From Washington this is a special edition of Meet the Press this Sunday a collection of interviews from our 1947 Meet the Press asked by the way named If that thing you're the show was born I'm shocked out of 1st up my conversation with N.B.C.'s Tom Brokaw who reveals a little known story from his own past about his time covering the Nixon White House. It's been something I've been Carol very very few people know about and 1966 when I moved to California one of the 1st people I mapped was h.r. Bob Haldeman and was a different hold on that we came in a waiter he was. Kind of a Republican obviously a member of the establishment his family was well known in the southern California he was the head of j. Walter Thompson the big advertising agency and he was the president of the u.c.l.a. Alumni Association which made him a regent of the University of California and that's when I met him and it was a very meeting that Ronald Reagan fired Clark her president of the university system and during one of the early breaks Babalon came over introduced himself in part because I was being heavily promoted by n.b.c. And very well over Thompson was running the campaign and the account executive was Ron Ziegler. For. The account executive was Ron Ziegler So that's how you are starting Ok we're Ok All right what happened to Biden I developed a little relationship because he was not a member of the Reagan kitchen cabinet but he was very familiar with the Republican Party politics and we stayed in touch and he was a good source of him and he was reasonable he didn't he didn't try to feed me stuff but if I want to check something out he was a good guy to check with I do remember asking him in 67 whether he was going to go be with Nixon again he had been advanced man. And 16 he said now I've been there done that but one Nixon began to get traction as Pat Buchanan tells a story suddenly in Oregon they looked up and there was Bob Haldeman and then he became all of them to me but before that happened was in Washington and he was chief of staff a month 9 months into their 1st term which would have been $169.00. Ron Ziegler was struggling and it was a little warm for him he had not been in the Washington press have all he was an advertising guy and it was a very tough crowd. So I get this kind of some call from Bob almost saying he's going to take you to lunch tomorrow you have to keep an open mind on that friend to cut to the chase. What Bob president talked about to us they would like you to be the press secretary. Times left out was a line that I have I almost threw up at that point because it was not what I was ready to do prepared to do or inclined to do. Because I was not on that Sony and fan I was not a Nixon hater but I had a very reservations about a lot of those policies and I also knew that it was a monstrous job and I was a 27 year old living in California. And I was not going to free myself from the jaws of the White House press corps Why do you think you appeal to them it sounds like you would what do you think they thought of you and why they thought I don't I think proud of problem or is quite honestly. They still didn't get how tough the job works and what kind of a person I could have named 2 or 3 other people that were in Washington that might have been inclined to take the job that would have been much better prepared for frankly. There were people in the army Hill who were for working for Republican senators there were any number of peoples there was a guy who later went to Washington by the name of Kate who was there with Ronald Reagan he would have been a good choice. You know Lou Cannon would have been a good choice for them you know he was a you take a look and then we'll turn around the horrible Could you imagine a little candidate to be familiar with the coals for and you needed to have been have a little more ground on your feet tonight and I had been. At n.b.c. At that point for. 2 years do you think that was the Nixon White House way of thinking that wow this job is needs a needs to have a television savvy to it. I think it was some of that and I think that he may have over valued what it was that I that he thought that I could do. It modestly I did have a pretty strong reputation in California for covering politics my best friends was a or a Times for example when Johnny Apple would come to town or Bob Novak would come to town I'd often get a call from them and they say give me a brief what's going on out here so I did have some standing but there's a difference between having standing in California and covering politics there or even worse of snaffled imagine and going into the pits of being the White House press secretary especially for a president who is so unpopular with the Washington press corps and to some unfair and agree with that by the way you know and he. He was not wrong when he said the White House press corps are not going to be my friends at the same time he made sure that. They understood that as well by something Agnew African a lot of other things it was a he came in with such a chip on his shoulder about the press corps in the press corps returning the favor so I think it's kind of I love the story you also shared about how. Haldeman it seems like you hold them in like to tease you about this a little bit or did they were trying to give the modern age they certainly were conscious of the television piece of work that we're trying to do. First of all we have the wrong performer for all a matter for grace of John f. Kennedy in the television crews more Richard Nixon's one entirely the other direction he was never comfortable and told me he didn't like the media. And it showed so that was going to be a tough tough task for anyone and they didn't have anybody else frankly who could be his cerebral if you will on television and the administration certainly was going to be Agnew who would have sacked the process and there was no one else around who could step in there and and