Thank you for being here. This is important. What we are doing oday. This whole festival is on behalf welcome to the festival and to our oneonone with susan rice. We have an hour together. Thats going to include at least 15 minutes of time for your questions and answers, so youve got 45 minutes to think of some killer questions and im looking forward to hearing them. You all know ambassador rice. She served as u. N. Ambassador then security ide viser and then secretary of state under the bill clinton administration. You may also know that she has a book coming out soon, tough love my story of things worth fighting for. Its not out officially for another week or so but you can get it today and shell be signing copies of it after were done here. So i think thats at 800 congress. They asked me to let you know. So you can do that after this. This book because none of you have read it, let me give you a preview is a book in three parts. A book about ambassador rices personal story, her family life, about her experience in government, and then about the Obama Administration, the policies and her explanation and kind of thoughts in the rear view mirror about some of those policies. To me one of my favorite parts about this book was the personal chapters and i want to spend some time talking about that. But because its friday at the end of a very historic and sustained newsweek i think i want to start out talking about the development this is week about ukraine, the houses actions on opening toward impeachment and then give us time to talk about the book. You closely followed everything thats happened this week tand transcript and the whistleblowers complaint. I guess im just curious based on the information that is now publicly available what would your next set of questions be . What do you want to know that we dont know yet . Well, thank you for doing his. Thank you for that very generous introduction. What a week. And what a set of revelations. I think the most striking thing from my point is this is yet other particularly stark indication that we have a president who cares nothing for the National Interests and is all about his personal political and financial interests, and its there in black and white in that remarkable transcript. So just to put this in context, as you know, ukraine has for five years been suffering from an invasion, an occupation by russia. That war is still going on. There are ukrainian soldiers being killed every week. And the United States, as the ader in the west and as an adversary of russia, at this stage by choice of putin, frankly, has been supporting ukraine economically, politically, and militarily with assistance to help it combat this russian aggression. And what President Trump did it appears is to withhold congressionally appropriated funds of military assistance of the ukrainians desperately need in order to come it seems, to extort information for a bogus investigation that he could use against his political opponents domestically. It is an extraordinary interference in our democratic process. Sponsored by committee sponsored by, encouraged by, and solicited by the president of the United States. And nowhere in that phone call does he talk to the new ukrainian president about the issues that have long concern the United States, russian aggression, sanctions, how to support the ukrainian government. None of that. Is all about what the president of ukraine can do to help donald trump advance his partisan political objectives. Do you believe it is within a president s purview to use military assistance as a lever to prod policy action . Susan yes, if it is policy action in service of u. S. National policy interest and goals. The United States has leverage. We employ sanctions we get aid, we give aid, and we do not. But we dont do it to advance the president s personal political interest. And we dont hide it. We do it openly and transparently and communicate to the world and the governments in question why we may be providing or withholding assistance. What is so striking about this is that it was not utilized to advance our national interest. It was utilized to advance his personal political interests. And frankly, this is part of a pattern. It makes you have to go back and review very carefully what we learned about 2016. It makes you wonder about all of these other interactions that have seemed somewhat dubious. Whether it is with mohammad bin salman of saudi arabia are any number of leaders. From kim jongun to other adversaries that he has praised and wonder what is underneath all of this. There are internal transcripts or notes from us all of those calls were meeting, if not all of them. As a former National Security advisor, im assuming you have always advocated the importance of the president or other foreign leaders having a modicum of privacy in their conversations. They are not to be made fully public so that there can be room for actual conversations. How do you balance those two interests . The president and the need for the precedent for the need for president s for leaders to have internal deliberations that are not entirely shared with the public versus what you are talking about here. Are you advocating for the transcripts or notes of President Trumps calls with mbs . With putin, with cc to all be released to congressional investigators . Susan obviously, in normal times, there is utility in the communications between foreign leaders having a measure of confidentiality. These are not normal times. What is unprecedented is the president of the United States abusing his office. That is what is unprecedented. I care about all of these things you mentioned, but i care more