Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Year Of Voting Dangerously 20161225

And strategy skills in over 20 years while leading organizations in professional and volunteer capacities. The apparatus of deep knowledge of travel, hospitality, arts and culture in the industry spirit her to her own firm, and the strategy and marketing expertise and the nonprofit academic and petition started than fortune 500 companies. She regularly mentors startups and participate in entrepreneur. Just another cheerleader for the citys business and cultural scene and is committed to helping shape the citys changing landscape. Having emerged as a leader in many local arts in education and the civic organization, shes also been the good Iraqi Society and a huge supporter of everything we do in this literary world of arts. Please give florencia in it, big Miami Book Fair welcoming. [applause] thank you so much. I sound so much better on paper than i do and they had feared welcome again to the third night of the book fair or what i like to call the best week in miami. [applause] meme mr. Lancia transfixing and representing the glitterati Society Coming professional Membership Group supporting the book fair. Its my great pleasure to introduce marine trained work on a bestselling author, prizewinner new york columnist. I think it is very safe to say that any match any of our authors here this week would be thrilled to have just one of those titles attached to their name. Her signature style and sharp critiques of both sides may not have made her a lot of friends politically, but they have bought her popular and critical acclaim. Tonight we are lucky to have her with us just one week after we all sat around nervously counting votes, checking out the tally and we were with my 8yearold daughter whos also here tonight. We colored and that your college map. Shes also here tonight and ask a lot of questions. During his latest book is the year of voting dangerously the derangement of american politics. It is a collection of her in an eerie takedown from the president ial race, which is the most bizarre, disruptive and divisive race of modern political hits three. Shes hearing conversation here in conversation snap at the man well recognized my name and at least if not by faith. Mr. Tom had been, who runs a round up. I know we have a lot of questions in her audience tonight. So please come help me welcome the comparable, marine doubt maureen dowd. Evening, everybody. Ill come back to miami. So, the year of voting dangerously. Will we survive . I dont know. You know, william goldman, a famous screenwriter, Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid at a famous line, nobody noticed any he demanded some line. We have to think of when we think of washington now. We have a lot of people on tv 24 hours a day, trying to tell us what is going on. Trust me, no one knows what is going on. Nobody knows what is coming, especially tamil trout you his dumbfounded. He is stunned to find himself they appeared you can see it in his face. And so, we are all in for an incredible right here. Are described as the dog who caught the bus. Notice he do with it . Do you hold on . Its interesting you bring up the dog metaphor because one of trumps biographers, tim obrien used to work with me at the time at a wonderful metaphor for why trump won this week. He says that, you know, a lot of a lot of people on the left think that the price just didnt mix one in who donald trump was or wasnt hard enough on hand. But that was in it. What have been biased as tim said, all of these voters in hardhit kosher you really wanted a route tyler to rip the face of washington. When donald trump had a savory characteristics, that persuaded the voters but is more of a rottweiler. More than they did in my case behavior. I think it was i wish i had wrote this in the high 60s, disapproved of when he won the president lee, his popularity rating was historic in the high 60s. Which president . Trunk when he won the other day. Over 70 disapproved of how he treated women in the six days again, but he didnt have the temperament to be president , that they voted for him anyway. Not because they didnt know who he was, because they knew who he was and he was their route either. They decided to catch a thief. Have described this as a repudiation of the political class. Hes famous for their own brother and sister. How do they explain . All my nephews come here, i come from a very conservative family. In the book before we knew this is going to be the outcome, i had my sister and brother rate essays about why they were voting for trump are trying to vote for trump and its very interesting to read them because you can tell what paul ryan mustve been thinking through the campaign that he was muzzled and will they muscled now for quite some time. But if you read their essays, you can see because my brother after a closer family when trump insulted them, he called me and said if it too late to kill my essay . My brother and sees that ernest of the right, so for him to want to kill a single word much less an essay is very rare. I said that guardianship to bookstores. My sister kept jumping on and off every time he insulted heidi cruz. She would say she wasnt going to vote for him and then he asked me about that and i told him and he apologized for that. Then she decided she could vote for him again when he stayed up all night reading about miss universe. Why isnt he talking about the economy or terrorism . A woman who gained 12 pounds. So then in the end, you know, she went back and forth she didnt vote for him, but my brother and nephew did vote for him. This is what ive said to people. My fellow columnists have gone out on the Margaret Mead expeditions to find this rare creature known as the trump voter and try and understand them and raise them with them. They are summed up at the same coffee shop in paris, kentucky. One of them actually put out an open letter. Trump voter, please come forward so i can reason with you. And now they say when you go home or things gaming, you have to reason with red and obviously they dont know these people because my family has never asked my opinion about politics in my whole life. Not at thanksgiving or any other time. So its going to be tough for those who think they will bring people around with one conversation. I want to ask you about donald trump. You covered