Transcripts For CSPAN Public Affairs Events 20161123

Question that we are on opposite sides is a little bit wrong. The government and techies believe that encryption is one of these 21st century marbles. Its one of these things that gives a defender and asymmetric ability to be better than an attacker. Thats great. Its something that even the folks who have spoken out about , the important foundational Building Blocks for what we do every day online. The Law Enforcement community has had many challenges with encryption, and as a government, our stance is that we dont take legislation is appropriate, but the issue of what are we doing to go after the bad guys, to make sure that we can still protect the country, thats something where there is no disagreement. Thats something we all think is a good idea. I think thats how i would, the problem, as opposed to megan one of the things that is is going onork that with integrating the community. The Defense Department had put in Silicon Valley has a lot of National Security and military leadership team, talents together with venture capital. There is so many topics in the security area. We need to keep advancing the skills and the quality and implementation skills across the acrossederal government, Law Enforcement, across our private sector. Having meeting points like that, very important. He will probably talk more about that. The other area, i know you have some young women part of the let girls learn, the first ladies let girls build initiative, and they have been working on hackathon. Nine out of 10 parents want coding taught at school. The more our kids are in active inrning coding experiences k12 and a college as we adapt our College Curriculums to have much more balanced Computer Science departments. And this is between for century literacy. We want to make sure that all americans are doing that. It will deeply affect this is 21st century literacy. We want to make sure all americans are doing that. It will deeply affect all. You think that collaboration between technology and government is the way to go, and true to that collaboration we will find a solution to Law Enforcement and encryption . This idea of a tour of duty, generally, is really important. For example, if we were at a legal conference and we were talking to colleagues, and everyone was working in the industry of law, a very large number of this community would have been pro bono and the nonprofit sector. One of the things that is interesting to us like i said, we are in the early days of digital government, but to see how far behind we were and where we are coming from in terms of recent tech in the nonprofit sector, and state and local, as well as federal. And how did we get our community to have a tour of duty . We have law, science fellows who rotate in government. Lets have the tech folks rotate. Not to take everyone in and build inside, but more like the surgeon general. The Surgeon Generals not doing surgery when they are doing policy. We get the best people to rotate that. Thats what we want to do. The bestit will have effect on modern Service Delivery that we are starting to see with the quality of products coming from that approach, policy choices, having tech folks, economists, almost like a university deciding policy together, not leaving tech for implementation later, but as part of the architecture. This third area is capacity for the american people. Also, solving hard problems together, having our community a part of the conversation as part of our career tracks. This is something the president has been great at, bringing strong tech people into government. I work with one of the experts on Cyber Security and encryption in general. It is the right way to think about these problems, with a real grounding in the technical realities. Mentioned how important diversity is to this, bringing Diverse People into government, bringing diverse students into tech said that they are ready for that path when the time comes. You are the first emailed cto. What can you tell our audience female cto. What can you tell about improving diversity and companies . Is one of the great moon shots of the 21st century. How are we going to get all of our teams playing, all of our talent . The greatest asset of our company of our country is the people. Also, a lot of times when people look at diversity and illusion, they are thinking almost a charity agenda. Its actually a deep prosperity not only is it right, but its prosperity. Companies like intel and slack and others really step up and put it in the short list of their priority is to talk about it at every executive meeting, and really get out there. It comes from leadership deciding this is on the short list. Course everyone is on the everyone in the industry is pushing on Diversity Inclusion as something to do, but if you notice in your company that all of the leadership has outsourced into the diversity team, you are not going to get anywhere. Those people are incredible, but they are your coach, and it is your job. One of the things we also know is that much of our challenge is unconscious and institutional bias. What are we going to do to change our system and also train on ourselves and build technology to help negate help mitigate . Today if you watch childrens fantasyon or fa television, 6 1 boys to girls on screen. How do we give our hollywood teammates the tools to see the biases may have . I was lucky to work with the team that built the macintosh with steve jobs. At those, if you look photos, seven men and for women. The women in the photo all the men have speaking roles. The only recent one was Joanna Hoffman who won the golden globe in the jobs movie. She is from eastern europe. Supertough. She is the only one that would really challenge steve and move things forward. Son that said, mom, did you really iron steve jobs shirt . She said, jeremy, i have never ironed a shirt, except one for you when we were late for something. This unconscious biases all around us. Is all around us. We need to fix the Public Record of the truth. Womend to know that black charge related the trajectories for john glenn in the apollo mission. We need help from hollywood, for media, for wikipedia records that are not correct. Most people have not heard of hopper, but they have heard of edison or the White Brothers wright brothers. Kate yeah, i think thats great. Amac, you came to the government from twitter, where you championed free speech as a core value of the platform. Now we have Hillary Clinton talking about twitter being a birthplace for the allright right movement. How do you balance free speech with encouraging diversity, with supporting minority candidates who might experience harassment as they enter the industry . Thats a great question for the five minutes we have left. I can completely tackle its. I think it is one of the hardest asngs we have to deal with an internet community. Voiceshed many different online. We want to hear from lots of diversity points. There is this worry that the internet has become weaponize. It is definitely not something that, as a government, there is a lot for us to do, but it is a fascinating problem, one that we in the industry have to tackle and one that i have a ready dissolution on. There are lots of people doing good work in this space, but it is a really important thing for us to focus on. Hasn the Vice President done an extraordinary amount of and culture on us change. He was on the oscar stage talking about how we need to change our culture. It is interesting to juxtapose that with the meeting today in the white house. Included everything from active learning to emotional intelligence. Work people are doing in this country to help our young people get the kind of tools they need to live 100 years. What are the tools they need to be adaptive learners, creative, for the possibilities of the future that include getting along . These are the things we are very mindful of, and we are driving hard. A lot of times, the message we use is not unlike venture scalp and scale. You are trying to look for people with solutions to problems. Injustice and technology, we found that there are several jurisdictions who are already doing very interesting work with data. An example would be miamidade. Went from 7000 people in prison to 4900. They closed the prison and changed how they were doing with Substance Abuse challenges, and opened a 12 bed unit in the hospital. Our Incredible Police officers, they have a choice when they have someone in that state to take them to jail or take them to the emergency room. Now they have an option. That 911 and the police are trained on, only 109 arrests. It requires all of these tech skills and policy skills. We now have different ways to do it, and we have a datadriven justice initiative. Over 25 of the jurisdictions in the countries are now are dissipating a biweekly. Aarning Conference Call biweekly learning Conference Call. It iser it is, whether Diversity Inclusion, justice, learning, we can use these new Internet Network messages to try to bring the different people to the table to solve things is great for the skills, of the folks in this room, who can be working on these social problems. We need more technologists to come in on the area they are passionate about. Not everybody is passionate about criminal justice, but figuring out what your passion is and making a difference. im glad you brought up open data. We are running short on time, but one of the data sets i think americans have really craved over the last two years has been data on Police Killings and uses of force. You mentioned the data justice initiative. I think when we are looking for this data right now, we are outletso look to news like the guardian, who are trying to count these incidences. Can you explain some of the challenges you have had in releasing the data at the that are a level . Federal level . Leadership, the leadership in dallas, in los angeles, already releasing use of force data, officerinvolved shooting, sets of data. We have over 60 jurisdictions in the police data initiative. This is in the open Data Transparency Initiative that goes with datadriven justice. It more of an enterprise internal data clustering. Now the jurisdictions are committing to opening the data and engaging in the community, which will include tech people, as well as those in the Community Practice nationally. Fellows noticing the work going on in the country, and having Police Leadership meet each other, and realize they could do it as well. They can build a movement around transparency, and the kind of data sense that helps us see where the real challenges are. We hope to do that across every topic. Of course, we have amazing weather and mapping data on our phones. We want to think about every agency as we release the opportunity project. Census. Gov, and Great Companies like redfin and zillow are stepping up. They have opportunity scores. It lets you know if you should live in a face. Place. What are the jobs there . If a tech company could have solved it on our own, it would have. We need the policy in other places. Boston just had an opioid hack a this weekend with medical tech, so we can dive in with our new message. Kate i would love to stay here and chat with you all day. But i wanted to ask you one more question. You have spoken about government as a second act, for all these amazing technologists who have entered the white house. What is the third act . What happens in january . We have no idea. We are heads down, completing this last focus on the fourth quarter. Abouthard to think anything else. I will take a breath, see my kids more. There was a recent piece written about triathletes, and flowinga of techies into the commercial private sector, and then flow into the government, state, local, federal, the u. N. Sector. The nonprofit how do we get people flowing areas . Ose i have always loved working on technology that can improve peoples lives, and technology that can reduce our impact on the planet. Very in line with the president and climate work. I think anything we can do around accelerating all the factors, as well as making sure that all people back to the missing history, when the film hidden figures, comes out, henson is playing the main character. She grew up in a poor community. She said, had she known this woman existed, she might have been a scientist. Lets make sure we are tapping cans,ne in, like the everything we can do to reach out to everyone to make them creators. That is the president great hope the president s great hope. It changes the future for our country and the world. Kate thank you so much for being here. I think it is almost an entire an impossible task, but you make me feel hopeful about government. Thank you very much. [applause] i hope that was as exciting for you guys as it was for me. Crush on megan smith forever, but please dont tell her. We will keep it moving along. Please welcome to the stage Megan Rose Dickey and morgan blavity. Thank you for joining us today. Thanks to having me. Megan the stats are pretty harrowing. Between 2014 and 2015, the amount of funding that went to black women was less than 1 . Im excited to come talk to you today. I think you are a true unicorn, of black female startup founders and ceos. Tell me about the last time you try to come . Great question. Is about ago, blavity two years ago. When we first started blavity, i applied to get a scholarship to come to techcrunch disrupt. I was declined. Im excited to be here for the first time. Megan give her a round of applause for sure. Lets talk about visibility. How important is it that you are up here as a black female startup founder . I think being visible is part of any startup life. You want to get press, you want people to know what youre working on. You want to be a leader and you want to be seen. I think for blavity specifically, part of what we do is inform as a media company. It is important that people know who i am and what we are working on. Thinking of diversity in general and startup diversity, a lot of my messages from people, they are inspired by seeing an meblack startup team, and as a black female ceo. I think it means a lot. Definitely. Im going to keep talking about how you are black for a little longer, but we will move on. You are on the verge of closing a pretty significant ground. What was that experience like for you . Morgan it has been a journey. Media is hot, and also not hot at the same time. The fee, it raised was tough. I started, and i realized i was not emotionally ready to go through that mental process. 