do that job as a kind of presidential surrogate if you will I'm not going to be me I can tell you that so. You kept this hidden and I understand why because it feels like this could get turned into When did you stop beating your wife type of question so like it's one of those offers that if it gets made public it no matter what it would have colored how somebody looked at you oh no question and I was I was kind of if it had been. That was a good. Point governor if not not just because it was Nixon I just didn't the guy was ready for about job a and b it's not that's a very sharp turn in your career if you want to be a national political reporter that was my college dream was and I was on track to do that and I didn't want anything to interfere with that and if you'd gone of ad job then you would have been you to cross a line that was for a way hard to cross back over again and I just didn't want to risk there and never because the but never mind were you were you ever worried that the Nixon White House might leak it as a way to to sort of tarnish your reputation No I tell you what happened. I became you know became the White House correspondent and but by then the home was on his way to jail and Ron Ziegler did not know about the offer I mean one of the things I felt bad about later was I don't think I don't I'm not sure he ever knew about it or by the way I never mentioned it to him Miles to call them that either by the way we're all in jobs where we probably it's probably better to not know sometimes who was offered your job before you got it you know I only like linger in your head trust me you know I remember hearing about Jon Stewart offered Meet the Press you like to roll with the punches I'd say to myself. Well Ron I had I remember we had a memorable launch late in. The decline of Richard Nixon it was the spring of 74 right 11 arm. And. But it was not yet clear if the hammer was going to drop so he came out of the room and he said let's go have lunch so we want to have lunch and he was braving me for not buying into the Washington scene as he described it you know you came here we thought you'd be a fresh voice but you're just part of our quarks and Democrat us. You're giving you know it's not I'm part of a war and crowd is one week after next week after next week there was more damaging material comes our I'm just responding to what's going on here yes I did have friends in the Washington press corps were having those kind of back and forth at a place called Chance's e which was a little front for us from across from the White House it was a popular watering hole and metal plates to the lunch there was a note dropped on our table before I could pick it up he picked it up and it was from a table across the room and it was a mischievous full kind of the who sent a note saying hey kid I guess this means you're not having dinner and it revealed tonight and you know she was just being a troublemaker and I must say. It was a little laugh harder than anybody and he said I rest my case that is funny well and by the way Hickory Hill that's Bobby Kennedy's. Compound and basically McLean Falls Church files here right outside of d.c. Remind people how common it was for the Washington establishment to be hanging out over there it was the 1st time I went I was a newcomer I just want to one other parents of a cool thing are what I didn't know until later is about arrived to cover the White House and there was a little in our. Service reporters and others had been there for a long time and they wrote a letter of protest to the president of n.b.c. News saying I was not qualified to be a White House correspondent coming from California where I'd spent a lot of time in local news but I was covering California politics. From 66 on and what they failed to appreciate when you covered California politics your government politics amazing it was a 6 largest economy in the world Ronald Reagan was a rising star there were big big plates in motion out there but this crowd that had had its pocket picked by Richard Nixon for the last 3 years didn't think I was ready to be a White House correspondent right and when I found out about that later or buy them for you or establish myself I broke a couple of big stories America's holding my own and then some. I didn't get pissed off I just thought boy if that isn't a commentary on the White House or Washington press corps I don't know what is my thanks to Mr Brokaw and glad that I don't have to refer to him as former White House press secretary when we come back we turn our attention to Capitol Hill and my conversation with my colleague Mike Macare on his new book didn't get this for me it's a novel about how Congress works and how ambition can lead to betrayal both and all it takes in the media but how fictional really is his account it's next on this special edition of Meet the Press. Sometimes what you want most from your car is nothing no headaches no surprises knowing Zaya you want to slave some distant for you from owning a certified pre-owned Mercedes-Benz can be that anxiety free experience on every warranties. 