I would like to now introduce our first moderator, Tracey Edwards tracy serves as long island director of the acp. Supporting ten branches in nassau and Suffolk County focused on education, Voting Rights and civic engagement. Public safety, criminal justice and environmental justice. As an elected member of the huntington town council, she focused on providing services to unemployed and underemployed residents, including job access to Job Development of life skills and access to not for profit assistance. So please join me in welcoming the stage. Councilwoman tracy edwards. Hi. Well, dont you look marvelous. I am thrilled to call moderate event with former congressman steve israel. Representative israel served in the us congress. From 2001 to 2017, including four years as chairman of the Democratic Congressional campaign committee. He left washington unindicted. He left washington undefeated and he. He left to pursue new passions and 2021, he opened a small independent bookstore for theodores books with his lovely wife, cara, who is sitting right there next to my gorgeous husband, walter who was sitting right there. In his historic of oyster bay, fulfilling a lifelong dream. And author. In his own right, he has published two critically acclaimed satires of washington, the global war on morals and big guns. He proudly serves us on the library of congress Madison Council as well. Many other board of directors, steve was most recently by president to the president s committee on the arts and humanities. Please welcome my mentor, my friend, my former councilperson my former congressman. An all around wonderful wonderful person representative steve israel. Stay here. How about how about a big hand for tracy . Isnt she extraordinary . Oh, love her. Im going to step i, i you know, theres a there is a Congressional District that you in that could use a democratic candidate. Im. I want to acknowledge some some wonderful friends and the attorney general is going to out here in less than 2 minutes. But i want to acknowledge new state senator kevin thomas, who is with us. Senator, thank you for the work that do now. Kevin is a senator. Eric was an attorney general. I was a congressman. But we have a president here, a bona fide president. And that is president of suny farmingdale, john nader, who is with us. Mr. President , thank you for being here and that we all know somebody who has worked tirelessly and, often a great risk in the fight, civil rights. Fred brewington is with us. Fred, thank you for being here. And of course, i see my my very friend and someone who also worked in the fight to go congress. And i dont think hes done yet. Robert is with us. Robert. So. 2 minutes or less, tracy told you how i Left Congress unindicted and undefeated in all that. But let me tell you how, i got there. And what happened when i got there the first act that i performed the First Official act of every new member of congress is to raise your right hand and take an oath to the constitution of the United States of america. We, the people of United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to and our posterity. Do hereby establish this the constitution of the United States of, america. And when did that on that . At that moment . When i raised my right hand and took that oath. I knew it wouldnt always be easy. What i didnt know was that there times when it was going to be almost impossible to protect and defend constitution of the United States because, of the levels of resistance on, the floor of the house to that very and so there were moments when we did fulfill our oath to the constitution. I would argue that we promoted the general welfare. We passed obamacare, making sure that if you were sick, you were getting taken care. And i would argue that we provided for the common defense. We passed record level on a bipartisan basis for veterans in the United States. Thats how you provide for the common defense. And i would argue that we established justice in 2006 when we voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights act that passed. Passed by a vote of 390 to 33. And i have to be honest with i wasnt all that proud to be part of 390. I was ashamed that there were 33 who voted against it that i could not understand how you could vote against reauthorizing the Voting Rights act that had been authorized and reauthorized by four separate president s, two separate political parties. And then i witnessed reversals, a stunning reversal when my friends, the other side of the aisle decided to in texas, not part of a decades process, but every ten years we redistrict. But they decided the hell we control texas. Were just going to do it whenever we want. And they eliminated the seats of some noble and hardworking, decent members of congress. And then i remember sitting with nancy pelosi in the Leadership Meeting when the news hit that the Supreme Court had struck down sections four and five of the Voting Rights act. And i want to let you in on a secret that the nancy pelosi said at the time, well, this isnt going to stand. Well get the bipartisan support that we need to, find a way around this. And eric holders going to talk about that tonight. And it never came. It never came. It finally there were times when i was so dispirited and so angry and so demoralized at this resistance. And then i met and became friends. John lewis and i sign up to the district and brought him to churches in glen cove. And then we went to see bryan cranston. Tracy in the broadway show all the way about the about president johnsons attempt to pass successful attempt to pass the civil rights act. And