20 meetings a week. We stopped. We really made sure the metrics were aggressively overachieving for the stage we were in. We had almost one million monthly unique visitors with no funding. Ice we got to that stage, spent a lot of time trying to find partners and investors that aligned with our mission. We spoke with really great people on board, like media ventures, macro ventures. Now, as we go into our speed round, they are looking for a more strategic partners. Run. S been an interesting i just finished 500 startups the last batch. Megan what do you look for in investors, especially in terms of remaining authentic to the black community . Morgan i look for people who get it. Right . You can tell the first five minutes of the conversation with an investor, if they understand and agree with the premise that blavity is on, which is that black people influence culture, that they are underrepresented in tech and consumer tech, and therefore we have a blue ocean opportunity to build Something Interesting for the audience that is incredibly influential. Megan you mentioned black people are underrepresented in the tech industry, across startups, and they tech companies, big tech companies, and even more so in venture capital. Do you have any black investors . Morgan absolutely. Charles king, a black investor. It is part of how we involved designed the team, and nature it is reflective of what we care about. Megan you previously mentioned that you do receive some criticism, even from the black community. What is that about . Morgan i think because we are so visible. Blavity is a media company. It is our job to be creating content, and pushing things out there. We also have user generated content, so a lot of the content is submitted from the user base. Not everything that goes up is going to be completely aligned with me personally, or with other people in the communities. This conflict. There was an article that happened this summer, and we started trending on twitter, because people were upset megan which article . Morgan it was about a netflix documentary. The guy behind it, a lot of people dont agree with his personal statements. It was a tough day. Megan how do you handle that . Morgan i listened to what people were saying. We spoke to the writer and ultimately decided to take the article down. I explained what the process was, and a little bit more about blavity as a whole. We are a media company, and we have this content. It wont always be the same. Megan was that the first time Something Like that happen, where you took down an article based on feedback from the community . Morgan it was. It was a tough editorial decision. Megan do you envision you might have to do things like that in the future . Whats your process . Morgan im sure we will. We make so much content every day. As we grow, we will continue to put out a kind of content every day. I think it is about having a strong Editorial Team, and having Community Guidelines about what is ok and not ok. If something is flagged, it is not a surprise. Megan blavity is about creating relevant content for black millennials. How do you determine what is relevant to them, or to us . To me . [laughter] morgan thats a great question. I think it is really about listening to what people are saying, and enabling them to speak for themselves. For example, a lot of our writers are from all over the country. They are remote, they can write on any frequency. Anyone can sign up for an account. That is something new we launched today, it enables anyone to create content and put it up on blavity. Relevant. S stay its not just what happens in the newsroom this morning. We will move to the Editorial Team, doing a lot of highquality pieces of content, that you cant necessarily just write off. Needs research, and needs to be validated, etc. The majority of the content you, see will be from the users and will be relevant. What percentage of your content is from fulltime staffers versus user generated . 20 is from the staff. Relevance,erms of what have you found is relevant to black millennials . Are you just trolling black found . , or what have you morgan black twitter is amazing. I think our content ranges from essays, a lot of thought pieces, reactions to what is going on, and also beyonce comes out with an amazing album. All the way to serious topics. For example, one of our Community Members was a law student at harvard. They will go up one morning and e on all the black law professors faces. They started reporting it to cnn. She actually decided to write an essay and put it on the website. That is how the story got out to the entire country. Maybe not a lot of the content, but if someone goes to blavity. Com, depending on the day or what is happening, they might see content about Police Shootings of unarmed lack people. Black people. What is your editorial strategy around those really terrible offense . Events . Rough we know those are days. Usually, what we try to do is find people on the ground in that city who are participating as activists, protesters, and we try to give them the tools to tell the story from their perspective. We spend a lot of time working closely with different activists , making sure we are supporting and that we can help distribute messages that need to get out. Megan in the event that there is a video associated with a shooting, are a murder, do you run those videos . Morgan we used to. We stopped. We usually do some sort of trigger warning, and then link out to the video. Theink as a community, black community as a whole, i it is helpful anymore. We know it it looks like. We dont need to see it again and again. Megan personally, i actively avoid those videos, because i feel i cannot emotionally handle that sort of thing. Aims to reachty black millennials, i know some people who are white who read this site. My boss, i wont mention his name right now, but he loves it. [laughter] what do you want white readers to get out of blavity . Morgan i think that blavitys mission is to portray and create opportunities for the diversity diaspora, and energy and creativity to shine. I put the power back into our hands to decide what we want to talk about, and how we want to talk about things. My hope with anyone that is engaging with the platform is that they are open to perhaps changing their perception of what the black world and black interests, and black news, and black creativity looks like. We have a daily email that goes out. Megan i love it. Morgan super funny. You should also not. Ought you should all sign up. It is automated. A typical startup thing, but most people dont know that it is automated, so they respond. I get a lot of white women, in like kansas city, who say, am i allowed to be here . I have a black child or grandchild, or a teacher. I think it is fantastic. Those are great emails to receive. I think it speaks to the power that black culture is mainstream culture, and it is accessible, and blavity is something for everyone. Megan i imagine that the white woman from tennessee, you told her that yes, you are allowed to read the site. Morgan absolutely. Megan you mentioned earlier that today you have actually launched a new version of blavity. What is so special about this version . Morgan blavity was originally on wordpress. What we have seen in the last few years is that the blavity likes, comments, and shares about four times more than the average user online. Not only that, they like to talk to each other. The Comment Section is ridiculous, like essays on essays. Megan it is. Is it productive . I think we have created this cool space for people to feel comfortable, and they feel like it is an invitation to have a discussion. We wanted to take that a step forward and build a platform that allows people to do that better, and also most of the device. Re on a mobile about 80 are visiting on a mobile web version of the site, so we needed to update it, so it was a cleaner and smarter version on mobile. Also, enabling people to create content themselves, and not have to go through the Editorial Team to get on the site. Megan right. Earlier that you felt like you needed to first launch a media platform before even really building your own platform. Why is that . Morgan to be honest, i think it is true, i think i had to be exceptional before someone was going to take an investment perspective and say, they want to build this megaplatform social Network Media company and im a nontechnical i have ceos and other cofounders that are fantastic but we needed to build an audience that was incredibly engaged, in order to tell a compelling investment story. Megan got it. With what is happening in the next couple of months, you are launching afro tech. I will actually be there at the conference. What should i expect . How will it be different from this disrupt . Morgan part of blavitys strategy is events. A lot of companies have a strategy of creating conferences. Last spring, we had a Conference Called and power per which is for black millennial female tech people. We were thinking about how we want to build subculture communities, and the startup culture is growing quickly in the black community. There werent any real moments where we could all come together. There are some fantastic startup ceos. There are some fantastic venture capitalists that are raising funds, black and latino funds. We wanted to create a space where they had a platform. Distribution. s what you can expect is discussions, fireside chats about success, and its people have used to get to where they are. We will not have a diversity in tech panel. Megan you will not. We will not. We will talk about tangible tips and tools to get to the next level. Megan ok, nice. We talked about this before. A speedabout to close round. About how much money are you thinking you will get . Morgan the total amount raised will be over 1 million. Im super excited. That will be to fund more engineers to build the platform, and make more video content. Has great video content. I have been really impressed with it. In terms of the future of blavity, you have launched this new version of the site, you are having these tech conferences, you are doing original video. What else do you envision for the company . Morgan i think as we grow, we are going to learn a lot more about how black millennials specifically engage online, and that will give us access to a lot of data. We are basing the company off of a premise that black people influence culture. If i can get a large enough population of people engaging with this content across the ecosystem, whether it is web, create and reallife, we interesting insights about what might be happening, what are the people talking about, what is the pulse of the culture, which will allow us to create a compelling marketing and content story in the future. Megan blavity reaches about 7 million millennials a month. What does that mean, exactly . Where are you reaching them . On the website, social media . Morgan its about one Million People on the website a month, unique visitors. Then we have five instagram accounts, three twitter accounts, facebook page. Those are unique engagements of users. The total reaches around 30,000,00040,000,000, in any given month. Around 7es are Million People reached. Megan i know you have a good number of partnerships. I believe google is a partner . Morgan not google. [laughter] megan not yet. Who are your partners . Morgan we have content partners, like teen vogue. We have worked with change. Org. Those partnerships are usually around, what is an interesting demographic may not have access content, may be looking for an authentic black voice for their content. We have worked with the white house on Different Things. Megan what have you done with the white house . Morgan whenever they are doing black specific announcements, we will make sure we have access to that, like when obama pardoned a bunch of prisoners this summer. We had original statements and thank you letters for them of them some of them, on the site. Megan got it. ,n your experience with blavity what has been the hardest challenge . ve gone from boots back strap, to now being funded by investors. Morgan the hardest challenge is building in public. It is a very intimate company. We are building something that is a direct reflection of problems that i face, my team faces, that you face, my audience faces. Theres a lot of emotions in everything we do and create. Its a beautiful thing, because that is why we have grown so quickly. I think it also is very difficult, because i open myself up to criticism, any time you release anything. People can come up with a very valid arguments. I think it has made us stronger and more resilient. It has personally made myself more resilient, and open to feedback. It is tough sometimes. Megan right. Of heavyovers a lot topics. How do you ensure, or foster the emotional stability of yourself, and your writers . Morgan i think selfcare, and being really flexible. People can work from home if something is happening. Work fromlcome to home, just check in if you cant come to work today. Personally, i have amazing cofounders. I have known them for