returned to the federal government. before i close, i would like to share a few guiding principles for those of you thinking about taking the opportunity to serve. first and simply, be honest and trustworthy. if we are to be good stewards of the law, we must be good stewards of our souls. do not follow the example of the previous administration. the practice of law is or should be deeply moral undertaking. to faithfully interpret and apply the law, especially in service of the people, requires the utmost integrity. the people, after all, have every right to expect the government officials reached their conclusions in good faith. if the citizenry believes that the law is being subverted to illegitimate ends, they will lose faith in the government, in the rule of law, the idea of justice itself when faith in these things is lost, all that is left is cynicism. that is a breach of trust that is not easily repaired. we await it to our fellow citizens and to our cause not to let that happen. second, always remember that you serve they cause far greater than yourself. pride comes before the fall. be humble. i know that is an unusual admonition from a politician, we are not generally known for our excessive humility. history is littered with examples of worthy causes that failed because of infighting, because of petty grievances and selfishness. ignore the petty politics. don't bicker agency to agency, office to office, official to official. if we are to succeed in turning the leviathan, we must overcome those impulses. we must work together to accomplish the job. third, the constitution must be our lodestar. restoring the rule of law must begin with restoring the constitution. to do that, we must be peerless at the gets of the proposition best expressed by justice joseph story, that the constitution has a fixed meaning and is not dependent on the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, today, and forever. no constitution is worth the paper it is written on if it can be ignored or revised on a whim by judicial or executive fiat. just ask the soviet union as so many totalitarian regimes we have seen through history. we must rebuild our legal culture so that both the legal profession and the people he embraced the people implicit in a written constitution that the law is not something to be shaped as a potter molds clay, rather it is to be dispassionately applied. the judge's task is to apply the law, not to invent it. fourth, we should continue focusing on law students and young people, just like justice scalia to. as i described in my remarks to the congressional record, justice scalia understood that changing the languishing legal culture would take drastic measures. he wrote his dissent with a specific target in mind -- law students. his aim was to delight their senses and engage their brains. to this end, he liberally employed colorful metaphors, pithy criticisms, biting logic. he mercilessly and playfully exposed the abundant flaws in the writing and reasoning of other justices. pure applesauce. jiggery pokery. arglebargle. if you squinted hard enough, you could almost convince yourself that gk chesterton had taken up a seat on the supreme court. [applause] senator cruz: this election may help save the day for now, but to prevail in the long run, we must capture the hearts and minds of young people and impress on them the same fidelity to law and devotion to liberty that built our nation. finally, in the battles to come over the rule of law and our nation, there will be bitter disappointments and setbacks that are inevitable in any worthwhile and difficult endeavor. i was told that yesterday at this conference justice alito gave very good advice. when those times come, we should always ask yourselves, what would scalia do? perhaps we should even get wristbands made. after all, justice scalia was always the academy of the happy warrior. always hopeful, always good-natured, even when the republic was hanging in the balance. his joy for life was evident for all. everyone of us could do very, very well to find inspiration in his worthy example. above all, we must keep up the fight and never ever, ever give in. our nation, our people, our constitution is worthy of our utmost devotion. thank you. [applause] senator cruz: now i am happy to answer or dodge any question you like. [laughter] >> thank you very much. i would like to thank the federalist party for posting this wonderful convention. and to your comments during the referendum campaign, indeed you mentioned referendum, we had one earlier this year to leave the european union, and historic vote. i wondered what your thoughts were now that you all have a new president for the new year and we have a new prime minister about the special relationship between our nations? senator cruz: i think that relationship is vital. i think a sad aspect of the last eight years is how poorly it has been treated. starting at the outset of the obama administration with returning the bust of winston churchill. it is my hope that the churchill bust will return. [applause] senator cruz: the brexit vote was historic. it was more than a little curious that president obama before that both thought it was somehow helpful to cross the atlantic and condescendingly lecture of the british that they should not dare exercise their own sovereignty. perhaps the most puzzling thing was why he thought that would somehow helpful in moving the vote in the direction we wanted it to go. i think brexit poses a tremendous opportunity, an opportunity to strengthen the free trade relationship between the united states and the united kingdom, unlike what obama said about getting to the back of the queue. i believe we should strengthen it and demonstrate what actual free trade means, not a backdoor for a multinational regulator trying to oppose stifling regulations on everything, but rather an agreement that lowers tariffs and opens trade and commerce and benefits friends and allies, and i think that poses a remarkable opportunity. i hope also it provides real and meaningful economic competition for europe to improve all involved. [applause] >> good morning, sir. i'm from tallahassee via jamaica. i don't have a question. i want to say thank you. thank you for everything you have done. i am a fellow immigrants. i want you to know how much we appreciate you and how many people in jamaica, as you know, really appreciate you. thank you so much. thank you for leading us in the right direction. we appreciate you. [applause] senator cruz: thank you very much for those kind and generous comments. yes, sir. >> thank you for your wonderful speech and for being with us. i am also from -- i am from the university of oxford in england. i was raised in the countryside. i know what it is like to be told that you are stupid because of how you speak, to be think that you are forgotten by your government. they say it is not affordable to bring the services to where you live. you don't really matter. with the presidential election, we saw that rural americans who thought they were left behind stood up and expressed their voice in such large numbers, what sorts of words of encouragement to you have for those people who feel that they have been left behind? senator cruz: i think the election was an incredible vindication for the american people across this country. especially those you mentioned in rural america in what elites on both coasts considered to be flyover country. this election could be well understood as the revenge of flyover country. [applause] senator cruz: one of the things that was most striking was the utter astonishment of the hillary clinton campaign, of the press, of democrats. i am reminded of an earlier election, a question from manhattan. how could richard nixon have won? i don't know anyone who voted for him. i think the clinton campaign on themselves flabbergasted. i don't think they contemplated the fact they might not prevail. i think that is a direct result of not listening to and not hearing the american people, the voices of frustration, the voices that have been ignored, the voices that were crying out more than anything else, we've us alone. those voices have not been heard in washington. by democrats and far too often by republicans either. i think this election poses an opportunity for us to listen to the voices of the american people, to hear them and to come together and actually solve the problems of this country. when you are given control of the executive and legislature, it is time to put up or shut up. there are no excuses. we have got to deliver. that is what the voters across the country expect. that is what i very much hope we will give them. [applause] >> thank you, senator. i am from across the ocean in europe. we're wishing you all the luck. >> could you talk about the problems -- now that we finally have across-the-board red, how do we start at? most of the public knows that something is wrong. they don't know what it is. now we can finally start. how would you suggest we start? senator cruz: that is a fabulous question. one of the things men and women here understand is that the growth of leviathan has no greater manifestation than the regulatory state, the army of unelected bureaucrats who often believe they answer to no political authority higher than themselves, they do not answer to the people. we see these regulations growing and growing and stifling freedom, stifling job creation, stifling wages. we have an opportunity to fix that. indeed, i would turn that argument that venue and encourage everyone here -- back on you and encourage everyone here to use your training to think about how we can ratchet back the regulatory state. i brought my entire senate office together and i said i want all of us to start working hard and creatively, to pull out a notepad and think about what can and should be done to stop stifling job creators, what can be done with executive authority. the one silver lining of obama's abuse of executive power, everything he did can be undone through executive power. [applause] senator cruz: i have spent some time visiting with the president-elect, the transition team, and very much encouraging that team to use executive authority not only to turn back the abuses of the obama era, but also to use it in legitimate ways to reduce the burdens of government. when it comes to the regulatory state, what obama has done wrong with executive power is he has intruded into the article one legislative authority of congress. it is congress that makes the law, and the president cannot change the law or ignore the law. in article two, the president has robust executive authority. the executive authority is vested in one president of the united states, and the entire regulatory state represents congress over the decades trying to tie the hands of the president of the executive. it is my hope this administration takes on the vigorous regulatory reform, not in the past as it has been a oneway ratchet. we have seen democrats regulate like crazy, and republicans continuing to regulate a little more slowly. i had a friend of mine suggested bumper sticker, "republicans, we waste less." [laughter] senator cruz: i hope that at the end of this administration, we will not be saying that. instead we will be saying that we used this mandate from the people to take on the regulatory state, to rescind regulations, to fire regulators who were abusing their power, to retake liberty. [applause] senator cruz: last question. >> thank you. i am from new york. the suburbs of westchester county. senator cruz: wonderful. >> i do have a thought. during the course of the campaign, particularly the primaries, i did imagine you in another capacity. senator cruz: so did i. [laughter] >> i am wondering now if perhaps that ninth seat, any possibility? [applause] senator cruz: well, thank you for the kind encouragement. what i will say is that history is long and can take unexpected paths. i think it is absolutely vital that in seat and every other seat that comes vacant on the court be filled by principal constitutionalists who will be faithful to the law and checked their own policy preferences at the door and simply honor their oath. right now i have the privilege of serving in the united states senate and representing 20 million texans. that is a privilege and responsibility i take seriously. i look forward to continuing to carry out the responsibility and continuing to fight for the principles of freedom and principles embodied in the constitution and bill of rights. they are very much in jeopardy right now. i, like many of you, and very excited by the historic opportunity we have been given. i look forward to working very hard to make the most of this opportunity to make the biggest difference for our country. thank you. [applause] >> senator cruz. thank you so much for being with us today, senator cruz. we appreciate it. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> nebraska senator ben sasse constitution.he this is 45 minutes. >> good afternoon. good afternoon. i want to welcome everyone to the 15th annual lecture. i'm the president of the society. the memorial lecture series started ted olson's inaugural election. it reminded us how to be an american and how legal tradition is a critical part of our identities. barbara understood this connection. towant the lecture series foster principles that expand freedom and the rule of law. include the man who this convention is honoring, star,e scalia, judges can edith jones, former attorney general michael mukasey, peter teal, and that brings us to today's lecture. it will be my honor to introduce senator ben sasse. after graduating from harvard college, he went on a wrestling scholarship and earned a history phd at yale. he worked for private equity firms before he to president of midland university which he pulled out of difficult financial straits. then he ran for the senate. since he has been elected done a, he has not only couple of things that i will mention quickly, but he is also moonlighted. uber andriven for my understanding is he has a five-star rating. [laughter] [applause] >> in addition to his bio and his driving, i would add that asse, despite his youth, exemplifies the idea our founders had for the senate. some wise heads will be focused on the good of the country and who would look towards the ways in which our republic needed to meet the ever adjusting challenges of governing a free people. i think the senator may have a little to say about that and i am honored to welcome him. sen. sasse? [applause] sen. sasse: when he mentioned the driving, i imagine some of you were sucking up as you are trying to get out here. we never had a press strategy around it. that was a mistake. i have a brand that has been tied to the presidential nominee a lot for the last nine months, not something i have been seeking. if i had known that i could just drive uber, i would've gotten out of the doghouse. that would have been a helpful step to take. for those of you who don't know, i want to talk about how we shouldn't have republican and democratic categories on a whole bunch in the execution of law in the article to branch -- two branch. we shouldn't have them in judging. there are whole bunch of places we should not have those categories, and i don't want to assume all of you are as oriented as i am, but i assume that most of you are. one of the great things i learned driving this weekend, one of them is that town halls were not always totally representative of the public at large. the people who come to them tend to be more obsessively focused on politics and policies than the public in general. if you do a work to her bang -- tour, youa worwork are in a service posture and you learn about different industries, but you also just talk to people in day-to-day life and you learn things that are different than just town hall meetings. i do town halls, but i also do them because i have three children, two daughters and a son. i had never been a politician before. as was mentioned, that might be a good thing. i'm the only guy in the senate who does the family commute. if you're the only one doing something, it probably means you are a naive rookie and probably a fool. i don't want to be away from my kids, but i don't know what they would do in washington. when i come to washington, i bring with me whichever kid mom's most sick of [laughter] . sen. sasse: this week, i have my five-year-old son and that is a new bag of worms to have running around the senate. he is not bashful about asking questions during my committee hearings. when i do work tours at home, it is a chance to make my children suffer. we feed cattle at 5:00 in the morning and i want them to have that work ethic experience of having to get up and get out and do something when it is cold and you don't feel like doing it. when i drove this weekend, it was hardly because i am a nerd interested in the disintermediation for parts of the service economy, and i wanted to talk to the kinds of consumers, that also the people who were driving for uber, and little did i know that if you drive on game day in lincoln, you find out they have a market oriented lever to make sure they have enough supply-side of the bar district. if you throw up in an uber, you will be fined $150. this is because the contractor is driving his or her own vehicle. i have learned a lot that may not seem like it is directly relevant, but in certain ways i think it is relevant to what we want to talk about tonight. before we do that, i want to say directly in front of 600 of his closest friends, what a privilege it is to follow ted olson in this lecture by 15 years and to be here celebrating barbara. [applause] sen. sasse: she was an incredibly special woman, and even if you are like me and do not really know her, i met her in social circles and passing and do not really know where it all, but knew her larger-than-life personality and convictions and commitment to try and persuade other people about the american idea. she is an impressive person and to build on her legacy and speak tonight is a true honor. i began to write some notes about her, and then frankly i realized that what i was going to say probably was not as meaningful as being able to give you all a reminder of what you heard last year. i've read some of the lectures that preceded tonight, and last year when tom cotton gave his lecture, he talked about this guy he referred to as "susan davis" for a while, which is the stage name of anna cotten. it is one of the largest cattle counties in nebraska. nebraska is the largest cattle state in the nation, take that you texans. [laughter] sen. sasse: when she got to the university, she founded the federalist society. there was a chapter there that made a big impact on her life. tom is married to a woman, and she was formidably shaped because of things and investments people have made before, and those people, or you all, there are now 60,000 alumni of chapters -- what would our mass be now? 36 years? anna benefited from the fact that barbara had been the founder of that chapter. tom said this, he gave a lot of personal details in the teeth discussed character -- and then he discussed character. he gave a beautiful, long paragraph, and he said this about someone like barbara. aristotle, the first great teacher of character, wrote a lot about character formation, and the only way to develop character is the hard way. the way of making each twice each day for 1000 days and is for another 1000 days, the way of listening to one's conscience when pleasure beckons or paint repels, and to see the good in both the circumstances immediately present and in eternal truths. aristotle teaches the true virtue is not only knowing good but doing it, also, for he says that we are not studying to know what virtue is but to become good, for otherwise there would be no profit in this. the key to character development for aristotle is practical wisdom, the ability to observe circumstances combined with knowledge and right principles to reach sound judgment and moral matters. it is the exercise of practical wisdom in every situation that leads to virtue. he said this as well, to do this to the right person at the right extent at the right time with the right motive in the right way, this is not for everyone nor is it always easy, therefore goodness is both rare and laudable and notable. let us applaud the fact that that character was barbara's. [applause] sen. sasse: there are a whole bunch of reasons why it is daunting to stand in front of a group as auguste and learned as this, not least of which is that i am not an attorney. i join with you because of what the federalist society has been fighting for, but i do not have your training, and so there are a whole bunch of places i can step in plot holes -- potholes. i am a historian by training and was a college president for five years before running for office, for most of my 25 years as an adult, i have worked for a consulting group, a consulting firm, and i have gone into organizations that were a mess, and apart from helping leaders and boards asking questions about whether their institution is accomplishing what it set out to accomplish. maybe it's should be retired. maybe your philanthropy project succeeded. maybe was written 10 years ago and did not succeed but it doesn't make sense anymore. institutions need to die and cultural pluralism allows the experiment of a voluntary organizations and that is a good thing. i came here tonight to speak primarily about successes and some adjacent problems that are not a criticism of the federal stock, but a crisis that i would called -- the fact that we have been raising a couple of generations of american orphans in the sense that president reagan used to warn that in any free republic you are only one generation from the extinction of freedom. if you do not pass on the meaning of america to the people who will be ruling america, because we don't believe in a professional incoming class, if the people who are supposed to rule america in 10, 20 and 30 years do not understand what america is, if they do not understand the american idea, freedom will slip away. we have, for nearly half a century, stopped discussing who we are as a people. we don't have a shared understanding of these things, and that is not precisely the federalist society's mission. i was going to give you a brief history of the federalist society and celebrate some of the high moments, partly as a way to laud you, but also to focus in my preparation and learn more, and as a former professor, i learned selfishly and then i have the excuse as an audience. [laughter] sen. sasse: i was heading into this to remind you of it, and then i was going to have an analogy of religion in the early modern period. i say that because i am a historian and my mom believes i wasted all my years in new haven. i have to prove her wrong once a year. i also think there are probably a whole bunch of cultural and religious pluralism jokes i can make as a protestant at a time when the supreme court has a vacancy and my people are unrepresented on the court. [laughter] [applause] sen. sasse: i had a disparate impact joke and an affirmative action joke but i will spare you all. there is a really important thing that happened in the 10 years after the reformation. it starts as an intellectual debate about how people are saved and theologians are debating in latin and in a specialized institution of a hierarchal church. by the 1580's, there is a reformation movement and a countermovement that are heavily involved with laity. how you went from an intellectual debate from clergy in latin to a mass movement relates to a moment in the 1527-1528 period, when that is martin luther assumed that the debates he was having were surely reaching the people. martin luther left and went out into saxony and started interviewing pastors and mothers and dads and 14-year-old kids and he came to the conclusion that they don't have any idea what we are talking about. this movement is not actually penetrating, it is having political implications, and the world was being turned upside down in a whole bunch of ways, but it was not reaching the masses. the catechism movement starts in 1528 and 1529, and what i had come to originally speak about was that. i was going to talk about the difference between the movement you have been so successful at, the fact that before 1981 at yale and at the conference, and 1982 in 1985 when general lee's addresses the aba and talks about original intent and the debates that followed for the next 4-5 years that went from original intent to original public meaning and all the jokes we have about history doesn't matter. you go through this moment where you get to a place to think how stunning it is when justice kagan is at her confirmation and she proclaims we disagree with her about what she thinks she means when she says it, but it is a pretty stunning thing about the success, the founders, the nurturers and investors in this movement that justice kagan would say, we're all originalists now. we don't think she really gets it. [laughter] sen. sasse: and yet, you cannot just say the texts are irrelevant. that is a fascinating thing. when thinking about what it was going to say, i admit, my skepticism about the nominees of both of the parties over the course of the last 6-9 months to not have to do with speculation about how the election would turn out. the concerns i had about executive restraint in both parties. i admit, i was surprised by the outcome last tuesday night, and i realized there are all sorts of new moments of opportunity from this not just because there are policy preferences that will be advanced by president-elect trump that i appreciate more than the policy preferences that would be advanced by secretary clinton, and not just because i think it is highly likely that his first nominee for the court will come from that list