him many years. They say you include in this book that was written one year before the election was written november 8th. It relates to a one state you shared with trump in the trump tower. And you quote him as saying to you, im a solid stable person. Im a man of great achievement. I win. I always win. Knock on wood, i win. Its what i do. They beat people. I win. Who is the term p l . Well, trump from the time he thought his father was a builder of middleclass housing in queens and brooklyn and as a young man, trump always look across the manhattan. He wanted the skyscraper and the supermodels. Thats what he wanted. He started hanging out at this guy who is superior to the stars and another guy who was the limousine kid him a largerthanlife new york figures. Kerry couldnt help but drop by sometimes. And so, he fashioned this largerthanlife figure on them. In those days, he was very polite and not egotistical in this group with big egos and so that was when he created that character. Then he created another care or on the apprentice said that she dishes he made wise but firm decisions. And then when they got on the campaign trail, he heard the roar of the crowd when he heard first with the berger thing and then with his bigoted statement about next of kin said that the wall and he followed that. I asked him in an interview once, he said this person i see in the primary if not the mike price and i covered new york on the ears. He thought about it and its that i guess i got to number one by saying these things, so i thought i should keep saying them. And so, basically he is a salesman at me from this vacuum in the market and he just created a product for that vacuum. That is why none of us know where he is going now because his only value is winning. His ideology is his ego. I want you to describe his office. To this crowd. Sms office. Ive interviewed donald trump. You describe it in a few of the columns because that could be perhaps an indication of the personality of which carry dirt it wants to portray. Well, you know, as you know a washington. I was born there so i seen plenty of narcissists. Last night but ive never seen narcissism at a level of donald trump did you go in his office and every single loss is discovered with magazine covers, framed magazine covers of himself and the only thing that is tested backs of magazine covers of himself. I want you to paint the picture. The space between the frames is that much. Its not as if it were family photos. He does have some sports paraphernalia. Yes mike tysons championship out and some other things. But it is mostly like an affinity mirror of his face. [laughter] i did ask in an interview once the summer, when you get to the white house, that brings out a lot of narcissism because theres a photographer who follows the president around and takes pictures of him every minute of every day and then they put those pictures all over the wall of the white house and now they have digital trade so they are running pictures and moves. I said youre already like that. So when you get there and its more intense and youre surrounded even more, dont you think they would be a narcissistic explosion that we could all see on pennsylvania avenue . How about for . That is sometimes that i know how to behave when i go to palm beach, when i met while ago, i can go to ignore Society Nature intended it, most politically correct young man of her. Youre safe to say that in miamidade, by the way. What about the coffee shop in kentucky, can you go there . Well, you know, it donald trump won for the oldest of political reasons. He listened to the voters. You know, when he listened, he heard that anxiety and paid attention to it. You know, it is interesting because it has come out now that bill clinton tried to warn the Clinton Campaign for more than a year. He is the worlds leading expert on this group of voters that his wife loves that he tried to say to them, you have to pay more attention. And hillarys Campaign Guide is at 35yearold big data guy and they laughed at bill clinton and they said thats aging. Thats the old way. The new rightists are good enough on its voter base and stuff. So now weve had two democrats who lost basically because they didnt listen to bill clinton. What are they going to start listening to him . So what do secretary clinton do next . What did she say to the American People if she should say anything at all . I dont know. She is going to have a whole new chapter and im sure she will have a wonderful job. She is going to end up winning the popular vote a couple million. As al gore, saving the planet, i am sure she will take our passions and do Something Wonderful with them. Someone in our chief Political Correspondent was saying today the fact she is winning the popular vote by so much will make it hard for trump because he will always be seen by a lot of people as a little bit illegitimate. [applause] just a little bit. You told charlie rose that you used to call political strategist to understand campaigns, but this campaign has forced to you. What if they told . What can you impart to the rest of us . Well, trump has done something we have never seen and this is why a lot of people are partly in the field of Foreign Affairs because he subjugated is that the right word . The entire orthodoxy and history of the Republican Party on russia, the evil empire to his own ego. So he got a compliment from putin and bad he changed the Republican Party and you see republicans on tv trying to grapple with this and not knowing how to. We have a wonderful reporter called stephana mayer suited a great biography of putin. He says when he complemented this has translated that the word did not mean brilliant. So trump changed the entire stands based on the mistranslation and now he and assad are Going Forward based on this huge thing where he can be malleable if hes in a compliment. In order to get him to get on ask is that you give him seven complements in the rail really fast. Mitch mcconnell and iraq with 210 and aside his day off and they can influence tribe and the then president obama is doing this by flattering him. And so, everyone is going to be flattering him and tried to lead him as though hes host body for their plan. So that is what youre going to see in the coming months. That mistranslation. Was that a big leap translation . Im not sure which. Lets talk about the first only