seven plus years. Some of them are in the crowd. If there are days where i cant deal with it today, i will call them, and we support each other that way. I think for any startup, you are going through this process, it is emotionally draining and difficult. You have to be proactive and take care of yourself. Megan i appreciate your work, and im looking forward to the afro tech conference in november. Morgan i will be there. Morgan morgan thank you for having me. [applause] having fun . Whos [applause] you are. I appreciate the techcrunch staff. Can we get a big round of applause . We worked through the weekend, which bloggers are not used to. They are the real heroes. A couple of reminders. Follow me on twitter. Follow along with all the action on our snapchat and instagram. I think people forget we have that. It is just techcrunch, both of the accounts. Isrupt. Stage fromome to the , and our moderator, frederic lardinois. Frederic it feels like we have done this before. Deja vu. Frederic the last time we did this was at disrupt london last december. The and of the conversation, we talked about how you might ipo at some point in the future, when the time is right. Since then, you have. What led up to that . Why was the time right at that point . It is interesting. For us, we always said going public was, job number one is to build a company that is capable of going public, and is worthy of going public. Customers,great great product, predictability,. Is. Eye dot your building those things help you become a great company. That was step one. The other thing i would say, is i think we made a lot of and asns along the way, entrepreneurs, it allowed us to have a lot of flexibility in when we decided to go out. That is one of the pieces of advice i have given to some entrepreneurs since, is that when you make decisions, for example about the kinds of investors you bring in, that you really want to maximize for future flexibility. Raisingthat meant not money at crazy valuations that did not seem like they were in line with historical norms, or raising money that could limit you down the line, if your execution is anything but perfect. We always optimized decisionmaking around what is going to give us the most future option allergy option nality. It worked in our favor, because in years when companies have not wanted to go public, because reality had to catch up with previous fundraising rounds, we had the ability to go out. At this point, it is neat that we are able to do that. Frederic youre the first to see the Unicorn Companies this year to ipo. That took a lot of guts, maybe . Why did you feel you are the right company at that time to go out . Why go public in the first place . Really exclusively a matter of why go this year, but why go at all. And then you can ask why this year versus the future . Me, if you raise venture capital, you are making a commitment to investors that you will give them a return if the business works out. It could require you going public, essentially. Did you have the option to get acquired . We were focused on building a business for the loft the longterm. That is one reason to go public is because you raise money and you have signed up for your investors to get a return. The second thing for us, why now , is we have always built in his company the notion that trust is the number one thing you sell as a cloud company. Ink in the softwares service, but even more importantly as a developer platform. You are saying Customers Trust us with your applications. We are going to keep delivering for you. The best way to deliver on trust and the show that customers should trust you, one of the best things you can do is become a Public Company. This is for two reasons. First of all, your business is there, everyone can see the details. Number two is people know that Public Companies are run as tighter ships than private companies as a general rule. You have to be. Help engenderso trust with your customers. Timenk the going out at a when it not a lot of companies are going out is a fine thing to do because that will also continue to accelerate our trust with our customers and our leadership in this market. Pressure from any your investors that it was about time to ipo . No, they were fantastic. It was completely the managements call. Talk to me about the timing of this. Did. S june 23 that you ipo that was the day before the brexit or did that have a decision did not have any influence on your decisionmaking . You look at these timing windows, theyre were all these windows of when you can go public. Also when investors are available. You cant go out on the fourth of july. The windows that work out between the market and the company, and when we looked at this window, we had not taken brexit into account. Im not sure if we did not notice it, or the date was upset, but there was a moment where we looked at this time i do than somebody said the brexit about is the day we are going to be priced. And i said that cannot be good, because you want stability and you want things to be normal as much as possible when you ipo. We moved it up a date, the pricing event. We priced the day before brexit. The whole time leading up to it, we said it was a nonissue, it is going to fizzle. And then day out, we said oh my god, im glad we moved it up a day. The whole world just got turned upside down. Turns out for like two days, then it was back to normal. Who knew that was going to happen . Worked out all right for you guys. The stock was up 90 on the first day, so it was all right. What did that change for you as a company now that you are public . How do you go about your business differently now that you are a Public Company . Nothing changes. If you let the existence of a visible stock price stained how you best change how you build the Company Coming you are destined to fall. That is the short answer. Business is to control the things that we can control customers, product, revenue. It is goingoes what to do, but that is noise. I liken it to play the game of dont know why are picked basketball, but i didnt you are running up and down the court and the scoreboard is randomly changing numbers. Pretty quickly you lose interest in this game if youre paying attention to that store board. Youre not looking at the stock price every day . Know, that is noise. Over the long term, revenue, customers, products, those things are good value. In the short term, there is so much noise in that that has nothing to do with the company that you cant focus on it. You cant believe that when the stock price doubles, you are twice as good as when you are yesterday. And with the stock price cuts in half, you are half as good. On the way up, if you drink the koolaid and say you are amazing , the danger there is that eventually, everything has gravity. It will go down, too. You will believe suddenly that you are horrible, that you cant have people in the company thinking that way. That is too much of an emotional roller coaster. What you really have to in eight shortat term span of time, it is out of our control. Hasnt changed anything for you personally . You have made a few dollars out of this at this point. You still own a large part of the company. First of all, when you go public, you dont generally sell anything there. Nothing has changed for me. This is another pitfall and if you look at the stock price and are constantly trying to ascertain the personal impact of you will go crazy at focus on the wrong things. Not reality. You focus on business and you focus on what matters, customers, revenue, employees, products. Those are the things over the long. Long period of time that may matter. That is the thing that will impact in the long term. I love about Companies Going public is they do have to disclose some numbers. I read through all of those. One number that stood out for me was how important a very small number of companies are for your revenue. Like whatsapp alone accounted 70 17 . 10 companies alone make up about 30 of your revenue. You depend on a small number of customers. For us. Common we have been consistent to the years, about 30 of revenue coming from our top 10. And whatsapp, we dont put them in that category as much. Theyre what we call a variable customer. Their use can go up and down. The way we do business with whatsapp is very different than how we do business with nearly every other customer. We have nearly 30,000 active customers, and nine have this variable behavior. Our team andd on the business and our employees. Theyre the reason why we wake up in the morning. Then we have this gravy over here which is our variable Customer Base. Gravy. Lucrative you must wants to get a few more of these big whales on your board. Lets separate whales from gravy metaphors. Customerswe want big and happy customers and customers who have a lot of predictability to how they do business with us. We dont go out of our way to who aree customers going to be large and unpredictable. That is the distinction that we make between the variable customers, wherein their usage of us essentially can vacillate pretty big, pretty large. At customers for whom we have a very large case i consistently grows in my to put business. We focus more on the latter. You did release the enterprise plan earlier this month. You get her does you are going after the bigger enterprises, which is different from your regular model of selling directly to developers. I dont think it is. What we are already seeing in our Customer Base is that focus on developers pays off in april wide variety of companies. Developers are becoming influential in every kind of organization. Has plus where to move to the market. When is the last time you walked into a Bank Retail Branch . Now, the mobile app is the bank to you now. Are more Software Developers than shoe designers. Goldman sachs employees more Software Developers than facebook. Going on where every company is becoming a software company. As they do, developers are so influential in those companies. The fact that we focus on developers a lot is to get into these companies that 15 years ago might have had a waited topdown sales process. Influenced byg developers, bringing in a tool that they used to sell the job. What you still need to clear what hurdles, and that is it does is it make sure the developer in large bank wants to the platform but there is a security or Compliance Team that says that we need these audits abilities and all these Different Things in place. The enterprise allows the organization to send have all the things we need so that we can go into production and be successful at scale. Are you increasing your Enterprise Sales force . We have had a sales force for a long time. It has helped customers to adopt. What were seeing is a developer will bring us in and oftentimes you need a salesperson to cause had. What is interesting is this isnt your typical enterprise like heavyweight and a lot of golf and shenanigans. Kind oft that traditional Enterprise Sales process. It is a relatively light touch developer let approach. When a developer builds the prototype without asking anybody on their own credit card and then they show it off internally saying that women play round of ideas and show it. The business is its great puts it in front of customers, now you have some compliance or security conversations to have. And that they just to let me walk in with purely sales collateral, put me up against five other competitors who are all going to do our key responses in that thing. Theyve already shown that it works and heads value. That is the lowest risk approach for the business at our sales team is there just to help the developer in many cases navigate their own organization and how they buy in order to get that prototype turned into a trial, turned into able production rollout. Lets talk about the long tail as well, the other 30,000 users. Growing, how do you get more of those guys onto your platform . We announced back in may that we have over one million developer accounts, which is a metric we are really proud of. You also have to realize there are 20 Million Developers in the world. We have 5 of the world developers, and that number is growing. Byhink lb will be 25 million 2018. You have a very large number of developers in the world, so we are focused on continuing our developer outreach, getting its new communities and Developer Communities arranged geographically. Communities not around geography, but around languages, and getting deeper into the java community, deeper into the microsoft community, deeper into the ways that developers identify and learn from each other while they embedded become part of those communities. Let those developers know about tullio. We obviously have a lot of headroom, because there is a lot of Software Developers in the world and that number is growing as more and more be world is dependent on software. We are there to arm them. What about the chinese market, which is exploding . You dont a lot of business there right now. We dont still a lot of business in china, particularly on the domestic target. That is a really tough decision, because there is a lot of poll, there is a lot of reason to say there is a large market, a lot of money to be made. At the same time, you look at what happens to over going at uber going into china. Amazon retail is not in china. 20 plus years after they have founded the company, and there is reason for that. It is a high market. A lot of thee markets where you can just run your playbook, hire locally and figure out. It will be a huge time and investment think that you may not see any return on. The deliver in your decisions around china is important. Very few Success Stories of technology Companies Going to china that people. 