Host Kayleigh Mcenancy thanks for being here. Guest thanks fo guest thanks for having me. Host lets talk about you and your background and how you came to write this book. Guest a lot may know me from cnn. You and i have been on several of those panels throughout the election but i came from a small town and so those of you that keep strawberries, its the capital city. For money roots and how i see this through the prism i grew up in and not through the confines here in washington where i serve as the spokesperson come about through the prism of being a smalltown girl in the movement i recognized early on when i endorsed President Trump to be the president and three months after he declared the presidency i saw the movement on the horizon along with a few others and we recognized that movement as well although he recognized it from the left wing as his party. Host there are a few people in the book that make appearances. Dan jones was a part of the administration and there were a lot of conservatives at one point the thought of him as a sort of bogeyman but what was your experience with him on cnn . Cnn . Guest i always thought dan jones as this left wings are and a lot of us on the country are partisan here. As best identify them with their party but when i came to dan jones as a person and not a political person i was taken aback and so surprised. I remember my first night before i took the stand on the panel during the primary, right before i had, i had brought him criticism. If you are independent or political figure of any sort, you get a love of trolls and angry viewers but one of them wasnt deserving of wearing a cross if i supported donald trump. Van jones didnt know about that comment and as i rounded the corner nervously before my first cnn panel, i heard a voice ring out from the commentators and said i love your cross and its one of the first words dan jones said to me. I came to know hi him best night and the many nightinto the manyt together throughout 2016 as a person and a friend and a mentor and it shattered this idea of the other side whether it be Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton or trump. Host hes the only liberal commentator who has been kind to you and mentor to you. What did he mean to you . Guest they helped me throughout my career. When i was an intern on the site they were both wonderful to me. This almost brings tears to my eyes thinking about it that he would sit at the radio show and send me messages as he watched me that i didnt know that he kept on at the radio show and i learned that from a producer this week. He would reach out to me and i was on one of the panels and he would say to me remember dont fight fire with fire, fight fire with water and it reminded me in those heated moments to be called, take a breath and allow people to see your point of view intellectually and not through your emotions and anger. Host lets talk about the American Revolution book. For those that have not read it, what is the broad theme of the book . Guest thats a great question. I use the word populist conservatively and they say to me why do i use this word, but to me it sums up the book is about and i really wanted to honestly profile the people on the left and right. Most othe right. Most of the voters i profiled were not trump. So for me it was the sentiment that drove the electorate to deliver one of the most astonishing electoral receipts we have seen certainly in my lifetime and in history, so it was a profile of the American People given issues of terrorism to poison water in flint michigan. Host i would see it as an explainer if you are somebody that lives inside of the beltway with what was happening across america that would lead people to want to have change why would they vote for this guy and you profile a lot of different americans who are enduring a lot of american problems and this would help explain to people to get how this happened. Host guest when we were discussing this book before him and it was mentioned on the amazon profile for my book because i think outside of my own but that is the only piece of work i can point to that tries to describe a moment in history and the people that made that happen. Of course if profiled the group and West Virginia and he didnt profile them as voters but the factory bluecollar workers who explained. I wanted to take a broader look. I sat down at my desk and wrote odown the issues that determined the election and they were too nervous him to theterrorism and i traveled the country to texas to the terrorist attack and to South Carolina to profile widows on the wait list and try to get to the heart of what turned their decisionmaking and made them what they were. Host just in terms of the process of writing a book like this i would have imagined it seems very simultaneously timeconsuming and emotionally draining because most of the stories even if they have happy endings and people persevering, they went through really hard times. Talk about that time and process. Guest it is a great question. In the world of political punditry o you have a million things going on at the same time and easy to get caught up in the monotony of having these political discussions and others so for me to leave the confines of new york and dc and got out and talk to people, i didnt know what i would find. It seems ike something you have to go do, another interview, piece of writing. When i went to their homes and sat in a losent in a log cabin a family that lost their Police Officer son and i saw her tears and their 7yearold daughter running around the house with my little puppy in her arms and she drew me a picture that said thank you for letting her dads story, who died in an act with a gun man, but when i sold a story i realized she would come to know her father not just the story of her loved ones but through the words on this page, so became deeply emotional and uplifting to see how they overcome their darkest hour. Host i guess the clips can live on, but. It does there is a legacy for that its documenting a moment in time. Its about the loved ones and what they went through. To