>> >> i would like to introduce someone that i met and we will speak for a few minutes and then we will talk about the book i did not follow my own rules. [laughter] i tried to sell now people actually do follow less on twitter so bad as i have the phone out and i apologize for not following will rules enough of that. said tonight we are pleased to host a live the discussion if not downright depressing because "raven rock" is a fully researched book writing for "politico" and really dug into this for you were given a script option so you have to look keep the microphone but interestingly enough competition is fair and square. >> but the book "raven rock" and i don't want to step too much on top of garrett graff but with a continuity of government we remember september 11th the vice president cheney said many times how they shoved him into the undisclosed location and there is a whole big history behind fact we are excited why garett can speak to that and how it came about and its legacy to the current administration that we think i am not one of those magic number people that could not survive. but enough of that, thanks to those people who put tonight together our headliners' team and other ers ofhe team and the press club staff we're always appreciative of the hard work that they do to bring all speakers in to make sure the headliners is in the best interest of the audience like garrett graff. so with the saber rattling in north korea so what would happen if we faced imminent threat to be bombed? who would survive for would not survive and what is the security protocols and was thinking goes into that? that gives us the book "raven rock" which is named after an underground bunker in pennsylvania just north of camp david. so i want to ask you would never modern references you would like to help people wonder states and the continuity of government walk us through how this came about. >> thinks so much it is a pleasure to be back this is the second time i have spoken at the national press club about one of my books. the last one was actually knew the relevant a biography of robert molar that i did. [laughter] i am sure somebody will ask about that but it was a very funny press club event it was the book of the modern fbi and the russian diplomats who caveman sat right in the front row and proceeded to ask questions about the counterintelligence work in washington so not much has changed over the last couple of years so this is a book i started writing about five years ago and i bumped up against these programs a number of times covering national security in washington or talking to people who are part of these programs that were evacuated on 9/11 some were still part of the plans with the designated helicopters with leah and wherever they were in washington to evacuate. i actually flew on one of those helicopters those are the blue and gold pc in washington on a daily basis that they are up there every day practicing for a catastrophic attack on washington so anytime you see those that is what they're doing. but the idea came when one of my colleagues at the magazine found a government i b on the floor of a metro parking garage in said you could figure out how to get this back. >> so the subway is not the vehicle you want to use in the evacuation of. [laughter] if you live in washington while it is underground it is not the most reliable of your options. so i flip this over and that has driving directions on the back. so i follow these directions into west virginia so they end of this side of mountain where a road disappears clearly into a concrete bunker door inside of an unmarked mountain and west virginia is not on the map i was like this is one of the modern perks of the program and it got me interested of how this program started. so what resulted was this book, a "raven rock" that is named after one of the three primary bunkers around washington to be used during an evacuation and raven barack -- "raven rock" is the pentagon poker it falls between 3,000 and 5,000 people literally hollowed out militants with buildings inside of it and has absolutely everything you could need as reservoirs' for fuel, drinking water, dining facilities, hospital, police department, fire department department, led the way government contracting works with the benefits that accrue to minority-owned businesses, the bunker dining facility is run by the indian tribe and it is just an enormous network and some of them are pretty you well built raven rock is rather a cabinet secretaries would go in virginia which is run by feet of which is the agency their runs all of the programs like the continuity of government but then during the height of the cold war almost every agency has their own banker -- bunker and location facility the state department said up a huge facility in virginia on a cattle farm. and greenbrier is where congress would have gone it was hidden under the luxury resort in west regina but now is a tourist attraction and is well worth going to sit in the house and senate chamber to imagine what it would have been like if every agency had its own facility and there were more than 100 of these around washington. so the book traces the rise in development of these programs beginning with the truman and eisenhower administration and it came developments that arrivedt the end of world war two. the first obviously is the atomic bomb for the first time an entire city could just be destroyed and as the atomic age developed the second part was the rise of these nuclear weapons in order to allow the president of the united states to use these nuclear weapons so raven rock is a communication revolution and the story of the system that we built to allow the