2. I think linkedin and evan are are the two that can delegate pointed toward. That is it. There are not a lot of Success Stories. Lets switch gears and talk about product. Opinion onhave an bots. Developers wants to use them. What is your take on it . It is best summarized by something we made in our conference back in may which basically meant bots bots theres a lot been said about lots bots. Were not sure what the substances behind a lot of it. You hear this word a lot and it gets peoples attention. The killer apps for messaging are not likely to be bots. Betterve there is a much killer app for messaging, and that is content. The early experience you have with lots is really an ivr like experience, just overtax dess over text. When we talk to customers, we find that is frustrating. Ai is not quite there yet to make it not frustrating. We may get there. At app. An amazing when you say content . Messaging is a great way to consume content. The New York Times coverage of the olympics over sms was really cool. This was an app that was powered by tullio. The New York Times covered the obits over sms. Another example here is purple, a company that is doing a daily news story initially about the election, pushed to you via messaging. One is it is very personal. That the are times coverage wasnt the New York Times, it , givingat the news desk you his experience being in rio. That is a really cool experience, which is different from just a publication telling you stories. Messaging is allowing you to feel like it is texting with a friend who happens to be at the olympics, rather than consuming coverage from a major publication. That intimacy is a cool lateral part of the channel. Another thing purple does a great job of is it is choose your own adventure. They give you the headline of the day what happened to the election today . If you want to learn more, reply with a keyword. You can keep going further and further, or back out and say the story is of no interest to me, so never mind. That choose your own adventure style of content is really very engaging. I think that this coupled with a more corporate emphasis. Msu sign up for a product, and the Company Since your message that says thank you for signing up for a product. If you want to learn more about this, reply with this. If you want to learn more about this feature, reply with that. You can self select to an more about a product or service, that is a that is an engaging form of content. It is an engaging way for brands to indirect with a customer using content, but also in a sort of 20 new venture way where people self select how they want that experience, and that is killer and available today. Were out of time. We next time we sit down, will talk about what tullio did in the last 12 months to make bots better. [applause] cspan, a look at opinion polling in russia and Vladimir Putins opinion ratings. After that, the white house medal of freedom ceremony. Cspans washington journal , live every day with news and policy issues that impact deal. Impact deal. Coming up this morning, an analysis of president elect Donald Trumps proposals, its llenges, with voron veronique de rugy and aaron then defense reporter Jamie Mcintyre on president elect trumps National Security agenda and his decision to choose Michael Flynn as his National Security advisor. Please join washington journal coming up at 7 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. Join the discussion. The nevada Political Center gave russian president Vladimir Putin Approval Rating in october. Oft, a look at russian views the u. S. And the economic and political situation in the country. This is just over one hour. Will good morning, everyone. My name is will kennan. I would like to welcome you to the Woodrow Wilson center. I would like to begin by thanking the cosponsor for the institute at George Washington university. We were very pleased that they were able to cosponsor todays event. This is the part of the distinguished speaker series, and today we will be talking about the question of polling in russia. Despite the standard of living, mass support for president Vladimir Putin remains high. His popularity rating is referred to as the 86 in russia. We are pleased today to have dr. Lev gudkov, to come and talk about the nature of Vladimir Putins popularity. I want to begin to emphasize by saying that dr. Lev gudkov is speaking in a private capacity. Amongst his other titles, he is editorinchief of the magazine russian Public Opinion harold and has won numerous awards and published quite widely. And he is quite obviously the director of one of the major sources of independent Public Opinion research in russia. So it is my great pleasure to introduce dr. Lev gudkov today. He will be speaking in russian so i ask those who need translation to use your headsets. [russian translation] it is a great honor for me to speak at the kennan institute. In the title of my presentation, we mentioned the 86 , and when i hear this percentage, i dont believe in the 86 . People are lying and people are not telling the truth. How can you ever conduct a poll in an authoritarian in a country under an authoritarian regime . I should say that the doubt and suspicion and accusations for participation by the Republican People come from all the sides. From who accuse us of being foreign agents and undermine the system, as well as from opposition activists who question the validity. I will be talking about the opposition. This is a crisis of perception, which is a very serious issue for russia. We have lost the idea of the future. Because it is the question of the freedom. The very idea of democratic transition is dead today, and that has created for russian opposition a difficult challenge. The understanding or the means to understand i claim that what is important is not the reliability of the data that we receive. To the extent that the data is correct. The problem is the interpretation of what is going on. And after this introduction, i am going to move to the move to describe the frame of mind in russia. What im going to show you results of the National Russian representative searches, which are conducted every month. And they are more frequently and sometimes less frequently, in russia. Which is the of the popular opinion. It combines a number of indices, which are merged into one. The situation and the country, this is a complex sentiment. It is very sensitive. It allows us to produce changes in society over Public Opinion. So if you look over the last 20 years, this chart, there is a deep drop in 1990. The first attempt to get out of the crisis in 1998. There was a new crisis that breaks expectations over the arrival of the battalion later. Im sorry. That is dramatic. I am sorry for this gadget. When putin came to power, the after he said we will kill all of our enemiesno matter where we find them. The explosion centers in the 1990s dramatically changed the indices. And later, we had speculation situations the [indiscernible] or failure to conduct 2005, however004, we assess the situation, and due , this isgh oil price incredible. We can say that in the period which000 and 2008, became the basis for support in the crisis of 2008 and 2009, erupted. Erecte the putin regime should secure the stability. All the way to the end of 2013, we were observing the putin regime and the general assessment of the situation, disappointment, particularly among the middle class in russia. Disappointment, particularly all the way to maidan. After that, it radically changed. How does it work with the putin regime . 86 . It was slowly growing, reaching its peak by the summer of 2008. When there was a war with georgia. The sentiment provoked by propaganda and national cries, and later, we can see that trust went down stepbystep. The legitimization of the regime. And in 2013, putins rating was down to the lowest. His approval was only 60 . One can see that the total control over the media and the components. This is very significant. 2014,ember 2013, january said they would not like to see putin candidacies be nominated for the president ial elections. They were sick and tired of waiting. This was the lowest point. That themind you 2011, which was the stable period, this was the the demonstrations where the middle class came out into the street. This activity showed sharp criticism. Accusations of corruption. Criticism of the ruling partys popularity. Was when there was criticism , supported byion 45 , which was the highest percentage of criticism. Later, right after that, incredible, aggressive antiukrainian and antiwestern campaign. This provoked a new wave of military excitement. Patriotic nationalism. His rating, as you can see, jumped all the way to 88 , which practically matches what was going on in 2008. With georgia. Later, he stayed more or less at the same levels. Slightly decreasing. At the same time, a crisis through the country, in russia, which was quite severe and radically different from 1998. This crisis,use the current crisis, unlike the one of 2008, 1998, a domestic crisis and a systematic crisis. Not provoked by the International Economic situation , it is not related to the drop in oil prices. Crimea begann of in 2012 when the price of oil was higher than 100 per barrel. Which meant that the regime ran out of resources. Unefficient management and the growth of the it is sufficient to say that by the time putin came to power, controlling about 26 of all the resources. Now it controls 70 or 71 in other words. Sectorr words, the state has dramatically increased as the population has been increased. Also people who work for the state enterprises, the government. Risen. Share has or socalled positions and supported [indiscernible] this position dramatically changed the revenue and income with the drop of oil prices. Deflation of the income. It had a painful impact on the middle class. First of all, all the assessments of the trust of the government went nosedived. So in general, what we can say is the crisis is an assessment of the drop of the real income is dramatic. 15 . Was a little bit more, but on the personal level, it was a much more dramatic drop. The situation was not critical, people managed to all the discontent was transferred from putin to the lower level of the government. You can see the blue line as it goes down. This was particularly annoying and provoked the legislators. Isay, the assessment of duma 62 to 30 . Up to 30 . But most importantly, was the sentiment. Ukrainian criticism, ukraine propaganda im not going to analyze it because we dont have enough time, but the it was directed not so much against ukraine but against the policy of integration. You bring integration with models of democracy, liberals liberalism, it might inspire a revolution. Human rights, inspired and it was directed against russian opposition and those who were antiVladimir Putin. Specifically, in this situation, people were acting not simply but aspporters of reform enemies of putins and therefore, russia. This is very important. It is directly related to the fear of kremlin. Reinforce after maidan, and in 2012, after adopted thehen duma activities of the Civil Society am a censorship, persecution of opposition. And, this is when the socalled legislation against foreign ngos and foreign agents was introduced. And against opposition, those western agents who conduct prou. S. Policy and other channels and input of the socalled revolutions. The attitude towards putin of himself, one should not perceive the 86 as the result of the euphoria, condition of the charismatic attitude of putin. Putin is not very charismatic, and there is nothing in his image of a charismatic leader or a demagogue. If you look at, and i think this important chart, with the exception of the period of crimea, the people putin slightly more than a third of the population. A negative approach towards putin. Also, the indifference was an important factor. This element theres construction of the old regimes. The ability to bring a society into the state of apathy and alienation towards politics. Not involvement this is the goal of the policy domestic policy of the kremlin. That does not that does not mean that the condition of putin after the reports were published, putin corruption, we have these questions. And you can see that putin was perceived, to a certain extent, as the head of a corrupt system. But the population, without acceptedon about it, it. So few believed that they share completely the provisions of the report that putin is one of the members of the style government. By the time of crimea, annexation, the share of the people decreases to the minimum level again. I nonsignificantpeople decreasee who are absolutely they reject charges against putin. The direct supporters of putin. The main bulk say, maybe this is correct. But i myself am not aware of it. Of the corruption scandals. And encourage that kind of approach, well, everyone is a thief, that is the system but for me, the more significant result is the if it is true, what is the difference . What is important is that the country is getting better. This duplicity is very important. It is one of the key components of indifference. And it should be taken into consideration, the inertia. Going back to the soviet times. This is the experience of a person who has learned through an oppressive state. And to be loyal, to be able to display loyalty to this government, where in reality, is concerned only about his own personal problems. In other words, the strategy of everyday attitude of people is in theal survival involvement of people clearly have an idea of what the regime is about. And putin is supported by the populists. Oligarch, military, in the eyes of the population, he is not even a monarch. As much as the information of their interests, therefore, the population has an idea about the diplomatic nature of the regime system. As i said before, it is very important here propaganda, not simply that it was antiwestern