In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Announcer the radio and Television Correspondents association is a professional organization of journalists that cover congress. They host an annual blacktie dinner. This year, House Speaker paul ryan gave the keynote speech. This is 40 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen please take your seats. Our program will begin shortly. Please stand to honor america, as abc news news does the national anthem. O say can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o, say does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave [cheers and applause] announcer ladies and gentlemen the 2017 radio and television congressional coordinators correspondents chairman, john parkinson. Thank you for that amazing performance. Fellow broad casters, members of congress distinguished guests, speaker ryan, welcome to the 73rd annual radio and television congressional correspondents dinner. Weve got a terrific evening planned for tonight. Bobby bones is here id like to introduce the head table starting on my right with olga cornaky. Drew hamel abigail robinson, brandon buck, counselor to House Speaker paul ryan. Jacquelyn polly castro, Washington Bureau chief with gray television. And on my left, our guest emcee here too. Bobby bones is here, guest emcee. On my left, craig kaplan, current chairman of the executive committee and next years dinner chairman. Walt cronkite, the vice chair the 2019 dinner chair. Matt house, Communications Director for the Senate Democratic leader, chuck schumer. Paul corson, capitol hill journalist with sinclair broadcasting. Mariam kahn. Thank you all for being here tonight. Each year we have olga and mike at the head table but its really their staff who we truly owe deep appreciation. Ellen ecker, charles moxley, jason botel o, and on the house staff, andy elias, leah beardsley, Chris Carpenter and anthony keleher. Thank you for all your hard work. Id also like to thank our event planners. If you didnt notice this dinner is different this year. We have a new Production Team and id like to thank phillip patricia nate and katie for all of their hard work putting tonights great event together. Thank you to my wife, sally, for her patience and support in planning tonights event. Id like to offer a toast for the 115th congress. The radio and Television Correspondents association has 450,000 organizations credentialed to cover congress. None of them are fake news. Heres a toast to all of our broadcasters who keep our government accountable. Cheers. House Speaker Paul Ryan currently serves as the countrys 54th speaker of the house and was a 2012 republican Vice President ial nominee. When i told him im from berra bue, wisconsin, he says he knows three things about barra bue. He knows about the International Crane foundation and hes been to Circus World Museum where i picked up valuable life skills like this one. I thought about juggling fire tonight but apparently theres a fire code that doesnt apply to your tables and candles. Were thrilled to have my fellow wisconsinnite and coowner of the 13time World Champion green bay packers, the republican ringmaster himself, House Speaker, paul ryan. [applause] speaker ryan good evening. How yall doing . Good. John, thanks for having me. I dont know who bobby bones is. Nice to meet you, kind of, sort of in person. Good to see you. First of all, i want to thank the executive board of the radio tv Correspondents Association and i want to on behalf of the people i work with i want to thank olga and her team out at the house Radio Television gallery. [applause] ladies and gentlemen tonight i have prepared my remarks in a way that will forever revolutionize the way that you hear speeches. Its going to be organized in a stream of bullet points. They tell me that was an joke. Brandon buck swore to me that was going to be a funny joke. I wasnt so sure. Thank you for proving me right. But some of you may be wondering why i came here so soon after my star turn at the Al Smith Dinner. Never too early for the speaker to work on his next gig, plus i had a hold bunch of leftoffer dad jokes to work on tonight. After the Al Smith Dinner where i spent a third of the time ripping on the president , he gave me a call the next morning pretty early on and he really liked the speech. He actually told me that he watched it on television and he thought it was great which i thought was really weird. The president watches tv . So this dinner, the rtca dinner, the first dinner was 73 years ago. You ought to hear the stories that hoyer and pelosi go on about that first night. It was incredible. I shouldnt rip like that because chuck and nancy are not here this evening. I regret thats not possible. Apparently its bingo night at the white house tonight. So look, i understand adam schiff couldnt be here, as well. Cant blame the guy. That guys got a really, really big job. You think those five to sevenminute hits on msnbc are going to do themselves . I got to admit, im looking around here and i see really well dressed people. They told me this thing was black tie, which i got to tell you, i thought you guys were all about relaxing the dress code. That was something, wasnt it . Those of you in the radio tv gallery, i thought the practice of speakers commenting on peoples attire ended when john boehner left the speakership. But when i take a look at this, i think about President Trump and how he told us that we werent going to stop winning and wed get so tired of winning. We still have a little bit of progress to make on that front unless, of course, you are john boehner. Speaking of getting dressed up, i got to tell you, halloweens