learning about the trump administration, the soontobe former chairman of the Republican National committee. Campaign strategists inside the white house. What is this telling you about the makeup of this inner circle are massive relates to your last point in relationship with capitol hill. This time has this new transition thing where all the reporters chime in and get the latest news that the new spikes and its honestly one of the most Amazing Things ive ever read. You just cant believe what you are reading. So the latest name as i was coming over here is that because they dumped Chris Christie and gave it to my parents come he hasnt signed some official paper he needs to sign. The obama people arent allowed to give him the information they need to get. Basically the Defense Department and the National Security apparatus have had no contact with the trump transition people, so we are operating in this. And theres so many things about this. I dont even know where to begin. It takes a moment to try to make any sense of it. We are less than 70 days away. During the campaign, trumps son went to john kasich and said we are thinking about u. S. Vice president and if we did that come did that, you would be running the white house. My father would be floating. So in that sense, trump was empty net as one of his licensing deals. Like state gore said they. His name would be on it, that he would be back in trump tower. A way that was reported as governor kasich said what would i be responsible for their response is. Foreign or domestic. Yes. So now you are seeing that happen with mike pence. Trump is just basically licensing it to make pence at the moment and mike pence is taking the other policy. Which digs into the question of how engaged is going to be. What can the American Public expect from a President Trump . We seem the character do you articulate and describe in the book. You seem potentially as other business character that has been able to room, build, berlin, build companies. How is this person now going to engage with the electorate, engage with the legislature . Is this person going to govern differently . Well, at the very beginning before it turned really ugly, he would save names that he wanted to go and negotiate and spend a lot of time with congress and try and get sent deals. He said he wanted to negotiate the middle east peace contract because hes the ultimate real estate deal and he thought he could do it. I like the idea of the more elbow grease pudding and some attract about things. But i dont and we can know and he doesnt know. Some of the things that come the 60 minute, some of what he said was reassuring when they talk about gay marriage and his like that title. When i talked about womens rights and abortion, he was like that was a scarier same because send it back to the states and women might have to have kind of the vote and this image is going to back alley abortions. Some of his appointment that he is talking about now on emigration and are really scary. They are talking about Rudy Giuliani secretary of state, which is spare me. So some of the people hes bringing in our really, really right wing and mike pence israeli right wing and president obama with sagging and his conversation, and no, you seem like a pragmatist. And of course he used to be a prochoice democrat who gave money to the Clinton Foundation in hillarys campaign may have voted for her and was certainly friends with bill and played golf with him. I dont think we know and he doesnt know. That is what is so unsettling. You mentioned obviously the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, womens right to choose and this too confusing answers from the president elect. He also walked back to the wholesale repeal of the Affordable Care at a preexisting conditions part of it. That he couldnt get that. The republicans know thats popular, so they wouldnt let him take that away even if he wanted. When he sat down with president obama much like we are right here and the president came to the microphone just yesterday saying president elect trump expressed a commitment to nato. As a much different rhetoric from the campaign treaty. He doesnt know. On my book tour, i met this texas state representative. He said can you do me a favor and i said what . Please stop comparing donald trump to a child. Because children are off some. Awesome. [laughter] is the microphone here. A couple of questions about the media here. There is no other industry tells us to part this good media does. Your paper come in your publication particularly has come under some heat about how it reported the odds of winning as opposed to just the polls. Have you had a moment of reflection about how the institution of their times were generally this fractured industry of Mainstream Media approach this election and what we should take away from what we are hearing back from our audience is past week. Okay, so this election was for the first time a fusion of politics, social media and reality tv. We have never seen someone not spend millions and tens of millions on camp pains, but instead use twitter. So there were a lot of new things about this. We have never seen someone with a big estrangement from the truth like donald trump. We are used to more boy are they lying and parsing. We are not used to someone saying i didnt say that are telling you the exact opposite. Maggie aber man who is or it trump reporter said its almost impossible to deal with someone like that who says he didnt say that or give you a completely different game he says he said. So yes, it did take a while to get their arms around it. I compared it to who framed roger rabbit, where youve got a movie with a human. It was two different species. It takes some people to learn. When trump has the announcement and a habit at the the hotel in washington, and he invited the press and if the press didnt understand that donald trump was inviting them for an infomercial for the hotel, which is a point had to slash the prices in half because no one was going to come up in the price was just being naive. The New York Times at some point said we are going to change some roles. We are going to change our World Without calling a politician or lawyer in stories and had the infinite talk about the big whoppers and i wish they would change that rule during the iraq war. Sooner. And they said we are going to put words on the