president of the united states to have command-and-control watch over nuclear weapons to matter where. so part of what we forget about is all the things we think of is the imperial presidency are the communications tool so the armored motorcades are effective fancy communications tools that the president of united states can launch from wherever he is. and all of this technology came into play with the first presidential helicopter trip were evacuation's from the white house lawn during the exercises in t '50s that people will remember as the duck and cover drill from elementary school. and the rise of these technologies was another big transformation that where the subtitle comes from the secret plans to save itself while the rest of us died where early the government had very ambitious plans to save the population of the united states the ada to actually evacuate the large urban areas in time to preserve most of the civilian population now looking back it is funny just how organized and planned they were the new york city could be evacuated precisely 3.three days than they calculated each of the routes out of new york city in each borough had its own evacuation plan for relying on trains and 46,000 people from queens would be shuttled from one or via to pennsylvania and the residents of the bronx would be taken on ferries up to syracuse on fine -- five round trips for growth in washington there were similar sets were each person doubt in a different direction then when y looked at the plants on paper if falls apart when they come together and cross in seven corners in northern virginia which anyone who knows washington traffic knows that does not work when it is raining when alone with people are panicking about a nuclear missile launch. so the plans gradually shrink over the course of the cold war until they get to be basically a of today which is the prior jersey sinn of the evacuation of a small number of high-level government officials hidden away in the bunkers around the country. but as part of that we built a tremendous infrastructure that most people don't have any arabia. there were two specially designed navy ships that a search through the '60s and '70s and one of them was always on the coast during the chesapeake ready to evacuate in the event of a nuclear attack on washington. so some trivia that bob boyd word actually was aboard one of these ships where the president was evacuated it would have been bob woodward's sitting on the ship ready to receive though launched orders for nuclear war. said the rebuilt the huge helicopter fleets and airborne command post where there was one of the planes in the air 24 hours a day february 1962 through the early 1990's almost 30 years there were constantly flying with a one star general whose sole job was to be the last living person in the united states jean of command ready to launch a retaliatory strike if everybody was destroyed. so we have told whole fleet of national airborne command post that there is one president -- plane shuddering president trump right now pretty close to the airfield where ever air force one is part one of these planes is ready to evacuate the president and will keep him three days flying to go anywhere on the planet if he is here in washington there is one on the runway in omaha nebraska 24 hours a day with everyone from the emergency launch officers to read urologist -- we urologist to launch and then it gets weirder and weirder armored train and secret tractor-trailer convoys that would spread out across the country so no matter what type of government existed you could find a:for a somewhere instead of a communications hub for grosso. but thinking not just through the launch but what nuclear war would look like after words of every federal government agency has a role after nuclear war. the post office was the agency that would have been in charge of registering the dead to figure of who was still alive in the united states and they have the list of where people live so that makes sense the national park service would have been in charge of running the refugee camp because the thinking was the national parks would not be targeted with a nuclear attack so you would flee from the urban area out toward yosemite or yellowstone then the friendly park ranger would be waiting to receive you in the tent city in in the post office would take their role so then the irs would also be waiting. [laughter] with its own plan how to raise revenue and taxes on nuclear damaged property because of course they have a plan for after nuclear war. the federal reserve has massive bunker in virginia but is now a library of congress facility if you ever have a chance it is no audio and film archive they actually do movie screenings there it turns out that bonkers are great for the archives with controlled humidity and climate. so the federal reserve has this bunker that they stopped with the books that held of federal reserve chairman and board of governors but also a special level vaults that has $2 billion of currency which is the amount of money that they expected the eastern united states to use during the 18 months it would take the bureau to begin to print currency again. so part of what is so funny is all of these details exist because it is the government doing the planning if you look back on paper so the currency would have been using word to dollar bills. because in the '70s when they first printed those in america decided they did not want to use them we have a lot so they decided rather than scrap them, they would move them into the bunker and put them up on the huge palace it -- pallette beusafter nuclr war you have no choice then you are happy to use the $2 bill after words. and