betsy, and her father. [applause] i would like to begin with a brief history lesson. it is only appropriate that we find ourselves at a residential library. our constitution explicitly states the oath of office for the presidents of the united states. but for other officers of the government, including the vice president, the constitution offers no instruction whatsoever about the oath required. well, the first congress stated that only senators could administer the oath to the vice president. a few months later, they change their mind giving judges that ability. the oath itself has changed many times over the years. the oath in use today for the vice president has been around since 1884. you will be interested to know that our guest tonight took the oath as vice president, with his left hand resting on none other than president reagan's own bible. the very bible used when he took the oath of office in 1981, and four years later, in 1985. the oath is brief. here it is. i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. i will bear true faith that i take this obligation freely, without any reservation or purpose of evasion. that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office, on which i am about to enter, so help me god. so help me god. those four words serve as a plea, as a prayer, as a reminder that immense pressure may be placed on a person and that he or she can turn to a higher power, to find the confidence and the courage to do what is right. it is also these very words that make for an appropriate title of vice presidents mike pence his new memoir which hit the stands a couple of days ago. they are specially fitting because he is a man of deep and abiding faith. it has been faith that has helped him, his wife, karen, and the entire pence family throughout their life, and particularly through challenging moments of public life. this is a book about that journey. it is a defense of the policies of the trump and pence this duration -- administration. it is also a memoir that reveals some new details about some important recent history, including the events of january 6. throughout it, vice president pence also offers insights for his parties to take on new relevance and new urgency, following last week's election results. announcements made earlier this week, as well. when vice president pence last spoke in the reagan library, it was in the summer of 2021. it was part of our time for choosing speakers. with that series, we invite republican leaders to offer their view on the right direction for the parties to be successful in the future. as we gather here this evening, it seems that the choice now facing the party is becoming even starker, and probably more complicated. as a party, we need to get this right. i am certain that the first piece of advice our speaker would offer about the future is this, uphold your oath to the constitution, so help you god. 80's and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the 48th vice president of the united states of america, mike pence. [applause] >> what an honor it is to happy with us tonight, mr. vice president. >> the honor is mine, john. and q, so very much. the presidential library is a national treasure. [applause] this is your stage. there's a story in your book about your father. i thought it was so telling because, i hope you will tell it to us. it's about when you came home with the whole batch of blue-ribbon, first-place for speaking -- for speaking contest you had one. you put them down in front of your father. then what happened? >> john, again, thank you for the hospitality. and the other honored guests that are here. it is a joy to be with you all. this is my first book signing, so help me god. [laughter] [applause] i love you bringing up my dad because while much of the book deals with my public life in the tumultuous years that would follow, i was on capitol hill and 911 array about that in the book. my efforts would result in me emerging as a conservative leader in the house of representatives going home to indiana and to be governor of the state, and also having the great privilege to be your vice president during some extraordinary years of accomplishment for the american people. and of that would have been possible without my faith in god , my family, and the support and prayers of the american people. thank you for the privilege to serve you. it was the greatest honor of my life. [applause] it is wonderful you brought up my dad. my dad grew up on the southside of chicago. he was a fast talking, young man . he listed -- enlisted in the army and ended up in the korean war. he came back he met my mom and they ended up in a small town, in southern indiana, where i showed up. my dad has been gone since 1988. but sometimes i have to remind myself that our three adult children never met my dad. he continues to be such a great influence in my life. he is the best man i ever knew. someone recently observed that he is the secret star of the book. the story referred to says a lot about my dad in the way he raised my three brothers, two sisters, and i. in the chapter entitled, climb euro amount, dad had built a successful business in the small town. a gas station business. it worked out a gas station to pay my way through college. i was a gas station attendant. for the younger people in the room, we will explain later what that was. [laughter] but my dad was a man of strong faith. he most often repeated phrases were climb your own mountain. he