front of the New York Times. I thought that is going to be his legacy until he won that we were going to have bad words on our front page. Its a struggle, but we just had never seen anything like that. Spare is said to our staff of bias are the truth to it that so have to get at and try to bring the audience before doing that. Lets open it up to questions. In a burning delegate so i have to ask. What is your assessment of candidacy and how things have gone if he was the nominee . You know, i did a column on this the other day and its hard not to feel for president obama. You know, he is our first African American president who got elected in this wave of excitement and now he has to sit there with the most overtly racist candidate in modern history who is going to basically wipe out everything that he thought was his legacy. But at the same time. Given the fact the blood a onceinalifetime politician he has been, that he didnt read the mood correctly. You know, here is the effect began a revolution of people, you know, who wanted to embrace change. Some of them did not want to go back and then there was another revolution this year. This year was a revolution on both sides of the aisle. President obama, you know ,com,com ma he has a way of just one name he is brilliant, but he has a way of just telling people what to write. Top adviser said he would rather be right than win. He wanted to say, you know, stop having your revolution. This is a candidate and it was hillary and she was an incrementalist in their revolution. The funny part to me is that he treated Bernie Sanders the way bill clinton treated him in 2008 take thousand eight that this is a fairytale rather than sort of realizing where are trying to understand where that revolutionary fervor came from. People wanted authenticity, even like trump, were they think because he treats main things about people that they are getting a more unvarnished. Theyre looking for unvarnished on both sides. I just think the democratic dirty was like youre going to take what they give you. And it was great. It was the same with joe biden when president obama told him he couldnt run. So i just think they try to impose something that would never work in this climate. Thank you for the question. Good evening. Hi there. Im a huge fan of your work. This has been an unprecedented election and the amount of controversy that has garnered. Do you think this will affect future elections . Do you think registration will be passed to make it far difficult for someone to run for president the power will affect the longevity of the Electoral College . Or to have some kind of test insanity. It is bad name because the only place you cant have a shrink and the world is the white house. That is the one place you still cant get into any of that stuff. Even though its arthurs passenger wretchedness memoirs, memoirs, a lot of our modern president has been a little mentally unbalanced. Lyndon johnsons aide used to argue about whether he was paranoid or manic depressive and nixon and jfk had psychotropic drugs in the medicine cabinet. But yeah, i think this election will have profound impact in every area for decades to come, but we are only just beginning to sort that out. Does the Electoral College survive . This is what i was going to tell you earlier. When i first went out with him and 99, i said why on the president ial foray, why would anyone vote for you for president . He said because i got big ratings on larry king. He was with bulimia. He was dating her. And he said because a lot of men hit on her. That was his ego with mistake. Everything is the arithmetic of ego. He even did something we had a story recently where he made his skyscrapers have higher for numbers to pretend they were taller. So today i love the Electoral College. He didnt like it before, years ago. But he said i could have won the popular vote if thats what the game is. So now the fact that people are saying he didnt win it, so i could have wanted. So they still havent taken his phone away from him. Thank you for the question. Good evening. Good evening. A couple things. One very simple one. Why didnt hillary listen to bill . But also, in general, it seems and comprehend the bold and on the other hand, you know, the idea of where the idea where there is smoke there is fire was early on. One is trump joined the hacking that was confirmed and other things, et cetera. So it came to my mind that evening as we remain just that the russians somehow stole it. Im not a conspiracy person, but i remember a week before the election in an interview, obama saying that he won North Carolina by only two votes. So my question is why has that even been raised as a possibility if only discounted and all the postelection analyses, why does anybody rates the possibility that the russians were asked for its in the favor world mightve found a way to affect two or three votes and a couple of precincts in wisconsin and pennsylvania. Nobodys even raising this as a possibility. [applause] t. Have any thought im not . I think that its a great question. From the local media standpoint it is a great question and here in florida which is where you operate, they are 67 separate voting systems and i think better coverage of the county election supervisors in the state election year, weve pressed very hard about how this system is set up and what kind of protections they have. Voting machines that count the ballot that are not connected to the internet. 