about what we dont yet know about what the president of the that states has done behind closed doors that runs counter to u. S. National interest. This ukraine example is the perfect case. And recall the other problem. The other problem is, according to the whistleblower report, that instead of this transcript, which by the way we have not seen. Normally, there is a full, verbatim transcript. What they did instead of storing it in the normal system, which is protected and classified, even though there was no classified substance in the discussion. Instead of putting it where it normally resides, they hit it hid it on a highly sensitive and compartmented server that very few people in the u. S. Government have access to. In order to bury it. How many times did you move over to a more secure server . Susan they would not have put it there unless they were legitimately and their contents classified. [inaudible] susan of course not. But it is rare that a normal conversation would be classified to the highest level. Is not impossible, but very rare. Even when two leaders are discussing classified information. Here is a case with there was nothing classified and it was moved to the most secure, sensitive server. The contents of those notes would never have been moved to the classified service system. Ok. I want to ask you another question before we get out of this. Where there ever concerns about Vice President bidens dealings in ukraine . President trump has now raised issues. Was that ever an issue or serious concern inside the administration . Susan no, and let me explain why. There is an extreme distraction play here, to try and conflate what ended at obamas behest for transparent policy objectives, pushing back on corruption in a country with United States and allies were providing millions of dollars of economic assistance and trying to bolster this nascent democracy in ukraine. Vice President Biden made phone calls and took trips in support of that u. S. Policy objective. It was transparent, it was stated openly. It was backed by our western partners in the imf. There was no secrecy about it. They were not hiding the records and transcripts. It was all the basic work of diplomacy. To suggest that there is some equivalence between the president of the United States, this president , extorting a foreign leader to advance his partisan, personal interests and the Vice President or president of the United States in biden or obama pursuing a policy that is open and transparent and backed by congress that was pursuant to our interests is completely apples and oranges. Before this past week, speaking about the book, i had asked you if you would take a short excerpt to read since nobody in the audience has had the chance to read the book yet. That kind of sets is in the mood for your experience and the story you wanted to tell the public. Would you do us the honor . Susan thank you, i would be delighted. Let me explain what this is. As margaret pointed out, the got fourhas really parts. First is my upbringing, my child history growing up in washington washington, d. C. In the 60s and 70s and the story of my parents and grandparents on one side. The descendents of slaves in south carolina. On the other side, immigrants from jamaica coming to portland , maine in 1912. And what they shared in common was this extraordinary commitment to education, to the american dream, arising and each generation bettering the next. That is the foundation in which i was raised. That it continues with a pretty then it continues with a pretty bald discussion of my parents painful divorce your divorce. The second part is after my education. That is the section from which im going to draw an excerpt to read from you. And the third part is about my time as National Security advisor, which often includes stories of my family, and balancing motherhood and having sick parents and all of that combined. What i would like to read is the story that is a small story that occurred when i was assistant secretary of state for african affairs. We are in 1998. I was a very young assistant secretary of state. I took the job at age 32. Most of my colleagues, the ambassadors who reported to me were 2030 years my seniors i was a brandnew, breastfeeding mother. And at first blush, not a particularly expectant leader of this bureau. We are on a trip in africa, small planes with three of my colleagues. We are flying from south africa to angola. From victorino to rwanda, pretoria, to rwanda, angola. Let me take it from here. Such trips were intent intense and exhausting as we hopped on small, private planes. Commercial Airline Connections in africa were scarce, unreliable, and often dangerous. As an assistant secretary rather than a cabinet officials, i did not rate a dedicated military plane. We often least four or 60 6 seatt leased propeller planes which were vulnerable to whether and mechanical challenges. It was a particularly memorable leg from rate for ray toriano, south africa to rwanda, angola it required a refueling stop in rural namibia. We left early in the morning to arrive in angola by midday and go straight into meetings with senior officials. Along the way, we plotted our message to the angolans. The four of us sat close, almost toe to toe. Faced forward with john and howard facing us flying , backwards on our tiny plan. It made for convenient conversation, but soon was to too intimate. One hour into the flight, i felt clammy and weak. As my perspiration increased, my stomach turned over, signaling it was quite a discontent. I announced to my colleagues i was not feeling well. I reached for the airsickness bag, which thankfully was handy. With muffled