said to each one of his children, i don't care what you do with your life. but i want you to strive every day to do your best. the story you allude to captured that moment. i did not excel greatly in sports in high school. but i had a lot of success in speech competitions. i remember coming home from an oratorical contest with a fistful of blue ribbons. i threw them on the kitchen table to dad. i told him i had a great day. the great part about it was that i had not tried that hard. i really kinda phoned it in. [laughter] dad looked up at me and i thought he would be pleased they came back with a fistful of ribbons. he knew them back at me. he said i don't want anything to do with those. i said why? i came in first. he said you just told me you didn't do your best. he said all i ever want for me was to do your best. every day of my life i try to live up to that standard. that combat veteran, that dedicated father, dedicated husband, one of my favorite memories about my dad. when my first international trips was to travel to korea. we were driving to the capital of soul, they had billboards at the bus stations that said, welcome, vice president pence. right underneath it, it said in thank you lieutenant, for our freedom. [applause] >> one more story a would like you to tell. i fell in love with the story. this one is about a fraternity brother that you had in college. this is a born-again story. i would like you to tell the story about what he wore around his neck and how that affected you. >> he's got this fraternity brother named john. i thought it was only appropriate if i call this man the modern-day john apostle. he remarked to him about what he was wearing. >> i when i went off to college i had lost interest in the faith of my youth. i gained some notoriety around my group. i was probably typical 18-year-old young man, probably full of myself. i have been raised in a church home. my family was, church on sunday, grace before dinner. i lost interest in it. when i went off to college, i started to meet young men that seem to have an ease in their life that i did not have. it called themselves, simply christians. they invited me to come to a fellowship group on campus at the little chapel. i visited once. as i read in the book, in there were a fair number of pretty, young ladies that came to that thing. but in that time, i began to have conversations with my friends, particularly john, whom now is a pastor at a large presbyterian church. we would have late-night conversations like fraternity brothers will have, talking about god. at one point, i noticed that john wore a gold cross around his neck. i asked him or he got it. he said it was from a catalog, back in the day when you could pick up the phone and order things. over the phone. [laughter] i said to him, i just decided i was associating with these christian people. i thought i was going to be christian, too. i said to john, remember, give matt catalog. i want to order one of those crosses that you where. when data material, a sewage walking away he turned around and said to me, don't forget, give me that catalog. i want to get that cross. he said remember, you have to wear in your heart, before you wear it around her neck. i fell in that moment that my mask had been pulled off. as i wrote in the book, i realized he could tell i was a phony. i was just posing. i was holding the form of christianity but did not understand it. it would be a number of weeks later that i would travel with that same group of young people to an early christian music festival at a place called wilmore, kentucky. it was there, listening to these new contemporary christian musicians and a movement that began here, california. i heard a preacher that god so loved his world that he sent the only begotten son. he might have everlasting life. i stood up and walks down and i found a volunteer pastor. i accepted jesus christ as my personal lord and savior and it changed my life forever. [applause] it is the most important decision i ever made. his grace has sustained me, ever since. i am trying to reflect what that has meant to me since that day, in the rain. the second most important i ever made in my life was the day i asked karen whitaker to be my wife. [applause] she has been the greatest evidence of god's grace in my life. i've heard you a few times say i'm a christian, i'm a conservative, andy republican, in that order. >> that's right. >> maybe you might say was on january 6. it might have been the other time in your life when you felt your faith was really tested. >> early in my faith walk, the hardest day for me, was the day dad left us. i was in the middle of that first campaign in 1988. karen and i were driving around in our pontiac grand prix. a little sign on the door, we would tape, mike pence for congress. as i recounted in the book, i got a phone call to hurry to the hospital in columbus. in i walked into the hospital and my brother ed had his arm around my mom. he said, dad's gone. that was the worst day of my life. by far. but i try and write in the book very candidly about how i worked through that. i dealt with it and tried to be candid about growing from it. for me, that was maybe the greatest challenge. beyond the whole public responsibility have had, and challenges we had in the public square. there is nothing more important than family. [applause] >> the way i read it, this was definitely a levitt first site -- a love at first sight with karen. most politicians say