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Transcripts For CSPAN CITIES TOUR Burlington VT 20171202

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are particularly strong with 20th century vermont members of congress who tend to have long tenures in congress. goerge -- george aiken served in -- until 1974 until 1974. aiken was a republican, a moderate republican. he was known for having these regular breakfasts with the leader of the democrats in the senate in the lunch room. he had a strong relationship with the white house. he kept a diary in his later years of being senator. he wouldn't enter these weekly enterenteruld -- would these weekly entries, a very significant historical event. august 10, 1874. augustlks about him -- 10, 1974, talks about being at his home. speaking, "i arrived at my home on friday. there was one cucumber big enough to pick. monday, there were 30 cucumbers big enough to pick. this is an important diary for u.s. political events, for the nation. six, he get to page finally gets to the big news of -- week, the big sensation the resignation of richard nixon as president. " although i constantly oppose resignation on his part, preferring impeachment, my position collapsed on monday when the statements he has been making for the last two years were not true and he was aware of the watergate break-in after it occurred. tried tovious he had cover it up and protect the guilty parties. with his confession, support in congress rapidly dissolved. he resigned by tuesday. night, he called 15 members from each house of congress to state his position. x 9:00, he went on the air to tell the story to the public. it was an extremely emotional occasion, with many tears being shed, including from the had difficulty stating his story to us and in himinally culminated leaving the cabinet room in a highly emotional condition. one of the other congressional a staffers is from from the house of representatives in the 1960's. stafford, asave well as aiken, and austin, and other members of vermont's congressional delegation were republicans, right up through jim jeffords. they were the moderate northeast wing of the republican party. this nbcrd's case, with his membership -- can be seen with his membership in and the founding of the wednesday group in the house of representatives in the early 1960's. this group continued in the house and in the senate for many years. the house version was known as the tuesday group. this was a group of moderate senators, familiar even to modern day followers of the u.s. congressional elections. thad cochran, stevens, mitch , aonnell, richard lugarthad variety of senators from across the country, some you wouldn't think necessarily as moderates, members of the republican party. unlike many of the other prominent 20th century for mod political figures -- vermont political figures, who were mainly moderate republicans up until the 1960's, when the democrats started to gain office, bernie sanders was cut from a somewhat different costs. -- different cloth. he came to vermont around the same time as the "come back to the land" youth movement of vermont which joined communes and started initiatives in the mid-60's. settled in burlington even chilly and became active -- inntually and became active local politics. statewide offices a number of times in the 1970's before ultimately winning the office of mayor of burlington in 1981, winning by a very slim majority. i think it was 10 votes he beat the incumbent democratic mayor. it launched bernie into this wild journey he has had a percents. -- had ever since. he served as mayor of burlington for eight years. we have is mayoral papers open to the public. one of the things you will see he wasout the papers -- researching sanders and his political positions over time. many of the same issues were important to him in 1980 and the 1970's as they are now. many of the issues that have intention toth his run not as a member of any party, but to run as an independent, has been there all along as well. 1988, aa letter from supporter in manchester, vermont, who supported him when he ran for governor in 1986. 1988, he said he was considering a run for the u.s. house of representatives, which he ultimately did decide to run for, and lost by a slim majority to republican peter smith. this individual had expressed concerns he was going to flip the vote. "i agree on a number of issues. it is not accurate to state by any means our views are the same. i hope every established and special interest group will benefit. i have done things very few mayors in the united states have ever attempted. to contrast myd record in the city of burlington with peter's record in the legislature. maybe it is time for one independent progressive in congress. my election in vermont will be of national significance, the first time a progressive congressman has been elected." he won in 1990, which launched in into a 16 year career in the house. in 2007, he became a member of the senate. forwardontinued to move in his political career, running for president of the united states last year on many of the same issues he was championing back as mayor in the 1980's. one of those issues was health care. we have a document from september of 1987, a statement by the mayor of montpelier, vermont. the first paragraph reads like something he could have said a week ago, when he unrolled his medicare for all plan. " substituting the vermonters for citizens of the united states. the first paragraph we are going to discuss is the single most important issue facing , thencome vermonters crisis of the affordability and accessibility of health care in the state. it is remarkable that bernie has been sending the same messages about health care, economic inequality, all these years. it