that is when $2 they have bought you more than it does now so part of what is interesting is trying to figure out and think what needs to be preserved so it is an existential question about america. so a washington with the national archives decided they would save the declaration of independence before the constitution. the library of congress set down and decided the "gettysburg address" before george washington's military commission. one of the favorite details was through the cold war there were a specially trained team of park rangers in philadelphia whose job to evacuate the liberty bell in the event a nuclear missile want to have an image of park rangers driving off in a pickup with though liberty bell swinging in the back of the truck. [laughter] and the crack gets bigger and bigger. but then there is an interesting exercise of u.s. government and what we want to be preserving for pro what does that mean? and preserving a the presidency. so what you see is say we imagining of the presidency and with the 25th amendment guiding succession the people in the white house are beginning to read very carefully, we think of the president we elect every four years in november but by the end of the cold war the presidency is the thing that encompasses several hundred people. so it isn't just the 20 people in the formal line of succession as laid out but each cabinet office has its own line of succession between 20 and 25 people so as you begin to think through the possibility of something happening to washington it is a weird scenario very quickly where the u.n. ambassador or the west's attorney for the northern district of illinois and the director of the department of energy operations center suddenly become the top ranking officials in the u.s. government in the event something happens to washington. so these people mock the idea how i am in control at the white house but one of the weird things is one of the big unanswered questions is as it turns out it is not about where the speaker of the house or the senate are legally allowed to step into office of the presidency. and james madison himself who was a relatively knowledgeable figure about the constitution held no one from the legislative branch could be part of the executive succession. so there is a very real scenario or the secretary of state could challenge the president or the speaker to become president so you can imagine a 35 year-old answering the phone at the command center at the pentagon and have recs tellers and an paul ryan each claiming to be legitimate president of the united states for all the planning that went into this we still don't know the answer to that question and i would argue we may not want to leave it to the judgment of a 35 rolled in the watch center who has to answer the phone to make the decision on the spot. all of these plants exist today. people are holding watch in all of the bunkers that doomsday plane still stands alert and is waiting in all the plans have been updated for modern now the post office is no longer in charge of registering the dead but they are in charge of establishing countermeasures for a biological attack which is what you might want to think about next time of day holiday tip you want to make sure they have the a bowl of vaccine on the first day. >> so the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy comes to mind. [laughter] but throughout this book isn't just the facts in what you discover along the way but talk about the psychology of the people the you found in terms of the chief justice musec will let myself die. there are scenarios throat the evolution of the continuity of government that said if secretaries were prioritized over a spouse and it was crazy so talk about some of those people who refused or had to show up to run these bunkers or the building of them have a public servant runs and they're not realizing they have a massive role. >> part of what makes the of story so interesting is the interaction of a very cold in mechanical thing with a very human reaction to talk about that into different categories so where they begin to fall apart is basic human psychology. so the plan and throat the cold war does not involve family members. so you have these moments with thoroughwort and chief justice and comes in to meet with him the supreme court would have went to rush bill north carolina. and they would relocate their to said of the supreme court in one of the reception halls so roll war looks at it and says i don't see a pass for mrs. warren. in there is none you are one of the most important people so then he can sit back and says now you have room for another person in government. and that carries true throughout the cold war with these moments where they're supposed to be activated the people are waiting to see what i actually leave my family in that moment go off to do that they name supposed to do for government? in almost every instance the answer is no which is good for families but bad for continuity of government. but the second part from the human psychology side is to the extent planning and walking through these exercises changes the way the president bought about nuclear war that during the cold war they spent a lot of time practicing they would partipate in annual readiness exercises sometimes it would go days on end in was the airborne command post came into play every president flew on this command post going through the whole war exercise. the presidents themselves were never allowed to play president they can only observe with the thinking we never want a president to tip his hand as to how he would react the he would watch other people as nuclear war unfolded and it was those moments that the