my wife and i reteam. but i get the feeling that there is not a piece of your life where your wife karen and you are not melded together. this is a really important relationship. that is the sense i get. >> i dedicated the book to karen. the love of my life. it's true from the bottom of my heart. the first time i met her, i thought she was extraordinary. i followed her out of the back of the church where she was playing guitar in a group and told her i wanted to play in a guitar group. [applause] [laughter] she pointed to a large man with a beard. i just tucked my head out and said, i'm mike pence. she figured out i was not interested in playing the guitar. [laughter] i met her and she was teaching shop. at a local private school. she had already worked her way through college and paid her way through college, studied and got a masters degree. she was a pilot and she was in every way extraordinary. after i talked to this girl i just met for 15 minutes, to this day, he tells people he knew this time was different, and it was. we were engaged nine months later and married after that. every step of the way, she has been my closest advisor, my greatest sort of string. -- source of strength. someone said to me the other day that what comes through in so help me god is that it is not just our marriage, but it is extended to our children all the way through a fateful day in january now almost two years ago when i was trying to find just the right words. when we reconvene the united states senate after that tragic day in january, i was back up stairs just off the senate chamber, and i had written some words there that i wanted to recite when we reconvened that very same day. as you will see and read in the book, my wife was over one shoulder and my daughter charlotte was leaning over the other. my wife and kids know my heart better than everybody, and we had my son and my other daughter on the phone giving their thoughts about helping dad find just the right words. i hope in this book what comes through is that whatever we have accomplished, whatever we have been able to do for the people of indiana and the american people, we have been able to do because of our faith in god, my extraordinary wife, and are extraordinarily family at the foundation of it all. [applause] mr. heubusch: speaking of family, i would like to broaden this out a bit and talk with you for a minute about there are so many problems i am sure you face as governor, societal problems that range from drug abuse to homelessness. these are intractable problems that it seems are impossible to solve, but i get the sense in your book that you believe at the end of the day, we can throw any kind of money or programs at these things, it all begins and ends with the family. mr. pence: well, i was asked last night on a cable network program i a pastor from indiana that was at the town hall on cnn. he said what is your advice to busy families that have busy lives, which is virtually true of every american family in these challenging times. i said, go home for dinner. the family is the cornerstone of our civilization. i really do believe on a practical level in these times where it seems like our politics are more divided than ever, it is really more that unites the american people. i believe faith is chief among those things but i believe a love for our families, a desire to see our children and grandchildren live the american dream and achieve more than we achieved. i do believe that strong families make strong communities, strong committees will make a strong america peered with strong families, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish as americans. [applause] mr. heubusch: i told the story when introduced to about you taking the oath with president reagan's bible, and there -- round reagan had a lot of fans. mr. pence: was one of them. mr. heubusch: my sense is that you not only really admired the man, but you admired his vision above all else. is that right? mr. pence: i did admire his vision. well, i know i am in california and california claims ronald reagan and you should. but he is from the midwest. [laughter] i'm just saying, mike. not far from where i grew up. it was his vision, but also to me, it was that combination of a strong backbone and a gentle hand that inspired me. as i recount in "so help me god" i was slow to the parade. i grew up in really a nonpolitical family if you can believe that. my dad really did not have any use for politicians or lawyers. you can imagine i am a source of great pride to him. [laughter] when i got interested in politics, i talked to dad and he said my lawyer is involved in politics, go talk to him. he happened to be a democrat so i got involved in the democratic party in indiana. i was a youth democratic party coordinator in 1975, kind of a community organizer if the truth be told. [laughter] i'll be honest with you, as some of the people were teasing me at the library today, i voted for jimmy carter, and i really did not get ronald reagan. i did not understand it. when i went off to college, embrace my faith in christ, as i recount in the book, i began kind of a conservative transformation as well. i started hearing in president reagan the same thing that my irish immigrant ran father had raised me to believe. i was raised -- named after him and my dad had raised me to believe that common, heartland conservatism that was just the vocabulary of my youth. i always loved that story of when the american people