67 different kinds of processes that each county house. Each county is responsible for it. I reported that to the state and they were assured all of the additional protections of the ballot, the absentee ballots and provisional ballots in all of the additional changes in the ballot that were made after the 2000 election in florida, all that has gone into assured the sanctity of the vote and that comes from the county election. What i would say is a journalist is it is a work contract worth getting into by proving the negative is also very difficult. I wondered the same thing and was assured by our political reporters that because there was some noodling around a couple places by the russia and local elections that everyone was watching really carefully. I just assume im listening to but they cant to but khatami, but then again i listened to it the big data guys tell me. I agree with you. I never spend a more shocking that in my professional life. I was so shocked that when the time split from 85 chance for hillary to 95 for trump, i literally took a picture with my cell phone. I couldnt comprehend it. I think maybe we were missing some even planes, which is americans are having an identity crisis in the two parties for having an identity crisis. We were in a series of interlocking identity crises. You know, we went to war that we shouldnt have gone to with most of the country not under the ending of sunni and shia were and what this is about. The economy almost went under without anyone knowing what a terrific voice. All these people the middle of the country were told the localization with a shiny brick and that would solve all of our problems and it wasnt. Who are we as americans if we are not the people who can win wars and beat the big blustering , swaggering country. Who are we . A lot of the country was really suffering the politicians werent listening. Ted cruz was busy destroying the capital he worked in and Mitch Mcconnell was busy abstract game. I just think that we were in a sound proof room and washington in a way. I want to answer about bill because i dont have any because their relationship is so interesting because i read all of the biographies and that out. Shes running as those five and i am extremely supportive of her when shes running because i know she hates that first lady role. She wanted to call a first mate. As governor, she got fed stationary to drop spinning rod of and senator clinton if she sent it out. She was so angry. It is a struggle with the same educational credentials to go into this antiquated little satin box. The confusing thing when you read her arc is that sometimes shes completely dependent on bills advice and went to the time and other times in 2008, her campaign would take his calls. She didnt take his advice which caused it to go down and then didnt take at this time. So you know, it is a codependent relationship, but it is also sort of competitive and they think things get lost in the middle that. In a way very similar. I have a lot of original essay in the book about the bush father and son relationship which led to the worst mistake and its a similar thing in the gap between those two things can happen. Thank you for the question. Good evening. Go ahead. Heidi find inspiration in and how do you know that for certain idea is detailed enough to pursue it for an article . This is hard for readers 200 and i think in the introduction they addressed this that you know, there is no warm place for me to go to because everyone is always mad at me. He then my family is mad at me when a republican president is in. When w. Was then, my older brother, i came home for a family dinner at my brother said if there was a hurricane you claim it on w. And then there was and i did. [laughter] but i am not an ideological columnist. I based the column i dont want this to sound pompous. I can never touch the hem of his garment, but its more based on shakespeare and the sense that it is about how power works people where they rise to the occasion. You know, times readers dont really under canvas comes as they get mad at me and i understand that. I am trying to be more of a watchdog rather than partisan. So id give it a shakespeare. I want to be there if we are going to get a richard the third armored that ill be in the White House Press room watching out for you guys. [applause] thank you. How many columns do you have . When we used to back in the jurassic days where we had the delivery trucks in the building at 43rd street, would be sitting there at a blank screen and i would hear the tracks rather not then i would get really scared and type really fast. I have to be really scared to write because most of the time and sitting there thinking why does anyone want to hear my opinion . This doesnt make sense. Spent a good evening. Im about to fernandez. I am the early 70s went to law school with hillary and bill clinton. Well. I havent seen them in over 40 years. Heres my question. We heard a lot about never trump event, which was primarily the republican establishment rather than regular voters. But its really not much being sad and now that we know the results of the election about never hillary. What effect do you think it is personal but millions of people voted because fairly or unfairly they just did not like her. So whats the question . T. Think there is an effect there is a lot of people who voted on a personal basis, not on policy just because they didnt like her for valid or invalid protests. Well, i dont know if it was a protest about. I think people like my siblings, there was no way they were ever going to vote for hillary. My sister voted for me in the end because she wasnt going to vote for trump and she wasnt going to vote hillary. So i had one vote for president. So that is what i think is amazing about president obama. The reason barack obama became president is because so many people in his party wanted something fresh and they wanted a huge change. They did not want to go back to the clinton machine, so they became president but then failed to understand that string and the like are at because he is the one who steered everyone back to the machine. I dont know if he felt guilty about usurping up from her in the first place or that they have common ground, they are both cerebral elitist kindness. I am not sure why he was so determined to put his legacy in a machine he had already disabled eaters before. That is why i love politics because it is like a shakespearean play. Theres all these interlocking motivations and we could talk about this for hours more. Its fascinating. But the answer is yes. To believe the same demographic that elected reagan in 80, quit and 92 elected trump in 2016 . Look at it this way. My father was a policeman, said he stayed up all night the night tremendous elected he was so excited. He knew him personally. My dad was the police man in charge of Senate Security on capitol hill, so he knew him and loved him and truman was the hero of the working class. Somewhere last week, my brother kevin stayed up all night watching trump to get elected. So what happened between made out and truman and kevin and trump . A lot of what happened is that democrats forgot how to talk to the working class, which joe biden can do and Bernie Sanders can do, but obama for god. It was amazing that