apologies, i opened the bag. Apologies to you all is well. [laughter] and threw up voluminously. To my horror, i felt my lap growing warm and wet. The bag had a hole in the bottom and i was covered in puke. My lightweight dress with polka dots, once ready for a meeting with the president of angola, was ruined. And i would have no time to change before our meeting. In a flash, i caught howard and john, sitting there slackjawed in shock, but canny enough to pull back their feet to try to save their shoes from the vomit pooling beneath us on the floor. As soon as i finished being sick and realize the gravity of the situation, there was only one thing i could do. Laugh hysterically. Kindly as friends, they all join me in howling at the insanity of the moment. But we still have the problem of the dress. And the leader of our delegation being a smelly, on presentable mess. We landed on a dirt patch in nowhere, namibia to refuel as planned. There was a single gas pump, a waterhole with hose, and some rudimentary bathrooms. The men gave us some privacy as gail turned the hose on me and my dress. Spraying me down until i was thoroughly drenched in the desert. She and i then went into the bathroom to strip down and ensure we had washed away all signs of vomit. Confident we had succeeded, all that remained was for me to air dry over the ensuing couple hours. [laughter] [applause] welcome to high style diplomacy. Margaret it sums up working at the white house. Vomit on yourself, get hosed down, go to work. Both of your parents died while you were working in the ministration. As first chunk of the book and when you were working on the was, a lot of the books dedicated to asking questions you werent able to ask your parents anymore when you came up from the government. For father was an airman, your mother was a pell grant. How hard was it to find out that stuff and why did he want to did you want to share that stuff with the public . I know that the experience, your experience both going through the tragedy of benghazi as a Public Servant and also your experience with how that played in the media and how Many Americans know your name now was part of your motivation to write the book and introduce yourself to the public. But why did you want to share your personal story with the public . And what did you learn that you did not know about your parents . Susan let me begin by sharing what i did this. Why i did this. First of all, with this unusual background that i come from and the extraordinary privilege i have had to serve two president s and our country into different andn two different contexts to represent the United States in the world and to keep us safe. I feel like i have learned some things along the way. From my family, from my upbringing, from my service that i want to share. That i think are valuable broadly to people who are trying to compete and thrive in unforgiving environments. And if they have been knocked down, to get back up. But personally i felt that for the years between benghazi in 2012, when i was characterized by the right as a villain and by the left as a victim, that i was really unable, until i left government, to do anything other than speak for the United States and the president. I did not have the ability to speak in my own voice until the and tell my own story. That rubbed me the wrong way, because as he might discuss some one of the critical lessons i learned from my parents is not to let anybody to find me for define me for me. That i had to be my own advocate my own champion, and my own , spokesperson. And that overlays with some lessons on race, which we can potentially come back to. So if i was going to tell my own story, and i wanted to, i had to be honest. This is not a book for selfpromotion, running for office some other kind of thing. But i have surely written an unorthodox book. This was a book to tell my story in all of its dimensions. And that require talking about required talking about the painful stuff, but also enabled me to go back and spend time dissecting. And, excavating some of these chapters in my life going back to my childhood and my parents divorce in particular. That i had just rushed through to keep trying to strive with and excel and do my best. It was a painful divorce, violent and terrifying. It shaped me in many ways because i was a little sevenyearold trying to mediate between my parents and protect my little brother. I had wonderful parents. Highly accomplished, brilliant, devoted, who gave me and my brother everything we could hope for but they had no business being married to each other. They broke up in a bitter way and put us through that experience in a very bitter, public custody battle and out of that, not only did i learn, for better or for worse, a Little Something about mediation and conflict resolution, but i learned that, you know, i could take a hit and keep going. I wouldnt let something that painful that early get me down. That was very valuable also down the road. You asked what i learned that i didnt know. Its interesting. I had a childs perspective on my parents breakup. With the process of writing this book, i actually saw the documentary records. I found my deceased fathers papers, legal depositions my parents had to provide in the course of their battle. And nobody should ever read the legal depositions of their divorced parents, its not pretty. But it was enlightening. Because i came to understand both their perspectives much more clearly and could digest them from the Vantage Point of a grownup who is married myself and has children. There was a lot that i learned. And im glad i had the opportunity to do it. Margaret your parents