heard ronald reagan talking, whether they were driving a truck or in an office or sitting on a tractor, they would just say, darn right. i started to listen, and i started to hear that vision, but also i was deeply inspired by that kindness and respect that he showed for every american. when i moved to indianapolis after i graduated, as i recount in the book, i walked into the local republican had orders and said, i'm here to sign up for the republican party. this rather large county chairman looked at me behind his desk and said, that's not really something you sign up for but -- [laughter] -- we are glad to have you. i joined the ranking revolution and never looked back. it was his vision, a vision for a strong national defense, limited government under the constitution, traditional moral values but also it was a heart in a gentleness in the way that he spoke, deep conviction, the gentleness and respect that will always inspire me as long as i live. the life in the work and the example around reagan. [applause] mr. heubusch: you just mentioned in talking about the vision ronald reagan, smaller government. whatever happened to republicans and smaller government and less spending? [laughter] mr. pence: tried to capture that a little bit. it ran for congress in 1988 when president reagan was still in the white house, and i lost. i ran again in 1990, and i lost by more. [laughter] really thought my put a coke career was over. we would spend 10 years in radio in a little bit of television in the state of indiana. when the opportunity came back around to run for office, i dusted off that reagan vision, reagan agenda, karen and i loaded up the kids in the minivan and went to the county fairs and knocked on doors and we were elected to congress in the year 2000. when arrived on capitol hill, the very first though -- bill of the new incoming republican administration was called no child left behind it was largest expansion of the department of education since jimmy carter created it. sometimes i felt like a minute man who showed up 10 years late for the revolution. [laughter] i often tell friends that i felt like rip van winkle. i went to sleep before the reagan revolution started and i woke up after was over. i was one and elton who was a principal conservative in every single way in the congress of the united states. elton, want to thank you so much. [applause] i was one of i think 28 republicans who voted against no child left behind. i voted against efforts by the republican president to expand entitlements, but i had a deep sense as i recount in "so help me god" that if we walked away from that reagan vision of limited government, fiscal responsibility that the american people would walk away from us. in 2006, they did. we would lose in 2006, and i would say at the time that we did not just lose the election, we lost our way. we found our way back. i was a house republican conference chairman the last time we retired nancy pelosi, and in just a few short weeks, we will retire her once and for all. [applause] the key in 2010 and the key in 2022 was queuing back to those roots. i really believe as a set of the reagan library last year that's the foundations of our movement from reagan to trump are all grounded in the same principles, the same ideals of a strong and unwavering national defense, a commitment to the limited government described in the constitution of the united states, defense of all the liberties enshrined there, and then a commitment to protecting our liberties and our traditional values in the courts of the land. so, i really do, i really have sought to put all that into practice. in my career and i try to capture that story as a conservative journeying through years in congress and the governorship and as you're vice president in the book. mr. heubusch: one of the hallmarks of ronald reagan's success is in addition to the importance of mrs. reagan, family, he was known for surrounding himself with really talented people, jim bayer, baker, mike dever. i get the sense that you have that same talent, guys like nick ayres, mark short, kellyanne conway. you have really been able to build a world-class team. mr. pence: thank you. mark short and his wife kristen, mark is with us tonight. they were the founding director doors of the reagan ranch. so they come from a good background. it is one of the things that you learned early on, and i know president reagan learned and lived it. i had the privilege to know a number of people who were senior in the administration including a dear friend attorney general ed mees whose friendship i cherish to this day. you learned early on you are only as good as your people, and i learned that on that tragic day in january in 2021 as well. both mark short and my general counsel greg jacob as a recount in the book had been there at my side giving me steady counsel and support as we sought to stand firm and to do our duty. i will always believe that we did our duty that day, ensuring the peaceful transfer of power under the constitution of the united states and the laws of this country. [applause] when it was all over at 4:00 in the morning, i stepped down off the rostrum and i had a number of members of congress who were approaching me, graciously thanking me for what we had done and the stand that we had taken, but there was only one person i was looking for. i walked out into the speakers lobby and i tended to ignore it the members that were expressing kindness to me, and there