i said to him at the time john how do you do it how do you do it . And this is what he said to me, said, you know, steve, everybody wants to know, you know, about that day at the pettus bridge that i was beaten. More important is how did i get back up . Thats whats important. Everybody wants to talk about abuses that were inflicted on me. More important is how did i fight . Thats why erics book is so important. It is a must read. I devoured it because it is about the infliction of injustice, but at the same time what we must do to fight back. And the major takeaway that i took from this book to me, the most the most profound that the attorney general was this dr. King, remember this . He said, the moral arc of history history, say it again, bends toward justice. Well, the attorney general said. Well, maybe, maybe when we really look at things, the moral arc of history doesnt really bend. It goes forward and. Then backwards, forward and then backwards. We give rights and then we take them away. We rights and we take them away. We have given rights and now we are an environment where they are being taken away. I cant think of a more profound and accomplished leader in the United States of america to bring to you this evening to talk about that process. And his extraordinary book. Youll be able to get your copies, have him sign it at the end. And so it is with extraordinary pride that i introduce you to 82nd attorney general of the United States, the africanamerican, to hold that office. Now senior counsel covington and burling, a civil rights leader, the chairman of the National DemocraticRedistricting Committee, the attorney general of the united and civil rights leader, eric, give him a big round. Thank you, sir thank you. Thank you. Hey. All right. Well. Well, you know, you start off with a standing maybe we ought to leave now. We can only go this way from here. You know. Good evening. So were going to talk the book. Tracy and i will have a conversation with you for about a half an hour. So 35 minutes. And then were going to open it up to your pre submitted questions answers. And i want to begin where you began the book. You open it up on march 7th, 2015 in selma, 50 years after bloody sunday. Know youre the first africanamerican attorney general with the first africanamerican president at that moment. And id love for you to take us into that and ask this question. You grew up in east elmhurst, queens as you watched bloody sunday on television. Could you have ever imagined that you would be standing at that spot as the attorney of the United States . No, not at all. I mean, i watched the newsreel footage of. What happened on bloody sunday in a black and white tv because they were only black and white. We only had a black and white tv in the basement. My house, 360 601st street in east elmhurst. And i was profoundly moved by what i saw. I was 14 years old at the time i do the math on that old and to think that i would be 50 years later as the attorney general of, the United States with the first black president of the united and standing next to john lewis, who became was famous, became he became even more famous on that on that infamous day. That was not something that i could have imagined, but it was extremely to me to be there. I had already announced my resignation as attorney of the United States, and i said. I would stay on until my successor was was named. And i thought id take a relatively short period of time. But being republicans, the way the relationship i had with them, they thought they were going to punish me by keeping me in office longer than i wanted to stay. And as the got closer and i thought, well, you know what, i actually want to go to the 50th anniversary as a ag as opposed to the occupant of that office. And i kept. All right, dont confirm, loretta. Dont confirm, loretta. Loretta lynch came after and i said, dont confirm. And so i went there as the attorney general, the United States quite happy be in that position on that day. So, yes yesterday was juneteenth. Yes. So in addition to the acp in the audience we have a lot of people here who are advocates for change. So i would to start at the conclusion of book first. So after many years of advocacy and due to president bidens recognition of juneteenth and. 21 as the arc to bend even though its going backwards it does continue to bend. So you made the same point about progress in conclusion of your great book about not growing really about that resistance was much greater years ago. So we shouldnt give up too cynicism. We shouldnt give at all. So tell us what else do you see happening across the country to in of progress that in that will still us joy in our fight. Yeah i thats an important thing that in the struggle for equality the struggle for justice there is joy to be had. This is not something that we should think of as a task. This is something is supposedly defined us as a nation and it says who are i will see frankly as individuals are we committed to bending that arc. You know what always say is that the you know, dr. King said the arc of the moral universe is but it bends toward justice. But heres the deal is it doesnt bend on its own. It only bends when people, like us put our hands on arc and pull it towards justice. And there is i joy to be found in the struggle. You know, i got to know diane. Ive to know diane nash. And shes you know one of the great pioneers in, the Civil Rights Movement as a woman often overlooked. And she talks, you know, the freedom rides and the sit ins at lunch counters, the early days of the struggle and how there was a camerata, you know, a sense of