tell the story and the legacies of these individuals because especially the first four chapters which lost loved ones and i took it as a sacred duty to share for these individuals were and in these attacks we do so much on cable news and in the given situation that would push their son out of the way whethe way when there wk rolling towards them, what about their story that is the opening book. Theres amazing acts of terrorism and that was my goal to share their story. Host another theme along with that is police said you have one story about a Police Officer who was killed, not even in the line of duty protecting others while he was actually off duty. It seems like there were several examples of kind of Law Enforcement in this book. Is that something that was important to you and going back to the larger theme of being trends that were happening that led the election. Guest i have a close and the book. They said it was the men in blue that showed u up and of course thats the Police Officers. Absolutely they were the driving force and Law Enforcement has always had a special place in my heart because i see them as a mystic heroes who dont get the credit they deserve and thats why its important to me to talk about his loss of life. You are right he left behind a little daughter and a fiancee. Its important to talk to this story. I have another chapter about my time at Harvard Law School and i talk about having tens of being unfair of the Racial Injustice in the criminal Justice System and how i think that ultimately solving the policing issue its having a conversation realizing most Police Officers are good people but it also takes on the part of the other side there are issues that need to be resolved and looked at and i became aware of those issues at Harvard Law School. Host youve also discovered one that would be liberal bias in academia that i think helped drive the election with others like the scandal that you mentioned. If you were in that camp donald trump, this book would definitely help you understand. But what would have been that would make people frustrated or angry around america that you may be insulated from if you have a fairly prosperous life one of them is also healthcare which is a story that was personally touched you. Guest thats right i open up about my story in the book. Host and going to read some of it but go ahead and talk about the. Guest i plan the words carefully because it is here to tell the stories of others replaced easier itself, but i have an 84 chance of Breast Cancer in my lifetime and i learned this ten years ago, each years ago it feels like a decade ago when i was just 22yearso 22yearsold. I talked about what it felt like when i should have been worrying about employees and my job, i was worried about getting Breast Cancer. Host that we read a little bit from the book and i will start off by saying that this dovetails a larger story so you tell a story about someone else who is really struggling with navigating obamacare. A smallbusiness owner not a poor person per se, but their chilthat theirchild is going thr Health Problems into this person was spending hours trying to get it straightened out and you tell your story i will read it here. I didnt expect the waterfall of tears streamed down my face as i tried to comprehend the news. I had an 84 chance of getting Breast Cancer in my lifetime. I casually azimuth cavalierly had taken the genetic mutation tests not expecting to hear the positive result days later and not prepared for the emotions that would accompany it as i move forward i face a final step in my journey with my double mastectomy. It has to be difficult to talk about this. Do you hope that maybe you can help others out there . Guest definitely. It was important for me to personalize healthcare because when we talk about it is often in the political context. There are so many competing factors that need to be looked at. For me i told my story because its important to note you can find out you have this gene and take a measure like getting a preventative mastectomy but i decided to do this hearing thats going to be tough but its a decision i know i need to make. The reason i told it beyond this awareness is because when we talk about preexisting conditions, one of the great things obamacare data to decide wreaking havoc as it did provide these protections that were not there for people with preexisting conditions with myself and many other americans. Its important to tell my story because i feel like you were often demonized for not carrying about a group of people, but republicans do care. Im one of them that does care about the population of people. Host thats where donald trump was differen different tho conservatives because he pretty much always said we have to keep the preexisting conditions. We are going to keep preexisting conditions. Guest that is exactly right. One of his opponents said that to him on the democratic debate stage because they were so taken aback by what was not in the republican doctrine and that is one of the many reasons im a strong. You go o on on to cite the brave women that have come to this before a like your mom who had the courage to get a double mastectomy before it was popularized and strong women like Angelina Jolie that openly announced her decision. Guest thats right. I remember my mom getting this. She never had Breast Cancer but shshe have to shield removed whh is an emotional and tough process. She did this before Angelina Jolie came out in virender i was asleep and my mom called and told me get a copy of the New York Times. I opened up the newspaper and saw she had gone public that she had this choice. Knowing that its one of the top killers of women that have this it was an empowering moment because she made something mainstream that many women like my mom included felt ostracized for doing. Not everybody voted for donald trump that its safe to say most of them did and i think that reading this book with definitely give insight into the rise of the populist movement to win the nomination and the presidency, but even more is faith, whether it is a terrorist