propaganda, but the association growing to the level of the eve of the great war. It is a very important component, because propaganda, indeed, not only raised a wave of national pride, a selfassurance as a respondent, a selfconfidence. We have shown that we are strong as everyone started to respect us. This is the idea of a bear who is showing his teeth. It was very efficient for the popular mentality. So the crimean history and story , crimean pride and self respect. It has jumped twice. The loss of a great power that was extremely painful. Today, revealed in this aggressive self assurance, as a country who has a historic superpower. The more aggressive idea and attitude of the government is the population of russia. So taking a look at the components of the sentiment of putin, his biggest achievement is foreign policy. Protection of the national interest. And restoration of the russian authority. This is very important, because in all other areas, Vladimir Putins activity is modest. Case scenario and sometimes is even unsuccessful. He has not achieved great successes in his fights against corruption. His counterterrorism fight is quite duplicitous. Economics goes down, which does not make him more popular. The situation is unstable. Certainly the symbolic area of his achievement is foreign policy. Here, it is important that putin works in a completely different environment. An environment of millennia russia, representative of russian civilization. It makes sense because the government and the local governments were remove by putin for the state of things. Possibility. Meanwhile, i would also like to say the propaganda by raising the level of the soviet perception. During the last two years, we have dealt with a dramatic manifestation of rebirth of many soviet ideas and perceptions. A return to old ideas that the government controls the economy. Because it secures a certain stability, stable salaries, education, and jobs. It also provides certainty in the future. People do not remember about clinical shortage, poverty, but the return ofn socialism, it can be used as some kind of guideline. The political system seems quite appealing. Using democracy as a model, as a very attractive today, is practically nonexistent. The Current System is being assessed. After crimea, it is less attractive. There is no need to make special comments, but it is very important that the United States remain enemy number one with the framework and the struggle of the powers for russia, and the United States enemy number one in the rhetoric. These perceptions of the cold war were brought back. Also a military rival. He sees the launch of the antiukraine propaganda as a negative approach towards the United States along with the negative sentiments toward ukraine have grown. General, the list of nations was always led by the former soviet , latvia, lithuania, and estonia, later it was georgia, and then came ukraine. After the revolution of 2004 took place. The unfriendly country or the enemy. Within the context of this general antiwestern propaganda, there is a growing attitude towards germany. There was always a positive sentiment toward germany as well as poland. Take a look at the list of enemy nations. The attractiveness of china has has dramatically raised as part of the rhetorical attack of the west. Russia was always presented as a victim of foreign aggression, domesticows it to use policy, a sort of moral righteousness. What is also important is the feelings of the prewar state of this threat of war remains al removes all the clais andnst the government increases the personal ambitions. This is a war, we need to be patient. The most important motto here is we can endure everything as long as there is no war. This is the illustration of the idea that russia has always finally, you have to understand after putin came to power, the environment of animosity of the surrounding world, which allowed us to secure between the people and the government. Confrontation with the west is , according to the propaganda creates an impression that russia counteracts the western influence. And the historic status of a plays a moreower significant role in international areas. This increasing influence brings respect from other nations. Restoration of the great power status, this is what people expected from putin. The most important element in march of 2014, crimea annexation and antiwestern confrontation. If in 1999, 65 felt that russia was lower than where it started as a superpower. Had turned into a regional power. In 2008, the rest the war against georgia this this feeling of great power status comes back. This involvement dramatically increases attention for the social context both economical and political issues. This does not show the aggressive attitude against the government. This is inside side of the country, not outside of it. My time is running out. Thats why am going to stop here. William thank you very much. there is much to think about and many interesting numbers to contemplate in your talk. I will ask the first question. And make sure you are all ok, ok. My first question goes to the nature of the opinions about the old soviet system. If you could address the question, when you talked about the rising number of support for the soviet system, i was just curious if you could identify, when you talk about the support for the soviet system, whether you could break that down by age groups. In other words, is support of the old soviet system mainly from the people who lived through the soviet system, or is the support for the soviet system equally spread amongst all layers of society, including young people . Mr. Gudkov [speaking russian] in 1998, there was a sense that the country was at a deadend. At this moment, our research was strange picture. Numbers of the reporters , so foruclear weapon had risent to, it from 7 to 34 in only two years. It was an acute stage of collective frustration. After the crisis of the mid1990s, the communist comeback began. It was a difficult economic situation. Great deal of disappointment in the western model and the idolization of the soviet past. This card was played by putin. There was a perception that the werems as well as maidan inspired by the west, were for the destruction of the soviet union. The great number of enemies of russia. On the other hand, there was growing nostalgia for the soviet past, which used by putin. He kept using this argument all the time. The attitude towards the soviet past is not linear. 66 regret that the soviet union collapsed. This number has not changed for 25 years. But the soviet system is quite different among different social layers in different social layers. The most critical are the people aged 45 and above who lived through the end of the soviet system. Experience have , resistance towards the growing regime. The young people who were not familiar have an idealized picture of the past, provided by the media. Delusional idea of the superpower, which we have lost. This is very significant for them. Theelderly people, elderly people, those who live in the remote provinces, they are nostalgic about the soviet system which secured a certain level of social warranties. The presentday situation for them is quite frustrating and tense. There is no linear william i just want to make a quick note. Whether you ask your question in english or russian, please begin to the microphone. That is so our interpreter can gudkov. Nd get it to dr. Just speak into the microphone. Speak clearly and slower than i am speaking right now. We will start with sergei. Sergei [speaking in russian] i believe this is very important in order to interpret do you have some kind of view of the data [indiscernible] for the government, so people. Re afraid, to be honest you protect yourself from this phenomena, and do you consider this a crucial problem . Gudkov i personally do not believe that this is a serious issue. We are not radically different from situations in other countries. Joining the imagined majority, the opinion exists it is a traditional sociological process , so there is nothing particular to our situation. I believe that this is some kind of invented excuses to justify an ability to understand our data. This is the fact that people do not take into account the elements of the leftovers this is exactly like in the United States in the first days after the election, people were shy to admit that they were voting for trump. Which to me is the transponders of some liberal journalist ideas spread to other categories of the population. People are not shy. People are not afraid to answer, although the element of fear has in society has been risen after mass protest. To which extent it has an impact, the response is not much. We have checked this many times. But there are differences. For example, it depends on the technique of the question. The telephone questions give you 5 to 10 more loyalist answers regarding putin than a facetoface interview. In a situation of a normal human context, there is more of an element of trust. People understand what he or she general,about, and in there are procedures which gives us a lot of things, adjusting there was no desire to adjust the answer to present as loyal people arele, when asked about the corruption of putin, people are quite honest, quite open. Attitude towards the government, because there is this level of civic has been increased. Everything is asked. The majority people, are they afraid or not . 60 say they are afraid. You are afraid yourself. 18 say,om 11 to yeah, i would rather stay silent. There is a personal attitude, which is quite different. Therefore, this is the problem of the interpretation and not the way to receive data. Theres not a great deal of difference in such a gathering of information. William thank you. The american foreignpolicy counsel. Wayne i would like to ask a question looking a bit into the future. One of the big issues the russian government is facing is the need for reform of the Pension System, which is very generous by International Standards and extremely expensive given russian government finances. Putin has proposed some fairly i would not say radical, but significant restrictions on age and benefits. Some of these have already been introduced for government employees. But the Pension System is one of the most fundamental elements of the patrimonial relationship between the state and people in russia. It is the primary means by which much of the older population survives. If between now and the next president ial election there were a significant alteration in the Pension System, even announced, maybe not actually applied, but announced, how do you think this would affect broad Public Attitudes toward a state . Dr. [laughter] we have not mentioned the possibility of raising the retirement age that they have received very painfully. I believe that there is going to. E a harsh and painful policy the pensions are being decreased. They are below the level of inflation. The inflation level was at 9 and deflation was at 4 . Even by the end of 2014, it was 16 and deflation was about 4 . In other words, the real pension has decreased dramatically because the government is going to survive at the expense of by decreasing the population income. Is indicative of the putin regime as well. At the same time come pensions and theres a replacement of the average pension with about 65 or 70 . 32 , which itound is very hard to survive on pension money. Russian retired people is the poorest category of the population along with many families and children. These two back here, short. Uestions and important steve crowley, i just want to follow up on the question if i will. How about the support for putin . How does this breakdown by social groups . 2011 and 2012in that we were told by middleclass and professional folks in moscow and st. Petersburg and prudent seems to claim the support of the working class and the industrial into lance and so on. What does your data say about who exactly is supporting putin . We dodkov unfortunately. Ot see this russian soldiers are involved in taking part, but professional military. Why do they accept the fact that putin does that officially and why are they silent as the russian soldiers perish in this war . Thank you very much for your wonderful presentation. I have two questions. It was very interesting when he p d of the support of utin. This was a very small number and the environment of an authoritarian regime. About lack of unanimity. There is more or less a majority fullyupports the regime or partially and there is a quarter which is against and one quarter which has no opinion. Do i understand that correctly . My second question is also very interesting because of the latest trends. Trend starting from mid2015 all the way to the present day. If i understand it correctly, there is a more critical response. Indeed in the last year the situation has worsened and the outlook does not look good. Putin majority does start to fade away. Introduce a distinction widely used of the socalled low intensity. The support of the entire western sentiment masses today indeed and the approval of putin is also not nothing, but people are not willing to pay the price. If the situation is going to changed dramatically, indeed this all can change very quickly only under one circumstance. When putin was a leader in symbolic context, it cannot be a leader in the economics reform policy. Or foreign policy. It should take a radical breakup of the entire picture for that to collapse. It will indoor and will not play a role in the entire symbolical. Ontext should be changed the regime is quite official and is not provide a good effect. Todays successes and games will turn into world defeat. Changed. Ld be . Id i answer your question regarding the support of putin and different social segments, this category of the population which is specialized under the circumstances has been brainwashed by the ideology. 