of 21. those are really great things. but i think there might be a new moment of opportunity, and i would like to explore the own little bit tonight about what the opportunity for american citizenship might be in the strange time we are now entering. i did not pivot what i am going to talk about because i thought of it on my own. i will admit a little bit of butterflies to say this. i am pivoting what i'm going to talk about because of how many of you in this audience reached out to me recently concerned about your own organization. what is it like to be the nonattorney given the barbara olson lecture and then tell you that you need introspection. you have two big and important projects on the agenda. your talked about the article one project and you have talked about regulatory reform, and you have a standing mission to serve as gatekeepers of the kind of people who should be on the federal bench. and all sorts of fundamental ways, you are about advancing an organization that teaches at law schools across the country, were not a lot of other people are advancing this vision, the founders understanding of separation of powers, of limited government, of checks and balances. these are beautiful things that our people do not understand. right now, current polling data shows that 41% of americans under age 35, 41% of americans under age 35 think the first amendment is dangerous. because you might use your freedom of speech to say something that would hurt someone else's feelings. that is actually quite the point of america. [laughter] [applause] sen. sasse: for those of you who need a trigger warning or want to flee to a safe space, let me forewarn you, our founders -- in virginia, there were a bunch of materialist, commercial folks. so we will ignore those. by large, the american founding was led by a whole bunch of people who differed about the nature of god and heaven and hell and how salvation might be achieved, and they came from a continent where people had been thinking for about 100 years that you should kill each other if you disagreed about those things. you should spill blood over those questions. hear me clearly, i think those questions are critically important. i think those questions are more important than policy and politics. i also think the american experiment is the most glorious experiment in the history of the world because it takes seriously the human soul, it takes seriously conscience it takes , seriously persuasion and the idea that if you differ about big and important things, you can't solve that by bodily violence. instead, we have this crazy idea that we will come together in a community, we will expand the domain or the reach, as madison would have said, to incorporate more and more people with more and more disagreements so we can get to a place where everybody understands themselves to be a minority. and if everybody -- every american understands themselves to be a credo minority, and less honey, if you're watching on c-span, i don't mean you -- [laughter] sen. sasse: the founders were scared to death about the tyranny of the majority, said they wanted to create a minority consciousness for all of us. the first amendment -- our constitution is glorious because freedom comes first, net for rights comes first, god gives us with dignity, and we come together as a people to form a government as a secular tool to secure those rights and our constitution says the rights of the people are limitless. that is what the bill of rights is trying to tell us. it is outside the document. on some of the most important things and we will run into the ninth and 10th amendment which, powers which work expressly government, only locals can exercise them. and if there are a bunch of rights we haven't talked about here, people have all those rights too. we will start the bill of rights ,ith the most important topline freedom. what is the most important freedom? religion,amendment is freedom of speech, press, assembly, redress of grievances. that means all of you who became an important still part of our first amendment. [laughter] sen. sasse: let's hear it for the lobbyists. [laughter] [applause] sen. sasse: those freedoms are what the first amendment amendment is about and the idea that any american to think the first amendment might go too far means that we as a people have not done the first things of teaching it. the data is much worse than just something you might think emanates from the campuses right now, the 41% of americans under age 35 who think the first amendment goes too far. if you ask the general voting public, can you name some of the freedoms in the first amendment, what is the bill of rights about, what can you name? 57% can name freedom of speech. 57%. 19% name freedom of religion as a freedom that exists, and none of the other three freedoms in the first amendment break 10%. think about it. when you think of benjamin franklin ambling out of constitution hall in philadelphia in 1788 and the little old lady and the maybe apocryphal story where she comes up and says mr. franklin, what kind of government did you give us? what kind of government have you built? and he said, it is a republic if you can keep it. i would hazard to guess that most of our founders in philadelphia, if they knew the state of civic understanding today, they may have made another run at george washington about accepting that monarchy. [laughter] there are fundamental things that we are not getting done and they are a crisis. i thought i might be standing in front of you talking about this at a time when we were about to fill justice scalia's seat with some horrible super legislator who wanted a job that didn't require them to run for reelection. and i say as someone who lived on a campaign bus with three small children for 16 months, i did 1000 events, nearly 400 town and four-year-old throw up on the seat no one paid me , the $150 ubercharge. it is not fair for some democratic nominee -- [applause] [laughter] -- to go and try and make law on the court without having to stand before the people for reelection. the real reason it is not fair is because the people are supposed to rule and policy is supposed to be made by the people through their elected representatives. and 435 of the 535 people that i work with are able to be fired ireable within 23 months and 29 days. it is a glorious thing. we also have a six-year term. [laughter] policy should be made in the article one branch. policy should not be made by unelected judges. policy, except in the case of foreign policy emergency are not , to be made by the article two branch regardless of what color jersey the person is wearing who inhabits that branch. [applause] some of you know the waters of the u.s. role of the epa and essentially, it is a bunch of postmodern mumbo-jumbo that says in the clean water act, when it says there is an inter-intra-state distinction, we at the epa would like to have more powers so we will obliterate that distinction. in the county in which i live in nebraska, my county supervisors cannot make their own decisions about road widening project along a two lane county road that has a man-made ditch next to it that is usually dry and when it has water, it comes from an irrigation system that the farmer has erected there. that is supposedly a interstate navigable waterway and the epa's reach now extends there. that is laughably absurd. i want to take a crane and put a speedboat in that ditch and have my kids stand behind it and i want to film a youtube video of them crying that the skiing is not working so well and i want to talk to the epa administrator about how she can fix my problem. [laughter] i was traveling nebraska last summer and met a rancher who is a larger-than-life marlborough man and he was angry about the waters of the u.s. rule and i was in line with him on the issue and yet i still thought i might die from this encounter. [laughter] finally, he goes from anger to resignation and then he pivots and he says -- i am not just mad about this rule. do you know what i am really mad about? i am mad about my memory because i keep racking my brain, but no matter how hard i try, i cannot remember who i voted for at epa. [applause] [laughter] sen. sasse: i have heard readouts from some of your panel today. and i think that king richard should be fired. that is my personal view. [applause] sen. sasse: because these regulatory agencies are not in any way ultimately accountable to the people. and you all have two projects. you have an article one project about the restoration of balance between the legislature and the executive branch. these are equal branches but they are listed in an order, article one, article two, article three for a reason. because they move from where policymaking and more democratically accountable to less policymaking and less democratically accountable. again -- [applause] the 435 of the 535 people can be fired every 24 months and most policy is to be made by statue . in the executive branch, the president has really important commander-in-chief responsibilities, especially in an emergency. but his job is less democratically accountable because there is only one time that he or she stands for election. and the courts are to be making new policy and therefore they have lifetime tenure. but if they were going to be a legislative, super legislator body, they should have to stand before the people. we need to teach that again if we are going to, as benjamin franklin enjoined us, if we are going to succeed at keeping the republic. and many of you in this room, even though you don't talk to it much in polite company, are currently worried that the caricature of the left, of those of us who say that originalism is not because of our policy preferences, it is not because of our preferred outcomes, it is because of our constitutionalism. it is because of our oaths of office. its because of our belief in the fact that policymaking should ultimately be accountable to the people. we say that we are not driven by outcomes. and yet, many of you, i think, have said to me, that you are actually worried that the article one project and the regulatory reform project might get a momentum that does not -- but it might become a new power not just to destroy things that were wrong they built up but to become a new policymaking tool. and the article one project, for all of our supposed sincerity about having policymaking go back to a legislature, might have actually been because of a blue wall. and the fact that there was a belief that republicans who had won one quadrennial election since 1988, think about that at a popular vote level, since 1988, we were at a place where had secretary clinton won this election, we would get to 2020 and you would have americans in their 30's, you would have americans in their 30's who would have seen one time when the republicans won a popular vote since the cold war. one time in their lifetime and that was when the democrats nominated a quasi-frenchman in the aftermath of 9/11. that was a mistake. [laughter] i didn't plan that. note to self. call secretary kerry to apologize. if we are sincere about what we believe, it needs to be the case that we again remember what we thought two weeks ago. which was that we need checks and balances. that we need a separation of powers. that we need cultural catechesis for the next generation. that we need everyone: democrat, republican, or independent, to know why it is a troubling speech for a president of the united states who has taken an oath of office to say that it does not matter if the legislature passes the laws that i want them to pass. i have a pen and a phone. that was troubling when the man who said it was a democrat. and it will be troubling regardless of the partisan label of the person who occupies 1600 pennsylvania avenue. [applause] sen. sasse: here is the opportunity of the moment though. the opportunity of the moment is -- just as madison envisioned a time when every american should think of themselves as a creedal minority and should go and want to defend the creedal minorities. no american should naturally aspire to be a part of some majoriatarian coalition that wants to grow washington and shrink the centers of america where life is actually lived. american impulse is to want to see those and to see their families and to see the rotary clubs and to see the churches and the synagogues and as tocqueville thought of it, as the rotary club as the center of american life. when tocqueville came here, he was coming in the 1830's as a travel reporter. our kids know the birthdate of america as july 4, 1776 and we all think of this republic as being inaugurated in 1788 or 1789 but europeans at that time saw us as religious zealots on the frontier of the earth and the british had just been distracted by having a drunk, crazy king, prussian soldiers that did not want to fight, and distraction with battle with france. it was not until the war of 1812 that brits and europeans