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News headlines is creative mind and his time covering Washington in his new book you didn't get this from me you wrote a novel I did a novel is called You didn't get this from me one of of course a favorite phrase of half the sources right I've heard that a lot from my old sources you know you're a novelist feels great yeah yeah all right well how do you want these people that had always had this novel in your head I'm always a sort of person who's you know gone to any kind of movie art exhibit read a novel and thought to myself I love to be able to do that someday and so I started you know thinking along those lines for years trying to formulate you know a plot in my head and you follow the classic advice which is right you know write what you know and what you knew covering Congress Yeah as a reporter Yeah so your this is about a reporter who's covered a member of Congress with a ton of ambition and a ton of scandal right and who's got a lot of self-doubt and needs affirmation all the time from the people around as a reporter a reporter for the politicians and has never tried one of the themes of the book is that politicians and reporters share a lot of the same characteristics things stand me for affirmation perhaps a little bit insecure I think it's something about the lights particularly the t.v. Side that does that to us I don't I don't know what it is you know but you know you talk about it's about right which you know I wanted to write something that was purpose driven which isn't necessarily the most commercial endeavor you could get into but I want to talk about journalism in Washington especially t.v. News. The perpetual drive for ratings the ratings night fight that we're in. That's a theme that is right with the journalist character here Tom Tom saw it all to you know whose real name was salt of the. But he was shortened it was short for just like Nick just like that. So that really that forms the basis of this character that that he's It's interesting here is kind of in a midlife mid career crisis he's one step below the summit of t.v. Journalism in Washington whatever what does that mean at the White House he's you know the Capitol now you and I know covering Congress is a whole lot more fun than covering the White House at least I thought so I think it's best. To say that all the time too and I agree with her because the White House while more pristine just as far as television viewer a concern it's much harder to be a it's much harder to report simply because physically you can't find the newsmaker right where is there just walking around all over the place with no one to show you away in the Capitol Yeah and it's partially that way by design you know they don't want to a lot of security measures up there but you know yes like the inside out of jail you can walk up to the speaker of the house any time you see him or her so you had a message and the message was to the media what was the message to politicians at all Washington. Actually my message is to voters because after looking at this for 26 years as a journalist here in Washington a t.v. Journalist 12 years on the hill 5 at the White House morning with Al-Jazeera. You know it ultimately comes down to voters and I want people to have this peek behind the curtain so they can understand that despite everything that has happened it's really the voters in the end that that thankfully politicians still respond to I mean they're what they want to do is be reelected that's their bottom line and the problem that we have in our system is apathy people voters and this is been this way for the length of the republic people are either angry and they're just pissed off or they're apathetic and they don't go to the polls you know I think one of the bright sides of what we're seeing the chaos that we seeing in Washington right now since the advent of new wood ministration is a renaissance in civic engagement and a renaissance in journalism because journalists now because there's such an adversary of an adversarial relationship with the people in power you sort of set free to do respond there's oddly liberating Yeah and some ways to sort of try to do what we're supposed to be doing to begin with and that that is holding their feet to the fire let's talk about what I find I think the most difficult in fictionalizing Washington. Is the issue that everybody will always say is boy some of the real stories are crazier than what you could say I mean as a as a how difficult was that as an author and you know you're sort of developing these characters and you're putting thoughts in their head and you're writing their dialogue which is so much fun as you were alluding to earlier. But it's so frustrating you know I started this novel years ago when I was working on the Hill and I put it down and you know a couple agents I showed it to and they said you know no one wants to read about this crazy stuff in Washington and I'm like what was before a House of Cards or scandal reprint scandal it was already are you kidding people get nothing and now it's like Truth is stranger than fiction so in that respect yes to a stranger it's been kind of it's been kind of frustrating there are a couple scenarios and I can prove this that I wrote about that turned out to be news items that I thought were so absurd at the time. Well the whole thing about insider trading on the part of members of Congress and staff when you when you're conducting an investigation on whatever committee what say was and wrong or Firestone or anything the Financial Services Committees have a look at you are privy to information that could potentially enrich you when your friends. If you know there's going to be bad news coming out you know short so whatever they do in the stock market turns out that we don't take advantage of this because I mean I think you know I'm like I'm driving an old jeep so. But you know. That ended up allegations surfaced of that allegations surfaced with the h.h.s. Secretary of something like that he still got confirmed but you know that is something that I came up with in my little devious head by the way before it happened you came up with it because you saw the loophole yourself you saw how and that's the way I sort of I have done that myself whether it's you or think Geez you just watch a security perimeter and you know the weak spots right or you cover legislation and you know how easily so many members just let a lobbyist tell them what to do or whatever so I get in some ways you know the loopholes before the criminals do. Well that's true or before the corruption sets and or the graft the garden variety graph that you know another theme of the book is the challenge of technology presents not only to politicians but to reporters obviously it's well chronicled