divorce was a foundational experience. You had another difficult experience, the you didnt know about it until later, i hope its ok for me to share this, its in the book, you actually would have been a twin. You had a brother and he was stillborn. And you learned about that many years later. Susan my mom and dad, as i said , wonderful people who had no business being married. One of them was that my mother wanted kids and my father thought he didnt want kids and my mother got pregnant and my father blamed her for tricking him. And i was the product of that first trick, so to speak. It wasnt a trick. And it turned out that my parents learned that my mother was in fact bearing twins. And they had been living in nigeria when i was conceived, long story, i wont go there yet. And they were making their way back to the United States from west africa, flying thru paris. And they were on a plane crash, the plane took off, t. W. A. Aircraft took off and instead of lifting off it crashed nose down into the ground in, i guess, may of 1964. None of the passengers were killed. They all evacuated safely, including my parents, but it was a traumatic, emotional and physical experience for my mother. When they got back to the United States, she was on bedrest for much of the rest of her pregnancy. And when she came to deliver, my baby brother was stillborn and i survived. And i didnt know about that until i was 12. My parents i think had wanted to keep that from me until they thought i was old enough to appreciate it. But in the context of a heated fight that i was having with my mother as a 12yearold i said something flip like why do you always treat me worse than the others. And she heard that in combination with some other things i had said other the years to suggest that i had some intuition that in fact i was a twin. And she blurted out how did you know you were a twin . I said what are you talking about . I had no idea. That was the first time i learned and what was hard about it was i asked her, what happened . Why did he die . And she said, you know, we dont know. For sure. It could have been the plane crash. It could have been the pediatrician who wasnt paying careful enough attention to what was going on, i never had full confidence in him. It could have been that you were just the stronger of the two and that you consumed the lions share of the resources. And i heard that as, am i being blamed for the death of my sibling . I know thats not what my mother meant but thats what i heard. And so that was a moment that i never really let go of. Margaret you take somebody elses job as well, take someone elses work as well as your own, do you feel you carry that with you . Susan i dont know that i thought about it that way. Id known from my childhood that i was a strong personality and a strong character and that i had a lot of selfconfidence even from an early age. And i was an athlete, a tomboy. Threw around a few elbows when necessary. But i didnt associate that with taking from somebody else. Margaret just a sense of responsibility to go the extra mile . Susan i do feel that, but im not sure where it comes from. Margaret i found that story incredibly haunting to read that excerpt. That was a lot to put on a 12yearold. Were not going to have time to talk about this so i want to share a glimpse of some of the passages in this book because we have a couple of things we have to talk about. You told the puking storying. Theres the time you gave Dick Holbrooke the finger. Highly recommend that passage. There was the decision you had to make about whether to attend john mccains funeral given the course of your relationship in the final years. And why you decided what you decided to do. There are some interesting passages on your relationship with the former Russian Ambassador with the u. N. The late Russian Ambassador who compared the u. N. Meetings to porn. Ill let you guys figure that out on your own. Theres some tough lessons from south sudan and rwanda. Then there is the plot to attack president obama in a trip that i done on a trip in 2015 that i was on in ethiopia, that i didnt know anything about it and guess who else didnt know anything about it until they were back on the plane. Susan were in ethiopia in 2015. This is one of many president ial trips we took overseas. We had just come from kenya, which was president obamas first trip to kenya as president. Lots of enthusiastic crowds, as youll recall. In ethiopia, the first night we were there, after the state dinner, i went back to my bedroom, as usual, and planned to get ready for bed. There was a knock on the door and it was anita deckerbreckenridge, the White House Traveling chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, playing the role of chief of staff, im still in my gown she said youve got to come with me. I didnt have my shoes on. Still had my ball gown on. We go down to this secret service tent, you know how we have secure tents on these trips for communications. And we go into the secure tent and in it is the head of the president s Security Secret Service detail. A number of other senior agents. Representatives from our embassy in addis ababa who were on the Security Side of the embassy. And they wanted to share with me that they had just learned very reliablely that alshabab, an east african terrorist organization with links to al qaeda that carried out a number of attacks throughout east africa, had a plot under way to attack president obama the next day as our motorcade was leaving the African Union headquarters and making its way to the airport. You were in that motorcade. So was i. So we get this information, obviously we take it very seriously. I