is almost a little disheartening he continues to have to say the same things, he has made progress on some, but continues to face similar challenges involving some of these issues that he has been raising all these years. rock was a bunker built during the 1940's and 1950's that would have served as the center point of the u.s. government's response to nuclear war. it is a holiday mountain, -- hallowed-out mountain that holds a small city capable of porting several thousand people for 2-4 weeks at a time. was central to the u.s. pentagon and military during the cold war. here, it isanding operational 24 hours a day all year. war,e peak of the cold there were more than a hundred of these bunkers in the united states. the big ones were raven rock, the one in virginia, norad, cheyenne mountain, colorado springs. dozens of other facilities spread across the united states in places like massachusetts, washington, as well as dozens of other facilities spread around pennsylvania, down through maryland into north carolina. thousandsas to have of senior government leaders and government managers be able to evacuate to these bunkers in a 15-30 minutes worth of notice, and ensure there was a continual u.s. government able to survive whatever the coming attack was. governmentity of dates back to the truman and but these weres, going on through the cuban missile crisis and ronald reagan poured billions of dollars into these plans. these bunkers could've held a couple of hundred people to a couple of thousand. for seniorrimarily government officials, cabinet leaders, congressional leaders. part of what was weird about this was many u.s. companies build their own relocation bunkers. with at&t communication facilities. have top u.s. companies bunkers inside places like iron mountain. this was a network of facilities that would have held perhaps as many as 10-12,000 people across the united states. the others were funded out of primarily what was known as the black budget, the classified intelligence and national security budget. really had no sense of the scale of this during the members ofven congress didn't understand where this money was going. they had no sense of the sheer scale of these facilities. not just on the ground, under the ground, but there were secret ship ports that could've held the president, floating commandos, floating white houses. presidential planes, the looking glass command post, a u.s. air force plane, one of which was kept in the sky 24 hours a day from 1962-1992. the ships, mobile tractor-trailer convoys could have set out across the united states during a nuclear war, wherever the country ended up. these facilities existed just off the radar throughout the cold war. most americans had no understanding they were there. as thek of the president person we elect on the first tuesday after the first monday in november every four years. we saw was aings transformation from one person into something we now know as the office of the president, that insurers the presidency is never actually vacant. you don't just have the line of succession, president, vice president, the speaker, the president pro tempore -- each of those cabinet officials have their own mind of succession. 15-20 people long. when you talk about the office modernpresident, the terms of something that could ,ncompass as many as 300 people through up united states in the event of the worst-case scenario -- these plans were secret. people working in adjacent offices might not even understand who was involved and who wasn't. sorkin was doing the research for "the west wing," and the american president. was talking to george stephanopoulos. george stored -- showed him his evacuation pass, this bus passing carried in his wallet -- pass he he carried in his wallet. aaron sorkin incorporated this episode."st wing deedee myers, the former white sete secretary, was on the and pulled aaron sorkin aside and said, this is all a bunch of baloney. we don't actually have these cards in the white house. aaron sorkin realizes, deedee myers never knew she was never going to be saved during the war and that george stephanopoulos was. none of these plans included the civilian population. bighose early years, of the operational drills in the expectatione was an they would actually be able to save a large chunk of the civilian population, because you would have enough warning that you were looking at atomic arms rather than hydrogen bonds. you were looking at bombers,, not missiles. have 10-12 hours of warning before a war happened. powerful,es got more and the u.s. government's ambitions shrunk until they are what they are today, hiding out a small number of government officials in mountains and letting the rest of us fend for ourselves. these plants came up during many crises, like the cuban missile up duringplans came many crises, like during the cuban missile crisis. the only time we saw these activated was on 9/11. many of these facilities that had been quietly mothballed were reopened. congressional leaders evacuated by helicopter from the white house lawn, up to mount weather in virginia. vice president cheney, other top officials, when they disappeared in those undisclosed locations after 9/11, it was very often these bunkers like raven rock that were found new use after 9/11. none of these plans were going to work, as intended, which was what we learned on 9/11. it was lucky for the country that the leadership of the united states was not successfully targeted on 9/11. continuity of government plans would not have been able to safely evacuate the leadership in the time they needed on september 11. that was a big part of the lesson on 9/11. bush, aboard air force one on 9/11, did not have access to cable news. air force one was flying around the country