that you know the threat of the traditional or their i say it means stream media because of this democratization of this flattening out of the media landscape which turns out to have just amplify the echo chamber and many respects absolute figuring out who is who it's a Howard Yeah that's true but politicians you know are also they've had they've had to adapt to and so the antagonist in this is a majority leader's name is Zach Dickey and he's playing by the old rules you know he calls this reporter Tom Salta and it was office and he wants to make a deal sort of a behind the scenes you didn't get this for me kind of deal and so they're both playing by these old rules and you know they're trading paper documents back and forth and they both end up sort of paying the price for their inability to to adapt to the new rules to the new rules which there are not which we're all still sorting through which we're all still sorting through and I just think it's. An amazing phenomenon what we're seeing right now and the change in the media landscape for a lot of reasons how much did you how much do you feel like you were accidentally biographical. I don't I think it's unavoidable. I say miss you because you know you write what you know you write what you know and part of writing is to open yourself up right and to to rummage around in your own brain and to understand who you are if you find anything you don't want to find. I just found that I'm afraid if I don't want to go back to school new ways of saying it Yeah basically I think in the end it's a good exercise I can see how you know people go crazy or drink too much when they're writing that you went back you said you have a purpose to this and it's to inform you know let the voters and a little bit sort of how this how the system works right so let's fix this system. This this is this a is this a when when you hear Washington is broken it's usually code for Congress is extraordinarily broken is this listen are you trying to fix the system this is something I've been saying for years on the air and in writing the House of Representatives is a reflection of cross culture a reflection of the United States I think 1st of all every Washington journalist should have a mandatory mandatory conscript conscription 2 years covering the House of Representatives like national service you know you know people have been talking about this since the election I've been talking about this for years a lot of us in this town really don't understand the mindset of a voter in a red state in the Midwest it's just when you and when you cover the house you understand what these politicians that a lot of this at home they seem like aliens to us to many many of us on the West Coast in our little it's become almost a cliche now to call it a bubble but you start to understand what their motivations are you know mutual exploitation I think is the lifeblood in many ways it may be overstating that of what we do and what many journalists do in Washington they have some information they want to share with us. To give to us to make them look good we are desperate for information because me as an individual journalist might incentive is to succeed and get noticed and be on television and so I am going to taper actually ever met a leaker that didn't have an agenda just people who really like me are not I mean. There's always been a motor cars where I would have to walk you have to go into that eyes wide open and again I'm trying to tell people whoever I'm fortunate to have read this book that it is ultimately up to the voter to make up his or her own mind and have that end and get to the polls what was what do we have to turn out this year 57 percent which I guess is on par with without action Yeah yeah I still personally think that that's ridiculous that 4 in 10 Americans aren't even bothered bothering to show up . If you don't you know if you don't if you vote for nothing you get what you vote for you get nothing out of Washington or worse and so I just want people to understand that we talk about special interest we talk about lobbyist we talk about a lot of money in politics but ultimately what matters is that individual of the 700000 people in a congressman's district who are going to vote and that's all they really care about my thanks to Mike for care and by the way when I interviewed him he wasn't with us anymore but we're glad to have him back here at the scene is coming up. Will tell the story of Africa's 1st female head of state and the parallels with a certain Bob Bennett leader here in the United States when this special edition of Meet the Press continues. For me it was the big s. Class in the ninety's beautiful friends. 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Today credit union 11 for all this credit union is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration no payments for 90 days on approved credit terms and conditions apply see a see a one representative for the time now's the time to make a difference now's the time to do what's right to help a family now's the time to volunteer to make a commitment to make new friends to make dreams come true to help the child now is the time to help how to test for Humanity build hope and change lives with a family in your community or around the world now is the time now more than ever helped build it this is Meet the Press. Welcome back to this special edition of Meet the Press I'm checked out here now my conversation with Home link Cooper you see her quite a bit on the political roundtable but she has a great book out it's on the story of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf she's the 1st female leader in Africa it's the subject of her book called Madam President. It's an unbelievable story so let's just start with the plight of women in leadership in Africa in general like I don't think an American audience realizes how unusual this it's seminal you know she. It was such an extraordinary