Immigrant, came 0 to this done trip 1962 a few week boyfriend the cuban missile cries. He was 11 years old at the time and he and my grandmother fled cuba together, originally landed in miami but then shortly after that moved up to the washington, dc area, settled in Northern Virginia, which is where im from. My dad met my mom, who is was an american, irish and czech dissent. Descent, born in washington, dc near georgetown. He parents my grand rapids are buried at over at Arlington National cemetery. So my families sort of a collision between havana and washington. And my dad gave me a lot of stories from his upbringing in cuba. He talked about greg up on the island until he was 11 years old and had to flee. I still to this day have the passport they gave to him when he fled the country and he you can see the expression on his face. He just looks like a kid who is only 11 years old and is uncertain where he is off to. But as i write in the book, the enemy of the people, a dangerous time to tell the truth in america, when he arrived in Northern Virginia, this was the first time theyd every experienced winter. And there was a Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia that gave my dad and my grandmother coats and sweaters and warm clothing. So they could happen their first winter in washington, dc. So i always think put that, the compassion kindness shown to my cuban side of the family when they get to the United States. Host howdy how did your dad and you become citizens . Guest well issue was born in Northern Virginia. Was born in Fairfax County hospital, right outside the beltway. Host howdied you family become how did your family become citizens . Guest well, they have been in this country for some 50 years. My dad had to go through the immigration process. And it is one of those things where i feel as though my family story is a lot like the other stories of other immigrant families mitchell dad worked as a freshry store worker for 40 years until he couldnt stand anymore. Paid into Social Security and medicare, and how to a lot of hard work, earned his retirement, my mother is an american and worked in the restaurant business. Me parents split up when i was five years old and i was essentially raise by a single mother, although my dad stayed in the picture and i saw him on the weekend but were no strangers to hard work which is run ron i rite me book, i guy to trump rallies i can relate to Trump Supporters just as well and dare i say better than the man they came to see, and i find it interesting talking to a lot of folks who come to these rallies because i feel like i relate to them in more ways than they know. Host hmm. Where did you grow up in Northern Virginia in did you have interests in journalism in politics then . Guest i did. I grew up in Fairfax County, virginia, which is right outside washington, dc, and politics is in your blood if that happens. My mom got the Washington Post on her doorstep every day. Read it cover to cover. Matter of fact when there was a story in the Washington Post about the book, a few days ago, she said i saw the story in the post, and she sent me a picture of it. And so every time theres a story in there she make surely she save the clipping, and sends off to me. When i was a kid in the first grade, one of my very first field trips remember was seeing the hostage come home from iran, and it is one of those things when you grow up in this area, you do things like that. My dad working at his grocery store, ran into people like dick gephardt, the former congressman, he would run into ambassadors and Washington Redskins players and senators and so on. And that also infused in me some of the otome yack fever im grappling with to this day. But i consider it to be a blessing. Ran into a political operative years ago who said im so sorry you had to grow up in the washington, dc area. Im actually really proud of being a d. C. Native. Its fun and you get access to the smithsonian on the mall for free friends who parents work in the government or work in politics. Was a great life growing up. Host and how did you form an interest in journalism . When did that start . Guest well, its interesting. Some of the stuff i didnt put in the book because its sounded because its nat straight memoir but i appreciate you asking the question. Was on the High School Newspaper in Northern Virginia, call the ablast because our team mascot was the atom shows ablast was like an atomic bomb, and one of the stories i got my interest in journalism that it covered was over at my high school, they took down a mural to pink floyd on one of the walls in our high school, and it was big mystery in the school, where did the pink floyd mural go . And up hope to wall instead was mural of the statue of liberty and as we found it was the french teacher who was responsible for taking down the pink floyd mural and putting up one for the statue of liberty. So i had to go down to the Principals Office ask and assays its First Amendment right to talk to principal and get some answers to my questions. But i guess if i had to put my finger on it, that would be occupy of the episodes and right out of college i worked on the assignment desk at channel 5 here in d. C. I made 4. 