20 of the youth supports prudent but secretly,. Supportst percentage of is in the age group of 50yearold and retired people pensionsse of the decreasing. Segments andal proputinthe most city in russia. The average approval of putin was about 70 plus percent. Support was 28 . Classically the middle therstands the danger of authoritarian regime. Protests, the response is quite different to growing immigration sentiments. They are joining the majority because the middle class, there. Ere many unhappy people the ideological propaganda has been different within different social groups in the assessment of politics. Significant. It is not a radical depression. Particular, the industrial depressive areas of russia, middle type cities, they are the putinf the regime today. , but theynow that believe they should see no Russian Troops in ukraine. Very situation is there is double thinking. Why was the ukrainian propaganda so efficient . There were four talking points. West. Provoked by the they came factor is to power in ukraine and propaganda started to use the language of world war ii, fighting against fascists. It is the Russian National mentality where the main symbol is the victory in world war ii in 1945. The third is very important. Look at what happened in ukraine debacle. War, economic the population still has very horrific memories of the crisis when it took up to seven months and lost many lives. This is a very significant reason. The fourth the reason is that russia of course violated but they can law, protect russians from genocide and therefore it is ethical because russia restores the status of the great power by conducting an ethical policy. It provides a certain system of protection in a sense. That is all despite the fact there is one other way. Official media saying there were only volunteers there. People put the Russian Military and quotations. Theirwere troops fighting and they believed it was the right thing because the war is war and cheating in the war is justified. Three more questions and the questions must be very short. Essentially just ask the questions. Statements, no comments, and i will ask the speaker to respond quickly to these questions because we are already up against time. I see three hands up. I would like to ask you in working as af foreign agent. [indiscernible] in lieu of the antiamerican propaganda being such a cornerstone of prudence spularity putin popularity, is the notion that president from can make a deal to reset relations with russia effective . This is to questions and we are done. Dr. Gudkov the entire Electoral Campaign in russia was protrunk. Pro trump when we were asking what results were more positive for russians, 52 said it was him at 30 said trumps election would be better for russia. Percent spoke in favor of clinton. Therefore this outlook of a deal utin willp and p be seen as an unconditional success of putin. What about the future of the lobato center . Dr. Gudkov we have lost two court cases. That therguing sentiment was absolutely pasted. And copy sometimes they give us the and othergeneral organizations were included in the list. Seven more organizations were added. Its a highly unpleasant , but this also creates a number of problems because we cannot get and we do not receive any money from the government. We get this money for our research and our partners do not want to deal with the deemed. Tion which is pressured is there is in our branches allowing government officials to interact blocksr employees, which the possibility of conducting a number of projects which we have with russian universities. It is the monitoring of the Health System and the relations with workers. The local Ask Administration directly and they are banned from answering questions. It is not just financial but also direct. Were not going to apply to be registered and that means were going to be punished again. Eventually we are going to be banned officially. An organization that has gained the process of that side. I believe we still have about half a year. Activity stop all the because we have a lot of things we would like to do. I would like to thank dr. Gud kov for a fascinating conversation on what is going inside russia. [applause] i also want to thank our cosponsors, the institute for european and russian studies and also cspan. I want to wish you a very happy thanksgiving. Thank you very much. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, an analysis of president elect Donald Trumps infrastructure proposals, its challenges, and the current state of u. S. Veronique dere with rugy and aaron klein. And then Jamie Mcintyre on president elect Trumps National his decisionda and to choose Michael Flynn as National Security advisor. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal, coming up live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Tonight, a discussion on the history of School Segregation with investigative journalist Nicole Hannah jones, who writes about racial segregation in the United States. Thats at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Follow the Transitional Government on cspan as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the United States and republicans maintain control of the u. S. House and senate. We will take you to key events as they happen without interruption. Watch live on cspan, watch ondemand at cspan. Org, or listen for free on our cspan radio app. Next, present obama awards 21 people with the nations highest civilian honor at the medal of freedom ceremony. The 2016 class includes hill and Melinda Gates, Kareem Abduljabbar, Bruce Springsteen, and vince scully. This is just over an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, the recipients of the president ial medal of freedom. Kareem abduljabbar. [applause] kurt covell. [applause] Ellen Degeneres. [applause] robert deniro. [applause] bill and Melinda Gates. [applause] margaret hamilton. [applause] tom hanks. [applause] excepting on the half of grace hopper. Pting on behalf of grace hopper. [applause] Michael Jordan. [applause] maya lin. [applause] Lorne Michaels. [applause] newt minow. [applause] Eduardo Padron. [applause] redford. [applause] diana ross. [applause] vin scully. [applause] Bruce Springsteen. [applause] cicely tyson. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States. [applause] gentlemen, the president of the United States, and mrs. Michelle obama. [applause] [cheering] president obama we have some work to do here. This is not all fun and games. Welcome to the white house, everybody. Celebrate extraordinary americans who have lifted our spirits, strengthen our union, pushed us toward progress. Event,s love doing this but this is a particularly impressive class. [laughter] president obama we have got innovators and artists, public ,ervants, rabblerousers athletes, renowned character actors, like the guy from space jam. [laughter] president obama we pay tribute to those distinguished individuals with our nations highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom. Now let me tell you a little bit about each of them. First we came close to missing out on a bill and Melinda Gates incredible partnership because apparently bills opening line was, do you want to go out two weeks from this coming saturday . [laughter] president obama the man is good with computers, but. Fortunately melinda believes in Second Chances and the world is better for it. For two decades, the Gates Foundation has worked to provide toesaving medical care millions, boosting clean water supplies, improving education for our children, rallying Aggressive International action on climate change, cutting childhood mortality in half, and the list could go on. These two have donated more money to charitable causes than anyone ever. Many years ago, melindas mom told her that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is success. By this and just about any other measure, few in Human History have been more successful than these two inpatient optimists. Frank geary has never let popular claim reverses and pulls to defy convention. An outsider from the beginning, he says. For better or worse, i thrived on it. A child of poor jewish immigrants, frank grew up in los angeles. Embracedt his life, he the spirit of the city defined by an open horizon. He spent his life rethinking shapes and mediums, seemingly the force of gravity itself, and the idea of what architecture could be. And, constantly reproducing material available he is inspiring our next generation to his advocacy of Arts Education in our schools. And from the guggenheim to chicagos millennium park, to his home in santa monica, what caused somend consternation among his neighbors, he teaches us that while birdings while buildings may be attached to the ground, they can broaden our horizons. Another graduate from rural appalachia set foot on the National Mall years ago, she tried to figure out a way to show that war is not just a but about loss, individual lives. She considered how the landscape might shape that message, rather than the other way around. The project designed for her College Class earned her a b plus. And a permanent place in american history. [laughter] so all of youa be plus students out there . [laughter] president obama the Vietnam Veterans memorial has changed the way we think about monuments, sacrifice, patriotism and ourselves. She has given us more than just places for remembering, she has given us places to create new memories. Sculptures, chapels, homes. Physical acts of poetry. The mining is that the most important element of art is human emotion. Three minutes before armstrong and aldrin touchdown on the moon , apollo 11s Lunar Landing alarm triggered. Our astronauts to not have much time but faithfully they had margaret hamilton. Andung m. I. T. Scientist working mom in the 1960s, she led the team that created the on board Flight Software that allowed the eagle to land safely. Time,n mind that at this Software Engineering wasnt even a field yet. There were no textbooks to follow so as margaret says, there was no choice what to be pioneers. Luckily for us, she never stopped pioneering and she symbolizes the generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space. Software guitar architecture echoes in countless examples today. And her spirit exists in every little girl and little boy who know that to go to the heavens beyond the skies and within ourselves. In 1906, rear admiral grace murray are admiral grace Murray Hopper set out a long and storied career. Old, 15,000 below military guidelines, the colorful grace joined the navy and was sent to work for one of the hearst one of the first computers. Of saw beyond the boundaries possible and invented the first compiler. It allowed languages to be translated for computers to understand. The women who pioneered software were overlooked, the most prestigious award for young computer scientists now bear her name. From cell phones to cyber command, we can thank grace hopper for opening programming to millions more people. Helping to usher in the Information Age and shaping our digital world. Of really smart people. In the summer of 1950, a young physicist found himself at lost alamosa national laboratory. Chicagohere because paid its faculty for nine months but his family eight for 12 months. [laughter] the next obama so by summer, he helped to create the the restbomb and for of his life, he dedicated his life to reducing the threat of atomic war. Ever since he was a cleveland problemhas never met a he didnt want to solve. Mri,naissance satellites, gps technology, the touchscreen, they all bear his fingerprints. He even patented a muscle washer for shellfish. That, i havent used. [laughter] president obama the other stuff, i have. [laughter] president obama where is he . [laughter] he has advised nearly every president since eisenhower, often, rather bluntly. And rico fermi is said to have called him the only true genius he ever met. I do want to see the mussel washer. [laughter] president obama we also honor those who have shaped our coulter from the stage and the screen. In her long and extraordinary aneer, she has succeeded as actress and shaped the course of history. Nevertheless he asked of hollywood stars. The daughter of immigrants from the west indies, raised by a hardworking mother who cleaned houses and forbade her children to attend the movies. But once she got her education, decisionde a conscious to speak out. I would not accept roles, she said, unless they rejected women in real roles and presented us as humans. Her convictions and grace have helped for us to see the dignity of every Single Beautiful member of the american family. And, she is gorgeous. [lauter] [applause] president obama she is. 1973, a critic wrote of Robert De Niro, this kid doesnt just act, he takes off into the vapors. And it is true. His characters are iconic. Father, turned new york mobster, a mobster who runs a casino, a mobster who needs there be [laughter] president obama a fatherinlaw who is scarier than a mobster. Al capone, a mobster. [laughter] president obama robert combines dramatic precision and, it turns out, comedic timing with his signature i4 detail. And while his name is synonymous with tough guy, his two gift is the sensitivity brings to each role. This son of new york artist didnt stop at becoming one of the worlds great actors, he is a director, philanthropist, cofounder of the tribeca film possible. His tire his tireless learning the saxophone and remaking his body, he once said he feels he has to reserve the right to play a role. And it results in a character who shows who we truly are. The beatles to unite on his brandnew show. In exchange, 3000. [laughter] and then he told them they could or they could give ringo starr