Joining us from new york is Alexandra Pelosi, she is the director and producer of the new hbo film premiering on july 4. Thank you for being with us on cspan. Guest thank you for having me. Host what is the premise behind the film and what did you learn putting it together . Guest started this the day after the election. The idea was, going into the election, i knew that no matter who won, half of the country would be disappointed. Plugin was what i could do to bring everybody together the idea was what can i do to bring everybody together. Hbot down with my boss at and we thought of ideas to make all democrats and republicans come together. We thought the founding documents were the one thing we could get everybody to read. President ough all the askedcretaries and everybody to read the passage from the constitution so we could have one thing we could show on july 4 that there is some connective tissue that keeps this country together. Democracy is a fragile thing. That 240 years later we are still celebrating this one document our Founding Fathers wrote. That is what we are celebrating on the fourth of july. Host we celebrate that. We also know the declaration and constitution were compromises. Are we seeing that in american Politics Today . Guest that is a very deep question for a sunday morning. I dont know if compromise is still alive and well. It feels like whatever party wins owns the keys to the castle. I am a qualified to talk on a political level. I am just hoping for one day you will take off the democrat and republican and independent line and everyone will call in his americans cannot take this opportunity to bash each other. If we could have one day where we say we will hold the calls and African Americans for one day, that is my goal. Like act like americans for one day, that is my goal. Host your first appearance on cspan came when you put together your film on george w. Bush called journeys with george. Explain how you came up with the idea as an nbc producer traveling with george bush during the campaign. Guest i was a news producer before i went into documentary filmmaking. I spent a decade at nbc as a news producer. I was assigned to go on the bus with governor george w. Bush. When he declared he was running for president , nbc assigned me. Each network has a person appointed to sit on the bus. They call it the boys on the bus, i was the girl on the bus from nbc and i brought a handy cam along and filmed governor bush as he was running for president. It was more about the dance with the media. We now know how symbiotic the relationship is between the media and candidate. Back then, it it was new, this thatyou have relationships develop inside the bubble of a president ial campaign. I made a film about it. My relationship with president bush became sort of this magical thing because i came from a long line of democrats, and he sought me out and decided we should be friends. In a comingofage story of the young, aspiring journalist who learned everything about life i needed to learn on the campaign trail, that is what the film was about. It went on to win awards and started my career as a documentary filmmaker. I have been at hbo, my 11th hbo film, presto go back to my george bush days as the most magical time i have had is a working journalist. When my first son was born tenures ago, the first caller got in the hospital was from president bush who said you have got to bring him to washington, i have got to meet her son. Ive always had a beautiful relationship with the bush family. That on a dayth like today because we are celebrating the fourth of july and everyone he talks about the divisions in politics and the like to celebrate the bond people do not have the know about. I took my mother to the points of light conference in texas and she was introduced as a great friend of the bush family and the audience was sort of confused. Cable news likes to talk about the fight and accentuate every bad moment in american politics. But i feel like when i am in washington, which is not much because i live in new york, i get a really nice behind the scenes view. They are colleagues and have to work together. Asont feel like it is divided and hopeless as it feels it is on cable news. Lets bring it back to my hbo documentary airing on the fourth of july about the constitution. I brought in speaker paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, and 25 u. S. Andtors, and colin powell big names in the Republican Party which are not people you expect to see in a documentary on hbo. Im not going to take credit. I will give the constitution credit. My goal for this is to get the Founding Fathers and in the e mmy for best writing of a document has this film is really a reading of the constitution and bill of rights. My seasonng when em comes around, they will have the wisdom to nominate the Founding Fathers for the best writing of documents. Who will except for Thomas Jefferson, but that is my goal. Host the majesty of the words in these documents and brilliance behind the words, not only jefferson but james madison, james monroe, george mason, and others. Guest right. These documents are so powerful and they have held up all these years. In this philosophy, this product we export and this democracy, this product we export around the world, everybody looks at america as a model of working democracy. Working not think it is , but lets channel our better angels this morning and say this democracy which is a model, i think some that have seen the film already say it gives them goosebumps because it is a reminder of everything good about this country that we all love and celebrate on the fourth of july. Instead of going into the for 24 hours least im hoping everyone can try to get along and celebrate the thising fathers, remarkable gift they gave us, the constitution we can celebrate. That is the goal here. Host in addition to public figures, one of the participants, actress