answer as we are alive live. And [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] it simply is moved around so when it comes to the foreignpolicy we end up creating violence do we need to get away from the twoparty system . The way that the infrastructure and money is set up to take a look at the way i dont know whether they would have had a chance or if he would have removed some of the ways the party kind of pushed him aside. In [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] thats the tough part the government doesnt work like a business to check the balances. Its hard but there are areas where whether you are democrat or republican they break through and changed the culture of washington, d. C. They are the biggest victims and look at the sentencing. Some kids on the south side of chicago. I recognized that. Thats why we need criminal Justice Reform and they get the biggest when it comes to the war on drugs. Thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]. A report on the growth of uber. Also that evening in the nations capitol, science magazines Peter Brannon will recall earths five mass stinkses. Thursday, were in new york city for form are new York District attorney james zirons thoughts on how the Supreme Court has become partisan and saturday the 2017 roosevelt reading festivalhold by the fdr president ial library and human in hyde park, new york. Thats a look at some of the events booktv will be covering this week. Many of these events are open to the public. Look for them to air in the near future on booktv, on cspan2. Youre watching booktv on cspan2. This is our live coverage of the annual chicago tribunes printers row lit fest