a smaller cut. [laughter] early proof that he has a good sense of humor. On saturday night live, he has where band of stars. Have and tomn lawyer show up hanks is on blackjack pretty. [laughter] after fourbama , even in the fractured media culture that weve got, remains a poignant viewer. A mainland into our counterculture and also just our culture. Still a challenge for the powerful. Especially folks like me. Years, he all these jokes that he should and even. [laughter] as a current u. S. Senator with say, that is why people like you. [laughter] president obama he produced a senator, pretty impressive. Degeneres. She has a way of making you laugh about some of saying rather than at someone. Except when i danced at her show, she glanced she danced at me. Let that is ok. It is easy to forget now, when we have come so far, where marriage is equal under the law, just how much coverage was allen to come out on the most public of stages, almost 20 years ago. Just how important it was. Not just to the lgbt community, that to all of us. To see someone so full of kindness, light, someone we like so much, someone who could be a neighbor, colleague or sister challenge our own assumptions. Remind us that we have more in common than we realized. Ofh us in the direction fairness. People dont do that very often. And then to have the hopes of millions on your shoulders. What it is like ellen says, we all want a tortilla chip that can support the weight of guacamole. [laughter] president obama which really makes no sense to me. [laughter] president obama but i thought it would break the mood. Because i was getting kind of choked up. [laughter] and she did pay a price. We dont remember this. I hadnt remembered this but she did. For a pretty long stretch of time. Even in hollywood. Yet, today, every day in every way, Ellen Degeneres counters what divides us. With countless things that binds us together, inspires us to be better. One joke and one dance at a time. Candidate wins his race thehe iconic 1972 film of same name, which continues, by the way, for those of you who perhapsseen it, to be the best movie about what ,olitics is actually like, ever he famously asks his Campaign Manager the reflective question and likeo we do now . The man he played in that movie, Robert Redford has figured it out and applied his talent to achieve success. Just for his not remarkable acting but for having figured out what to do next. He created a platform for independent filmmakers with the sundance institute. He has supported our National Parks and resources as one of the foremost conservationists of our organization. He has given his charisma to unforgettable characters. Sundance kid. Entertaining us for more than half a century. As an actor, director, producer and advocate, he has not stopped. So fastrently drives that he has breakfast in napa and dinner in salt lake. [laughter] at 80 yearsama young, Robert Redford has no plans to slow down. Movie,ng to a recent sally it was the final straw we should never travel with tom hanks. You have being marooned, purgatory. Airport something happens with tom hanks. And yet we cant resist going where he wants to take us. He has been a witness to history, a womans baseball man who fellevery in love with meg ryan three times. [laughter] made it seemma natural to have a volleyball as your best friend. From a philadelphia courtroom to the dark side of the moon, he has introduced us to americas unassuming heroes. Just saw ordinary guys who did the right thing at the right time. It takes one to know one. And he asked it up to cancer with his beloved wife. Veterans. Our supported exploring and. And the truth is, he has always saved his best roles for real life. He is a good man. The best title you can have. So we have animators. Entertainers. Three more folks who have dedicated themselves to Public Service. Thousandsly 1960s, of cuban children fled to america seeking an education they would never get back home. One refugee was a 15yearold adron. Eduardo p had a bachelors degree, masters degree and a phd. Then he had a choice. He made his choice. To create more stories, just like his. President , hes has built a dream factory for one of the nations most diverse student bodies. 165,000 students in all. He is one of the worlds most preeminent education leaders. Thinking outofthebox. Supporting students through their lives. Embodying the believes that we are only as great as the doors we open. That we canis one all follow. A champion who strives for the American Dream that first drew him to our shores. When eloise co. Bell first filed a lawsuit to recover land and money for her people, she said she just wanted to give justice to people who didnt have it. And her lifelong quest to address the this management of america india plans, resources, wasnt aboutit special treatment but just equal treatment at the heart of the american promise. She fought for almost 15 years across three president s. 10 appearances before a federal appeals court. She traveled the country 40 weeks a year telling the story of her people. In the end, this graduate of a ae worm and graduate of one room schoolhouse, she reached a historic victory for all native americans. Through sheer force of will and a belief that the truth will win out. Cobell reminded us that doing what is right is always worth it. Every journals in the room knows coined by nude minnow the vast wasteland. Advocating for residents ofminn public housing. Cementing president ial debates as our national institution. Leading the fcc. T minow he predicted it would be more important than the moon landing. This will launch ideas into space. And ideas last longer than people. Onlyr as i know, he is the one of todays arteries who was president on my first day with michelle. [laughter] he is only one of todays nominees who was present on my first date with michelle. [laughter] president obama imagine my surprise. So he has also been vital to my personal interests. Finally, we honor five of the alltime greats in sports and music. The game of baseball has a handful of signature sounds. The crack of the bat. The crowd singing in the seventh inning stretch. And you have the voice of vince scully. Scully. You didnt want to miss one of his stories. Most playbyplay analysts chat about the action that he worked alone. And he talked to just with us. Since Jackie Robinson started at second base, he taught us the game and introduced us to the players. He narrated the improbable years and the impossible heroics. His he heard about dishonor, he asked with humility are you sure . I am just an old baseball announcer. When he heard about this on honor, he asked with humility are you sure . I am just an old baseball announcer. Fact, i did think about him doing all these announcements. That would have been cool. [laughter] president obama up next. [laughter] here is how great Kareem Abduljabbar was. He had spent a year dominating college basketball. Dunk. Aa banned the they did not say it was about kareem, but it was about kareem. When a sport changes its rules just to make the sport harder just for you, you are really good. [laughter] [applause] pres. Obama yet, despite the rule change, he was the sports most unstoppable force. The title he would hold for two decades, winning nba finals, mvps, a staggering 14 years apart. Bless you. [laughter] president obama as a surprisingly similar looking copilot, Roger Murdock once said in the movie airplane. [laughter] we have some great actors here. [laughter] president obama he did it all while dragging others up and down the court for 48 minutes. The reason we honor kareem is more than just a pair of goggles and the skyhook. He stood up for his muslim faith when it was not easy or popular. He is as comfortable sparring with bruce lee as he is advocating on capitol hill, or writing with extraordinary eloquence about patriotism. Physically, intellectually, spiritually, kareem is a oneofakind. An american who illuminates our most basic freedoms and highest aspirations. When he was five years old, Michael Jordan nearly cut off his big toe with an ax. [laughter] pres. Obama back then, his handle needed a little work. [laughter] but think, ifa things had gone differently, air jordans might never have taken flight. I mean, you dont want to buy a shoe with one toe missing. We may never have seen him switch hands in midair against the lakers or drop 63 in the garden or hit the shot three different times over georgetown, russell. We might not have seen him take horse, lift upin cours the sport globally, along with the dream team. Yet, mj is more than those moments, more than just the best player on the two greatest teams of all time, the dream team and the 1996 chicago bulls. [laughter] president obama he is more than just a logo, more than just an internet meme. [laughter] pres. Obama more than just a charitable donor or business owner. Committed to diversity. There is a reason you call somebody the Michael Jordan of. The Michael Jordan of neurosurgery, the Michael Jordan of rabbis. Ofthe Michael Jordan outrigger canoeing. They know what you are talking about. Because Michael Jordan is the Michael Jordan of greatness. He is the definition of somebody so good at what they do, that everybody recognizes it. That is pretty great. As a child, diana ross loved singing and dancing for family friends, but not for free. [laughter] pres. Obama she was a smart enough to pass the hat. Later, at a Housing Project she met mary wilson and florence, her neighbor, Smokey Robinson , put them in front of berry gordy and the rest was magic. Musical history. The supremes earned a permanent place in the american soundtrack. Along with her honeyed voice and soulful sensibility, diana ross exuded glamour and grace and helped to shape the sound of motown. On top of becoming one of the most successful recording artists of all time, and raising five kids, somehow found time to earn an oscar nomination for acting. Today, from the hiphop artist who samples her, to those have been inspired by her and to the audiences who still cannot influence of her, her is as inescapable as ever. She was sprung from a cage out on highway nine. [laughter] pres. Obama a quiet kid from jersey, trying to make sense of the temples of dreams and the mysteries that dotted his hometown, pool halls, cars, girls, altars, assembly lines. For decades, Bruce Springsteen has brought us all along on a journey, consumed with the bargains between ambitious and injustice, and pleasure and pain. The simple glories and scattered heartbreak of everyday life in america. To create one of his biggest hits, he once said, i wanted to craft a record that sounded like the last record on earth. The last one you would ever need to hear. Then, the apocalypse. Every restless kid in america was given a story born to run. He did not stop there. Once he told us about himself he told us about everybody else. Steelworkers in youngstown, the vietnam vet in born to run, born in the usa. The sick and marginalized on the streets of philadelphia. The firefighters carrying the weight of a nation. The young soldier reckoning with devils and dust in iraq. The communities knocked down by recklessness and greed. In the wrecking ball. All of us with our faults and failings, every color and class and creed, bound together by one defiant, restless train rolling toward the land of hopes and dreams. These are all anthems of our america. The reality of who we are and the reverie of who we want to be. The hallmark of a rock n roll band, Bruce Springsteen once said, is that the narrative you tell together is bigger than any one could have told on your own. For decades, alongside the big man, little steven, a jersey girl named patty and all the men and women of the e street band, Bruce Springsteen has been carrying us on the rest of his journey, asking us all what is the work for us to do in our short time here . I am the president , he is the boss. [laughter] pres. Obama pushing 70, he is still laying down for our live sets. If you have not been at them, he is working. Fire breathing, rock n roll. I thought twice about giving him a medal named for freedom because we hope he remains in his words, a prisoner of rock n roll for years to come. [laughter] pres. Obama i told you, this is like a really good class. [laughter] president obama ladies and gentlemen, i want you all to give it up for the recipients of the 2016 president ial medal of freedom. [applause] pres. Obama this is a good group. Now we have to actually give them medals. [laughter] president obama so please be patient. We will have my military aide read the citations. Each will come up and receive the medals and then we will wrap up the program. Lets hit it. Kareem abduljabbar. [applause] president obama this is going to be fun. [laughter] [applause] an iconic basketball player, who revolutionized the sport with his allaround play and signature skyhook, Kareem Abduljabbar is a 19 time allstar, sixtime world champion, and the leading scorer in nba history. Adding to his achievements on the court, he also left his mark off it, advocating for civil rights, cancer research, science education, and social justice. In doing so, Kareem Abduljabbar leaves behind a towering legacy of compassion, faith, and service to others. A legacy based on the strength and grace of his athleticism, but on the sharpness of his mind and the strength of his heart. [applause] accepting the medal in honor of his mother, Elouise Cobell. [applause] wome a member of the blackfeet nation, Elouise Cobell spent her time to find a odds and working on behalf of our people. As a young woman, she was told she was not capable of understanding accounting. So she mastered the field and used her expertise to champion a lawsuit whose historic settlement has helped restore tribal homelands to her beloved tribe and others. Spirither tenacious lives on