severity and the tragedy of the war hits then you have these moments with eisenhower or johnson or carter or reagan they wrestle with how bad it would actually be delicate the church and the map and they watched the stress of these exercises unfold and it hopes to shape the way they reacted to the real-life crisis of the presidency and they took that step back at the precedents by the cuban missile crisis in the early '80s which now we forget was probably the time is when we were the closest to nuclear war between 1982 through 1984 with a nato exercise which we did not realize that the time that the soviets were convinced was a stalking horse exercise for a first strike and ended up being a moment that the leader understood how tense those moments were. >> when you start to unpacked these facts, how does that strike you? talk about the psychology of the people that you profile but what were your takeaways from the heavy duty scenario ?. >> it is an interesting question because the part that they struggled with most is we know how the story ends and so far it ends peacefully with the collapse of the soviet union. so it is really hard to understand looking back out existential the threat was or appeared to be for the u.s. policy makers because now we know what a hollow shell the soviet union was they did have a tremendous litary capabily bufar less than we thought at the time. it is hard to go back and capture the actual feeling of danger that they felt. but to your point the takeaway is how none of them would have worked pose serious and expensive and elaborate and the extent to which you read that 150 to play when negative page plan to evacuate york city it is great we've thought about it at that level but there is no chance it would have looked any part like that even if you can imagine the people's reactions in the neighborhood were totally taking care of you would be evacuated on the number three so hang out for about your normal life then show up at the train station on thursday. >> your neighbors go on tuesday downtown gets wednesday but the buses will be waiting. [laughter] >> jump to the modern era to talk about the legacies of these plans. without the united states reacts as the country in emergency planning and the presidency in the legislature with those 2,000 people out there. >> is still all there and follow the plans still exist with those communication facilities still exist there are new ones since 9/11 and raven rock has been expanded dramatically since then 11 but there are four major benghazi is the standout thinking about how these plans and the cold war have shaped our modern world. the first is where you see the real beginning of the modern national security state in terms of the size and the power of the national security apparatus but the first place we begin to have mass government secrets where the classifications systems that we note top-secret is where they begin to come into play right after world war two of the government begins to keep massive secrets at the end of world war ii and around the atomic weapons. second you begin to see a shift in the bce of poweretween the branches because nuclear war is such a departure from the tradition of war that basically it is a presidential prerogative. if you want to send a small number of troops to another country were supposed to have congressional authorization to do that if you want to launch a global thermonuclear war the president can do that on his own authority and any time. and that is a tremendous shift to think about the power of the presidency but the third area of this comes into play is on and after 9/11 we don't realize the extent to which to influence the way rumsfeld and cheney reacted to 9/11. so they were part of these plants going back to the '70s as chief of staff and during the '80s during the reagan years and p.s. three was a secret program that designated private citizens with former high-ranking government experience that the continuity facilities so rumsfeld and cheney the howard baker era when practiced during the '80s to be evacuated from the daily lives into these bunkers if you and set up by the secretary of agriculture there would not have the first clue what to do city would need an experienced zaph waiting for them in the bunker who would run the country if you were the secretary of agriculture once you were evacuated down in texas are massachusetts come read dick cheney would be waiting there for you so what is interesting we don't know if this still exist. and then what about you want to declassify. >> but for donald rumsfeld for dick cheney. in getting into the sports legacy which is the extent to which so the highest classified s of plans is called the enduring constitutional part. the way the three branches of government would interact with one another with a catastrophic attack of washington. and something along the lines of the preservation of the constitution but not the letter of the constitution. that is the hint of what we could gather with suspension of habeas corpus so almost to the suspension of congress with congressional officials that might be as small as water for members of congress chivvy designated to act as of congress and tell it could reconstitute itself so one of the things everything in washington knows there is also a designated for congress has started in the wake of 9/11. so there is no point under any ordinary circumstance for one member of congress to survive. it gives it to make it worthwhile to be one member on the night of the "state of the union". >> so this is where it gets interesting that if you preserve america is that the president or the of liberty bell like when he tries to rally the nation so that is