Everyone. I know theres some people still coming in, but its time to get on with it. Im david welch, the inaugural director of the Stubblefield Institute for civil Political Communications at Shepherd University, and welcome [applause] and welcome to our first installment of the american conversation series public forums, and eating with Donna Brazile and mercedes schlapp, the state of political discourse in todays america, moderated by mary hendrix. Throughout the Academic Year there will be several more forums so please go on our Facebook Page and our website for updates. The mission of the institute is to study and promote how intelligent, authentic and civil political discourse can play an essential role in our nations ability to better meet challenges and solve problems and offer a platform on a opposite viewpoints can be respected and legitimized in ways that avoid negative labeling and alienation. Moreover, we seek to demonstrate that civil Political Engagement in these challenging times is directly tied to positive civic engagement. Before we begin i i wish to thk the institutes board of advisors staff and Consulting Team most of whom are in attendance tonight, do a special knowledge doctor schaeffer, the institus faculty representative for partnership and support. Sarah burke our communications and Events Manager for organizing tonight forum and institute cofounders and Board Members david and Scott Whitmire for arranging our speakers. So many of the people that i could thank and acknowledge, and we have so many partners here on campus that im getting to know and want to thank all of you. You know who you are but thank you for your support in making sure that the people you know turn out. One of the people, one of the groups of people i wanted to pay some attention to just for a moment because i dont think they get enough love and if you will come with the members of the Shepherd University debate team please stand up if youre in the room . I cant see where you are for the lights. Lets give them a big round of the National Champion debate team, folks. [applause] also in the house this evening, and they will hate me for doing this so im going to do it anyway, take my chances but also in the house this evening upon and bill stubblefield whose generous gift and commitment to political civility made this institute possible. Please, stand up and be recognized. [applause] am i in trouble . I figured i was. Now for the introduction of three incredible leaders. Mercedes schlapp is a first generation cuban american raised in florida whose father was jailed for six years by the government of cuba. She is a columnist and frequent Television Commentator who was played key roles in several republican president ial campaigns. She is the former director of strategic and medications for president donald trump. She is married to match live from the chair of the American Conservative Union and they have five daughters. Its a basketball team, isnt it . Just saying. Donna brazile was born and raised in new orleans, louisiana. She first became active in politics as a volunteer for jimmy carter in 1976. In the years that ensued she rose that the Democratic Party ranks eventually becoming the first africanamerican woman to manage a president ial campaign, and the first africanamerican woman to serve as chairperson of the Major Political party. She is an author, columnist and Television Commentator. We are also extremely honored to have as as a moderator for two nights american conversation, doctor mary hendrix, the 16th president of Shepherd University, whose leadership, and i mean this, whose leadership and support of the establishment of the Stubblefield Institute has been essential and enthusiastic. It is now my privilege to welcome to the stage mercedes schlapp, Donna Brazile and president hendrix. [applause] are the rounds in the house . Are the rounds in the house . [applause] madam president , we had this little confusion because i just wanted to be on the left. I didnt want there to be no confusion. [laughing] wonderful. Being on fox news with silver hair, im the silver fox. I didnt want any confusion. Donna, i was turned be more about the bipartisanship. Maybe you sit on the right for a little bit and i sit on the left for a little bit. All be sitting on the right when i go home for thanksgiving when i start making my gumbo. I would like to add my warm welcome to our distinguished guests this evening and all of our attendees who feel so strongly about promoting civil discourse. Shepherd university is the Perfect Place to engage in this dialog because we have a rich history as a teachers college. Yay. [cheers and applause] and we have emerged into an Academic Center of excellence for professional development, a cultural hub and also a catalyst for Economic Growth in our region with a very Noble Mission of training the next generation of leaders and model citizens. So, we are very, very close to washington d. C. , as you found out today. Maybe not so much in the traffic, but going back, its a breeze. [laughter] although we have this proximity to washington, we have remained relatively unaffected by the political vitriol we see on the nightly news reports. This evening, we have the extraordinary opportunity to witness distinguished professionals in action as they discuss Common Ground and differences on various issues. The questions i will present have been contributed by community members, by students and faculty and myself. So before we get started, i have told our wonderful speakers and guests this evening what a wonderful audience you are, how civil you all are, all right . So this is great. So first question, in the environment of deep polarization on all fronts, is there a way for the