coming this week and i going to go with something new and i was going to be this new media maven, guy name Anthony Scaramucci but janet told me i had to keep it Family Friendly so thats off the record, by the way. Anyway, what im going to do this year is im going to go to halloween with the old reliable im going to go as eddie munster. Now, i got to tell you, i didnt think half of you would understand this joke but i figured what the heck, carl holtz would be here tonight and hed understand that joke. Im sorry i cant stay here for dinner. Im moving on. Ive got a lot to do. Thursday mornings is yoga morning for me so i got to go to yoga which helps me get through the day. I dont want you to steal my mantra but my mantra in yoga is, tax reform, tax reform, tax reform. Nevertheless i wanted to come by. The reason i wanted to come by is because i have seen your latest Approval Ratings and i just want to tell you, keep your heads up. As low as they are, it could be a whole lot worse. They could be my Approval Ratings. But im sure you dont want to take advice from a politician, someone you cover. But i do have one piece. Luke russert, wherever you are maybe take just a little more time. By the way, on the way over here, i was going through all the president s tweets. Just kidding i actually dont read those things. But some of the things i just dont like talking about. Some things i dont like talking about, like Aaron Rodgers injury. You know what, the president called me right after that, as well, and he was very, very thoughtful. He offered to send me Jared Kushner to start for the packers in his place. I got to tell you, the president is he offers a lot of ideas. We talk all the time. He calls me up with a lot of different ideas. Let me give you one example. Hes a big reality tv guy. He keeps telling me, these jobs are like reality tv, like being speaker of the house is just like reality tv. Youve got shark tank, man versus wild, swamp people, survival and of course, youve got the biggest loser. Thats the president s favorite one but i know that this year there were some big issues with media access at the capitol so i want to get serious for a moment. Like all the expansion stuff over in the senate. I know you were thinking it was going to be an Adult Daycare Center or Something Like that but sometimes these things go a little too far. We believe in having open access but sometimes you have to watch the limits. Like last week, im in my office, talking with my staff, and theres chad burgrom outside walker my window. I think we even have a photo of it. You know, give me a break. I go down pennsylvania avenue, i go get a haircut and apparently Phil Mattingly moon lights as a barber. I know things are rough at cnn but geez. So this is the one that gets me, how the heck did norah and charlie and gail get into my damn yoga class what is this . Even hunting, the one thing i do to get away from things, the one thing i do to get away from all of this. Casey, it is just really not that safe. So, we all need to be proud in the capital that we set the standard for media access. On a serious note, we are proud that we do set the tone and the tempo for media access in the capitol and we need to strive to keep it that way and as we do there are a few actual serious thoughts id like to leave with you. One of the things youve heard me talk about and those of you on the capitol beat, is that we need to improve our political discourse. Yes, there is room for improvement in this category but too many of us in this job, we think were all infallible. We think that we always always, always have it right. And ive got to tell you, we are not perfect. We do not always get right that. Fact has been well reported. But even in this room, i think we can admit that the media sometimes gets it wrong from time to time. And then there are times that we actually just disagree on what is right and what is fair. A little more humility from all of us, from both of us, a little more listening could help, as well. More than anything, were here to challenge each other. That push and that pull, that makes our system stronger. This makes our system more resilient. This is a feature, not a bug. So challenging one another does not mean we have to give each other license to impugn each others motives. We dont have to be so obsessed with keeping score. And both sides of this equation, this happens all the time. Itit doesnt have to be so adverse aerial. Things will never be tranquil. I recognize that. When a former historian tried to trace back the problems between the politicians and the press he said he stopped when he got to the first congress. The point is this, this relationship is crucial. This relationship will endure. The institutions will endure. We have a very messy system. But this messy system of government is the best possible system and this messy system of government completely relies on a free and open press. [applause] our founders understood this and this too will endure. Our republic does not work without what you do. And beneath all of this scar tissue, beneath all of this assumed cynicism which we have at a high level these days, we all do share a common humanity and we ought to make that just that, more common. We all need to make our vibrant Public Square something where disagreements are emphasized, not exploited. We need to make sure our ideas are debated in full free, open debate but not just in our echo chambers. And yee need to make sure that the values we uphold and principles we pass are Strong Enough to get us through any stormy moment. So the invitation i want to give to you on behalf of us i see joni here, a lot of my colleagues. The