taking up snippets of local tv broadcasts as they passed over major cities. for much of september 11, president bush was less informed than the average american city. billions of new dollars have been poured into these plans since 9/11. they have modernized old bunkers. raven rock is getting a new communications line through the heart of pennsylvania -- waynesboro, virginia. we hope these plans will be better suited for a surprise attack in the way we thought occurred on 9/11. in some ways, what we saw with all those philosophical shifts, the u.s. government shift away from the idea of evacuations, and more toward embracing the idea of abolition. -- demolition. these bunkers are now running all day, every day, and are control of the country in case a private attack happens on washington. the private story of raven rock is recognizing just how serious the cold war really was. forget how tense these moments were, because we know how the cold war ends. we know the soviet union collapses without a shot. wasnow the soviet union never as powerful or threatening as we thought at the time. important to learn these lessons, particularly in the era of nuclear threats from north korea, to realize just how unwinnable nuclear war is. it is possible there are people left standing after nuclear war, but it is going to be hard to consider them a winner if they are not at raven rock. >> about a month before trump was elected, i had open heart surgery. i was not in great shape. i was in even worse shape when this election happened. i thought, what a wretched birthday present. who did notf people vote for him, i was depressed for a month or six weeks. things, youith most start to get over them. onstill wrinkled -- rankled me, and i didn't want to be frustrated all the time. i asked, what can i do? i couldn't march in washington because my heart was still pretty bad. thought, what can i do as an individual? can i write a check to the aclu or 350.org? i thought, i have written some humor in my life. i talked to the illustration -- illustrate all of several of my books -- illustrator of several of my other books. before, another book dementia sets and is something to do. what should the title be? "the full vermonty." >> bill wanted to put out a book. vermont voted for hillary clinton in greater numbers than any other state. in a smaller state, it doesn't amount to that much. the numbers were impressive in vermont. he wanted to put together a book where people in the state answer the question, what do we do with trump in charge? it relates to most of the values and characteristics that vermonters have. trump's stances on issues particularly important to , hisnters, the environment ndustry, his coal i appointment of people who are reverse as many of the obama environmental programs as possible -- i think sticks in people's craw. is bill mckibben, the founder of 350.org, lives in among theery popular environmental community in vermont. has been the forefront of sensitizing vermonters to the threats of global warming. history of a long environmental protection that activelye trump as , and theythat trend thing of this as a state, thee to the nation, and the world. i did for the book showingries of cartoons what donald trump would do if he were transposed up here, where you have to be able to get your car out of a ditch, change her own tires, fix your own plumbing, do all the jobs around the farm. i had a series of drawings where he is trying to figure out, where is the chauffeur for the tractor? i was very surprised when trump was elected. i didn't think it would happen. i still think the issue here is the letter oral college -- electoral college, and the computerization of polling, which allows people to alter the message very specifically when they determine people in general aren't reacting properly. illustrated that the states have a second judgment to make on what the national government is going to do, whether it is health care, education, religion, segregation -- many people don't realize how different the states are within the united states. they think an american is an american. it is not true. i am not a very happy person. i look happy now, but i think the world is going to help. i -- world is going to hell. i hope it gets better, i don't think it will. >> how does vermont's move forward? -- vermont move forward? we are the second least populous state. we have three electoral votes. three very thoughtful, engaged, passionate members of our congressional delegation, but they still are only three 535.f everyone wants to think, as vermont goes, so goes the nation. we don't. we are a part of it, but if we serve our owno delegation and similar minded people in congress, we will do the best we can. no one is going to look to vermont and say, you were going to lead us into the next era. but you can see what bernie did in this last election. i think it's quite possible he will run again. feel. different position tod out a be the central figure, the central advocate for a single-payer health system. he has been absolutely consistent in his condemnation of income equality -- income inequality in the country. we are little but we are allowed little, we say, we are we areare allowed, -- loud, bernie are has a far greater following than i thought he ever would in the course of the revolution. you alwaysen says iul the box above its weight, think it has, but it is not boxing on the level of pennsylvania or california. i have modestly optimistic. you have to be. you can't just go into a funk and say, i am going to check out . that is kind of a hopeful answer. a lot of people have misconceptions about the war of 1812. they think it was all about the star-spangled banner and the british attack on washington, and that it was not very important, a hiccup in history. 