kerry washington. Here is an excerpt. [video clip] ted to render the military independent of the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution to their actsent of pretended legislation. Host Alexandra Pelosi is joining us from new york. Lets get to your phone calls. Harvey, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Thank you for what youre doing to bring us together as one american. The last time i expressed america being one was 9 11. I hope we do not have to go through that again. Leadersit is important set the tone we can be one america. Thank you for what youre doing and what your mom has done for this country. Thank you for taking my call. Guest thank you host any response . Guest im not taking the bait knowe mom line because i theyre probably half of the callers that do not want call in and Say Something nice about nancy pelosi. Lets not use this as an opportunity to share our opinions about nancy pelosi. Thank you for saying something positive. I dont know if someone is screening the calls in my favor. I know you did not invite me on for everyone to share opinions on pelosi. If you want to share how you call in. T america, if you want to share your opinion on pelosi, holger calls hold your calls. Host who is the better pelosi, your mom or dad . Guest you will start a fight in our family on the fourth of july. The fourth of july in my family is the most sacred of events. Thanksgiving is my fathers thing. My father owns thanksgiving and my mother owns fourth of july. They read the declaration of independence and all of that. I am not there because i am here with you so this is sort of sacrilegious to not be with my own family on the fourth of july. I kept my kids with me. I am about to be disowned for that. I dont even want to step into what i am missing at home. Speaking of family, my husband is dutch and he became an american citizen. We had to renounce his home country and pledge of allegiance, swear allegiance to the United States of america. On the fourth of july, he is that nerd who pulls out his pocket constitution and makes the kids read it because he had to take the citizenship test. He likes to remind my children that they are spoiled because they were born here and dont know how lucky they are that they were born here. He likes to make them take that whichvery fourth of july, every family should do because it is a Good Opportunity for buff up on their middle School Civics lessons because i think the citizens that have to study that stuff probably know more about america than a lot of americans born here that take it for granted. I think it is a Good Opportunity for everyone to go back to the documents and look at them. They are really wellwritten. All a moment to appreciate they are given for being born here, like my spoiled american kids. My son is sitting right there. I had to take the opportunity to make him feel bad. In middle school, they make you study this and take tests on it. It is nice for people to take this opportunity to see if they could be a new citizen because there are a lot of people taking this pledge to america. Think it is good for all of us who were born here to have to reform our vows, if you will. Host lets go to dave joining us from henderson, nevada. Thank you for waiting. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I want to comment on you guessed. I fully agree with her wonderful comments. I may say it in a stronger way. But i think cspan is promoting. Olitical segregation now calling in on the democrats line, republicans line. Lets get together. Guest thank you. That is beautiful. I did not want to be offensive to my host. I said it in the most politically correct way. Is stability civility when you watch cspan. I think we should appreciate that and thank them for that on this fourth of july because they are not getting into the catfight, stir the pot, and take the worst possible tweet and turn it into a threeday story. I feel that cspan is above it all. That is why i am here. I would like to celebrate that part of cspan today. Host we have a tweet from james. [laughter] guest thank you. I appreciate that. If only everyone could be so positive today. Lets keep it positive. Lets take a moment to celebrate and say lets all be that positive. Host we are trying. Lets go to ready in clearwater, florida, on the independent line. Caller hello. For making it known for we the people. For tellingu what the constitution, bill of rights, is all about. People are kind of ignorant of the fact, like you said, about civics and schools. Keep going and maybe get a petition. I serve my country. Anyway, get a petition to have like the pocket constitutions distributed in every school and college. Host thank you, randy. We will get a response. Are we doing enough to educate elementary and secondary students about the constitution and declaration of independence . Guest i would say that School Civics andheir grownups have a problem. I live in manhattan. I have been filming people reading the constitution. I hear grownups ask me questions any middle schooler could answer. I am surprised after the election how many questions people would ask me about the process. People forget this stuff. I think grownups need a refresher. I feel it that is why politics have gotten so toxic, because people forget their history. It is like this. This is the rulebook for how democracy is played, right . If you are interested in sports, you need to know the rules. It feels like politics has become a sport. Everyone wants to be involved but they do not have the stomach for it. Everyone likes to have opinions and throw out words, impeachment being an example, but they do not know how impeachment works. It is popular to say in the liberal bubble where i live that i think the president will be impeached. I have to look at them and say, have you read the constitution . This is not about politics. This is about simple logistics, who runs the