attack or dying because the va didnt give them a proper treatment. It seems like every person or most of the people here but really comforted them and gave them the ability to persevere with their faith. Despite being christian, i didnt set out to find men and women of fait faith as that embd the issue of our time. What i found and i say in the book is god, not government. There may be temporary hoping the leader and a savior and its important to provide all the communities which i found not by my own searching but i stumbled upon men and women who were in the darkest hour of life and it was faith and god that got them through and they had an amazing story of how there was deadline outreach plan they felt that their moment. Host interestingly, a couple of other theme as i noticei noticedin the book weree thought of as the mystical or spiritual things and one of them is premonition. At least two of the different people before a major life event happened to the fun in the sense of foreboding. Guest really interesting one of them was prod prodi cope, the 11yearold boy got lost his wife in this terrorist attack and he was in the bathroom before it happened about an hour and a half before and his mom didnt want him to go in. She noticed armed guards walking down the street and sent a picture of it and when she went to the bathroom she noticed a guard standing there and said i will go in with you and he said im going to go and just like any other blood. He comes out and says what does isis look like host she had seen there was somebody in the bathroom with a backpack over in looking suspicious. Guest thats right, digging through his belongings and i say in the book they sent a picture to his brother that day from the festivities in that area from the promenade and whether he was actually there that day before the attack, whether that is who he saw i dont know. Hes not sure whether that indeed was the attacker that took her sons life, but he had a premonition that something was coming and so did jordan whose son died when an illegal immigrant, someone had committed a felony previously but they took that turn and he took dominic jordans life. Her body collapsed at the very time her son lost his life she said my body knew that my mind it didnt at that time so there was an overwhelming theme of people tha but there was somethg coming. Host speaking of religion, this is about the va story so it is a veteran who im going to read this part about religion but why dont you tell us a little bit before i do, this struggle with the va. Guest shes an amazing american and one who became the face of the scandal when cnn broke the scandal on the investigative reporting on the struggles and those who couldnt get access to care. Barry lynn coats testified about his struggles, wasnt able to get because p. , had agreed just symptoms not to get too far into this, but the symptoms were telltale signs of colon cancer and was still not able to give equal velocity as he vanquished on the waiting list. He took it upon himself to be a man of faith and share his faith with others. In the months before her husband was bed ridden, she would wake up to find praying the word if thithis burden is meant for me o carry much weight. But you said my fee set my feeth in which you have chosen for me to walk and dont let me stray from that path. It was reminiscent of the cover. Its being the person of states where most would be cursing god and upset with god and angry at the government. He had this state that said this is the path god gave me a. In their darkest hour they got him through. Host one of the things in the bubble i was reading a story about the va and i kept thinking i think i would go to an outside doctor and in fact one of the other stories about healthcare, one of the people that youre profiling is forced to go outside of the system and to pay a lot of money. If he was advised at some point to go see a doctor but is now a part of the va but of course these are people that serve our country and may not have the ability financially. This is the system that they are in and it could cost their lives. Guest donna told me that the struggle financially when her husband died they didnt have a supply of cash waiting. Her mom said we are just good country people who dont have those resources to go and provide for her daughter in the wake of her soninlaws death. Some people dont have the resources and if they are living in a bubble in manhattan and not to say that everyone here has those resources that in the bubble of the political commentary, it was eyeopening to see. Host as a father to imagine your wife or child needing treatment for surgery and then the person, the doctor saying we will make an appointment. It would be so infuriating. Its understandable why people were infuriated. Guest especially those of us that have chosen to sacrifice our lives and in some cases overseas and imperil our lives by fighting overseas. It upon responsibility of the government to protect these women when they come home and that hanks is of course a motivating factor for donna as she had an opportunity to come from president obama while it was an emotional moment and most dont get the opportunity to confront their leaders and she did. Host i want to ask you about this. I think if you look at the book and the context of this as an explainer for the phenomenon of the grassroots populist phenomena that led to donald trump then you go through all of these issues at all of these heartwrenching examples that makes the case. This is why. You could have written a book and i read this for example that in this country for 30 years good law abiding upstanding citizens have kids, married, now being deported. You could have written a book about that and threw in some different implications. This is good for you are doing is cherry picking examples that buttress your point. Guest there are several in flint michigan, another amazing american disenchanted with all governments and was very honest with me and said i didnt vote trump or clinton, i lost faith entirely in the leaders and i would argue i think the most in dr