call back to washington to make sure that were putting all of our assets on trying to chase down this threat strain. Were in communication with the Ethiopian Security forces who are actually quite capable and efficient if also very ruthless. And they keep assuring us that they are following the suspect and they have the suspect under surveillance and that we shouldnt worry. And of course we worried. So you know, we get to the next day, were at the African Union. The president gives his speech. Were about to get into the motorcade to head to the airport and all of the ethiopian assurances that they have everything under control are ringing hollow because suddenly, the americans have information that suggests that the suspect is at large and on the streets. On the route, by the way, of the motorcade. So the president is hustled into a hold room. Hes getting increasingly frustrated because he doesnt know why precisely hes being effectively detained by his own people in this hold room and prevented from going back home. And im in in a meeting with the ethiopian Prime Minister and several of my colleagues trying to underscore to the Prime Minister how concerned we are and that we cant move the president until we get this resolved. My friend and colleague, gayle smith who lived for many years in ethiopia. And is on in part, the phone with the head of Ethiopian Security and she is saying to this guy, weve got a serious problem. We have reason to believe this guy is on the loose. And hes like its not a problem. Shes like it really, were very concerned, its a problem. He said, its not a problem. And she said how can it not be a problem . Where is this guy . And finally the security chief says hes with me. At the airport. And were like hes with you at the airport . Yes, hes in my car. And im thinking hes buried in his trunk. Not getting out. And in fact, i dont know where in the car, i never asked. The secret service verified that this was the case at the airport and we were able to move the president and you on to air force one and leave and we took off. I dont know if you recall, we took off at the most extraordinarily steep ascent that ive ever been on except in a war zone. And that was, we were getting the hell out of dodge. You all never knew. We told the president after wheels up what happened. We had a few extra drinks on the way home. Margaret i read that, i was like what . I was on that trip but i guess in a situation like that youre like is it safer to hang out in ethiopia or get him on the plane and get out of here. Susan once we knew the guy was in custody we could get out with relative confidence. We werent going to hang around for nicities. Margaret im going to take you back to the spring of 2015, i know you dont want me to do this but ill do it anyway. Youre at a Correspondents Dinner which you hate. Susan i hate. And i was honored to be your guest. Margaret thank you for coming. Someone is coming at you for a hug and you realize the person coming at you for a hug is in donald trump. He wraps his arms around you and whispers in your ear, youve been very unfairly treated over benghazi, and you are doing a great job for the country. He puts his arms around you and you pose for a picture. Susan thats a true story. There were a lot of awkward things about that some might even say creepy. I had my back to him, he came up behind me. I had never met him before. Never met him since. And he really sort of pulled me up out of my chair and gave me a hug. And it wasnt i dont want to misconstrue. It wasnt a gross hug. It wasnt inappropriate. But except for the fact that i didnt know him, had never met him before. But what was notable about it was what he said. Youve been very unfairly treated over benghazi, youre doing a great job for the country. Hell, yeah, i was surprised. Margaret why were you surprised to hear him say that . Susan in public, on twitter, hes talking conspiracy theory. Six weeks later or Something Like that he declares his run for the presidency. In every subsequent mention to that i have heard out of his mouth, ive been a criminal, ive been this, ive been that. Ive not been very unfairly treated. Nor has president obama. Interesting was the contrast between what he said in private and what weve heard before and since in public. Margaret benghazi was a tragedy in 2012. Ending the life of several americans including a u. S. Ambassador. Your mom told you not to do the sunday shows. She said i smell a rat. Softball question. Do you resent Hillary Clinton for sending you out there . Susan no. She didnt send me out. The back story is, horrible week. We had lost four of our colleagues in a terrible tragedy. Many of our other embassies around the world had been subjected to violent attacks, demonstrations, its about 10 days before the opening of the u. N. General assembly. Im the u. N. Ambassador. And many of the issues that i work on from syria to Palestinian Statehood to the Iran Nuclear Issue will be at the fore. And the white house calls me on a friday afternoon. And says you know, weve asked secretary clinton if she would go on the sunday shows. And were waiting to hear from her. But if she cant, would you consider doing it . We need somebody to go on. And i said well, call me when you hear back from her. A couple of hours later they call back and say shes not able to do it. And my assumption was that was because she was emotionally spent after a very wrenching week, tired, didnt want to do it. And they said would you please do it . And i said ok. It was not how i planned to spend my weekend. In fact, i was taking my kids the next day to columbus, ohio, for the ohio state football game. Against berkley. And