story I thought as you know I'm from Liberia some paying attention anyway to what's going on there but in 2005 as I'm living my life here in the United States of covering the George w. Bush administration the women in my home country just stage this enormous democratic power play where after coming out of the almost 2 decades in comprehensible civil war and the Liberian civil war to me makes any other war look like child's play because you had rebel soldiers were running around with wedding gowns and blonde wigs and hollowing fright mask on preying on the population and then you have the government soldiers doing the exact same thing children were kidnapped from their parents and sold this child so. What were they fighting what were they fighting for that was fighting for control of they was like the rebels were fighting against the dough regime Samuel who was a brutal himself a brutal president who had taken over in a coup d'etat in 1980 where he executed my cousin who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs 13 other cabinet members on the beach by firing squad Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the time had been minister of finance and she was the only member of the she was one of the few members of the government's cap that that wasn't executed all of her other Wiley's were killed because she's a woman they just decided not to him in her for raping they were not for killing is a really weird and very unusual way of looking at things but that's how things were done in Liberia and that after all of this and you have these that she was tried for sedition and she was she was tried in 1905 she did she worked for dough for a few months and then she walked out and then she started. Campaigning against him and in 1985 she was arrested and thrown into jail she was in jail for almost a year the 1st night that she was in jail she was in a cell next to this 19 year old she was put in in a cell along with a 19 year old girl who had just been gang raped by soldier after soldier after soldier after soldier and after they after raping her the soldiers then threw the girl into the cell with Ellen and she's bleeding and hysterical and naked and had Alan and this girl sitting on the floor the dirt floor of the cell rocking back and forth and the girls crying and Alan is I think this one night really changed so much for Ellen who looked at things previously through a more bureaucratic lens is there any way. For this believed I think if there is a system in. This where she decided this system to in many ways yes and in this kind of was sort of the stick there fueled the women's movement this started on Ellen's part where this could not happen to women but this could the continuation of this sort of thing because this then went on for 2 decades with the Civil War and this is what got the women in Liberia so fed up that by 2005 after Charles Taylor has been run out of town by the international community they decided that man they didn't want they want to female president because only a woman is going to like push that this kind of stuff doesn't happen again and this is where. That really got really good so there's a big push and women want to elect or by any means necessary any means fair or foul I was just going to say you want to talk about voter fraud this is voter fraud times a 1000 Americans yourself fixated on voter fraud. The voter i.d. Card so. Walk through that it was perfect because they were willing to do this. We're going to play the women decided they were going to beat the men at their own dirty game the men had like run this country into the ground it was all they were all as crooked as could be and the women are like the only way we're going to get this we play them you know their way the way they do and in Allen they found the perfect vehicle for this they found a global bureaucrat highly educated who had no qualms whatsoever of playing dirty you know she had no issues with. American educated hard Yasmin's about. It yes in Wisconsin she had been worked at the u.n. She worked at the I have asked Minister of Finance or did she like Hillary Clinton she should have 3 when you look at internet many English speaking international leaders have an American education background like hers Yes Yes I mean so many global contacts she was beloved by the West and so they launched this guerrilla campaign where they they were very worried that it 1st women were registering to vote so they went into the markets and they got babysitters for the market women and then when the election time came in as Ellen versus the football player there's so many parallels it's unusual for those 22 candidates to their candidates and all he was willing to be there were 2 women but the other one was not yet but also to do is come in 2nd because with 20 candidates again she's nobody's going to get 50 percent and. They felt confit they were going to get into the room no. She wasn't sure about the runoff she thought that because the these were really well known guys some of them former Taylor henchmen they work for dough and nobody the idea of a woman was not so her main competitor was a football player that's what your people say your whole your international people football here in America we call soccer I'm not having this argument with you. Anymore you. Know and I'm like What is it you know. It is football I don't understand why you want. Have it more and Meet the Press but anyway that's a different story you take your arsenal and wherever. So you've got George Weah who's this great football player but no experience in the government no background at all in governing or politics or anything like that and then you have this overqualified. Global bureaucrat and the women were just so outraged at the idea that the men were the top 2 candidates George was number one was number 2 they came out of the 1st round and so they're going to face each other in the runoff in November the woman was so outraged