a quarter of old who voted for obama switched to trump. That is a crazy statistic. This was an amazing thing. David pyle, the genius behind the obama win, you know, had a piece the other day explaining what happened with hillary and one of his bullet points was it turned out the voters really did want change. [laughter] said the architect of the change campaign. So those voters they really did want it. Thank you for your question, sir. Appreciate it. Good evening, go ahead. One of your colleagues in the New York Times, david brooks had an article last week in the last sentence of this article was that he expected within a year it is likely that trump would either have resigned or been impeached. Would you agree . Well, you cant absorb the craziness of what is happening asked enough for another crazy thing happening. So before the election, House Republicans are talking about a Hillary Clinton impeachment and now everyone is talking about a trump impeachment. What a difference a week makes. You know, it in davids case it mightve been wishful thinking. But allan lichtman, an outcome of the American University there was the only kind of professor, historian in the country to say that trump would win as all sustained trump would be impeached. Things are in washington and a complete state of chaos. I think as americans we somehow have to hope washington gets altogether. Could you explain about the months preceding george bushs invasion of iraq . It seems like Judith Miller would have a front page news item about the weapons of mass distract shimon Vice President cheney would appear on the sunday talk shows and say well, the New York Times has weapons of mass distraction. It seemed as though the New York Times was intended with the neocon for any love for invading iraq and has the time change since then . And do you think there will be an obama pardon before the term ends. I dont know about the latter. I have been god on book tour for too many days. Things are moving too fast. The times had, you know, since it should have handled that differently many times they talked about. That was a very painful. For me because it was so plain to me that we were doing something that completely have no predicate. In fact, this is part of what made me a little suspect but made me want to hear more from Hillary Clinton about what she had learned from this cataclysmic things she had gone through. I wanted to hear more about what she had learned voting for the iraq war. In fact, she was senator who went to the floor and helped w. Make the case for the connection between al qaeda and saddam. If i could have heard from her what shed learned as a leader, i would have felt better because that wouldve been a good time to beam its home market with the National Intelligence investment. I just signed that hole. And its still going on in iraq, the most painful thing ive ever covered. It is horrible. But the times had said that that was not handled well with judy. As a journalist at the times, have you experienced the difference of Fact Checking the editor in that episode . I am in the opinion came down so im sure they have a lot of different ways to handle things and they have put the rules in place, even just during trump, but our rules are a little bit different. Enacted evening. Welcome. I wanted to hear you talk about Hillary Clinton. I heard you recently say that she is sort of unnecessarily paranoid and that could have cost her to make a lot of decisions people judge her for her. I was wondering if you really feel she was unnecessarily paranoid or that she really has a reason to be because people are attacking her. I think it is both. But i think what happened was that clinton got in a very unhealthy relationship with the prius were because of the way they handled that, it was almost like throwing chum how in chalice. They just had a way of handling things that sent their foes in the press into a frenzy. So lets take what utter a sad example. Whitewater started George Stephanopoulos says in his memoirs that he had a genie in a bottle and if he could do anything differently he would go back to hillary. He tried this but had no and insist that she released the papers to the Washington Post because it would have been a oneweek story. But because hillary built this wall of defensiveness and secrecy, then everybody think shes hiding them aimed. Then this frenzy happens and then it cascades into some aimed that maybe there was nothing there in the first place. Who knows. And the way you see the same pattern in the way she handled the server and then the way she handled them out yet. It is always the same pattern. It gets worse and worse. Whitewater, which stephanopoulos thinks wouldve been a story ended up in 80 million federal investigation, seven federal prosecutors and impeachment. Because people, you know, they were disappearing and appearing records and people feel she is not leveling and then it starts snowballing. And then you kind of forgot, was there anything there in the first place or is it just the wall of secrecy and defensiveness that is spurring things. So you are right. But that is about part that it both that people are after them. I mean, look at president obama. Sure the same people are after him, but they havent been able to do anything because he doesnt give them the ammunition. That is why his popularity numbers are going up, because people are thinking we have had eight years without any ethical or family drama. Thats a Pretty Amazing game. Thank you for the question. Have a question about the fighter with the deficit and comments about how the pollsters got it wrong. In terms of the deficit, it seems to me trump is heading in opposite deficits of the spending on infrastructure and is reducing taxes, yet the republicans then ryan and neocons are so invested in having offsite, whats going to happen . You know, i know that is the argument, but since i went to Summer School for algebra, i am not in expert in the deficit in any way. And fact, to show you how bad enough i had, the night of the election is assuming we would have president clinton because i was adding up numbers in my head. If you have 94 of blacks who disapproved of view and 75 of women disapprove of you and 90 of latinos disapprove of view, you cant be president. That is when it again. I dont know. Im going to have to take your guidance on that. I know thats confusing with trump, but again what is happening right this minute is all these different groups are seen him as a malleable host body that they can pour their thing into so it just depends which person. Our reporters say he tends to listen to the last person you talked to and thats why a lot of his advisers maneuver to be the last person. I would point out we are going to fix Veterans Affairs committee doled military. All of those are significant as well. I really fear reagan and bush devastating our economy. In terms of an interesting thought about how the pollsters got it so wrong, one thing i am wondering is if they got it wrong because the public all felt hillary was a sure thing. Many of us may have denied a vote that bad is that i want hillary to be president , but then shes going to win, im going to vote for trump. That might cause them to change. Best interest to you. You are making my point. We are going to be discussing and debating the senate is going to be written about in history books for decades to come and that is why what we are watching right now is scary and volatile. I know whats happened in florida at least. They have looked at this and found that their vote by mail, the absentee vote in the early vote in florida were essentially newer voters. They were not super voters. We are going to take to last questions. Thank you. Most of my friends and family and i have been longtime activists in the Democratic Party. And weve been going nuts the last week. I was just wondering if you had an idea about what we can do as activists to help the country . Is it an effort in futility, or can we continue . We dont want to flee the country. Some said that but theyre not going to do. What do we do . I was on a panel yesterday morning with lena dunham, and let me just tell you, she is not giving up. She is charged up and ready to go. I think she just, she called paul ryans office and then she tweeted the number two paul ryans office. You know, she starting new organizations. It was funny, i was in los angeles last night, because i was on this panel. And i went to a bookstore where everyone was reading poetry to try and feel better. They read about fascism, and then they read robert frost and some other poetry. I think that we are about to enter a period of incredible activism in Democratic Party history. [applause] the only thing i can promise you is that ive already put in a request for a white house pass and i will be there for him dog until midnight every day. [applause] good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. The media seems to be, i been watching a lot, as all of us have, amherst in the craziness thats going on in washington immersed. And pointing out how well everybody, president obama, joe biden, is helping the transition. Will the media come back to Holding Trump accountable for all the lies and all of, the way he won . In other words, its all nice. Its all fine, he won, its all over . No, no. President obama has a tactic which may be working for wages cant tell yet. It does seem to gentle on the surface for trump to appoint a guy who runs a website that flirts with White Supremacists and does white nationalists. It has headlines like Birth Control makes women unattractive and crazy. Thats a typical breitbart headline. And another great one was gabby giffords, the human shield of the antigun lobby. I mean, this isnt the guy who is now the chief strategist to the president of the United States. And, of course, we would have loved to see barack obama just let him have it over that, but president obama has a strategy which may work, you know, partly, im no not sure, you kn. Im not sure. I mean, i can, i just think everyone is struggling, but i can tell you that the New York Times, i can tell from the tone of this transition thing, the New York Times is gearing up to cover President Trump in a very, very tough way. Tough but fair, but tough. [applause] coverage about hillary is emails and the server never stopped. And im just outraged that coverage of what trump is done seems to have stopped. Dont worry. Really. Do not worry. Go to sleep tonight. We are going to take care of that. [applause] thank you. Marine, im going to take a moderate prerogative here if i could, one last question. Hillary clinton tweeted out a picture of a letter that George Herbert walker bush wrote to president clinton in 1992 when president clinton moved into the oval office. If president obama is to write such a letter to President Trump, elect trump, what would that say . What would you suggest that letter say . I dont get politicians advice. Im sure president obama, you know, i have been critical of him at times because as it turned out, amazingly enough, he doesnt like politics and that gets in the way of doing politics. Because politics is the art of persuading people who dont want to go along with you to go along with you. But i will say i traveled with him to cuba, and i was very proud that he was my president and that michelle was my first lady. [applause] and i think they are the most amazing parents ever, and his girls are a wonder. And im sure whatever he does will be classy. And you know, whatever no tea leaves, because he is the epitome of class, you know. And i think as the days go on people are going to miss that. Maureen dowd, ladies and gentlemen, from the New York Times. [applause] thank you both for a marvelous evening. [inaudible conversations] sunday january 1, in depth will feature a live discussion on the presidency of barack obama. Were taking your phone calls, tweets, emails and facebook questions. Our Panel Includes a perrine, White House Correspondent american urban radio. Princeton university professor, author of democracy in black, help raise still insulates the american soul and pulitzer prizewinning journalist and associate editor of the Washington Post david maraniss. Watch indepth live from noon to 3 p. M. Eastern on sunday on booktv on cspan2. I am here with scott versus the author of inga. Who was she . She was missed in march of 31 pitches much, much more than that. She was an actress, a ballerina, a concert pianist, and that, and that bulges, and explore, and washington college, a hollywood gossip columnist, screenwriter and entered at Harpers Bazaar but most shows the great love of john f. Kennedy is life and they desperately wanted to marry. It was not a fling. It was a romance but there were two problems. She was a suspected nazi spy and still married to her second husband. Based on your research deeply that is an accurate accusation . Theres a 1200 page fbi file, and i would say ultimately it was concluded she was not a spy. Interestingly of course are somewhat she was considered the prime suspect like to keep to the entire nazi Espionage Network in use are based on circumstantial evidence that turned out not to be correct. Interestingly when J Edgar Hoover himself was convinced she was not a spy president roosevelt personally intervene and convince erected them to continue with the observation and continue to be, have her phone, phone cap, her apartment bug count her mail open. It was a remarkable thing. You are the author of two other books, kennedy and reagan, why thei the legacies and door,d almost president. What do you think the legacy will be of a president obama is another station and i do think this past election cycle has affected the United States . Present of bombs legacy will be overturned the coming years. As her as an american president his legacy is pretty secure in that regard, as historical figure. Think the most important thing he did is probably what he did following the great financial crisis of 20082009. Most americans are probably not. Most americans are probably not aware how close we came to know whhave Great Recession but a grt depression. I think itll be kind kind to them on that. The other great accomplishment was probably obamacare and the question is is that a stepping stone to other healthcare reform and people of you as a Pivotal Moment building upon medicaid moving on to maybe a singlepayer Health Care System or will he get revealed . If it is repealed by the republicans and maybe his legacy will be less than right now but only time will tell. Its hard to tell. Harry truman left office is one of the most unpopular politicians in america and then 220 years later he was now considered one of our new great president of a great president. Time will tell what his legacy is but hes historically significant figure and well see how that goes. In terms of this past election cycle how do you think it has affected america . That will also be time will tell. Mr. Compass unlike anybody in the white house. Mr. Trump is unlike anybody in the white house. Mr. Trump is a different type of president with a different kind of background. Its hard to say whats going to happen. I wrote about losing president ial candidates and their impact on American History so the question is what will mrs. Clintons legacy be . I can like president obama because she is the first woman to be the nominee of the major pro party, she is already historically significant but the question is what did her campaign to . Its an open question. If she leads to certain trump isms which is really good i abt about, people say that was important that her campaign was not successful and to allow President Trump to come to office. But did you change a Democratic Party . Sets are to say. She may have been the last centrist democrat. The democrats clearly looking to move to the left under senator sanders influence but again these things cant he told immediately. Thats for journalists to do. Historians at me time to perspective. There have been losing president ial at the time, complete disasters, now from the perspective of 50 years later we see Barry Goldwater transform the Republican Party and George Mcgovern transformed the Democratic Party. It will take a few decades before we know exactly both what mrs. Clinton legacy is as follows President Trump. What was it that sparked your interest in this topic and made you want to write this book . Its an unbelievable story. Its straight out of a Alford Hitchcock movie from the 19 \30{l1}s{l0}\30{l1}s{l0} with secret agents and spies in espionage and glamorous women and femme fatale in all sorts of things. Its a Little Corner of the history of the president kennedy presidency that most about the money with. We think of john kennedy as this handsome man who is destined to be president but with inga, he was a young officer in the office of Naval Intelligence. He was skinny, cocky, disheveled and most importantly he had a terrible inferiority complex compared to his older brother joe, jr. Inge did a number of things. First of all she bolstered his confidence. She bent around the world. She knew adolf hitler. She knew the president of france. She knew the king and queen of denmark and she convince john kennedy hit everything it took to be president. She encouraged Jackie Kennedy to go to his father and tell him what he wanted to be in life. That family did know he had any political aspirations. She managed to up and stand up to his father and get the support he would need to become president. Then because their affair was so scandalous, president kennedy was nearly courtmartialed out of the navy. Here he is an office of Naval Intelligence and is dating a suspected nazi spy. He was nearly courtmartialed. Instead he was transferred, ended up in combat in the South Pacific when he became a war hero when his boat was sunk. At that time jack kennedy thought his career was over because he thought thinking that but would be a disaster for his career. When he came back stateside he said that with reporter, inga, i realized he was very aerobic she wrote the story that was a template for all future stories about john kennedy and the pt 109 that portrayed he was a war hero and, of course, that was a the basis for the kennedy political biographies for all the years up until his run for the white house. This is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our christmas night primetime lineup. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. [inaudible conversations] good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you to the book fair. Im sounding loud to myself. Welcome you here if this is your first day and welcome back if you spent a fabulous day yesterday. Im tranone, a longtime friend of the book fair and time chair of brickell avenue literary society. We have a fabulous day today, wonderful authors and a want everything to move on schedule so that everyone has an opportunity to do their part, ask a question and so forth. So i want to thank our sponsors. Im just received a list of sponsors and its mighty small print, so forgive me, doing my best reading. Our premier sponsors of the knight