purpose, a belief that things could be different. And there was joy to be found in that, although obviously you had to face great odds and they faced physical, you know, physical dangers. And so i think that same sense of joy and determination and commitment should be a part of efforts. I mean, if you look the book about people doing regular people, socalled ordinary people, but, you know, all extraordinary really doing things that you could not imagine happening. Women fighting for the right to vote. I mean, we take that for granted now, that was not something that was preordained. Dr. King john lewis, diane nash, pull down a system of american apartheid, you know, and you think im sure they must have had moments when they thought, can we really do this . Can we actually change the system in that fundamental way and in they did that. So the issues we face today might seem daunting, but with that same sense of commitment, purpose, joy and with a recognition of our history, i think theres really nothing that we cant do. It doesnt mean its going to be easy. Its going to be a struggle. And were not going to oh, its not going to be a linear process. Were always going to be successful. Well take a couple of steps back, but if we commit to it, if we pledge ourselves to one another, if we find joy in the work we can, we can be successful. You talk throughout the book about the expansion of rights and the contraction of Voting Rights. And i suppose one of the lowest points that that we went through or one of the lowest points was that day in 2013 when the Supreme Court evison the Voting Rights act by striking down sections four and section five. And in the book say that ruling will go down one of the most flawed, ideologically driven Supreme Court decisions in the history. And its a case to which i just so to be a party shelby versus holder for that those not familiar with the case take us through it. You know first off its the Shelby County versus holder case but all my friends know that only call it the Shelby County case. I dont want my name associated with that. Thats like, you know, having the dred versus holder, you would not want to be in history. You dont want to have whenever people see that move, that awful, you know, the holder not only dont want to be a part of that. I mean part of it is what in your introduction you kind of laid it out. I Mean Congress had consistently reauthorized the Voting Rights act since 1965. And in that latest reauthorization, there was overwhelming support in the house of representatives. It passed the senate unanimously, signed by a republican president , George W Bush. Interestingly, every time the Voting Rights act was reauthorize. He was signed by a republican president. And so George W Bush signs it. Congress says, you know, had done extensive hearings, huge numbers of people testify, huge written record numbers of exhibits to show though america had changed, we had made progress. There was need for a continuation of Voting Rights act, Supreme Court without holding hearings, not looking at the record that was presented to it decided in the words the chief justice who wrote the opinion that america had changed and america had change sufficiently that you could do away with, in essence, a vital part of Voting Rights act by gets a little complicated, but in essence, in essence as a result of affecting one section you took away from the Justice Department. The ability the preclearance ability the Justice Department had. That means in covered jurisdictions around the country before you made an electoral change, you were in a covered jurisdictions. And it was largely the old south, but not always the south. You had to go to the justice if you wanted to close a polling place, you had to go to the Justice Department. If wanted to change the voting requirements you took that away. That that from the Justice Department and it wasnt a question of days or weeks or months before. You know they changes and said, all right, we dont have to worry about the Justice Department within hours, they were in the process of putting in place. Then i think attorney general greg abbott, now the governor, texas, tweeted something out about, well, we dont have to worry about eric holder anymore. And the Justice Department in texas has from that point going on to become the place where his most difficult to vote in this country as a result of that decision. At the last count, i saw 1700 polling places around the country have disproportionately in of color. So when you see all these long lines, you wonder, well, why is that all . Because there are fewer polling places. And then also you say, well, why does georgia pass a law that says you cant give food, water to somebody whos waiting in a line to vote . Well, all right. So you create long lines. You then take away the ability to make it. You know, easy or less difficult for people to stay line. And so few people get off those lines. And it doesnt take a lot, you know, i mean, you look at president bidens margin, georgia senator ossoff, senator warnock, they won by relatively percentages. And if you get people off lines, that has a impact. You also a disproportionate amount voter purging as a result again of the inability of the Justice Department to do preclearance. And you see you see purging happening again in disproportionately communities of color. Its always disproportionately in communities of color, but also with regard to those groups that are identified as democratic. There was a statement, i guess only three or four weeks ago. I cant believe the republicans, they say these things on tape. You know,