that after 20 years of civil war the country was in desperate shape we had not had electricity since 1990 s. 2005 at this point no running water the place was a shell it was really apocalyptic and look at you. Couldn't believe that the men and all the men who had been running and all the male political candidates queues the women of being sexist and then through all of their they all through their hats behind you know the football player and the women couldn't believe that they were putting the country in the hands of a football player and so they went you know they got dirty they started mothers when installed their sons voter i.d. Cards. The women were in bars like offering to buy the guys voter i.d. That's hard for a 20 year take away so what happened one can vote if you don't you have to have your eye voter id card even if you voted in the 1st round you lost your voter id card you could in the 2nd go at a lot of the men the lot of the young boys thought they didn't need their i.d. Cards after the 1st round they didn't yeah and so they were happy gets her elected that's not to this point that Betty I'm sure it was and it didn't change the course of history no but i was interesting about how you the other part you described about how even on Election Day how women shared babies yes. You know yes I talked to several kids think these voting lines for like 1010 hours 12 hours I mean people came from all over the country to polling stations from all over and had women. I talked to several who had a big young baby if you were nursing mother and you have a young baby you could cut the front line so they're passing the babies same baby around you know those that sort of thing and Ellen had no issue with it I mean she's the one who 1st told me about this as I was working on the book and she was like I want to talk about all of the women did to get you elected and she looks at me and she's like Oh you mean like stealing is so. But here's the thing this is fighting fire with fire I mean look the challenge of Yes the challenge of African nations has been government corruption more than. Government corruption has been at the root of sort of holding back absolutely so many African countries so it's understandable but when you get elected that way she govern that way too so yeah. Yeah you know I think it gets tempting when you have to we've seen and there's certainly plenty of corruption still in Liberia and she's been accused of nepotism she's appointed her sons to high government offices that said she's trying to. She's tried to crack down on corruption her issue is that she fires officials who are corrupt she doesn't just a lot of complains that she doesn't prosecute them but she's sort of she's so practical in that she decided she has a lot of battles to fight she's got she came in with Liberia having a 4700000000 debt foreign dead and no it had been kicked out of you know almost been kicked out of the i.m.f. In no way to get she got that forgive and a lot of you know that Liberia could then at least qualify for i.m.f. Relief and World Bank funding and that sort of thing again that took that took years. To country has taken years getting just getting to the point where people were willing to prosecute rape cases that's been a big deal for her it was quite the tale from holding our special edition of Meet the Press continues in just a moment. Sometimes what you want most from your car is nothing no headaches pre-owned warranties. Allergy sufferers are hearing a lot of numbers these days about symptoms and relief but the number sufferers one most is 00 nasal allergy symptoms and nothing gets you closer to 0 than these of course because unlike in histamines that stuff only one cause of your allergy symptoms Nisa court stops more and stopping more gets you closer to 0 for 24 hour relief of your worst nasal allergy symptoms including congestion choose nasal Ct it stops more of what makes you miserable uses directed. 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Welcome back to a special edition of Meet the Press I'm Chuck Todd had a my conversation with one of the young rising stars perhaps in the Democratic Party 26 year old manner of Stockton California Michael Tucker. So let me start with your a native of Stockton California and just to paint a picture of where Stockton is and if you looked out on that we're looking at and Sacramento the Bay Area and at your door a triangle Stockton would be sort of the right point of that's triangle you'd have one dot on the Bay Area one dot on Sacramento in the San Joaquin Valley so I just want to paint an audio picture there but tell me about the Stockton California that you grew up in and. Beyond just what I did on a map Oh yes very well Stockton California is the American city around 300000 people incredibly diverse people from all over the world have made back in their home I'm the oldest example in North America in Stockton at one time we have more poor people people in Stockton output anywhere in the Philippines I'm so incredibly diverse history and that is never seen our strength we have great agricultural land and growing up I actually grew up in from the temper neighborhood of Stockton to my mom she had made a teenager my father's been incarcerated for most of my life so I grew up in a lot of the areas now I'm trying to create opportunity and grow up in Stockton wasn't all doom and gloom it was a community full of smart resilient people in Little League coaches a mentor teachers in this regular everyday folks who are doing their best earn their piece of the American dream and I mean the other urban community there are issues with violence and poverty but a lot of who I am comes from the formative experiences of growing up in a community as rich I mean diverse the doctrine is this is it seems like if you look at it right now the social scientists just got the statistics and I know in 2013 Stockton was considered one of the least literate of the larger