come to think of us as truly independent. and so we win our independence in the 18-teens, for ideological reasons, for ideological regions -- reasons for intellectual , reasons, for philosophical reasons. think about margaret thatcher's great line that european nations are born of history but america is the only nation born of a philosophy. by the 1830's, there is a thriving economy here. there is a market revolution. a putting out revolution. the ways goods are being produced in more specialized ways. there is a canal revolution. a railroad revolution. and europeans cannot make any sense about why this is happening. and so tocqueville comes here as a travel reporter to write back and explain to europeans why this is such a glorious, dynamic place. not just with religious and cultural liberties, but economic vitality. he says -- if you have a better economy than our countries in europe, it must be because you have better bureaucrats. so he comes to washington, d.c. because he is going to find the meaning of american dynamism. he is sure that it exists in the centers of power. it must exist in the capital. and he gets here and he says -- actually, washington, d.c. is a swamp with a bunch of people that are not that creative. [laughter] not a lot has changed. [applause] sen. sasse: i know that we have 10,000 current members of fedsoc and 10,000 alums. but when you are clapped and you are at the mayflower hotel in washington, i feel like we should do the drain the swamp chant. tocqueville says the america that he found, he went to where there were then 25 states. and he goes to 17 of the states. and he says, i have found the meaning of america. it is the rotary clubs. we europeans have the that -- the idea that there is a is a continuation between isolated individualism and state run collectivism. these americans believe this crazy, glorious thing. these americans actually believe in community. it isn't the case, barney frank that government is just another , word for those things we choose to do together. government is another word for coercion. there is some coercion that is necessary. [applause] government has important responsibilities, we are not anarchists. but community is the word for things we choose to do together. voluntarism and persuasion are the words that show how american community is formed. because if you want to persuade someone to marry you, if you want them to join your synagogue or your church, if you want them to buy your product, you do not supplicate at the king and his court to get a charter and be the monopoly provider of that service. you go and build a better mousetrap and you learn how to sell it. you go on "shark tank." [applause] and when we say the first institutions of american life are in the private sector and not in the public sector, we are not just talking about capitalism. we are talking about not-for-profit adventures. we are talking about social philanthropy. and tocqueville says we are talking about the rotary club, we are talking about blood, sweat, and tears of neighbors. people who are living out a life of gratitude by serving those people who live next door to them who might actually give their lives. all of the things that actually define happiness are driven by your family and your friends and your work and your belief system that you wrestle through with the people you actually know. washington exists, this is the american idea, washington exists to provide a framework for ordered liberty. not to root out dissent and disagreement. not to try to squash down on the difference of opinion that we have, but rather to allow 1000 flowers to bloom and to allow people to try to persuade their neighbors. and if we believe those things, then we want to do everything possible to take any occasion to teach the next generation that we aren't really about power. we are about a framework for ordered liberty so that love and persuasion in their communities is where they can live lives that truly flourish. and if we believe those things, we'd look for any opportunity to do that teaching. and we were scared that we were going to have to do that teaching at a time of the political culture and the balance on the court would have drifted more and more toward a washington-centric view of the world. we have a new opportunity. and many of you in this room will have special opportunities. because many of you are about to go and serve our president-elect , and you will be trying to do the very important work of helping him ably and dutifully pass the laws that have been passed by the congress and to be , prepared to be commander in chief all of the time but especially in times of crisis and emergency. and you will be raising your hands and swearing-in of to limited government. when you swear that oath, you are about the project of continuing to depoliticize american life. because that is what originalism was really about. we were trying to depoliticize the policy preferences of those who were unelected and serving in the administration of justice on the courts. regularly -- regulatory reform is about about depoliticizing in the execution of many complicated statues. the attack on political correctness that did get a big vote of confidence in this election is about the politicizing conversation so that people can wrestle through real ideas, instead of always fearful. be federalism that we would like to see recovered is about the politicizing the fact that many government decisions should be made across 50 laboratories of democracy so that it can be closer to the people. so that you can have an experiment with what works and what does not work. nebraska and vermont have different values and people and different problems. we have different topography. we will feed the world and they are going to make some really good ice cream. [laughter] sen. sasse: but we should not try -- and everyone from burlington, i would love to buy you a steak afterwards. [laughter] there are important interstate environmental issues that need to be solved in washington. but every decision that should be solved in washington should not be driven back to the states. i wanted to think about when , tocqueville was coming here, what public discourse looked like in the form of schoolbooks and in the form of public art to make sure that kids understood what came next. think about -- for those of you that have spent any time in annapolis. think about what it meant when general washington, in december of 1783, resigned his commission in maryland at the maryland senate because the continental congress had been meeting there. and he came and he resigned his commission and that famous painting that still sits in annapolis of president, then general washington resigning his commission. that came out in 1824. right up the street in baltimore , the monument -- the washington monument of baltimore, when we hear washington monument, we think of the one just one mile from us here. the 550 foot tower that exists here. but the one in baltimore is quite a bit more interesting. because -- what did he say? what is on the top? for those of you have been to the 180 foot tower and a 15 foot george washington at the top. what is the artist trying to say with that piece of art? he has washington wearing a roman toga. and he is laying down his commission. it is the scene that happened in annapolis when washington resigned his commission in 1783 and he is handing back the scroll but he is wearing a roman toga. why? because they knew the story of cincinnatus. they knew the dangers of caesarism. they knew this guy whose term of counsel was over and he went back to growing cabbage and whatever forsaken vegetable it was, and they came to get him and they asked him if he would be dictator. this was a legitimate calling. he accepted the calling. he came back and he took up near limitless power. ostensibly for six months. they won the battle in two weeks. and cincinnatus resigns his commission and tries to go back home. and the people say -- no, you should become dictator. and he says -- no, that is not the law. but they say, no, no one would oppose it. you just have this glorious military victory. you did it in two weeks. no one would oppose you. and he says -- no, we are a republic and in a republic, we follow laws. and he goes back home. and american schoolkids in the 1820's and 1830's would've understood what that toga meant on that statue. the most vivid picture, the most vivid symbol of freedom and of natural rights and of individual liberty that exists in iconic form anywhere on this globe is the dome of the capital. and when you are in the dome of the capital, there are three famous paintings. yet there are usually only two that we talk about. there is the declaration, the committee drafting the declaration of independence and there is the surrender of the british at yorktown. and both of these paintings are filled with drama. you can hear the trumpets and the drumbeat as you look at them. the world has been turned upside down. they are filled with drama. and yet, there is a third painting. and it is ridiculously humble and boring. it is a hand with a scroll. and that hand with the scroll is to shout out to the american people -- that it is not about this city. it isn't about the power pole. -- the powerful. it is about the fact that we believe in a republic of law and of limited government where those who serve in power want to embrace restraint. they want to embrace judicial restraint. they need and want to embrace executive restraint. because the laying down of that scroll is another way of saying the center of the world is not here. and it cannot be fixed here. it will be fixed in the communities where our people come from and where the meaning of america is passed on to the next generation and if all of , you who will soon have the chance to go back into government and those of us who will be cheering you on the outside as you take on that important executive branch calling, your jobs are not chiefly about the policy outcomes when you serve your new president. your job is about the administration of justice because the checks and balances that you believed in two weeks ago and that fedsoc was founded about 35 years ago are not just your new callings when you take the oath, but you have a special new opportunity. when people stand up against power and they disagreed with that power, no one is surprised. they all expected that. what is glorious is when people believe in limited government and restraint, when we are the ones in power. and we now have the opportunity -- [applause] -- to model that restraint. thank you. c-span's washington journal. live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, administrationma trump could undo. then the challenges facing president trump's administration. west wing reports founder and bureau chief. he'll look at the president-elect's selection of key members of his team. and university of minnesota law school professor richard painter joins us from minneapolis to ofk about the conflict interest in president-elect trump's business dealings, particularly roles for his children. c-span's washington journal, live, beginning saturday morning. join the discussion. hasident-elect donald trump announced his choice for several more national security positions. alabama senator jeff sessions is his choice for attorney general. general michael flynn will serve as national security advisor. and mike pompeo will be the next cia director. the attorney general and cia director must be confirmed by the senate. early next year, you will be able to watch uninterrupted coverage of hearings at c-span or listen on the c-span radio app. president-elect trump has more meetings scheduled in new jersey, including one with mick romney. new york city officials outlined security and traffic management plans at trump tower in midtown manhattan. speakers included mayor bill de blasio, the police commissioner, and the head of transportation. this is 20 minutes. >> good afternoon everyone. thanks for being here. we have had many productive and ongoing discussions with the secret service on how we will be assisting them in protecting the president-elect and his family when they are here in new york city. we have planned this with an eye towards minimizing the disruptions towards new yorkers , tourists, public transportation and those who need to make commercial deliveries in the area around 5th avenue. we are striving for the proper balance. it will be a fluid plan that changes as circumstances dictate. understand, we are not going to detail the secret service's plan to protect the president-elect. today we are here to talk about how the nypd plans to maintain traffic flow in a safe and efficient way for everyone. i know that many people who live and work in the area around 56 and 57th streets have a lot of questions. for the first time in decades, our country will have a new york city resident as president of the united states. the transition will be