the question. >> in the viewing audience just now joining us you are watching national press club we're hosting our headliners author of "raven rock" garrett graff. you just alluded to the live into the disaster movies dark rum armageddon raven going back to darker and stranger of wood that dosday scenario or astro raids were something else what is so interesting and we're researching this conspiracy theory has a colonel of truth in these programs like worrying about the mine shaft gap yes we did. we send government and a boy scouts to go out to those that could be in those fallout shelters to survive those early stages. so if you hear about the fee in the camps the concentration camps that fema is suppose to run and the four runners-up fema that the military actually did have a prisoner of war camps kept ready across the country that would have held pre-designated list of likely subversive rounded up in those opening moments of a nuclear war. so the president has his nuclear football that we forget about over long periods of time until there is guess that near largo so during the cold war the attorney general was followed around with the emergency briefcase with a pre-designated list that would be rounded up and pre- written any emergency orders forced suspending habeas corpus to declare martial law to fill in the dates and the cause of the emergency and sign at the bottom in to arrest these thousands of people. >> and much of these plans are weirder and stranger than the depiction to talk about these doomsday movies. >> so talk about your research process with this treasure trove. >> it was a tremendous amount of archive work digging through presidential archives, national archives and the pentagon is a tremendous record keeper its self to write these great histories of units and exercises that will slowly be classified data over the years. so part of what is funny is they are not categorized that makes sense so i am deeply indebted to a lot of the argus -- or to invest around the country like the lbj presidential library talking to be archivist to works on national security he said he definitely want this vital and i said what is that? and he said all of the nuclear pre-delegation systems during the johnson years were known by the code word furtherance of he had this file just the title was furtherance you did not know that is what the program name was called you never ever would have been able to uncover that file actually it took them a long time to declassify baffled there because they cannot find anybody who knew what the code word meant so anybody who understood if they even had that authority to open the file to look inside. plan was filed under the letter f. >> . . strategic level but contrary to the history saying the soviets were about to launch the retaliatory war and the exercise of the united states they would run parallel to the exercise simultaneously to see each other's equipment capabilities. so there was no danger at that particular point in time. they were facing off against each other and it was the movement of the command train moved around on a special set of tracks throughout the soviet union. all those things very complex and you touched on a lot of good stuff but there's still a lot of research to go. >> that is absolutely true. one of the things that stands out when we went back and looked through all of this is realizing how incredibly lucky we are that we made it through the era and the number of moments in this judgment or a miscalculation stumbled into -- what i mean there and you see this in multiple places, very rarely did we actually come to a moment when the nuclear war would logically start, but there were a lot of opportunities where a cascade of misinterpretations or misjudgments that have resulted in tragedy. and you see that during any one of these crises where at the peak of the cuban missile crisis that youtube playing conduct in a normal routine surveillance operation that had been planned weeks in advance and was being executed because it happened to be that particular day got lost over the north pole and stumbled into the soviet airspace and was heading right into the soviet union for a period of time. and also sort of how imperfect the information is that the leaders were making decisions about during so many of these crises because the intelligence they are getting is wrong and the other adversaries we saw six weeks ago we were about to go to war in north korea because we stationed this aircraft carrier battle group that was going to strike north korea. and everyone in washington thought this was right there and ready to launch an attack. you see that throughout the cold war during the era when the communications are less than they are today. >> to give you a quick abc because they couldn't hear the general. >> the question was about the exercises and the resulting soviet exercise in november 83. >> [inaudible] >> it was the motive i had named it smelle mount pony. [laughter] >> we knew the government was lying when you come across some of these reviews how they struck from those that study there and were in a survivalist mode and this sort of broad range of reactions. >> this is a book i was sort of rprised none had written before because it is actually something that gets talked about a lot in popular culture and doomsday prepping as the reality television shows now. and the sort of thread and strain of american culture is active and alive in a way that you can see distinct parallels with the 1950s and 1960s >> the whole thing is going to be a nuclear war at the time it hits, so what was the fact behind that and today where everything is faster. >> the utility in the wake of a scenario. talk about