my kids had never been to a big ten game. I was determined to take them and i did take them. But on my way home from work i stopped by my mothers house my mom had just a few, a couple a couple months earlier had had a stroke and after her fourth or fifth cancer surgery and i stopped in to check on her. And we were having a conversation and i said, you know, she said what are you doing this weekend . I said im taking the kids to ohio state and then i agreed to go on these sunday shows, all five of them, at the white houses request. She looked at me and she said what . I said im going on the sunday shows. She said why you . I said because they asked secretary clinton, she declined. I agreed to do it. I was trying to be a team player. She said, i smell a rat, you should not go on these shows. I said dont be ridiculous, ive done this many times before, itll be fine. And of course it wasnt. So ill be honest. I think my mother had that suspicion but it wasnt mine. What i think perhaps my mother understood intuitively and maybe secretary clinton and tom donald, the National Security advisor and other likely suspects, understood better than i did, was that the first person who speaks publicly about a crisis, where the details are unfolding, is inevitably going to have information that in some way, shape, or form turns out to be incomplete or inaccurate. And that was what happened in this case. And i provided the best information that the u. S. Government had at the time. It was given to me by the intelligence community. It was consistent with what i knew to be our intelligence. And i shared it. Caveating it by saying it could change an it was preliminary and it ended up being erroneous in one important respect. There was no demonstration at our facility in benghazi. But having delivered that message, i became it wasnt just the message that was the target of the president s political opponents in an election year. It was the messenger as well. And it had frankly not occurred to me, it would the next time, that i should put myself above a broader mission. But you know, the lesson out of that, among others, is one, most importantly, you know, we lost four americans. And their loss has been overshadowed by all the politics and back and forth over this issue, the least of which was my portion of it. But just generally their loss has been overshadowed. In the real world it showered soured washingtons interests in helping to stabilize. So it had real world consequences as well. But the other lesson ive learned is, you should listen to your mom. I tell my kids that. Margaret listen to your mother. We have only a few minutes left. I want to ask you one more libya question, ill tell a couple of quick stories. Susan they get 15 minutes for questions, right . Margaret if i talk fast enough. Looking back with hindsight do you have any regrets about the way the administration approached libya and stuck with it . Put benghazi aside or make this a prelude to benghazi. Were there things you would do differently there now if you could do it again . Susan yes. As i discuss in the book, i advocated for u. S. Intervention in libya. I was on the side of the argument that said we ought to intervene to protect civilians. I made that case forcefully on behalf of the United States at the u. N. And we won the at the one won the vote to authorize it. I still think even though its not a black and white call that that was the right decision. Where i think we made mistakes and underestimated both the willingness of our european allies, willingness and ability of our european allies to contribute to the postconflict phase and u. N. , we also underestimated the complexity of trying to unify a society that had only lived for 40 years under the rule of one man. Had no institutions to underpin it. And we did not when i say we, i mean the United States, europeans, u. N. , all of us. Africans, who were engaged in this, didnt do enough, swiftly enough, to try to help libya stabilize. Now i had no idea, honestly, whether we could have succeeded. But the tragedy is we cant make that judgment because i dont think we put sufficient effort into it when it would have mattered. And then came benghazi which was the deathknell. And then when i was National Security advisor, about a year and a half later work president obamas forceful support and encouragement, we turned a lot more effort and attention to libya, to diplomacy. To try to resolve the internal conflicts, to building up their capacity. I think in retrospect, it was too late. Margaret there are a couple of other things i want to flag for readers out there. You identify one regret with respect to russia policy you wish the administration had been more aggressive about sanctions in 2016. And wish we still were more aggressive about sanctions related to 2016. You talk about two other things, president xi and president obama, right before the end, he didnt want a trade war with President Trump but if he forces him to have one, china will play to win. That was quite a moment. This was president obamas last bilateral moment with president xi xinping an were talking about all different issues. Out of the blue, without warning, xi says what was just relayed. That he said look he looks president obama in the eye and said china does not want a trade were with the United States but if you start one, we will fight to win it. An of course president obama was not meant to be the recipient of that message. But it stuck with me as unusually cold and stark, a the a warning and now were , seeing what that meant. Margaret we could do a whole hour on this. The f. B. I. Ran a Counter Intelligence operation on you, they werent