1812sn't just the war of -- it was the end of the american revolution that had been going on since july 4, 1776. it had been a long struggle with the british over trade, writes, the british wanted to take us back. it is more important than the way it is taught in school. the treaty of paris, which ended the american revolutionary war, had a couple of things both sides were to do. neither one day. the americans were supposed to pay their debts before the war, at interest. the british were supposed to leave their fourth on the canadian border. they didn't. the british cut off all of our and our business went down by 80% in one year. the object to the war for ,mericans was to take canada which my mind -- which blew my mind. purchase,e louisiana but will take canada. thomas jefferson said canada would only be in your matter of marching. -- mere matter of marching. , and he led the indians put together an alliance of 10,000 warriors. when the americans cap taking his land, he went over to the land,h -- kept taking his he went over to the british. supporting the indians was a way to keep americans from spreading further west, which they called the northwest, but it was actually a midwest. nobody had been there yet. tecumseh was tired of settlers pushing and being supported by the american army. went, thehe settlers army gave them a little bit of money, and took away millions of acres of land. the british were concerned about us going further west and becoming powerful, but they were concerned we would take the for trade, what everyone had been -- the fur trade, what everyone had been fighting for. indiansish wanted the to do the fighting for them, and be supplied with furs that people in england couldn't live without. thomas jefferson tried to make american neutral by cutting off all trade with the british, anyone, anddutch, make america grow or manufacture things themselves. he imposed something called the embargo of 1808, which made it illegal for american ships to go anywhere or other ships to arrive. business was our with islands in the caribbean at that point. you had that complete collapse in one year, 80% of all trade went away. portland sailors in and in boston and in new york. went away asn president, so did that embargo. people were so fed up. the two things that sparked the of 1812, -- -- the war one was the indians, and the guns they were getting from the english. most of the people of the united states lived along the seacoast and they depended on going to sea. the british were fighting the french and huge naval battles all over the world, and they kept running short of sailors. they would stop american ships, fire a canyon to each boat -- harbor, andnew york pick out a sailor by saying, you are not british -- you're really british, you're not really american. sailors had been in the english navy, although english sailors have literally jumped ship, buying passports for a dollar. shipsitish came on our and seized 10,000 sailors with impressment. you were taken and became part of the royal navy and could not escape without being hanged as a deserter. you were shipped to the indian ocean or mediterranean to relieve crews on british ships. 10,000 families that were never going to see the head or the brother of the family again. so the fear of the indians and the outrageous practices of the british -- they were also blockading seaports. ship,e they stopped a they discovered things in the cargo they said, that is illegal. that, they took the entire ship and silted up to it up, sold it -- sailed to canada, sold it at auction, and share the loot. we were in an outrageous position. madison knew we were ill-prepared, but decided to attack. it is one of the most during things any president has done, the only president who has ever gone into battle. he used troops to protect washington, but he was very courageous. with the army look like at the time of the embargo, the whole army was 3000 men. the british army had 250,000 men at the time. if you are talking about the navy, we had 20 ships, only six of them big enough to be called warships. the british had 900. it was a ridiculous, lopsided proportion between them. we didn't have much military. we didn't have a draft. the state did not want to provide troops. -- states did not want to provide troops. they wouldn't cross the border to canada. we were woefully underprepared for the war. now,we call democrats jefferson and madison and jackson were mostly southerners. they wanted the war. a few people from new york were against it. split, you almost almost had a civil war, with half on the side of the british. both sides got exhausted and broke. it. sides are ready to end one of the misconceptions about the war was the outcome. .o one one -- one won was, go back to where things were before the war. canadians were the only winners they got together and fought in defended their country from americans who wanted to take it over. the real losers were the indians. the british had backed and armed them, and they had done most of the fighting on the new especiallyan border, against andrew jackson in alabama and the south. they have the heaviest casualties. the peace talks to settle the war -- indians were abandoned by the british. it wasn't important enough. over, it didn't except you have destroyed cities and towns, thousands dead, dozens captured thousands ofs -- ships captured on both sides. the peace negotiators went right to london and signed a trading -- treaty. in the long run of history, it doesn't make sense. had we really lost, had the british one by invading -- won by invading through canada or from chesapeake, the united states couldn't have survived. we call it the word 1812 in the united states -- the war of 1812 in the united states. in england, they collect, -- they call it, the second world war of american independence. it was still the revolution. in canada, they think of it as their birthday. they have a huge bicentennial, where we have almost nothing. everyone dresses up an old oldish uniforms -- in british uniforms, and they celebrate the birth of canada. lost,,ns won americans for them. when you are all through, none of that is true, it is the end of the american revolution. if people read my book, you can see how complicated that time was. victories of saratoga, yorktown i titled it "unshackling america," because we were still dependent on england that were holding -- that was holding us economic prisoner. 