that. >> they go through three different chapters and solutions you have in the 40s and 50s and even a little bit into the early 60s the main delivery mechanism so you would have six to ten to eight hours of the morning before something struck so if congress was in session everyone would be loaded onto a special train that would be driven out to the greenbrier. they particularly don't work once you get into the sub are in launch missiles where they have a delivery time of about 30 minutes off the atlantic coast would strike in 12 minutes. you don't have to worry about that because the original set of plans the pentagon believed the soviets smuggled atomic bombs into their embassy on 16th street and a un mission in new york and that there were atomic bombs in the attic of the buildings that would be how the soviets actually launched a surprise attack with no warning. now of course the russian ambassador is radioactive for different reasons. but then you get into the third era of in this idea of the 13 to 15 minute it is time enough to get the president into the air somewhere and try to hope that you can get him out of washington. then the third one that begins on 9/11 but starts a few years before that and if you remember in the mid-1990s there was this doomsday court in tokyo that launched a gas attack on the subway, and it began to change the government's thinking to focus on the devolution of power where washington might disappear without any warning whatsoever. so how do you ensure there are people in the facilities outside of washington ready to step into running the country so that is when they begin to keep a lot of facilities running 24 hours a day and have the detail lines of succession if washington is destroyed, the fbi in little rock would take control or other departments and agencies. that's where you begin to get this post washington apocalypse group of big attorneys and the ambassador and if new york was wiped out then an it went to the ambassador to the uk. you have this weird set of people that are announcing. now they are in the plans of a scenario with a terrorist group or a rogue state like north korea or iran something could have been to washington and then there are 329 million people left. >> was wondering you go into the cost of having all of this and is it in the ledgers at all? >> how much does the continuity of government cost and where does it come from. so the answer is there is probably enough for any sort of realistic accounting of how much this all costs. it's spread across the tremendous number of agencies many of them classified at the pentagon and athen been which pe don't know is classified money that we don't know where it goes and where it goes us to the continuity programs but we don't know sort of what that means. then it becomes complicated in thinking through what do you include under these costs because of the personnel that are operating them and communication systems. we had a plan for the 70s and 80s to build the world's largest radio station across upper michigan and wisconsin that would have encompassed more than 10% of the total state's land that would have guaranteed that communications to sub dreams after a nuclear war so the submarines could still launch a. it's a hard operational costs and not the personnel costs. it is the extent to which our moderate world was created in these plans. the stockpile in these resources into the tools we use to make airplane reservations today. those computers which then were like the size of a particularly enormous building when they were six stories tall computers had thfirst ram of any computers in the world and first sort of optical pointing devices many generations later. >> so they did have a purpose. >> the movie starring matthew broderick, that was a true story of two computer failures in 1979 and 1980 both of which registered. because of the people making a conscious decision looking at these computers saying it seems unlikely that these are actually really missiles coming at us, so i'm not going to escalate this but during one of these scares. they are on their way to the united states and they have this moment where he never woke his wife. she was sleeping in the bed right next to him and in 30 minutes we are all going to be dead, so why worry her. >> to trust what we are told in the wake of this is authorized to take over as the congress ovediversity and journalists tht were briefed on these things ahead of time. the question was about the legitimacy of the plans. during the cold war there were preselected journalists that would be part of the press cor corps. this is one of the interesting questions that we should be wrestling with today. yes there are good reasons for some of the secrecy's beyond the programs today. specific plans for specific facilities and communications capabilities. i don't think that there is a reason for secrecy around sort of the alpine of who is actually in charge and i do think we should have an understanding of that because i think if the district in illinois was announcing to the president of the united states right now and i think a lot of us would have some questions about dot. whethethat is supposed to happen and wther there are, who is on the list and how they are supposed to unfold i don't think needs to be a secret. >> did they ever undergo alterations based upon the identity of the specific individuals? the succession for all of the agencies. and they do almost every time. so i keep referring to the department of justice. president trump, one of the first things he did his change the succession. i might be slightly screwing this up, so don't quote me exactly, but i think that president obama a head of the u. attorney