ongoing to january. much of this transition work will occur in his office in midtown manhattan. the plan we are discussing today covers that transition period. we are not closing fifth avenue on any kind of permanent basis. it was closed for brief periods of time to improve security with concrete barriers. again, no whole closures of fifth avenue are planned. trump tower is located at east 56th street and fifth avenue, one block south of one of the busiest intersections in new york city. possibly in the nation. what you're seeing in that area now in terms of our new security management is what we expect to remain in place through the inauguration. in many respects, this is no different than many major events that the nypd secures every day. there are many things the public will see and many things they will not see. we will have our explosive detection canines and specialized units like the critical response command and the strategic response group as , well as plainclothesmen and counter surveillance teams working hand in hand with our partners in the federal government and secret service. again none of this is new for , us. as we always do, we will constantly reassess this plan and make any adjustments deemed necessary to make sure that we maintain the proper balance with security and everyday life in our great city. i would like to introduce mayor bill de blasio. >> thank you very much, commissioner. i want to thank all the men and women of the nypd who have done an extraordinary job. they turned on a dime on election night, having done a lot of preparation with our partners in the secret service, and they have put together an extraordinary security plan that has been operating very well. i want to thank you, commissioner, and all of those good people that have been doing this work, and when president-elect trump and i met, one of the things that he said -- he expressed his admiration and appreciation of the men and women from the nypd, and i shared with him my same feelings on the matter. the details you will hear in a moment, you will hear from u.s. secret service special agent in charge of the new york office david beech, and you will hear from carlos gomez on specifics, but i want to give you some broad points. i also want to thank ben tucker, special commissioner for special events. i also want to thank councilmember dan who represents that area. we are devoted to making sure this city will keep moving. this is an unprecedented challenge, but we are committed to making it work. we need the city to keep working at all times. we are entering the holiday season, which adds a layer of complication, but the nypd working with all other partner agencies in the city government and with our federal partners will continue to refine the approach to make sure that it maximally allows people to move freely through the area. we understand the number one imperative is safety and security. we owe that to the president-elect, his family, and his team, and that is important for all new yorkers. that will be the most important consideration. we believe we can balance that with a number of measures to keep pedestrian and vehicular traffic moving as well as possible. new york city has a long history of dealing with extraordinary events, none more so than just over a year ago when we had pope francis and over 150 world leaders and the president of the united states all in town for the same days. the nypd did an extraordinary job working with our federal partners, keeping everything moving and everyone safe. this department is no stranger to these challenges. it is a known fact that presidents have come into new york city on a regular basis throughout their presidencies. the nypd is particularly well-suited to take on this challenge. but, it is an unprecedented challenge. in the modern world with the security dynamics we face today, we have never had a situation where the president of the united states would be here on such a regular basis. although again, the details of those future plans are not known , but we do know that in the next 65 days he will be here regularly. we have never had that situation before, and certainly not with the focal point being manhattan. nypd is up to the challenge, and the city of new york is up to the challenge. i have no doubt about that. we have an excellent working relationship with the secret service. there has been a clear set of shared goals and clear for nation throughout this time, and we believe that is going to be one of the number one reasons why we can keep people safe and secure. at the same time, we will listen carefully to the needs of new yorkers and the concerns they have throughout this process. for people who work in the area, for businesses in the area, for people who drive through, there are real concerns right now. we will do our best regularly to address those concerns and make the adjustments that we can come always in the context of protecting safety and security first. i want to emphasize, when we get towards the holidays, there are constant messages given. the commissioner reminded me of this earlier. we constantly remind new yorkers during the holidays not to bring cars into midtown manhattan unless you have to. possiblely as much as on mass transit options. i want to reiterate that. that would be true during any holiday season. it's even more true now. one of the things that people need to recognize for their own good and everyone else's is that to the extent that you can avoid the immediate area around trump tower, that will make your own life easier and everyone else's. that specific area, and i want to delineate from 53rd street to 57th street and from madison avenue to 56th avenue. in the scheme of our city, that is a pretty small area. if people were to specifically avoid that area, that will help us manage the situation as well as we can. as i said, we will continue to refine the approach to traffic management and to addressing the needs of people that work and live in the area. we will add personnel as needed. right now, since election day, nypd has already put on each shift during daytime hours, almost 50 officers between traffic agents and police officers to manage the flow of traffic in that immediate area. in those blocks i delineated and surrounding blocks, additional personnel put in place on the daytime shift. we will add personnel if needed to address the situation further. i also want to note that enforcement will be more aggressive on fifth avenue, particularly enforcement of truck traffic. you will see a very clear uptick on enforcement of truck traffic on fifth avenue, because there is already very clear rules and restrictions related to truck traffic and commercial traffic on fifth avenue. that will be enforced more vigorously. finally, i want to note before offering a couple of words in spanish, i want to note that this is a substantial undertaking. it will take substantial resources. and we will begin the conversation with the federal government shortly on reimbursement for the nypd for some of the costs we are encouraging. -- incurring. we are particularly concerned about overtime costs. we think it is a valid situation to turn to the federal government for the maximum possible reimbursement for those costs. again, a situation that this city has never been faced with before. we believe the federal government will understand the situation and be willing to help. those conversations will begin in earnest soon. a few words in spanish. [speaking in spanish] with that, i want to bring forward a man who has already been a great partner in this work. i want to thank him and all his colleagues for that, the special agent in charge of the new york office for the secret service, david beach. mr. beach: thank you, mayor. first, i would like to begin by thanking the mayor, and commissioner o'neill and the men and women of the new york city police department. not just for their efforts over the last week and a half, not just for their efforts on election night, but for their efforts in the last year during a very difficult and challenging time protecting two major presidential nominees. on behalf of the secret service, i would like to thank you both for opening the resources of the city to us, and thank you for your partnership. regarding the president elect's residence, and security planning in general for the secret service, the planning and execution of the security in new york city is a collaborative effort between the secret service, the new york city police department, and the new york mayor's office. the security plan is collectively developed by the partners based on factors unique to each venue. the secret service and its law enforcement partners constantly monitor, review, and adjust the plan as needed based on information and operational needs. one element in determining any venue security plan is its impact on the local residents and merchants, as well as its impact on the daily operations of the community at large. in order to fully consider this element and make the best decisions possible, the secret service works with its law enforcement partners, in this case the new york city police department, to communicate with the community, to better understand their needs and their concerns. in every instance possible, the secret service attempts to minimize any unnecessary impact on the community as a result of the security plans. notwithstanding, the secret service in conjunction with the new york city police department is committed to providing the highest level of security in fulfillment of our no fail mission of national security and public safety. as a matter of practice, security plans will evolve in order to address emerging threats and to improve efficiencies in our operations. whenever possible, the secret service will communicate these changes to community members without compromising operational security. specific security measures, activities, timing, number of personnel, and resources are not discussed outside of the law enforcement community. the long-term success of security planning in new york city is directly attributable to the long-standing strong partnership between the secret service and the new york city police department. finally, i would like to add that throughout my career i have traveled all over the world. i can think of no city better equipped, better prepared to deal with this challenge than new york. partly because of the strength of the police department, but more importantly because of the strength and resiliency of the citizens of new york city. i would like to thank everybody for their patience in enduring this challenge. >> dave, thank you very much. we look forward to this continued partnership. i would like to introduce poly truck bird. polly trottenberg. all right, i got the order out of place. i would like to introduce carlos gomez. mr. gomez: good afternoon, everyone. the nypd has worked very closely with the secret service in developing this plan, and i would like to personally thank dave and his agency for their collaboration with us. we look to strike a proper balance between presidential security. providing as much security as possible around the president-elect, his family, other residents of trump tower and businesses in the area, while at the same time not having an adverse impact on traffic, transportation, deliveries, and the lives of other new yorkers. this is the plan that is presently implemented. whether the president elect is in his residence or not. our plan going forward for when the president elect is out of residence is being discussed and evaluated as to the appropriate level of resources. we have committed a substantial number of resources to trump tower, 24 hours a day, around the clock. uniformed officers will be assigned to security posts around the perimeter of the property. officers will be assigned to assist secret service personnel at checkpoint locations on fifth avenue, in front of the entrance to trump tower. officers will be assigned to intersection control. they will be assigned as blocker vehicles. barriers also man-made -- manned the barriers on 56th st between 5th avenue and madison to control vehicular access. we will also have officers assigned on observation posts and elevated positions in our rooftops. and certainly we will have a good number of personnel available to address any demonstrations that pop up. in the last nine or 10 days, we have had six such demonstrations occur in front of trump tower. in addition to those resources, we will have resources from our counterterrorism bureau in the form of heavy weapons teams, from the critical response group. we will have dogs, explosive detecting canines, as well as other officers from the counterterrorism bureau equipped with radiation pagers and other devices. we will be enforcing the truck restrictions already in place. we took a strong look at that and we really mean it. we will start enforcing that right away. and i would like to announce the following restrictions. those truck restrictions are southbound on fifth avenue between 60th street to 55th street, and eastbound on 56th st from 6th avenue to fifth avenue. truck traffic will be diverted away from the streets. and certainly, one of the most difficult jobs in this department is the job of a traffic enforcement officer, and we have a substantial number of those resources also assigned to this area to assist with congestion as well as enforcing the truck restrictions. 