1812 truly ended the american revolution, because from that time on, we were respected. and they didn't beat us. we beat them twice. napoleon couldn't beat them, that we did. -- but we did. we need that kind of complication to understand what a long process it is when you get into american revolutionary wars. ago, i was in sweden. "the darkd at the movie premiered that particular day. i'm -- pat leahy confronted the joker in a key scene. god, that's pat leahy. i said, that is my senator. he said, what are you doing in the dark knight? when i got back to the states, i went to the library looking for a biography. about about -- set writing out what i found. senator leahy is the senator since 1974. he is third in line to the presidency. he is a very powerful figure, charge, heats are in chairs the senate judiciary committee. he influences changes to the criminal justice system and is powerful on the appropriations committee. he has huge clout in washington. when he delivered his papers, he walked past the capital, and said to himself, one day i am going to be in that building. he went from being the chittenden county state attorney, to being a u.s. senator at 34. an amazing job. because of that, his seniority has accumulated much more rapidly than anyone else. an amazinghe is in his late 70'e most senior member of the senate. the number one bill i would mention would be the u.s. patriot act. following 9/11, he is the person everyone agrees must take charge of the operation to respond legislatively to the terrorist attack. arm is pushing against, the bush administration, trying to write something that is going to gut the liberties of america, and trying to reform an outmoded system with the other hand that didn't take into account changes and other things that allowed terrorist groups to exploit loopholes.had an incredible job had the peach react -- he an incredible job with the patriot act. has the challenge of trying to move terrorism and counterterrorism efforts into the 21st century. following 9/11 came the anthrax attack into washington dc. a few weeks after that, a second letter was found that had pat leahy's name on it. the nation was on the edge, but washington, d.c. -- the pentagon had been hit. major areas in the capital had been attacked with anthrax. the patriot act was must-pass legislation. pat leahy was in a difficult position. he was the only person willing to stand up and say, at that moment, willing to cautiously protect civil rights. he took a lot of heat for that. if there was one moment he demonstrated strength of character and a profile of courage, that was it. like a glut of long serving senators, he has -- a lot of long serving senators, he has been able to bring in money for important projects, some with his name on them. leahyis the ipo -- echo center for lake champlain, a street called leahy way. like bernie sanders, vermont politicians are in your community. themselves,eparate they don't bring on a bot of insecurity. they show up at the farmers market in montpelier. if youl see pat leahy hang out for a couple of weekends in a row at the farmers market. you will see bernie sanders. vermont has come to rely on this. we send our senators back to gain influence, but we know them and trust them, and why change >> our visit to burlington, vermont is a book tv exclusive, and we showed it to you to introduce you to c-span's cities tour. toured and brought the book seen to the viewers. you can see more on c-span.org/citiestour. >> coming up in a moment, the attorney for john conyers talks about allegations of sexual misconduct. then, a house hearing on reauthorization of portions of the fisa law. and discussions on how the u.s. should deal with north korea. former national security adviser michael flynn has pleaded guilty to making both statements to the fbi. he becomes the first official who worked in the trouble white house to make a guilty plea -- who worked in the trump white house to make it guilty plea. a senior member of the trump team directed him to make contact with russian officials. he also agreed to cooperate with mueller's probe. mr. flynn says he accepts responsibility for his actions guilty plea was a decision i made in the best interest of my family and our country." the attorney for michigan democratic congressman john conyers held a conference outside his home to discuss recent sexual misconduct allegations against the congressman. and recent calls for him to resign. this is about 30 minutes. good evening. afternoon. thank you all for being here. fold.s two mary brown has been on local radio, i believe of few hours ago, saying that the congressman was a predator, saying that he took every opportunity to sexually harass and basically to assault her. i was on a couple of national networks and that is not true. what she has forgotten or omitted in telling you all is that when she worked for the congressman, she had her sister working there as well -- strike that -- she had her daughter, she had her daughter working there and another family member. she says that she was 40

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