for the northern district of minnesota for the top federal prosecutor would have been the top ranking justice department official outside of washington and then if they think now the northern district of illinois is the person that is the top ranking justice. and administration by administration, at least on who the presidents like and don't like and who they trust in the various jobs. they are literally altering who are the people who would be in charge and then there is a sort whole other layer of this that we don't know that much about. so, president eisenhower when he was president he had nine private citizens that he designated as emergency czars who had pretty written authorization to step in and nationalize industries and sectors after and attacks that there was someone in charge of housing and transportation. there are the ceos and private sector leaders but it was also like eisenhower's accountant was one of these people who would step in and run an entire sector of the economy. again this is one of those things where we don't go with a modern analogue to these plans are. like gm or do they have secret envelopes of the communication czar after an apocalypse. >> i just want to switch topics and for those of us that are joining in the audience you are watching the national press club headline series featuring the office of -- author of raven rock. we were talking impacted your opening remarks you talked about the fact of your biography and you gave some unsolicited free advice. talk about what's happening right now and what the president is walking into with robert mueller as a special prosecutor knowing what you know about him and his retionship to jim comey and has the president stepped in so to speak? what is he facing? >> up until last wednesday at about 5:30 p.m., i think i was the only person in america that cares about his career before. as we were talking about it at the beginning i wrote his biography when he was the fbi director. he is a fascinating individual and one of those last of a breed of public servants who spent his entire public career as a federal prosecutor and justice department official, longest-serving directors since g8 curtain for himself. and i think that this is a really big challenge for presidents trump and the white house and the administration because he is now going to be facing robert mueller and jim comey, two men that have worked together for many, many years in washington and in the justice department's together on turf that is very familiar to them. these men have spent their lives leaving complex federal investigations including the prosecution of manuel noriega and the prosecution of the bombers of 103. he knows how to conduct these wide-ranging federal investigations. and this is an area that the president and his associates don't have a lot of experience in the way that these investigations unfold. and particularly when you look at the history of them and the way they so often end up focusing on issues that are somewhat ancillary to the underlining charge of the investigation into the way that it went after monica lewinsky and the investigation in the way it ends up focusing on scooter libby and dethroning the vice president's top aide who was not the leaker was someone who had been caught up in this investigation. i think that is a real challenge for this administration going forward. >> before we get to the last question, some announcement. there are some things coming up on the national press club calendar. coming up on the 24th of may, that's this week, we have the certified angus beef dinner with a series this week it will be certified angus beef. the members of the club with 25 years or more tenure in the club have their annual spring gathering of song and food and drink and we encourage you to come. the journalism institute has its golf tournament on the 31st and that the benefits the scholarship on training and journalists and professional development and on the headline series june 19 this general joseph of the joint chiefs of staff and we will talk about all things defense. so i'm going to present you with a traditional national press club mug and with that comes one final question. if someone handed you a designated svivor's car, would you accept? >> at it and actually going into raven rock. i didn't get the chance to go in and i would like to see that very much. >> so you would expect the responsibility that you might have to beat your family behind in all that stuff? i think at the end of the day i probably ever wanted use it. i don't have -- i didn't come away from this process with enough confidence in the totality of the plans. >> push it right back across the table, thanks but no thanks. [laughter] we will sign some books and after we adjourned, we thank you for watching and attending the national press club series. we are adjourned. [applause] [inaudible conversations] next on "after words," utah senator recalls the forgotten early american figures who fought against the large federal government in his book book wrin out of history. he's interviewed by the former acting solicitor general. >> host: senator, you've written this incredible book written out of history. tells about why you wro it. >> guest: i may be the leader in the founded generation. when it hit the broadway

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Texas , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Washington , Minnesota , Illinois , Whitehouse , District Of Columbia , Raven Rock , West Virginia , Virginia , Russia , Michigan , Nebraska , North Korea , Cuba , America , Soviet , American , Cuban , States Jean , Liberty Bell , Robert Mueller , James Madison , Garrett Graff , Dick Cheney ,