she was at the far end of the lobby, my wife karen. i walked up and put my arms around her and she looked up at me and she said, i'm proud of you. that was all i needed to hear. [applause] but as we walked out of the building, i realized that i had lost track of my chief of staff, a man who i had literally worked with for 10 years. he was my chief of staff when i was the conference chairman for house republicans. we had stayed close during my years as governor and he had worked at the white house in various roles, ultimately as my chief. i just got on my phone as we are walking to the limousines in those early morning hours of january 7 and i just typed to mark, i said thank you for everything. i said i lost track of you. he simply wrote back a bible verse, 2 timothy 4:7. and we climbed into the limousines and as we slowly begin to pull away from the capital looked it up. it reads, i fought the good fight, i finished the race, i kept the faith. those are the kind of people i have been privileged to have around me. [applause] mr. heubusch: speaking of that motorcade early the next morning, you tell a really interesting tale about how you were thinking of what was happening on january 6 because i know the secret service, capitol police, the whole world was urging you leave the capital for your own safety, get out, get out. you told them something about this 16 car motorcade. can you relay that to the audience tonight? mr. pence: i was on the senate floor when as i write in my book the par mode -- parliamentarian turned around and said the rioters have breached the first floor of the capital and are outside your just informing you, she said. we continued the proceedings and were hearing discussion of objections that have been brought under the electoral act. if you moments later, one of might secret service agents, a wonderful man named max came walking up to my chair on the senate floor and said, we have to go. i got out of my chair, and as we walked towards the door, he said, we need to get you out of the building. there are rioters on the house side. i must tell you, i served for 12 years in the house of representatives. i have great confidence in the capitol hill police. i was there when the majority leaders office was attacked by a gunman that claimed lives. i had every confidence that the capitol hill police would have the situation in hand, and i looked at max and i said, we will just wait in my office across the hall from the senate chamber. so, there we went, and my wife karen joined me quickly and charlotte joined me. we began to monitor on a small television set what was happening, and i really could not believe what i was seeing. i was filled with indignation at the sites of people smashing windows and ransacking offices. i was angry. i thought, not this, not here, not in america. the secret service agent came in again and said sir, we have got to leave the building. i said, we are fine. we will stay here. i was not leaving my post. a few minutes later, they came back in and they were more insistent and said we need to leave the building. and i stuck my finger in our lead agents chest, and i said you are not hearing me. i said, i am not sleeping, i am not giving those people the site of a 16 car motorcade speeding away from the capital. he looked at me with some anxiety and said, well, you cannot stay here. this is a glass door. we cannot secure it. with a note from my daughter, he offered that we could go to the loading dock a few floors down that was still secure. i agreed. but as we made our way down the stairs, we could hear the sound of footfall, we could hear the noise of a crowd in the hallways . but arriving in the loading dock, they began to walk me towards the cars, the motorcade was lined up on the ramp going out of the underground parking garage. the doors were both open, and i stopped and looked at my lead agent, a wonderful courageous man name tim gables, and said i am not getting in the car. he said no sir, we are just going to hold here. we are going to stay in have you wait in the car, but we are staying here. [laughter] i looked at him and i said with great sincerity, i said tim, you are a man of integrity, but you are not driving that car. i just knew in my heart after four years under secret service protection there was a high likelihood that once karen and i got in that car and closes 200 pound doors, somebody was going to tell the driver to go because that was their job. was. i looked at him and i said, is this area secure? he said is for now. so i said we are here. and i stayed. i was absolutely convinced that it was important that i stay at my post. i thought it was important that i stay in the capital and do whatever i could to assist the response by capitol police, by federal law enforcement, even by the pentagon to squared away. i must tell you that they did it because of the extraordinary courage of law enforcement, capital and federal, the violence was quelled. we were able to ring convene in the congress of the very same day and complete our work under the constitution in a day of tragedy became a day of triumph and freedom. [laughter] [applause] i will never see it any other way. i said on the senate floor, john, in my brief remarks that i recount in the book, today the world will witness the resilience of our democracy. and they did. i will always be grateful for the support of the members of congress, house and senate, both political parties that completed their duty that