cities. It seems like there's 2 big problems an education problem and. Jobs problem in that you don't have enough good jobs right now and education has been stagnant is that a fair description. Absolutely I would say the folks in poverty. One lack of opportunity for a lot of my focus as a council member before being mayor. Educator council member now with Mary is how do we increase our opportunity for folks in Stockton because we've done a lot of research over the past month and we found that there's a skills gap as well but even for the jobs that do exist in the community we have to find ways to train our residents and our folks to be part of those jobs and we also have a contingent of us who drive over the hill into the Silicon Valley for work so working with our land use decisions and another factor is to create mechanism incentives for businesses to have a huge number of their folks driving in. Locating or having satellite offices in Stockton But to your point like most urban cities and really a function of poverty and education how you really increase our opportunity for everyone in the community so Mr Mayor how did you get your opportunity you got Sanford So tell me about you know was this your family and you felt invested in by your family how is it that you were able to get the education that you needed to come back and help the community and how do how do we have more Michael pub stories out of that and that's the exact question that drives a lot of my work and it's a mixture of family inputs but also kind of community input so my mom and grandmother although they were incredibly educated in terms of higher education they stressed education and there was also a lot of community input and support that provided structure so regularly basketball doing the same or a few weeks mentors from that church as a place. Movie and also all these entitlement programs we talk about things like win. And welfare for time and high quality public schools really helped kind of position me to take advantage of some opportunities that were present the community for education and I think that's what drives a lot of our work as a policy maker now in understanding that government can do everything but there is a role for government and smart policy especially and equalizing opportunity structures I mean I the program from 7012th grade and I was able to find mentors that helped me apply to Stanford and then while at Stanford I realized that tech talent and intelligence were really universal the resources and opportunities work and I would be in classes with students that were just brilliant and smart but they weren't necessarily more more intelligent of the people I grew up with which is has different opportunities different resources and then made different choices so that's really what drives the work I do now but from my personal experience understanding what it's like to come from poverty understand the role that government leadership in plain alleviating poverty but also understanding that we have so much on Tap It doesn't realize potential in this country and a lot of it in our inner cities are some of the under-served parts of this country and how do we kind of get that maximize their talent potential as well so how would you say you you had some family input. That helped obviously the government programs help but I guess I go back to that family and put what is the difference between you and somebody else that didn't get out that feels trapped when you've seen those stories is it is it a family situation more of the problem or is it something else have you been able to identify that. Things and make sure both is probably case by case I'm hesitant to generalize for me my mom provides a lot of structure so I don't have a lot of free time I was always there was always a purpose an activity I was doing whether it's basketball church cleaning reading a book there was always some intentionality. But even more so than that I hear more on the federal government policies by only because it's very hard to control or influence the individual choices people make but what we can do is help control the environment we so sway says are made so the more kids are eating or have high quality preschool and education and live in communities where there's been a flop or 2 need for jobs and employment the more likely people are to make to make the right choices that allow them to go to school like Stanford in other places so let's talk about some of the ways that you might want to do this so let's 1st talk education one interesting reform I heard the other day actually from the long conversation with the governor of Colorado and he noted that they have they have been quietly adding days to the school year and essentially lengthening school but less homework so that the homework is done in school is sort of as a way of. In equalizes the opportunity and it provides that structure what do you say to reform like that. So my master's in education policy and that's a best practice if you look at some of our international counterparts like Finland it's amazing countries and what they do they have school year round and they have longer school days which is beneficial for everyone but specially for those who are starting at starting a little bit behind the line or the 8 ball so to speak so reforms like those make a lot of sense to make sure that students are in school for longer hours have at able to retain and be taught more information and we don't have the summer brain drain that happens when students are out of school for 3 months and they lose almost a year of learning that all sounds good the problem is how to pay for it and you have to convince you to convince teachers' unions to say well you know you've been . That the idea of being a teacher always was that idea that it's 10 months a year and you get those you get sort of like those 2 months off and this would be a radical change is that the hurdle isn't just financial What's