congress. If you think a Republican Congress is going to impeach this president , you have not done your civics homework. It is just part of the reality of what these documents say and learning the rules. Your question was, do kids know this stuff . My kids know this stuff and im sure your kids know this stuff. Question is, do you know this stuff . That is why i think the grownups should go back to reading these documents to have more informed opinions when they are watching cable news. It is true in this country everyone has divided into going to the network that pleases their politics. One side watches one network and the other side watches the other network. Everybody gets to hear what they want to hear. If you dont like the president , you can watch that he will get impeached. If you like the president , you watch where they say that is ridiculous. If we go back to the rulebook and see how it is played, it is not sexy or stirring the pot so it does not sell. The ratings are great when they like the fight. Fights help. The constitution and have a deep, intelligent conversation does not sell. I love that your viewers have intelligent questions. But i would just like to say i think grownups need an education. Host the words that built america a new hbo documentary premiering on july 4. Here is another excerpt with Robert De Niro and peggy noonan. [video clip] we hold these truce to be we hold these truths to be self evident. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Host other participants, including the current Vice President mike pence, and there is a photograph on your homepage of what that was like. What was the experience like for you personally . St as a political junkie i call myself a political tourist. Just to go into dick cheneys home and go to the bush library, just traveling the country and getting to go behind the scenes of american politics is fascinating. It was an incredible experience. Everyone was super professional, super interesting. Everybody was wonderful to work with. President trump was very professional. He did not say anything offcolor. I dont have any good backstage dishing for you because he was a pro. He did not say anything to me about my last name. He just accepted me as i make films for hbo. Filmmaker and he treated me professionally. I got a lesson, colin powell being a great example of someone. I asked him to read from the constitution and he gave me a lecture. We could teach a master class on one line from the constitution. I feel i have a phd in american politics now having gone to meet all of the leaders in american politics and having them share their opinions about the constitution. I will tell you this. All the Vice President s complained about how the constitution does not give them enough power. It was sort of the running joke that all the Vice President s read this, everybody gets something, but the Vice President s did not get enough. It is not about power. It is about clearly setting out what their role is. When the constitution was written, but one group i feel got shortchanged was the Vice President s. That is what they told me. Host who do you think is the unsung hero of our founders . Guest you are going to make me name names . I cannot name names. Project,s doing this the constitution, we gave credit to everybody who signed it. Everybody who signed it gets their name on it. For the declaration of independence, Thomas Jefferson get his name on it. He gets all the credit. I feel he has gotten enough credit. There are a lot of names of people that participated in the Continental Congress that do not get the kind of credit they deserve. There are a lot of things you do not know. If you take out the document and go through the names you dont recognize, a lot of people participated in this. Everybodys name you do not know, go look at the list of all the people you do not know and could pick out. Is that fair . Was that a nice, politically correct answer . Host a good way to remind our audience in washington the National Archives are open on july 4. You can see what is now a faded copy of the declaration of independence starting to be restored. It is free to the public. Guest we have one in new york. The New York Public Library now is showing Thomas Jeffersons original, in his own hand, copy of the declaration of independence. It is fabulous. I took my family to see it. It is totally worth it. It is so fabulous. Everybody should do something this fourth of july host on our host for americans, libby. Hello, i have a real challenge for you. I am speaking to you as a woman to a woman that i want to put out a catalyst for women is for change. We will piggyback on Reince Priebus and eventually when he represented the Republican Party, he set up that there was no war on women anymore there is a war on caterpillar. As a negotiator, he was referring to a process is. As a caterpillar, it can be switched. We needed to use it that statement as a catalyst for change. Because with that, you can combine two forces and make what is essentially the butterfly effect, a small Statement Like that can be a big change. Host thank you. Alexandra pelosi . Guest wow. That is deep. I think it is a beautiful, beautiful call to action. And, i am going to choose to just suck it in and say, happy fourth of july to you. I think i cannot over share my feelings about what is going on in the Political Climate because i think it will undermine my ambassador of hope that i am hoping i can bring people together and try and say that on this fourth of july, will all of the americans. Its hard to say that, women do not get anything in the founding documents. They gotten nothing. Got something but i will not politicize these documents. I will say as a woman, sometimes it is hard to feel like youre getting your voice heard in this american Political Climate. That is not what we are here to talk about. We are saying, proud to be american. Host deborah you are next