day. i must tell you over the last few years as i traveled around the country and even here tonight, it is deeply meaningful for me to hear the encouragement and support of people all across this country. i want to thank you all for that from the bottom of my heart. [applause] mr. heubusch: ok, we have time for maybe one or two more questions. on the january 6 situation, i know that president trump has taken his licks, impeached twice . at the same time, you and he as a team accomplished a phenomenal amount. [applause] i would like to end on that high note of optimistic, positive note. can you just talk about what is your proudest accomplishment from the trump-penn's administration? there was a lot. mr. pence: john, thank you. when i wrote "so help me god" as a about lesson learned early in my life and challenges at this season of my public career. but i hope that people who take a look at this book see that it has also been described as the most wholesome defense of the record of the trump-penn's administration because i could not be more proud to have been vice president in an administration that rebuild our military, rolled back taxes and regulations, created 7 million good paying jobs, unemployment was at a 50 year low. we unleashed american energy and became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 70 years. we secured our southern border and reduce illegal immigration by 90%. [applause] and we appointed more than 300 conservatives to our federal courts at every level included justice neil gorsuch, brett kavanaugh and amy coney barrett. that conservative majority gave america a new beginning and -- in the right to life in the last six months. [applause] to me, it was a privilege to be a part of it and i also appreciate the fact when something else i have tried to capture in "so help me god" was the hailstorm of opposition we faced from day one. i tell a story in the book about how i was with president trump on inauguration day in 2017 and we were at the oval office, just the two of us were there and we started walking back to the white house down the portico. and the bright lights were on the side wall, it was well lit. president trump looked at me and said, look at this. i said, it is humbling. he turned and looked at me and said, that's right it's humbling. [laughter] but as we walked into the residence, the end of that chapter i capture the fact that outside the oval office was a stack of newspapers. the headline in the washington post on january 20, 2017 was " the campaign to impeach donald trump starts today. " they never let up. two and half years of the russian hoax until was no occlusion no obstruction, case closed. impeached the president for a phone call. the unrelenting attacks by democrats and their allies in the media was the likes of which i had never seen. i was a young man in the reagan years, and it was no picnic for ronald reagan. i get it. i don't know it was the advent of the internet or social media or cable amplified it but men and women, i mean to tell you it was like nothing i had ever seen in my life. but nevertheless, we accomplish things that conservatives have been talking about for generations, and we did it all in four short years. [applause] somebody asked me the other day if i have any regrets, and i speak about that at the close of the book. the only regret i have is seeing virtually all the progress that we made it dismantled over the last two years. a military that was more robust than at any time since the reagan years now is facing flatlining of their budgets and shortages once again. and a political correctness that seems to be echoing down the halls of the pentagon. an economy that was ready to rebound after the worst pandemic in 100 years saddled with a mountain range of spending and debt that ignited the worst inflation in 40 years. a war on energy waged against an america that had achieved energy independence that has caused gasoline prices to go through the roof, and a border that was secure the day we left, now facing millions of people coming across the border with suffering on both sides of the border in the worst crisis that we have ever witnessed. add to that, the trampling on our freedoms and our liberties and our values on a regular basis. but all that being said, if i learned anything in those trump-pence years it is that the capacity of the american people to make things right and to do it quickly. i mean, if you think it not for years but in the three years before the pandemic all that we accomplish for the american people, i want to give people encouragement. with the right leadership that starts in the house of representatives just a few short weeks, and with the right leadership ultimately in the senate and at pennsylvania avenue, i know that what we did before we will do again. my faith in the american people and our constitution will always be boundless. i do truly believe that the day will come and it will come some day soon that we has government as good as her people again. as principled, as committed, as compassionate, as courageous, and when that day comes, we will set america on a course to a boundless future. there are two paintings in the book for those of you that are among the 600 people i signed books for tonight. [applause] thank you. karen and i were humbled by that. but if you look in the inside jacket of the book, there's two paintings, john. one is a painting that was in my office outside of the united dates senate. it is by an