average citizen to have an objective source for news . Who would like to take that . Its not a yes or no. [laughte [laughter]. Donna, you getter say fox. Dont get me. [laughter] a few months ago before my good friend Cokie Roberts passed away, i believe cokie and steve came here to the campus. Cokie roberts said at that time to be credible today im not quoting here, you know louisianaens we dont quote anything from scripture. Not even recipes, we have to go to mississippi to make sure were not following anything that alabamans or texans do. Cokie said that today, she believed because of all of the conversations about fakes news and mischaracterizations that its important that reporters get it right and theyre looking for one source, but today theyre looking for two, three or four sources. I think thats good. In order for us to have a healthy democracy, we need a free press. We need a functioning free press. Its as vital to the you can is its as vital to the success of our political branches of government. Ive got it tell you this, there was a poll recent by a school, 39 can identify all three branches of government and only 25 of us can identify one branch of government. Now, when they wrote the press release, you can go and look it up. They said, you know, this is a 7 increase since the last time we took the poll in 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a crisis and that crisis is we dont know our history. We dont know our American History because its our shared history. We dont teach civics. Were we dont interact with one another or engage with one another and look at our labels and say, oh, i dont want to hear from you. The truth of the matter the Republican Party is not the Largest Party in american politics. The Democratic Party, much to my chagrin, were not the Largest Party. Its independents, and yet we have to appeal to you. And the best way to appeal to you, to understand your needs, your concerns, your values, but to try to make sure that we represent your needs as well as the needs of the partisans that we both represent. Beautiful. If i on the issue of sources, i worked with Sarah Sanders and bill shine at the time. One of the things you struggled with, you had so many journalists who will come up with stories they were going to write. Theyd say oh, weve talked to a source close to the white house or familiar with the white house, obviously, that source might have a particular agenda of what story they want to push and so while we were actually, lets say, in the meeting with the president and we would give our version of the story, the headlines would never come out or most most of the time would never come out in favor of the president , for example. When you look at so many of these journalists, im not saying all of them. There are reputable journalists, cokie being one of them and i can tell you folks i have worked with in the white house who really want to get the story right, but what we found is that there was a significant number of these journalists in the White House Press corps that had an agenda. I mean, it was very clear, all you needed to go was to their twitter feed and you knew exactly their vitriol towards this president and so that to us was a big challenge that we faced within the white house and so, when it comes to sourcing, yeah, you can have three or four sources, but youve got to make sure these sources are accurate and make sure you get those people who were actually in the meeting to provide what was happening in the actual meeting. A lot of times, these the perfect example, just last week and this is kind of a lighter story. Theres this one reporter, my husband and i went to the trump fest halloween witch hunt party, rally, out in lancaster, pennsylvania, with diamond and silk. And we had a great time and it was wonderful. We got up there and talked about what the president has been able to accomplish. There was one reporter who wrote the sorry because i it was ivanka trumps birthday and i had the crew say happy birthday to ivanka trump and said happy birthday they want to wish you a happy birthday and the reporter wrote a piece, frivolous, and so mercedes put it up on instagram and ivanka didnt even view it. Oh, my do i call the reporter to tell her, you, you, come on. Seriously. I mean, you know, she doesnt get the story right because she never asked me did you ever send it to ivanka trump. This is totally frivolous, bigger issues, bigger policy issues that you want right and thats critical, but i think when it comes to sourcing, there needs to be some accuracy and a lot of reporters go to the sources because they know theyre going to tell the story they want them to tell. And so to answer your question on the objectivity standpoint, do you go and find an objective news source, look, theres been an evolution of the news room and youre going to find that fox is on one side, fox news on one side, cnn and msnbc on the other side and what has happened is, you the citizen, you the individual, you the students you need to ask the questions. Is this right . Is this not right . Read from the far left to the far right to learn where people, what narratives they are pushing and then you as the intelligent american, the wellinformed citizen can come back and say, all right, ive read from a variety of resources, and this is what i believe is right and this is what i believe is true. I mean, you have to question, you know, and really ensure that youre informed to be able to make the best arguments based on, you know, on who you support or what you believe in. But i do believe that journalists need to be remember, journalists have ethics. They have a code of ethics. Journalists you know, go to school. Most journalists go to school to learn their