56th st will be closed for all vehicular traffic between fifth avenue and madison avenue. this is where we placed those delta barriers to control access to vehicles. however, pedestrians that reside in the area, that work on the street, want to shop on the street, or want to cross 56th st down to madison or up to fifth, they will be allowed to do so on the south side of 56th street, but after being screened by us and the secret service. buses, passenger vehicles, will continue to utilize fifth avenue. but understand that presently two of the five traffic lanes are being restricted due to him and him and barriers we have in place. we also have dedicated plans to implement when we have demonstrations at trump plaza. we have identified locations that are within sight and sound of the entrance of trump tower, and we will establish protest areas at those locations. small groups of protesters will be allowed to be on the sidewalks so that traffic will not be impeded on fifth avenue. however, when larger numbers of protesters -- we may have to shut down traffic on fifth avenue. we saw that occur late saturday when we had over 20,000 protesters in front of trump tower. so far, we have closed fifth avenue on three occasions in the last 10 days due to demonstrations. when this occurs, we bring in more police officers from other parts of the city to assist us. we closed fifth avenue for safety concerns. for the safety of the demonstrators as well as the safety of motorists. the field commander at the scene makes that call. i made that call last week. we will always choose safety over convenience. once again, this is the security plan that we presently have in place. we are doing this for over a week now. operationally, every day it is getting more and more fluid. we are working more efficiently. we will work closely with the secret service, and certainly we can modify this plan as situations change. thank you very much. >> thanks, carlos. for the second time, i would like to introduce the commissioner of transportation. thank you, commissioner o'neill. as you heard, obviously security will be the priority for this area, but at new york city dot we will be working hand in hand with nypd to do what we can to ease travel conditions. it is an extraordinary pedestrian area. historically, volumes on fifth avenue are some of the highest in the western world, and we will do everything we can to ease movement on the sidewalks. it is an extraordinary bus corridor. in morning40 buses peak that run along fifth avenue. we will be working closely with pd to keep buses moving and other vehicles moving. i will reiterate what the mayor said, which is we would say this anyways during holiday times. to the extent that you can come to this area by foot or by mass transit, obviously that would help us. thank you. >> we will open it up to questions about security. vice president-elect mike pence spoke to reporters upon his arrival to trump tower in new york city. he made brief remarks about the transition. president,r. vice how did the transition go? gov. pence: we have made great process. the president-elect is a man of action. we have a great number of men and women with great qualifications come forward to service administration. i am humbled to be a part of it. our agency team has begun to arrive in washington, d.c. this morning. we are very confident it will be a smooth transition that will serve to move this country forward and make america great again. announcer: also visiting trump former arkansas governor and republican presidential candidate mike huckabee. he spoke briefly with reporters after meeting donald trump. mr. huckabee: i had an excellent meeting. think, is doing a terrific job for looking for the best talent taken find, but beyond that, i don't really have anything to report to you because it is not my job to report. reporter: [inaudible] mr. huckabee: i'm happy with what i'm doing. my job right now is to listen to the president-elect. it is his job to make the secisions, whatever tho are. >> [inaudible] mr. huckabee: again, that's not for me to disclose. the only person giving out jobs in this building is donald trump, not me. i would respect that any information about our meeting should come from him. >> [inaudible] mr. huckabee: concerned with it? >> [inaudible] like i amee: i feel going to serve my country whether i am inside or outside of government. i will be loyal to donald trump because i believed him as a candidate, stood by him throughout. i did not come here looking for a job. i did not campaign for him because i was needing work. any reaction to the [inaudible] mr. huckabee: absolutely wonderful appointment. jeff sessions is one of the stalwart conservatives in the senate. he has also been a loyal, faithful ally to donald trump throughout this campaign. him onelways considered of my favorite senators, and i appreciate the clarity with which he brought, especially to the tpp debate when it was going on, and i think that was a great choice. how long did you meet with president-elect trump? mr. huckabee: three hours. i'm kidding. long enough, and just appropriate. i've got to go. i've got another meeting. >> thank you. transitionfollow the of government on c-span as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the united states and republicans maintain control of the house and senate. we will take you to key events as they happen, without interruption. watch live on c-span, on-demand at c-span.org, or listen on our free c-span radio app. is incer: president obama peru this weekend for a last stop on his final overseas trip before leaving office. on saturday, he will hold a town hall with students in lima, peru . on sunday, the president holds a closing news conference at the apec economic summit before heading back to the u.s., live at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. former white house officials and scholars discuss the presidential transition. speakers included josh bolten, former chief of staff to president george w. bush, lisa brown, who worked on the obama transition, and martha kumar, white house transition project director. this is just over an hour. >> good morning, everybody. it's a beautiful morning. there has never been a better time to discuss a presidential transition and now. for over 40 years, the washington center for internships and academic seminars has welcomed college students from across the country and around the globe. in washington, d.c., our students immerse themselves in professional academic internships and become empowered to become citizens in our global society. havevents of last week reminded us of the important work that we do here to falter civic engagement and active are just a patient -- active dissipation in civil discourse -- participation in civil discourse. our discussion today will cover campaign to governing, the white house transition process. our panelists include lisa brown, who served as codirector of the obama transition project, and josh bolten, who served as the white house chief of staff for the george w. bush administration. both have an intimate knowledge of the transition process from the vantage point of both democratic and republican administrations, including the hiring of an estimated 4000 political appointees in the executive branch. theha kumar is director of white house transition project and has written a study extensively about the transition process. our moderator will be nancy is coveringrrently the transition process for politico. i might add that all four of these folks are in big demand right now. so we welcome them during their busy schedules, and we look forward to a great discussion. let's get started. [applause] thanks so much. we have a lot to talk about. we were talking our ears off in the green room, so let's keep doing that. the lightning round crest -- lightning round question, i would be interesting to know how you would grade the trump transition team. how do you think it is going? go for it, josh. mr. bolten: incomplete. nancy: ok. thatolten: this is a group is mostly really new to this , and the typical transition is, at this point would be much further along, but really ranroup that without the republican apparatus, so they don't have the built-in institutional memory and personnel around them that would make it possible for them to hit the ground running. nancy: lisa, what do you think? ms. brown: i agree with josh. this is a campaign that ran a lot on the president-elect's personality and ideas. he did not have a big structure around him. where you have to transition. the transition from campaigning to governing will be an even bigger challenge for him as a result. it is turning ideas into policies and actual steps that you are going to take. the government is a big bureaucracy. for them to get their hands around it is a major endeavor. they are not as far along as we were with the obama transition. >> i think they clearly had one thing that was different besides having a candidate that's not in elective office, but they changed leadership of their transition. from chris christie the mike pence. pence -- to mike pence. that's a jarring transition. one of the benefits of it is the we can see the republicans control the house, the senate, and the presidency, and therefore having mike pence is a real benefit because he has the relationships. he was in the house leadership and deals well with mitch mcconnell. in addition, he was a governor, and as a governor he would be able to tap into a base of appointees through knowing other heernors and seeing who could bring up from the state level, because they want to reach beyond the usual crowd and he has the contacts to do that. last 24 hours, we are starting to see trump's cabinet picks take shape. morning, it was announced he picked senator jeff sessions to be attorney general. last night, it broke that lieutenant general mike flynn would be the national security advisor. what do these early picks tell us about the way he is assembling a, and what do they say about his own priorities in the administration? ms. brown: loyalty, and connection to the campaign. loyalty is very important to him. -- martha: loyalty, and connection to the campaign. loyalty is very important to him. they went out day after day like jeff sessions and flynn did and in what sometimes seemed to be hostile settings. he wants those people around him that he trusts. has to reachnt becausehat, especially he does not have elected experience. he has to bring in people who compensate for his lack of experience in particular areas, and that's something he will have to do. obviously: loyalty is the key word, trust and confidence. that's not surprising. but it should be noted that they ,ave made five appointments five people so far. reince priebus is chief of staff, steve bannon is senior counselor in the white house, general flynn is the national security advisor, senator jeff sessions is the attorney general. these were announced this morning. and congressman mike pompeo is the cia director. , now are the only five nine days in, more than that, i guess. we are nine days in and they have only made five appointments , and of those five, four of those people were among the closest six or eight people in the trump organization and the campaign organization. that not surprising president-elect trump would pick people who have been very loyal to him through his campaign. right.tha is exactly now the need to reach beyond. the people who were close to president-elect trump in the campaign number only about a dozen. you lose a lot more people than that in some very senior positions, hopefully with a lot experience, to fill out the government. lisa, i want to talk to you about how you go about building a. so far, all of these posts have in white men. i'm trying to look ahead and see, how are they going to build a more diverse cabinet? trump's spokesperson said yesterday on cnn that diversity was important. how do youomen area go -- including women. how do you go about thinking about the cabinet from a broad perspective? you have any since the trump transition team will do that? anybrown: i can't speak in way to how the trump transition team is thinking about it. it's something president obama thought about. you think about it as a group. variety of different perspectives in your cabinet, and you need to think about it holistically in that sense. now that you have chosen your attorney general, thinking aout, ok, i have this type of person's