what's the hurdle to enacting that best practice in Stockton California well in Stockton it's different because you have 4 different school districts that have their own governing bodies and own superintendent so everything has to be done district by district by district by district and part of it's going to you can't just shove things down people's throat he went to be effective you have to get by and so part of it is spending the time with our friends who are teachers and parents and advocates and figuring out with the resources we have how do we increase the number of school days but in California we have Local Control Funding Formula which is a funny mechanism for reforms like this but the challenge is how do we make this a top priority so working with our school board working with our teachers working with parents and advocates in figuring out Ok these are some issues we're facing in terms of education and taming our community these are the best practices that work let's implement them and then have the very oftentimes sometimes messy policy discussion publicly to really figure out Ok what are our progress these in terms of educating our children but. A longer school year and longer school days are things I'm definitely supportive of because the research says it works let's talk about bringing in jobs. You mentioned was interesting that you mentioned I think it sounds to me you would like to pitch Stockton as the bedroom community for Silicon Valley is that is that what you hope and 10 years that Stockton is a accepted bedroom community for Silicon Valley workers. Not at all I would rather position Stockton as part of the kind of the region but as a community there are people are from Stockton who have the skills and talents that can do tag jobs or some other jobs that exist in manufacturing trucking they just accept poor in the health care industry. But that's at things important for people to understand that Stockton is that really uniquely positioned to really be a boon to the state's state's economy where between San Francisco and Sacramento an hour away from Sacramento our half away from San Francisco we have the largest port in the state if not the nation that does about half a 1000000 are going exports a year we have the sound working Delta. Which is a beautiful waterway a channel that the whole economy industry around that I'm to have about the assets to offer we have the universe of the Pacific we have the airport where between $5.99 so more than just being a bedroom community my room visits are starting to be a real regional player in the economy because the bay area gets more and more expensive folks are going to need to look at places like Stockton as places are viable i'm Ok sions for them so it's my job as mayor to tell the story. Of our folks and people know that you come in Stockton you get the red carpet but you also have the opportunity to be a part of America's comeback story it's a it's a chicken and egg thing that you talked about a skills gap issue in Stockton at the same time you need the jobs there that people feel motivated to close those skilled gaps skills gaps right so that that's probably I'm guessing one of the challenges what is Silicon Valley sort of you know what companies. Are ready to invest in your mind who gets it and you find one or 2 that seem see the division that see your vision here. Is a couple things right so I think in addition to living in companies a lot of it is supporting the entrepreneurs of small businesses we currently have and helping them expand I just read some report from our small business coalition that talked about how cities really grow with expanding existing entrepreneurs' from 5 to 10 employees from 10 to 15 so that's also a key part of economic development strategy especially with the entrepreneur approach we have in the community how do we give them the tools and resources to expand but to your question about learning companies it's been the most. Being in the office so we don't have specifics as we begin this business in a kind of value as a region the insane from your employees come from Stockton that given our location it may not be your tech headquarters but I found your logistics support your transportation support it makes a lot of sense here I mean especially in the health care health industry because we have a lot of hospitals we have a prison hospital we have a county high school we have a lot of questions of economic development especially around health care so those companies are involved in that space I think will be make the most sense of the early pioneers of the war were happy for anyone who was good paying a living wage jobs to offer for the residents of our of my community so there's a lot of talk of infrastructure spending coming out of the federal government the top administration talks it up we'll hear you'll hear a lot of rhetoric about it when you hear that what are you hoping that means bottom line Stockton California hope it doesn't mean money for the twin tunnels which will employ some short term but we shift all our water away from adults have a lasting lingering impact on our local economy and I hope it doesn't mean a bunch of people building walls. To push people out but if it means sort of like a Work In Progress Administration sort of initiative we're putting stock Tony and the rest of America back to work on fixing our existing roads and and building kind of the transportation infrastructure we need in this century that that sounds like a good idea my thanks to America we hope you've enjoyed the special edition of Meet the Press with interviews from our 1947 Meet the Press pod cast we call it 147 as I said is the year to suppress the form you can find these conversations all the time and more just like them on i Tunes or wherever you listen to your podcast for that next week because if it's Sunday it's Meet the Press. The crisis produced by n.b.c. News this is was more closely followed suit.