invitation is put the pen down and lets just stop spinning and lets stop playing gotcha and lets get to know each other just a little bit more and lets just work at remembering each of us have important jobs to do, Important Roles to play and each of us are human beings and just that little acknowledgment can help us improve the discourse that we have and Mutual Respect we have for each and every one of each other. Yes, even you. Thats basically what i want to say, is we have a phenomenal country with beautiful principles and we are living examples of people who are carrying out those principles. These principles will endure. We simply have to have the confidence in them. We have to believe in one another. And when we do this, we will make this country a better place and this system that is so crucial to our liberty and our freedom and posterity, will endure. Thank you very much for having me. Really appreciate it. Have a great evening. [applause] thank you mr. Speaker. Serving as tonights guest master of ceremonies is bobby bones. Bobbys week day Radio Program the bobby bones show, is heard on more than 100 stations worldwide, totaling more than five Million Viewers per week and also heard on iheartradio. Hes a New York Times best selling author, standup comedian and youngest member inducted into the National Radio hall of fame. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome bobby bones. [cheers and applause] my favorite part about the whole introduction there was this entire table turned their backs as soon as they said my name. Yeah, thats ok. I dont know who i am either sometimes. I do want to say wolf blitzer is sitting right there. Wolf, i have been tweeting you for like two years. How many winky emojis do i have to send to get an acknowledgment. Come on, wolf thank you very much. Thank you for turning around. Dana, how are you . This is like everybody i see on tv all in one room. Its like happy feet, the penguin movie, except all the penguins here arguing about tax reform. Theres a story i want to tell that ive never told in public and i think this is the one time to tell it and its an absolutely true story. About two years ago, it was about 11 00 p. M. And i was watching the news. And it was before President Trump was President Trump. He was just donald trump, a guy that was talking about running for president and he was wearing a make America Great again hat and i have a clothing line and i thought let me see if make America Great again is a registered trademark so i go to the government site and i type it in and it wasnt registered. Make America Great again was unregistered and the president was wearing it on his head. At the time he wasnt the president and i thought the ill take that, and i bought it and then i waited. Because you dont own it right away and i thought theres got to be something to this. Theres no way at the time donald trump is wearing a hat out in front of millions of people and he doesnt own the trademark. So i called my attorney and he said, no ones claimed it. Two months later, it popped up on the website. I owned make America Great again. Now, you clap. I wasnt clapping about an hour later. Because all of a sudden, the attorneys for donald trump at the time were calling me like crazy. Saying hey, were going to sue you, you know i did nothing wrong. Business move. So i owned make America Great again and i started telling tshirts with my face on the statue of liberty and donating all the money to st. Judes Children Research hospital and i said i will tell you make America Great again back for 100,000 if you donate that to st. Judes so tmz wants the story, i wont talk about it. President trumps lawyers are blowing me up. It wasnt nice. And so i realized i just didnt want to get sued and i ended up having to give it over to that group and they wrote a check for about 2,000 for it and i learned a lesson, a couple of lessons. One, never want to mess with the legal team of President Trump. And two, i didnt want to end up with one of those cute twitter nick names like bobby boner so im glad i got away from it but for a while i was the owner of make America Great again. Ive never shared that story until right now and i got to tell it in front of wolf blitzer. Wow. Lets get to business here because we have a lot to talk about. There are a lot of great people in this room that i have been able to meet and for me its been fantastic. My radio show, its not a political show. What im able to do every morning is talk to millions of people. I have the privilege of talking to your constituents, your readers, your viewers every single morning. I try to make them laugh. Sometimes i cry with them as was the case a couple of weeks back with the shooting in las vegas. I was there at the festival. The Country Music community was devastated. I was devastated. But what came out of all the tragedy was something that was super inspiring. People from all over the country with all kinds of political views came together as a community to support and comfort each other, donate money to send prayers and thoughts to those suffering and reminded me of the awesome gift and responsibility we all have in the media and public life and that is to keep people safe people them informed and especially us in the media keep them informed. I went on the air at 5 00 a. M. And turned everything off except talking to people who were there and affected by it and talking to families and i hope tonight we take that away. For the tv people in front and the radio people theyve put very much in the back can you guys can you get good seats . I heard someone in radio earlier say theres not a bad person in the house. The only person that says