year, what are the other skills that i need, what are the other perspectives that i need? i hope he is thinking about that in terms of how it will represent the country, but you really do need to consciously think about it as you are a pointing people. apa pointing people -- pointing people. nancy: the vetting process, how has that changed over the years? i was looking recently at the questionnaire that president obama used, and it had things like social media questions. it was not like, did you fail to pay your taxes or did you fail -- or did you get a dui? any insight about what it would look like in the current environment? ms. brown: it is becoming increasingly onerous area i think it is one of the frustrations of government. nominated, the amount of paperwork you have to fill out. it asks everyplace you have traveled for a period of time, which is crazy today. two, they want to see everything you have written. most of us do not even have everything we have written. i think that is an area where we need to bring a morts -- bring a little more sanity to that, but these are people being put into the highest positions of government, so you do want to know who this person is and what their values are and what their views are, so what is going to be ultimately a question of finding balance. get if you look at: how far back it goes, the office of government ethics was created in the carter administration. really began with the reagan administration. it does not really go back that far. has become an increasingly important aspect of nominations, because what you don't want is to have a nomination blow up on you, because if it does, it can just be days of stories at a time when you want to develop a narrative of what your administration is about, and you don't want to have nominations that are not working be part of the narrative. you wanted to be positive and talk about those things that you are going to be doing. is the confirmation process going to look different this time? republicans also control the senate, which seems like a huge trump. so how does that change the process? mr. bolten: it makes it a little easier and nicer. [laughter] mr. bolten: but i expect that the senate will still get a serious and probing look at all of the nominees. bearing in mind that the senate does not get to look at a number of the key appointments the .resident will make of the five positions i announced, only the attorney general and the cia director will end up being subject to review and advise and consent from the senate. the folks you are inside the -- who are, they inside the white house, the president gets to pick those. having picked a controversial person like steve bannon to be the counselor, that's done. nobody else gets to have a say. if they do go before the senate, i think we will have a serious look. it would be kinder than it otherwise would be, because republicans are in the majority, but democrats are still there. they get to ask the same questions. hopefully there is -- hopefully be senate will continue be pretty strong tradition, unless there is a real problem. histhe president have picks. you probe where you need to probe. you ask questions of the nominee to ensure that the senators are comfortable with this as someone who is confident to fill the role. thisy hope would be that time, as in most previous times, outset of anhe administration, the senate would be deferential to the president's picks. he won the election. it is his prerogative to fill out the candidates who are reflective of the views that he wants to bring into government. i am: the one thing curious about is you cochaired the agency team, which is a huge process of this transition. the trump people are just starting to go to the agencies now. there was a little bit of delay because of that shakeup of leadership on the transition team. what does that process look like? i think this is one of the places where they are behind. our agency review teams were in a large number of agencies monday after the election. this is a massive management endeavor. if you think about all the federal agencies, the goal of onentially is that inauguration day when the president starts governing and newe is potentially a cabinet secretary, they can start governing. you don't want on the day after inauguration for someone to walk in the door and say, where is the bathroom? you want to learn as much as you can before then so you can actually start governing. there are two key pieces. one is defense, one is offense. on the offensive side, you want , what are the opportunities for and limiting the president's priorities? did waswhat we candidate obama had made a number of promises during the campaign, and one of the things you do is map those out to the agencies so that when you come into office, ok, how did we go about it limiting those promises with regard to that agency? the other piece is defense, which is when i walk in the door, what is going to hit me in the face? is there pending litigation? are the regulations? is there a big authorization coming? you will know what you need to react to. with a change of party, that is particularly important, because there may be things where you want to change direction, and you need to get your hands around that. i think a point to add that is different this year is the legislation that was signed by president obama in march white houset a transition coordinating council the created six months before on election, and they did so may 6. he issued an executive order cil, which hascounse senior white house staff. and then they set policy on transition. and then an agency transition director's counsel which has 20 people on it representing the 15 departments in the five largest agencies. they are to implement the policies. that is composed of career staff. they have worked for that whole time period figuring out what kinds of things that the agencies should be gathering, so that they gather information on whatudget, on programs, on .roblems they may be having positions, what are the descriptions of their positions? who are holding them now? there is a lot of information that has already been gathered, and schedules of what kinds of meetings that are going to be taking place that the cabinet startary might have to traveling very soon after they get into office. the government is a moving train, so the president and his team are jumping on a train. the government does not stop because the president stops. so the idea that legislation is that it is asn smooth as possible to get on that train. if they are behind when they do go win, they will have more information than previously. and part of it is thinking during the trip -- ms. brown: part of it is thinking during the transition, you want to focus on what is --lly a, and you don't have really important, and you don't have to boil the ocean. over the last several transitions, people have realized that you want to be gathering and creating useful information. that when somebody comes in, they can rely on it. and that's what they need to know for that early period of time, because when the appointees come in, there is a lot that keeps going on in the government. some of that can wait, but what you want to focus on is the most important items, both affirmatively and defensively. the other thing that came up this week was that the trump transition team has a new lobbying ban in place, where they are saying that you can come into the transition, there is no cooling off period. you just need to de-register as a lobbyist immediately. bethe other hand, you won't able to lobby for five years after you leave the administration. what sort of effect will that have? someolten: it will chill people going into the administration, which i think is a shame. i have a view of this that is not particularly fashionable at the moment, but i think we have overdone it on the restrictions. we need good people willing to serve in government. the fact that somebody has been , there'se a lobbyist nothing wrong with lobbying. in our publicord discourse today, but lobbyists actually serve a useful function here in government. represent clients who have a point of view that they want known to the government, and lobbying in its best form is actually informing the government about the positions of important economic interests, important interest groups, and so on. and lobbying is not done just by corporations, by big corporations to oppress the little man. lobbying is done by the small business association. the children's defense fund. it is done by all sorts of entities. we actually ought to welcome effective lobbying in government, because it helps and maket be informed good judgments based on be interest -- based on the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders. i thought the obama administration over did it when they came in. they recognized they ever did it because they put in theory straight rules -- very strange rules and started waving them for dozens of people. athink the trump folks are risk as well, making it difficult for people who have the knowledge and experience to serve in government. josh.own: i agree with i think we have overdone it. you are excluding people with a tremendous amount of expertise. in a true that a lobbyist democratic administration will be different than a lobbyist in a republican one, but there are a lot of folks in nonprofits, and they are fighting hard for policies that they believed in, and they are experts in those policies. to not bring some of those administration has a real price. martha: can i think one of the areas where that price is paid is in the legislative affairs operation of the white house. you need people with lobbying experience, because they are going to be involved with putting together coalitions, and they had the knowledge. mr. bolten: this is a great point. the white house itself needs lobbyists. that's what the legislative affairs office is. if you are precluding lobbyists from being lobbyists, who are your lobbyists going to be? they are people who don't know the craft they are being asked to perform. so, yeah. none of us is a lobbyist, by the way. nows part of the atmosphere surrounding this election. sitting near ground zero of the swamp. and the president won this election in part on a promise to drain the swamp. emblematic stuff needs to be , and some stuff will go down the drain that actually will be helpful in governing, but that's the way politics works. particularon a platform with a mandate, you probably ought to do at least a few of the things you have promised the people. ms. brown: president clinton recognized that he had disinfect -- clintonpresident recognized that he had disadvantaged people. hehink just after christmas, rescinded that ban. if you think about people who are coming in who have made large amounts of money, and then they come in and they are making a small percentage of what they themake, then to prohibit from going back to the life they had, there are a lot of people who are not going to do that. to a differentrn topic and talk about the role of family members in the trump administration potentially. to figureen trying out what jared kushner is going to do in the politico newsroom at least. know howous to unprecedented that would be to have a family member served in a senior white house role. martha? [laughter] martha: bobby kennedy. of course there was legislation passed after that, but bobby kennedy was very important as he was the attorney general, but he was at the white house all the time and had very much been a part of the campaign, and he was very important to him. generally have houseen part of the white through the decision-making structure. that was an unusual circumstance. but if you remember in this campaign, it was a campaign with a very small coterie of people. his family was integral to that. you saw that every time there was a big event, it was his family that was there. his -- ksioner and ushner and his sons and daughters were all very much a part of that loyalist group, and he wants his people around him that he trust. -- trusts. worries me more is the conflict of interest issue with regard to his businesses. it is too close having the family and businesses and governing. that's the part of it that i would want to see him separate, and have the business is run by , and thehey are president himself is actually not subject to conflict of interest. take any official action that is going to benefit you or your family members personally. that is something that every government official commits to. i think it is a statute. that is the piece that worries me more. add?: josh, anything to mr. bolten: no. martha: the other thing when you think about family members, you worry about -- they worry about their family members getting in trouble, and what problems they can cause, whether it is billy carter and his connection with the libyans, or richard nixon, who was worried about his he had takenan from howard hughes. that's