artist from indiana named tc steel. he is the leading landscape artist in indiana about a century ago. it's a painting of a little winding road taken back into the woods, and i capture at the outset of the book after a tumultuous day in january of 2021, i use that painting as a way of going back to indiana and beginning to tell my story. but at the end of the book, you will find another painting, also by tc steel. it hung in my office in the west wing for all four years, and is a classic indiana horizon, rolling hills and trees, a vista as far as the eye can see, and then there is a slight tint in the clouds. and as i write at the end of "so help me god", some people saw that painting and wondered what time of day it captured. was it don or dusk -- dawn or dusk? but i never wondered. it is dawn because the sun is always rising in america "so help me god". thank you, john. mr. heubusch: mr. vice president, on behalf of every single person here, we are so honored to have you this evening. thank you and god bless you. [applause] in-depth on the book tv homepage. book tv is featured politicians who are also authors who won elections in this year's midterms democrat wes moore became maryland's first black governor. he's appeared on book tv several times to talk his books. it isn't just about can we make sure that police officers have body cameras? yes, you know it's not just about, you know, how how do we how do we you know add on clause is to things like the law enforcement order law enforcement officers bill of rights or qualified immunity. it's not stopping there. the demands that we are seeing right now are actually dealing with structural and how can we deal with all of various issues in a way with a very real sense of sincerity and and a real sense of activation and movement. republican senator tim scott won reelection in south carolina. he appeared on book tv recently to discuss book america a redemption story. i think it's necessary for us to with some of the more foundational issues of who we are and where we're going and how we're going to get there. are we going to go together or? not. i think the answer is we're going to go together. not at all. i think it's interesting. and in frankly helpful for us to go through this tribal conversation to see how hard it is, try to make up for discrimination with future discrimination. yeah, it's not working really well for us right now. we're going to try to figure that out or i'll figure it out quickly. but the truth is that all the all the tribes that were putting together this republican tribe or a democrat tribe or a black or white one or a class system or caste system, rather a centralized control or not. i think all of that will burn off and what it will produce is an american that has more respect and appreciate asian for the necessity of pursuing american dream. as one family in south dakota, kristi noem was reelected as governor. her recent autobiography, titled not my first rodeo what i believe republicans in the house and the senate need to do is cast a vision for where we are going, not just be opposed to joe biden, even though so many of his policies are bad for our country right now? i do think that we also have to be pretty clear on what we're for and to be ready to take action should we have the opportunity to get congressional bills passed and get them to the president's desk before his election to the senate? from ohio, republican j.d. vance was well known as the bestselling author of hillbilly elegy, and he appeared at the national book festival 2017. i we have a pretty significant problem with the fact that you're effectively given a choice when you graduate from high between going and working in a fast food job or going and getting a four year college education. and i think that we should provide more pathways than that. i think it's not surprising when those are only two pathways that you see going in those two directions. but but i also think but i also think we have to think a little bit more constructively about regional economic development. you know, the way that this has gone for the past ten or 20 years is that i'm a local municipality. i offer somebody a credit to set up a restaurant in my hometown. that's that's great. new restaurants are fantastic. but that's not the sort of long term economic redevelopment that has to happen in some these areas. and i think that it's something that, you know, basically all levels of policy makers have to be thinking differently than. they are right now. and democrat cory was reelected in her st louis area district. she recently appeared on book tv to discuss her book, the forerunner the sexual assault that i experienced before. most of it happened around. it was like my early twenties, late teens, early twenties. it was when i was still like trying to, you know, find myself, quote. and i blamed myself. i went through the next 20 years, blaming myself every single time that happened. oh, it was because my shirt was cut short in my my my shorts were really, really it was because i was out walking friends when i met them and you know, i was dressed a particular way so that, you know, so that's why it happened. so when they took me out on the date, they just assumed that that's what i wanted. you know, like, i, i i made all of these excuses for what happened, to me and all of the blame fell on me. you can watch all of these programs online at book tv dot org. and also in sundays on c-span two to watch all of your