that is a person with a bad seat. You never hear someone in the front say, yeah, ill trade it you. The rtca Lifetime Achievement award was established to honor the career of a washington broadcaster who demonstrates a deep expertise of congress, recognizing rare, exceptional careers and signifies the admiration of many broadcasters who follow behind and benefit from the work of the recipient. Here to present tonights career Achievement Award, the 2016 winner of the Jerry Thompson award, Peter Dougherty of abc news. [applause] thank you very much. Tonight, it is my great honor to present the radio and Television Correspondents associations career Achievement Award to abcs congressional editor, tom tom i should note that tom received the unanimous support of his leagues on the rtca executive board. Tom has devoted his 40year career to telling stories of congress. He doesnt write shoot, edit or produce those stories. He performs the most Important Role of the journalist, finding the story. Tom has this ability to truly get at the heart of whats going on in congress and not just what congress does or doesnt do, or what members say or dont say. Toms stories often start well outside of washington because he knows thats the best way to tell a story, with the people who are living every day so that our viewers can truly understand how they are impacted by that story on a personal level. In working side by side with tom over these 40someodd years ive treasured his warm friendship, wise counsel. But i have become resigned to one fight. Fact. Despite all the money that abc spends for computer support, i will always be the one that tom calls when that damn thing doesnt work. Tom is a truly remarkable person. Not more than 30 minutes ago we were chatting upstairs and tom i should say is well known for his long hours and the boss of bosses said to tom, youre coming in late tomorrow, arent you . Tom said, oh, no, ill be there early, and he will. So, in the spirit of how one of toms stories might turn out heres our story of tom shine. Tom shine is an institution in washington, d. C. Tom shine walked in the door of the abc Washington Bureau as a desk assistant, may 12, 1973. Scheduled program to bring you the next week the nation tuned in for galvtogalvtelevised hearings from the nations capitol. About to begin public horgs something walled watergate. A little over a year later president nixon left the white house and the presidency. An overexcited tom shine there was to cover it from the south lawn, chastised later for cueing his reporter out loud and on air. Lets see if virginia can tell us some things. Go. A desk editor, assignment manager for the last 39 years there behind Sam Donaldson and Frank Reynolds in 1981 as they announced the assassination attempt on ronald reagan. The president was hit. He was hit in the left chest. Tom has covered history for abcs news desk more than four decades, through nine president s, dozens of congressional leadership teams. Now congress is not held in such high regard, but tom, your respect for the institution has always been manifest. Toms always believed in the importance of Good Government and responsible journalism. The thing that always impresses me about tom is how hes mentored the generations of journalists here at abc including me. Hes simply among the most modern and creative Story Tellers ive ever known. Tom understands the policy making of washington politics, with know eye on the heart of the deal. He has his eyes on stories that affect real people. You have been the person who has kept me in line and guided me through my stories. Tom, nobody knows more about covering Washington News than you do. Theres one thing, i do wish you knew a little bit more about baseball. Outside the newsroom, tom is devoted to family, including his wife of 47 years, mary ray, and his passion is photographer, unforgettable, vibrant and serene stills of the capitol. The young man who wanted to be Walter Cronkite is now an institution in this capitol. You should be seeing the live shots. Tom shine finished the deal, tom shine definitely agrees. [applause] so, tom if you will come up it will be my honor to present this award to you. Well deserved and i cannot think of a better person than i would like to work side by side with. [applause] congratulations. Thank you. Well, i cant imagine any of that. And i am really really honored. Ive been at abc for 45 years. Thats really long really long. [laughter] i dont tweet, which is a good thing, i think, these days. Yeah. Thank you. [applause] i dont know how to tweet either. Thats the other thing about it. [laughter] there. Hows that . Good . Im not on facebook, not on instagram and i dont fly. I tell you that because that is how i got a job on the Abc Television assignment desk. Back then, the desk manager was having a difficult time finding a desk editor that would actually stay on the desk reading the New York Times, washington post, the wall street journal front pages over the phone each day at 7 00 a. M. To Sam Donaldson was not working. The editors wanted out. They wanted to travel. They wanted to become producers. But i said to the desk manager, i can solve your problem. I have a fear of flying. I will never ask to go on a trip. I was hired right away. [laughter] on the overnight, but i was hired. A couple of years later bob murphy who many of you know was working on capitol hill in the house Radio Television gallery. He came to abc news and he decided to restructure the tv desk and he wanted editors not just to do logistics, but editorial work as well. He gave us all a beat. I got capitol hill. Thats the best. I really love covering capitol hill. One reason is