usually where family members come in. nancy: if we could ask you, josh, about what the white house will look like -- we know that reince priebus will be the chief of staff, steve bannon will be a strategist. those are two very different personalities that bring different things to the table. how is that going to work out? mr. bolten: i hope it works out the structure that has been suggested by the think, could be a serious mistake. here's why i say that. very first personnel announcement of the trump transition was writes preakness as white house chief of staff -- reince priebus as white house chief of staff, and steve bannon as the senior counselor title, good those are two announcements to make very early on. that, it seemed to me, was smart. thee are probably two of people you want to pick first, along with your national security advisor. all of that was smart. but in the announcement of and bannon,priebus the press said they would be co-equals. actually ban and got top elling, which as a former chief of staff was painful -- bannon. top billing,-- got top which as a former chief of staff was painful. if by: equal they mean that those two people will have equal access to the presidency, that's fine. the president can listen to as many voices as he wants to. it is actually a benefit to the president to have disparate voices, which i think you would bus and bannon, priebus being somebody well steeped in the ways of washington. he has been chair of the republican national committee for some time. he is more in the mainstream of republican politics and governance. bannon is a disruptor. he is the former head of breitbart. he is provocative. he has been a promoter of what's called the alt-right. i don't think there is anything wrong with having a different voice in the white house, but the problem arises when you try andun the white house, through the white house run the government. if there is a lack of clarity as to who is in charge and who speaks for the president, that , and in aould be successful white house, i believe, must be the chief of staff. if there is a question about what the president decides, the u.s. two people now and get two versions? ,f there is a question about what will the president be reviewing today? whatu have a fight about is going to be on the agenda, who gets to be in the meeting? is there a dispute the president has to resolve about going to chicago or detroit to give a speech? you need a chief of staff to thecally the the -- be person who sits at the top of the pyramid and who manages the flow into the president and interprets for everybody else in government the flow out. i was chief of staff for the last three years of the bush administration. while i was there, the senior adviser in the comparable strategist position to president bush was karl rove. better,s no closer, more intimate advisor on the staff to president bush than karl rove, who was an extraordinarily astute, sophisticated, brilliant political and policy strategist. so i was chief of staff with a senior advisor whose advice even i thought was more important to be president than my own, but the system worked, i thought, extremely well, because both of give our advice to the president, but only one of us was actually in charge of running the staff and acting as the voice of the president to the rest of the government. iswhat they mean by coequal they both get to talk to the president, great. no problem with that. but if what they mean is that there is lack of clarity as to who runs the operation on behalf of the president, i think they are in for some real trouble. nancy: the other thing i want to ask about is trump has in holding all these meetings as potential cabinet picks -- with digital cabinet picks at trump tower. martha, from a historical perspective, is it common to do that outside of washington? martha: absolutely. they do stay outside of washington. what they want to do is keep out of public view, because they want to make that shift from being a candidate of a particular party to being president of all the people. that's not something you could do in washington. they have allstate wherever -- they have stayed wherever they were, whether it was reagan in california -- and when reagan did come to washington, what he did was he had a party, and at he had tip o'neill, speaker of the house, and he had the democrats throughout washington like robert strauss, of the a bulwark democratic organization and head , and had others in the washington community, not just republicans, because he wanted to show that when he came as president, he needed everybody in order to govern, so that really was an important state. it was not something you could have done immediately after the election. he did all of his work in california. bush did his in crawford. and obama was in chicago. but you still have an operation that is working here on transition, in addition to the operation that is wherever the president is. we are going to go to the audience for questions in one minute. if you want to start thinking about those. one question i would like for each of you to answer, what are the challenges for the trump transition team over the next few weeks? what do they need to focus on? the big challenges personnel. you mentioned 4000 people. you don't need to fill all 4000 are white, over 1200 of them subject to senate confirmation. are, what, over 1200 of them subject to senate confirmation. but if they don't come in with the traditional republican apparatus, they have a real challenge. every transition has a real challenge with filling the key jobs that you want to have in place on or near january 20 when you actually take over. this transition has a real challenge with that, and so i is to figureocus out who the right people are to put in place in these important jobs. nancy: just a follow-up, so many werelishment republicans hesitant to support trump during the campaign. do you see people changing their mind on that and being more open to serve in the administration now that he is resident elect? mr. bolten: i do see people changing their mind. make no mistake, the trump campaign was a remarkable, hostile takeover of the republican party. supportid not have the ofa very large portion traditional republican policy people. the was especially true in foreign policy area, where a byple of letters were signed well over 100 of the most experienced republican policy officials, the letter expressly saying this man is unfit to be president. those people have probably disqualify themselves by their fromture on that letter being drawn into a trump if i amration, because president elect donald trump, i am not that keen to bring on my team somebody who publicly said unfit to serve as president. of challenge is that most the senior republican foreign-policy experts signed that letter, so i don't think there is actually a problem with people being willing to serve, primaryin the heat of a , there is a real battle that goes on, but in the end almost everybody i know that has been or wants to be a public servant as a -- is a patriot and wants the country to succeed and wants to help contribute. so i don't think there is a problem with people being willing to serve. i think there is a problem in the foreign and national security policy area of a lot of the best people having disqualify themselves from serving. nancy: lisa? ms. brown: i completely agree with josh on personnel. the other thing i would say is a new president has a honeymoon area bank, and he will -- a honeymoon period, and he wants to take advantage of that. that means thinking carefully about what his first third in the 60 days will look like, what the priorities will be. thinking carefully about that will set the tone for his administration. given the way the campaign was run, and given some of the republican opposition to him, what kind of a president is he going to be? i think what he does in the first weeks of office will be more important for him than for previous presidents. i would hope that is also part -- what is the tone they want to set, and what are they going to do to demonstrate that? i hope they think about that. i think a challenge they have right now is, before you make up a lot of your appointments, setting up a decision-making structure. what information do you want to gather? who do you want to talk to? what groups do you want to take into account? what is important for the president? it is a different decision-making system them running your business -- them than g your business -- running your business, because in running your business you can decide who you want to talk to and not bother with those you don't. when you are president, you are going to have to take into account the congress, for example, so you can't just make decisions on your own. you have to think about, what is a mature decision-making structure? that is going to be important in how you set up your white house. nancy: let's take some questions. if the people asking just want to state your name and where you are from, and let's keep the questions as brief as possible. do you want to go first? >> i am from florida state university. the question i have is, when it comes to agreements made from the previous presidency and transferred to the donald trump as opposed to the deal with iran. will this be wrought up during the presidency? mr. bolten: absolutely. that's among the toughest issues that the president-elect and the transition team faces. the campaign trail he wants to tear up the iran agreement. he wants to withdraw the united states from the paris climate agreement. president obama did those agreements as executive agreements. for theot submit them advice and consent of the senate. having done them as executive agreements rather than treaties, which would then have the force of law, which would then there would be a probably collocated test complicated legal procedure to withdraw the united states, a probably those -- complicated legal procedure to withdraw the united states, those will probably be legal agreements. on january 20, he will have the withdraw the united states from the iran nuclear deal, from the paris climate deal, and a number of other things. but particularly with respect to the iran nuclear deal, it is a very complicated and dangerous situation, and i imagine that one of the key issues on the agenda of the new national security advisor general plan be, -- general flynn will ok, what did we mean by that, how do we implement that, do we really need to tear up the agreement on day one? situation theyt are dealing with. it is not uncommon for presidents. presidents often say stuff on the campaign trail that turns out to be awkward when you are governing. but this one is consequential in -- y that nancy: go ahead. you, ladies and serve, for sharing your insight. i'm from the university of central florida. -- my question is regarding the devices that were used during the campaign, the sound is -- the soundbites and , and making sure the candidate presents the views you wish to protect. how do you evaluate the soundbites? do you think he is going to back away from them, or have the choices he has made made it clear that he is pushing through with the promises? the second question is, with regards to some of the letters that people wrote: trump unfit , do young trump unfit think in the future people will be more cautious and fight from senators and otherwise? ms. brown: when you are talking tout divisive, do you refer things like twitter? >> his promises. ms. brown: oh. one of the challenges of president-elect is getting rid of some of the bad ideas. they were good rhetorically, but would not make for good policy. challenge.always a but every president has faced that in some way tiev t i deit, d

Related Keywords

Arkansas , United States , Alabama , Paris , France General , France , Vermont , Minnesota , California , Jamaica , Russia , Crawford , Illinois , Florida State University , Florida , Westchester County , New York , Libya , Lima , Peru , Spain , Jersey , Chicago , Baltimore , Maryland , Texas , Iran , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Virginia , Washington , Washington Center , District Of Columbia , United Kingdom , Washington Monument , Burlington , New Jersey , Mayflower Hotel , Nebraska , Town Hall , Texans , Americans , America , Libyans , Spanish , Soviet , British , American , Winston Churchill , Benjamin Franklin , Mike Flynn , Carlos Gomez , Mike Pompeo , Margaret Thatcher , Robert Strauss , Chris Christie , Billy Carter , Barbara Olson , Jared Kushner , Karl Rove , Nancy Cook , Steve Bannon , Bobby Kennedy , Councilmember Dan , David Beach , Ted Olson , Martha Kumar , Michael Mukasey , Mick Romney , Martin Luther , Anna Cotten , Michael Flynn , Lisa Brown , Barney Frank , Ben Tucker , Susan Davis , George W Bush , Mike Huckabee , Howard Hughes , Edith Jones , Josh Bolten , Mitch Mcconnell , Richard Nixon , Ben Sasse , King Richard , Hillary Clinton , Reince Priebus ,