sure you were supposed to be meeting with irans u. N. Ambassador, thats another session. Before we go over to questions, there are just two people we havent talked about yet, one is your daughter, maris and your son, jake. You may know jake as an active republican at stanford university. Susan they should not all know him. Margaret the other is that your daughter, you reveal in this book, around the time of the benghazi episode, was so stressed out by being a 9yearold kid processing what was happening to you that she began having hallucinations. I want to ask you before we turn to questions, in both of those cases, kind of your takeaway from balancing parenthood with a very stressful, high profile job like the National Security advisor. Susan in the case of our daughter, maris, she started telling us about, she was seeing images of men coming out of walls at her. And we were, of course, very freaked out. Shes a very happy, healthy, normal kid. She was at 9, she is at 16, almost 17. And we couldnt figure out what was going on. Of course we took her to, you know, the best place in washington to get tested at Childrens Hospital and they were looking at did she have a brain tumor. Was she psychotic, did she have some visual problem. What was going on . They went through a battery of tests, ruled out all the worst case, scariest scenarios and concluded that ultimately it was a stress reaction. And it was, you know, on us to a large extent because we hadnt realized that with the tv on for a period of time in the background she was imbibing the bile that was directed at me and had no basis for understanding it. My mother, by the way, also suffered from this but she had a clear consciousness of what was going on but was still emotionally traumatized. I include that story in the book wth mariss permission, because i wanted to illustrate that the politics of personal destruction in washington dont come for free. There are innocent children, loved ones, friends, colleagues, who suffer as well. And maris is fine. She is a top student. A great athlete. A wonderful, happy, healthy kid. Thank god. But you know, she is not the only kid in washington who has suffered because their parents have been attacked. And its not going to change, im afraid. But we shouldnt be oblivious to what it costs. Margaret before we go to questions, the only thing id leave you with is that with jake it does seem theres, if you and jake can bridge your differences and still be extremely close, anyone can. Lets get to questions right away. If you would tell us who you are and ask your question. I have a question. What would you say to democrats now going through what theyre going to go through, what are the things they should tell the American Public about why its so dangerous, what President Trump has done . Susan well as hard as it is to persuade people, this really shouldnt be viewed through a partisan lens. We have had president s of both parties going back as far as we can remember, with whom we may have agreed or differed, but at least in my lifetime weve never had a president of the United States that acted in a fashion that wasnt consistent with what he believed to be the national interest. And you know, you can agree or disagree about the iraq war or vietnam or whatever but the president s who prosecuted those efforts, i think, did it because they thought it was the right thing for the country. They werent doing it for their financial gain or their personal political gain. And now we have reason on a national and bipartisan basis to question quite seriously whether what motivates the commander in chief is in fact the national interest. And to our collective dismay, i think theres mounting evidence and frankly the ukraine is only the most recent and stark example, but you can ask, you know, why are we in bed with kim jong un. Why did we invite the taliban to camp david . Why is Vladimir Putin sitting with the president in private meet wgs no note takers and the meetings with no note takers, and president coming out and denigrating our intelligence agencies and praising putin . Theres a whole lot of things that dont make sense. And none of them seem to be clearly in the u. S. Interest. So thats the fundamental problem. And that is something that in my opinion, for better or for worse, merits scrutiny and investigation. Thank you. Thank you for writing this as a human book about such difficult and political things. My name is tim, im with the washington examiner. When you were saying you underestimated the complexity of making libya peaceful, im just thinking of the iraq war and the regime change war in the muslim world turned out to create a hot bed of terrorism and helped isis in the way that it helped al qaeda and the only reason i can see that president obama seeped seems to take from iraq is the dangers of nationbuilding, but that plays right to what you say said was the problem, the last thing the president in libya afterwards. Was there anything the Obama Administration learned from the iraq invasion that you applied in the libya invasion and if so why did things end up exactly as badly. Susan good question. Let me put it in confection. In context. First of all, president obama, as you recall, opposed the iraq war. I personally opposed the iraq war when i was out of government in the bush years. Oppose the iraq war because it didnt seem to be justified on the basis for which we were told we were going to war, the weapons of mass destruction. And it seemed to detract from and distract from what was our principal counterterrorism challenge at the moment, which was in afghanistan against al qaeda. President obama learned many things from