because from time to time, i get to cover real people, someone like deborah fuller, who testified before senator Claire Mccaskill a few weeks ago. It was a forum on opioids. She came to talk and tell the story about her daughter, sara, who ended up in a hospital, where she eventually died because a drug representative joined with a doctor convinced an Online Pharmacy to get her a new very powerful fentanyl drug. She didnt need that drug. She had back pain. She had neck pain. But she didnt have the pain of cancer that was drug was designed for. She didnt know it was fentanyl. Her mother didnt. Her dad didnt. Several months later, she was dead. When her mother testified, she told senator mccaskill that it was massive fraud by the Pharmaceutical Company that caused her daughters death. And her daughters death certificate should have read death due to corporate greed. You know, tomorrow the president is going to give an opioid speech. The company is, what will happen after the speech . Will congress do anything . How will it be covered . And talking about congress, in the next couple of months, they plan to pass at least one big bill. What will be in that bill . I dont have to tell any of you how to do your jobs, because you know it better than i do. But i want to encourage everyone please keep asking the questions, keep on top of everything. Make sure the public knows whats in the bill. You have to do on top of that. You just have to do that. I thank you very much, jon, for the award. [applause] thank you. I want to thank the rtca. I want to thank heidi jensen at abc who put together that video. [applause] she used a lot of pictures that i gave her of when i was young and you know i was young at one time. It was very nice. Thank you. [laughter] i want to thank robin sprou, who is here. She was the bureau chief of abc for many, many years. She always encouraged me. I thank you very much robin. And jonathan greenberger, who is now the bureau chief who is allowing me to cover these types of stories, thank you. And i have to mention my colleagues at the desk. Dee cardin, joe sanchez and Peter Dougherty, who introduced me. And perhaps the biggest thanks should go to mary ray because shes my wife. Shes at the table with my oldest daughter, chris. Carrie, my other daughter, couldnt be here, but shes always, always supported me. Always. [applause] and ill stop. Thank you. Thank you, all of you, very much. Thanks. [cheers and applause] that was a fantastic speech, and, again it shows how important the jobs are that we do. I think all of us got a little emotional. One more round of applause, because that really was fantastic. [applause] i think our jobs are very important because its a Public Service to others. Were there to inform. Were there to educate. For me, i didnt always have awesome jobs. I did golf course maintenance for a while. I worked at a marina for a while. I finally got a job at hobby lobby, which is a craft store. And i thought it was going to get me a lot of girls until i had to answer the phone, hobby lobby, this is bobby. And i got no girls. [laughter] still dont have any. They told me tonight when i was coming, this is the nerd prom. I thought that was unfair. There is is more like the nerd wedding of your uncle the third time he gets married. [laughter] everybody is so rich. Talking about twitter. Im on twitter all the time. I saw gets married. [laughter] where President Trump tweeted out that hes going to release the j. F. K. Assassination files, which have been classified for decades. Further more, he is going to ask for the secret recipe of k. F. C. To be released. Very important. [laughter] were going to take a break for you to enjoy your meals at this point. I want you to eat. I want you to well take like 30 minutes. Have your food. For me, im happy to be here with such great people. Before i sit down, ill say this. It is a very divisive time in our country and it feels like everyone is on constant edge and at times were extremely divided. And i, like you, am very upset that the kardashians keep having babies. [laughter] enjoy your meal. See you in a second. Thank you. [applause] hi. This is lois tim, executive director with the texas book festival. Were super excited to have the book festival november 4 and 5 in and around the State Capitol in downtown austin. Well welcome over 300 authors for 150 panels and were expecting a huge turnout of 50,000 on saturday and sunday. Zoot suitors were viewed as public enemies, if not number one, then number two or 1b, right behind japaneseamericans. They were seen as unamerican. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. On american artifacts, saving slave houses explores the green hill plantation. This site has the original slave owner here that was very active in the slave trade. One of the things that he decided to put in his yard is a slave Auction Block, an auctioneer stand. You can feel the power of this place. I think the Auction Block standing where it is now, it would have been really the last place men, women and children would have been with their families. And after this place, they would have been sold in the united states. This is really ground zero. At 8 00 an interview with historian william steel. Over the front door, its carved with lillies and flowers and acorns. Its very lush. Probably the finest example of carving in america for 100 years. American history tv, every weekend, only on cspan3. At a news briefing on capitol hill, House Minority leader nancy pelosi talked about republican proposals to rewrite the tax code. Shes joined by representative John Yarmouth and richard neil, ranking members on budget ways and means. This is 35 minutes