craft. Im a pundit, a partisan with a point of view. When im on tv, i play myself. [laughte [laughter]. Im not a journalist. Donna, when you look at jim acosta, is he a journalist . Does he give a fair objective point of view when hes addressing the news . I think what has happened is, yes, we are the pundits. Right. And, but i think that there are those number of journalists who have decided that they want to be pundits, too, and they want to hit, especially in the case of the new trump era of media, that they want to hit the president as hard as they can and theres little to no objectivity to how they hit the president. I think its a lovehate relationship. The president gets more because he controls the narrative. One thing im jealous you know, i have my jealousies, its not just his hair, ive come to i had my one and only closeup with the president during 2016 campaign which i whispered in his ear he should watch the super bowl since hes in New Hampshire and the patriots. And tv now, especially Cable Television is about this. We want polar opposites and sort of like this tension, this friction, this dissension. Its almost we could talk about fren infrastructure, the new nafta, china, prescription prices, i could go on and on and on, we could find Common Grounds. We may have different ways to get to it, but we believe we should do something to lower the price of prescription medication, notice i didnt say drugs. My grandmother prohibited us, she was not getting drugs when we went to get her and here we are the country divided by two nonmajor parties. Interesting. And what the leaders of those two minority parties are thinking, not the majority of the American People. Ultimate i will, you will decide the outcome of the 2020 election. But does the media cover the policy issues that significantly no. No, they want the drama. They love they want the west wing drama. They want to know whats happening on the hill, who is hating who. Thats what they want, what theyre interested its like reality tv when it comes to politics so theres a lot of discussion when it comes to the policy discussions. Reality tv. There we go. All right. Okay. So the point is, we are entertaining you. We are. Because we have replaced the substance with the superficial. You cannot explain the Affordable Care act in less than 30 seconds, i dont care. Its 2000 plus pages. Its sales and no, thats not true. And you can ask. Okay. Millions of americans about that. You have skyrocketed premiums that have come from obamacare, lets be real. Even the democrats want to change obamacare. No, the democrats, remember, there are five different medicare for all bills. Unfortunately, i ruined my weekend reading about it. Oh. Yeah, and its costing 52 trillion dollars according to senator warren. Thats 20 trillion more than what it will cost us if we do nothing. So, the question is, do we continue to have the most costly Health Care System in the world that everybody claim is broken or do we try to find ways to improve it so theres nor accountability, more competition and more ments thats right, but going to a single payer system wont work. It wont work. [applause] its more bureaucratic and government and health care im not bernie, i didnt write the damn bill. [laughter] all right. And my heart is working and god bless bernie for working harder than james brown. But again, when you come to talk about issues as complicated as health care, and our Health Care Delivery system, you cannot simply argue in using slang and any other kind of demeanor. This is a serious issue for americans because more and more americans find themselves unable to afford the high cost of premiums. The high costs of prescription medication. I just finished reading thats not me, its you, oh. Were not letting i was like i knew al gore invented the internet, but but i finished reading the story today in states that did not accept Medicaid Expansion and now a family of four with 22,000 a year on average premium costs from their employer, as well as what they pay in and so forth and so on. And she cant afford her insulin. Ladies and gentlemen, we can solve these problems. We dont need a quote, unquote, liberal or conservative test. We need a test that works for every american, you get a test and perhaps you take a test not so that the doctor doesnt rule out everything. An mri, ekg. And i got stuck so many times, i knew it was halloween because you all want my blood. Excellent. My turn. [laughter] whatever if i want to be president , what can i say . Madam president , i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you so much. Now, this is a real question, have either of you been affected by negative press. [laughter] if so, how have you handled it . Im guessing yes, but how have you handled it. Well, can i start . Yes. The president tweeted one day a couple of weeks ago that i was wonderful. Oh, my god. He said, i dont know why fox news hired the wonderful Donna Brazile, and after have had hit me twice and the next day corrected it and it wasnt so nice. Yet, thats part of i mean, its like any politician, any public servant, youre going to get the good and the bad. But hopefully its not about your ego or your identity or who you think you are. My mother taught me as a young girl, she said its not what they call you, and remember why she had to teach me this and my other siblings because of the names we were being called simply because of the way we looked. My mother said its not what they call you, its what you answer to. And so despite the fact that i may get trashed, hit, attacked, tweeted, deleted, my job is, i pray for my president. I dont pray just because he tweets at me, i pray because hes the president of the United States and we only have one president.