iraq. Starting with, dont put your Ground Forces into a combat zone when your vital National Interests are not at stake. Libya was a humanitarian intervention. We did it with the blessing of the world, and with the partnership of the europeans and arabs. We did it because we thought at the time and i still believe that the ability to affect the protection of human beings was achieveable at a bearable cost and risk. We knew we could do it without putting u. S. Forces on the ground. Without an occupation. So the mistake, if there was one, in the aftermath, was not that we didnt put u. S. Forces on the ground, that was in the what i was suggesting. It was that we didnt invest with the europeans and the United Nations and others sufficiently the diplomatic capital, the postconflict reconstruction, the stabilization presence that the United Nations may have provided in order to try to help libya at a moment where, for a short period, i think there was a collective will. But it wasnt about putting u. S. Forces on the ground. It wasnt an unlearning of the iraq lesson. It was trying to see if we could accomplish a humanitarian objective at a Reasonable Risk and cost. The other thing id say is when you look at how we approached issues down the road, of counterterrorism, whether in elsewhere on the african continent or in Southeast Asia or wherever, we used partners and we worked by, with, and through, thats the military term, Partner Forces on the ground. Thats how we did, fought isis in syria. Thats how we ultimately try 20d tack tried to tackle isis with the reconstituted iraqi Security Forces in iraq. The principal lesson of the iraq war against Saddam Hussein in our estimation was you dont necessarily have to put tens of thousands of u. S. Forces on the ground and occupy a sovereign nation in order to accomplish your counterterrorism objectives. I just wanted to say first of all, thank you for your service. At this last week we saw testimony from dr. Mcguire and says dni maguire, and he the warfare we face in our country is no longer kinetic but cyber. Being a young person, frankly, i agree. So my question to you is, what do you believe the Obama Administration as well as the Trump Administration did to keep, specifically in regards to elections being secure, and its if not enough drawing during those two administrations, which i assume personally, what do we need to do to secure our elections . Susan great question. First of all, in 2016 when we confronted the russian threat we worried about several things. We were worried about whether the russians would be in a position to infiltrate our Electoral Systems in each of the 50 states, or any of the 50 states, and corrupt the voter roles or the actual voting ballots in the count itself. We were worried that they had already stolen emails from the d. N. C. From Hillary Clintons server but that they could not only publish those emails which they had start to do, but they already started to do, but they might be able to falsify them and make them look real enough in that fashion corrupt the process. Those were among our most immediate and principal concerns. We also saw the russians using rt, the Russian Television station, and sputnik and other propaganda vehicles, to infuse our political debate. What we didnt see clearly and only came to light subsequently in 2017 and beyond, and which we therefore underestimated the severity of, was russias ability then and every day since to use social media. Bots and activists on all sides of various divisive issues to pit americans against each other and undermine our confidence in each other as americans in a democracy. What the russians are doing every now as we speak. We thought in 2016 it continued. They are in both sides of every divisive issue, whether it is race, immigration, guns, what have you. Sometimes, they are utilizing americans as their vehicle. Sometimes, false flag operations. The whole purpose is to pit americans against each other. We are enabling that by virtue of our own domestic Political Division. They could not exacerbate this. Because we are divided, they are taking advantage of that. What i write at the end of the book, i mean it seriously, our domestic Political Division in my judgment are the greatest threat to our National Security system. Thats bad news. The good news is it is a problem of our own making, therefore, by definition, it is a problem we can solve. We have to see it is such an have to be willing to tackle it with urgency. I talk in the book not only about my son, who i love very much and differ with on some issues, and how we wrestle with that as a family, because i have a daughter on the far left and a son on the far right, and my husband and i going in the middle. It is a microcosm in our household of what we face as a nation. Many of the lessons that i think apply on a human individual family unit level has resonance on the national level. We are out of time. I hope you get a chance to talk about the book. Thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] watch our live0, coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Now, bullets are pulitzer prizewinning george will discusses his book at the Texas Tribune festival in austin. He talks about the state of the Republican Party and conservatism in america. This is an hour. [applause] briefly introduce our guests today, i am obliged to tell you that you may not stay here after the event, you need to line up for the next event. I am obliged to tell you that if you want to get a signed copy of the conservative sensibility, you would be willing to do so after the conversation. George will need no introduction. Pulitzer prize winning