in the thousands of people and hundreds of tribes for whom she thought, and all those she taught to believe it is never too late to right the wrongs of the past and help shape a better future. [applause] Ellen Degeneres. [applause] [laughter] in a career spanning three decades, Ellen Degeneres has lifted our spirits and brought joy to our lives as a standup comic, actor, and television star. In every role, she reminds us to be kind to one another and treat people as each of us wants to be treated. At a pivotal moment, her courage helped change the minds of millions of americans, helping accelerate our nations constant drive toward equality and acceptance for all. Again and again, Ellen Degeneres has shown us that a single individual to make the world a more fun, more open, more loving place, so long as we just keep swimming. [applause] Robert De Niro. [applause] for over 50 years, Robert De Niro has delivered some of the screens most memorable performances, cementing his place as one of the most gifted actors in a generation. From the godfather part two to the deer hunter, he is legendary and his work has depth. He is relentlessly dedicated to his craft, embodies his characters, creates rich, nuanced portraits that reflect the heart of the human experience. Regardless of genre, robert continues to demonstrate that extraordinary skill that has made him one of americas most revered artists. [applause] richard l. Garwin. [applause] one of the most renowned of our time, dr. Richard garwin has answered the call to solve some of societys most challenging problems. He has coupled his pioneering work in defense and technologies with leadership that underscores the urgency for humanity to control the spread of nuclear arms. Through his advice to democratic and republicans since eisenhower, his contributions and his inventions that have powered technology for our modern world. He is not only contributed to this nations security, but quality of life for people all over the world. [applause] william h. Gates the third and melinda french gates. [applause] few people have had the profound Global Impact of bill and Melinda Gates. Through their work through their foundation, they have demonstrated how the most capable and fortunate among us have the responsibility to use their talents and resources to tackle the worlds greatest challenges. From helping women and girls lift themselves and their families out of poverty, to empowering young minds across america, they have transformed countless lives with their generosity and innovation. They continue to inspire us with their optimism that together we can remake the world as it should be. [applause] frank gehry. [applause] never limited by conventional materials, style, or processes, his bold and thoughtful structures show architectures ability to revitalize communities. A creative mind from an early age, he began his career by building imaginary homes and cities from scrap material from his grandfathers hardware store. Since then, his work continues to strike a balance between experimentation and functionality, resulting in some of our most iconic buildings. From his pioneering use of technology from inspiring sites style,ar his signature from his Public Service as a Signature Artist through the work with turnaround arts, frank gehry has proven himself an exemplary person. [applause] margaret hayfield hamilton. [applause] a pioneering technology, a pioneer in technology, hamilton helped launch an industry that would forever change Human History. Her Software Architecture led to giant leaps for human kind, writing the code that helped america step foot on the moon. She broke barriers in founding her own software businesses, revolutionizing an industry and inspiring countless women to participate in stem fields. Her love of exploration and innovation are the source code of the american spirit. Her genius has inspired generations to reach for the stars. [applause] thomas j. Hanks. [applause] throughout a distinguished film career, tom hanks has revealed the character of america, as well as his own, for his own. Portraying war heroes, an astronaut, a ship captain, a cartoon cowboy, a young man growing up too fast and dozens of others, he has allowed us to see ourselves as we are and as we aspire to be. On screens and off, he has honor ed the sacrifices of those who would served our nation, called on us all to believe and inspire a new generation of young people to reach for the sky. [applause] debra murray excepting on accepting on behalf of her great aunt grace hopper. [applause] as a child who loved disassembling alarm clocks, rear admiral grace Murray Hopper found her calling early, with a phd from yale, she served in the navy during world war ii becoming one of the first engineers of computing. Known today as the queen of code, grace hoppers work helps make coding language more accessible and practical. She invented the first compiler or translator, a fundamental element of our digital world. Amazing grace was committed to making the language of Computer Programming more accessible. Today, we celebrate the sense of possibility she inspired in millions of young people. [applause] michael j. Jordan. [applause] [laughter] powered by a drive to compete that earned him every major award in basketball, including six nba champions, five most valuable player awards, and gold medals, Michael Jordans name has become synonymous with excellence. His wagging tongue and highflying dunks redefining the game, making him a global superstar that transcended basketball and shaped our larger culture. From the courts in wilmington, chapel hill and chicago to the owner suite he occupies today, his life and example have inspired millions of americans to strive to be like mike. [applause] maya y. Lin. [applause] boldly challenging our understanding of the world, maya lins designs have brought people of all walks of life together in spirits of remembrance, introspection, and humility. The manipulation of natural terrain and topography within her works inspires us to bridge our differences and recognize the gravity of our collective existence. Her pieces have changed the landscape of our country and influenced the dialogue of our society, never more profoundly than with her tribute to the americans who fell in vietnam, by cutting a wound into the earth to create a sacred place of healing in our nations capital. [applause] Lorne Michaels. [applause] one of the most transformative entertainment figures of our time, Lorne Michaels followed his dreams to new york city, where he created a sketch show that brought satire, wits, and modern comedy to homes around the world. Under his meticulous command as executive producer, saturday night live has entertained audiences across generations, reflecting and shaping critical elements of our cultural, political, and national life. Lorne michaels creative legacy stretches into latenight television, sitcoms, and the big screen, making us laugh, challenging us to think, and raising the bar for those who follow. As one of his shows signature characters would say, well, isnt that special . [applause] [laughter] newton n. Minow. [applause] as a soldier, counsel to the governor of illinois, chairman of the federal communications commission, and law clerk to the chief justice of the supreme court, newton minows career has been defined by his devotion to others. Deeply committed to his family, the law, and the american people, his dedication to serving and empowering the public is reflectein his efforts to ensure that broadcast media educates and provides opportunity for all. Challenging the media to better serve their viewers, his staunch commitment to the power of ideas and information has transformed telecommunications and its influential role in our society. [applause] dr. Eduardo j. Padron. [applause] as a teenage refugee from cuba, Eduardo Padron came to the United States to pursue the American Dream, and he has spent his life making that dream real for others. As president of the Community College he once attended, his thoughtful leadership and commitment to education have transformed Miamidade College into one of the premier learning institutions in the country, earning him praise around the world. His personal story and lasting professional influence prove that success need not be determined by our background, but by our dedication to others, our passion for creating an america that is as inclusive as it is prosperous. [applause] Robert Redford. [applause] Robert Redford has captivated audiences from both sides of the camera through entertaining Motion Pictures that often explore vital social, political, and historical themes. His lifelong advocacy on behalf of preserving our environment will prove as an enduring legacy as will his awardwinning films, as will his pioneering support for independent filmmakers across america. His art and activism continue to shape our nations cultural heritage, inspiring millions to laugh, cry, think, and change. [applause] diana ross. [applause] a daughter [laughter] a daughter of detroit, diana ross helped create the sound of motown with her iconic voice. From her groundbreaking work with the supremes, to a solo career that has spanned decades, she has influenced generations of Young Artists and shaped our nations musical landscape. In addition to a grammy Lifetime Achievement award and countless musical accolades, diana ross has distinguished herself as an actor, earning an oscar nomination and a golden globe award. With over 25 albums, unforgettable hit singles, and Live Performances that continue to captivate audiences around the world, diana ross still reigns supreme. [applause] next up, vin scully. [applause] with a voice that transcended a sport and transformed a profession, viulprofession, vind americas pastime for generations of fans. Known to millions as the soundtrack of summer, he found time to teach us about life and love while chronicling routine plays and historic heroics. In victory and in defeat, his colorful accounts reverberated through the bleachers, across the airwaves, and into our homes and imaginations. He is an american treasure and a beloved storyteller, and our countrys gratitude for vin scully is as profound as his love for the game. [applause] bruce f. Springsteen. [applause] as a songwriter, humanitarian, americas rock roll laureate, and new jerseys greatest ambassador, Bruce Springsteen is quite simply the boss. Through stories about ordinary people, from Vietnam Veterans to steelworkers, his songs captured the pain and the promise of the american experience. With his legendary e street band, Bruce Springsteen leaves everything onstage in epic, communal Live Performances that have rocked audiences for decades. With empathy and honesty, he holds up a mirror to who we are, as americans chasing our dreams and as human beings trying to do the right thing. There is a place for everyone in Bruce Springsteens america. [applause] bruce bruce [applause] cicely tyson. [applause] for 60 years, cicely tyson has graced the screen and the stage, enlightening us with her groundbreaking characters and calls to conscious humility and hope. Her achievements as an actor, her devotion to her faith, and her commitment to advancing equality for all americans, especially women of color, have touched audiences of multiple generations. From the autobiography of miss jane pittman to sounder to the trip to bountiful, Cicely Tysons performances illuminate the character of our people and the extraordinary possibilities of america. [applause] [cheers] president obama so just on a personal note, part of the reason that these events are so special to me is because everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, personal way, in ways they probably could not imagine. Whether it was having been inspired by a song or a game or a story or a film or a monument or in the case of newt minow, introducing me to michelle, these are folks who have helped make me who i am and think about my presidency. And what also makes it special is this is america. And it is useful when you think about this incredible collection of people to realize that this is what makes us the greatest nation on earth, not because of what we [applause] president obama not because of our differences, but because in our difference, we find something common to share. And what a glorious thing that is, what a great gift that is to america. So i want all of you to enjoy the wonderful reception that will be taking place afterwards. Michelle and i have to get back to work, unfortunately, but i hear the food is pretty good. And i would like all of you to give one big rousing round of applause to our 2016 honorees for the president ial medal of freedom. Give it up. [cheers and applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] if you missed any of this event, you can watch it again in its entirety on cspan. Org. The transition of government on cspan as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the United States and republicans maintain control of the u. S. House and senate. We will take you to key events as they happen. Live on cspan. Watch ondemand on cspan. Org or listen on our free cspan radio mobile app. Today on cspan, washington journal is next. The history of School Segregation. Coming up in 45 minutes, an snalysis of President Trump infrastructure proposals. At 8 45, and Jamie Mcintyre on the National Security agenda. Host good morning on this getaway wednesday for the thanksgiving holiday. President obama is at the white house. Later today, the traditional pardon of the thanksgiving turkey. A tradition that officially dates back to president harry truman in 1947. Some say it goes back to abraham lincoln. President trump in florida today. Mr. Trump will be selecting nikki haley to serve as the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations