The speechwriters that have inspired us. Overseeing production of all the president s domestic policy forches he has also written the nasa administrator and top executives at ibm, time warner, and the list goes on. He is a graduate of morgan state university. Theh hurwitz served in white house from 2009 to 2017, first as a speechwriter for president barack obama before becoming the head speechwriter for michelle obama. She served as the chief speechwriter for Hillary Clinton during her 2008 campaign. She has an upcoming book coming out about judaism in september. Last but not least, John Mcconnell served more than 10 years under two administrations. He was a senior speechwriter for president george w. Bush and was responsible for the address to the joint session of congress after the september 11, 2001 attacks. He served as Deputy Assistant to the president as well as assistant to the Vice President. He is a graduate of Carleton College and yell law school. Todays conversation will be moderated by lisa alongside amy wright. Ofthe people, the election barack obama. She is working on a documentary about white house speechwriters. We are lucky to be able to watch some of these panelists work. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to our panelists. [applause] my fellow americans, there are still bridges left to cross. As long as there are people and places that have not participated in our economic prosperity, we have a bridge to cross. As long as africanamerican income hovers at nearly half that of whites, we have another bridge to cross. As long as africanamerican and hispanic children are more likely than white children to live in poverty and less likely college, wefrom have another bridge to cross. As long as africanamericans and other minorities suffer two or three or four times the rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, we have another bridge to cross. As long as our children continue to die as the victims of mindless violence, we have another bridge to cross. As long as africanamericans and latinos anywhere in america believe they are unfairly targeted by police because of the color of their skin, and Police Believe they are unfairly judged by their communities because of the color of their uniforms, we have another bridge to cross. As the waving symbol of one americans pride is the shameful symbol of another americans pain, we have another bridge to cross. As long as the power of americas growing diversity remains diminished by discrimination and stained by against peoplee just because they are black or hispanic or asian or gay or jewish or muslim, we have another bridge to cross. And as long as less than half of our eligible voters exercise the right mess so many here in selma march and died for, we have a very large bridge to cross. It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We will go back to our lives and routines. That is good. Time. Rief recedes with each of us must render what happened that day. We will remember the moment the news came, where we were, and what we were doing. Some will remember the image of a fire or story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and voice gone forever. , it is they this Police Shield of a man named george howard, who died at the world trade center, trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of a life that has ended and the task that does not end. [applause] i will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield. I will not rest. I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the american people. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war. Neutralthat god is not between them. You see, hillary understands that the president is about one thing and one thing only. It is about leaving Something Better for our kids. That is how we have always moved this country forward, all of us coming together on behalf of our children. Folks who volunteered to teach that sunday school class, to coach that team, because they know it takes a village. Heroes of every color and creed who wear the uniform and risk their lives to keep passing down those blessings of liberty. Police officers and protesters in dallas, who all desperately want to keep our children safe. People who lined up in orlando to donate blood because it could have been their son, their daughter in that club. [applause] leaders like tim kaine [applause] who show our kids what decency and devotion look like. Leaders like Hillary Clinton, who has the guts and the grace to keep coming back and put those cracks in that highest and hardest Glass Ceiling until she finally breaks through, lifting all of us along with her. [applause] that is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today i wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. [applause] and i watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women, playing with their dogs on the white house lawn. [applause] thank you. [applause] and belatedly, thank you, kristen, for that kind introduction. So each of these clips is so different, and not just because each person had their own voice and their own vision, but because the bully pulpit has so many different purposes. I would like each of you to talk about why you chose that particular clip and what made that speech important to you, and your goals and challenges in writing them. Tara, i would like to start with you and your task in this speech. Who did president clinton want to reach, and what kind of guidance did he give you . How did you work with him on this speech . Thank you. And thank you all for being here tonight. One of president clintons signature commitments and one of his signature accomplishments in the white house was his focus on building one america, and bringing us together across all lines of division, race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and he and i sort of shared that commitment. That is one of the things that drew me close to him, and it was one of the things i was most proud of to work on with him in the white house. Since lyndon johnson, probably, he was focused more on one america and bringing the races together. So that speech was a chance to make that point, and he always tells me that was one of his favorite speeches. And it was a great day because we actually walked across the Edmund Pettus bridge to reenact bloody sunday. And it was a great occasion. Host did he stick to your speech . He pretty much did. He liked that we have another bridge to cross refrain. That was one of his sort of simpatico things with me, because he had sort of an appreciation for the black church and for the black cadence. Some of you might recall, sometimes he called himself the first black president. [laughter] of course, until the obamas showed up. He really took that mission to heart. And again, as i said, it was one of my proudest moments working with him. Host john, that was one of the most challenging moments in our recent history. Can you talk a little bit about the white house in the immediate aftermath of september 11 and the difficulties the president had to show leadership as both commanderinchief and healer in chief. What was the thought process around that speech . Well, it was a moment of national unity, if you are old enough to remember that time. It was also a moment of greatly mixed feelings. People were shocked and grieving, but the country was also angry, and the country was also terrified of what might be coming next, and the decision was made on monday morning, september 17, six days after the attack, that the president would address a joint session of congress on thursday night. So my colleagues, mike gerson and matthew scully, the three of us were working together on virtually all of the major addresses for the president , and we were given the instruction mike was given the instruction on monday morning, the president is probably going to speak to congress, but he will make a decision when he sees the draft, which he expects to see today. [laughter] mike said, i dont think we can do that. Karen said well, the president thinks if he is going to give a speech on thursday, monday is a reasonable day to look at it. I said we couldnt do it, but we were not given any option. We got to work on it, and we were not lacking for subject matter, obviously. And so we got. It wasnt as if we were lacking on subject matter, obviously. We knew with the speech was going to be about, and we had general guidance, but early that afternoon we got a call to go to the oval office. The three of us went over there. Im sure karen hughes was also in the root, in the room, and dandy card, the chief of staff. President bush said that americans have questions, they want to know who attacked us, they want to know they want to know who attackedwh us, what is expected of us now and how do we fight and win this war . From then on, we had an organizational principle for the speech, and that is what the speech did. It went through those questions as the president described them to us in the oval office. So because, as all speechwriters know, one of your Biggest Challenges in writing is organization how is this thing going to come together, how will i lay this out and make it compelling . Because we have that sense of momentum with the questions if we did finish the draft that day, everything but a conclusion, but we did have a draft for the president to look for that day. It was such a memorable moment because it collected all of those different emotions. And you had to articulate a vision very quickly. Most people, the president s vision develops over time. How did you interact with him around the tough challenges of interacting with the path forward . Well, it definitely was not on the speechwriters. It was the president who was our guiding force. We knew the man. He wanted us he never said this, but i got the feeling he wanted us to know him and how his mind works. He was a very close editor of speeches. In that speech, although it was still in the first year, we had reached a Comfort Level with president bush where we knew his mind, we knew once we had the concept that we were going to express in the speech, we had a pretty good sense of how he would want to express that. If we got it wrong, he would tell us. Host did you learn more about him and that period . Yes, because in the general sense of the tragedy that has come over the country and now we are a country of war. It is not that i saw a new person, but i definitely saw some of his strengths. I basically understood him to have those coming more to the forefront. What stuck with me was his steadiness at the time. I saw him the morning after 9 11, did not see him the morning of, but it was not at all clear to anybody what was going to happen next. There was a lot of anxiety, to put it lightly, but i just remember being struck by the steadiness of nerve. That was an awesome historic moment. Writing for the nomination of the first woman for president , and that seems to capture ms. Obamas values and the hope of the nation for her daughters. How did you come to understand her and her voice in the process of the eight years you worked . Its funny a lot of times, people ask me how did you get her voice . I think they are being polite, and what they would like to ask the is how did you, a white jewish woman, get the voice of an africanamerican lady . [laughter] i am struck by terry talking about clinton, and i think at the end of the day, you might be very different from the person you write for in terms of background, which i certainly am for mrs. Obama. You might have grown up differently, had different race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. , but we had the same sensibilities about how you persuade, how you reach peoples hearts, and i think ms. Obama and i did. In terms of this particular speech, she is a woman who knows who she is and knows what she wants to say, and that was true of every speech that i worked with her on. This one in particular, where she so clearly knew that this was going to be about our kids, and the election is about the future we want for our kids. She started the speech talking about her own kids, talking to the white house, the first day of school, putting them in the big cars with the men with guns, and she is thinking, what have i done . She takes this personal story and started broadening it out, talking about how all of us are worried about our kids. That was the whole theme for the speech. By the time she got to this card, it was very big. She was talking about people who Teach Sunday School because they care about their kids, people who lined up because their kids could have been in that nightclub where people were killed. When she comes back to her daughters playing on the white house lawn, it is the meeting of both. The small story of her daughters and the big story of the arc of American History. I think she woke those themes together throughout the speech in a way that was personal, it was her story, but she brought it into the american story. That is why that speech felt personal to her, but also a lot of people responded, feeling it was personal to them as well. Why did it matter to you . Why did you use this clip tonight . I think this is the most beautiful articulation of a very uplifting idea of what american his three can be, as to what the american story can be. Idea of wy can be. Im struck by how similar the clips we chose our in that respect. They are aspirational. They are leaders saying, we are not perfect, but here is what we can be. They are very hopeful. I feel a sense of Kindred Spirit ship with both of these guys, even though we may be different parties, but a very similar sensibility about the american democracy, patriotism and politics. Alicia these three aspirational speeches, speechwriters are often returned often referred to as storytellers and administration storytellers in an administration. What is a day in your office in the white house like . How do you start . Give us a little bit of the highs and lows . Is no first of all, there typical day in the white house you have to be ready for the unexpected. You have to be ready for the unexpected, you have to have a schedule and then breaking news will come out, like the Oklahoma City bombing happened when i was some breaking news, so you have to be ready to react sometimesduce quickly you have lead time, a couple of weeks or a week or so, to write a speech. Other times you have only minutes to produce something. So there is no typical day. But the types of speeches range from the state of the union, which is the super bowl of speeches, [laughter] two pardoning the thanksgiving day turkey. [laughter] so you have to be ready to produce that range of speaking. Is other thing i would say that, you mentioned speechwriters are storytellers, that is very true. One of the things that irks me is when people think we are just wordsmiths. We are not just wordsmiths. We are part of a policymaking policy comes to life unless it is written down or spoken, especially about the president. So as director of speechwriting, which was my job, i was at the table every morning with the chief of staff and the senior staff of the white house, plotting our message of the day, how do we get it across, what speeches should the president give, those kinds of things. So we were part of the policymaking apparatus of the white house, and not just wordsmiths. Alicia was it similar for you, sara . Policies dont come alive until they are articulated to the american people. Thats an important aspect of it. What struck me about the white house is, as terry said, you never have the day you think you are going to have. Thats especially true with traveling. We tended to travel with the president and first lady, and it is this kind of realtime unfolding, you are writing a speech in a plane, and a helicopter, in a motorcade, in a hotel room, on the floor of a plane, there is a lot of unglamorous logistics people dont think about where you are trying to print the speech in the back of the plane before the plane lands, you get to the event, it is quite hectic. I think the hardest part i found was the lastminute crisis. The first lady is not a first responder, that is the president , but if something terrible happens she does have to acknowledge it. And it is often really stressful to type out that lastminute paragraph, acknowledge it, say the right thing, make sure you are not contradicting the president , it can be intense. John i remember being with the president in europe and we were about to fly back to washington and were derived pope john had gone to the hospital and was not well at all. It was decided that if the pope were to die that day while the president was flying across the atlantic, when he landed at Andrews Air Force base, he would get off the plane and read a statement. It was my job on that flight to prepare a statement for the president to read. Backly when you are coming from a foreign trip, you are working on something. Then a rumor came to me by telephone on the plane that president ford was dying. Asked andy card, the chief of staff, since former president s have secret service, if we could find out where president ford was. The director of secret Service Called the command post in rancho and the pope also did not die that day. [laughter] but these things come up, and you have to be ready. Ms. Sams at least you had it for next time. [laughter] if mcconnell people ask us we have things in the can, so to speak, for things that will happen. President reagan was not well. But really, we did not have anything ready things like that. Whenever you have spare time, you are not going to sit down and write something. [laughter] you need the moment. But i got a call saturday night of liberty gunned, close to midnight saturday night of labor day weekend, close to midnight, and i was told that chief Justice Rehnquist had just died and the president was going to be giving a speech the next morning at 10 00 on the topic. So i was back on duty. But we had so many Different Things happen. As indicated, you could plan your day. I have been asked many times if i could plan my life. Of course, i have a plan. It is useless, but i start every monday having the week mapped out. But you just have to be ready. And the date y