25 an hour, had no health benefits. And they would send me out to cover driveby shootings and things around washington, dc. Marion berriy show up and give a press conference so thats was infused in my blood as an early ainge. Host youre white house carped in cnn for television reporting, about as far as you can good. When did you form that ambition to reach that level of the business . Guest i grew up covering watching the like of Sam Donaldson and dan rather and wolf blitzer, and i think i just dish saw those guys and i said thats what i want to do. But i knew i had to work hard at it. I didnt come out of college and say, put me on the network. I started in knoxville, tennessee in a local station there and from there went to dallas, texas, chicago, and then after i worked in chicago for a bit, i was hired by a cbs news their affiliate service. Then win to cbs news and then cnn. So i went up the oldfashioned way in this business. Climbed the ladder from local news to where im at now. Host why have you stayed with cnn . That does cnn stand for in your mind . Guest i think it stands for commitment to top notch journalism, and its always been, i think, one of those news outlets and its been universally regarded i think in this fashion, as an outlet where you have a lot of brave journalists out there, put energy lives on the line all over the world. We all remember when cnn was set up during the persian gulf war and maybe some of the younger viewers dont remember that but i remember that. And. Host i do. Guest you too as well. So cnn i think has ever since ted turner came up with the idea or 24news has always had a commitment to very hardnosed reporting, and who could argue with having 24 hours of news at your disposal as a journalist. It does make for a very satisfying but very challenging environment as a reporter. When youre on the white house bet, as cnn, theres a lot of demands on you, but it is enriched my life and im greatful to the people at cnn and im sure well cover it at some point but cnn stood behind me during the whole press pass court case, and there was a real commitment there inside the News Organization to make sure that we stand up for what is right, and what happened in that case was, my press pass was taken away and some News Organizations might have been reluctant0 wishy washy what to do. There was no hesitation when it came right down to it. When they had to stand behind me, they did, and ill always be enormously greatful for that. Host what is the job of a White House Correspondent . I think a lot of people think the job is the beforing room or the confrontations with the president , but im asking a simpler thing. What do you do all day . Guest yeah. The very good question. Its not just being in the Briefing Rooms and having those back and forths with the press secretary. My goodness, thats just a fraction of it. These days, being a White House Correspondent is different than, say, for example, when i comforted it during the obama administration. The second term of the obama administration. These days we wake up, we look at our phones to see if the president tweeted and were off to the races, and as i talk about in the book, often those tweets are fact challenged. They are not dealing with the real world. And so we have to almost immediately become Fact Checkers from the moment we wake up and before we have poured our first cup of coffee, and its typically that at kind of frenetic pace until at night we good to bed and see if the tweets are still going. Im talking to a variety of sources all day long, im talking to white house officials on background. Im talking to republican sources up on capitol hill. Im talking to trump advisers on background. And we try to through that process put together our understanding of what the news is that day. Were also taking in all kinds of footage from the hill, what democrat leaders are saying, what is happening the various investigations pertaining to the russia probe and all these other probes attached to president trump, and it is a messy chaotic, exhausting challenge on a daily basis, but i think by the time the news comes on at the end of the day, we are doing a pretty good job at giving the American People accurate, reliable information which is after all our job. Now, contrast that with when barack obama was president , we had regular briefings on a daily basis, and those briefings, yes, from time to time with jay carney, or josh earnest, they other would be contentious from time to time but josh earnest gave so many briefings and so long, they would be an hour and a half long, and almost be one of those and this would happen from time to time. The Associated Press reporter would try to say, okay, thanks very much and then josh would say, let me take couple more questions from the room. That doesnt happen anymore, and as folks as of this taping were 90plus days since the last official White House Briefing in the White House Briefing room, and we just dont have access to white house officials the with a that we used to, even drug the Trump Administration where we had them on the record in the Briefing Room, where everybody is micd, and you have a variety of reported. Not just the networks who are vying to get a question in. But also print reporters from the wire services, newspapers, foreign news outlets. That has been lost for the last three months and its over the last six months its happened to rarely that this has as a tradition here in washington, has kind of gone away and its sad. Id like to see it come back. Host i want to ask about that. When josh ernest stood there for even longer than you wanted and answered questions, he was doing that because it was the perception of the obama administration, and previous administrations, that it was in the interests of the president to do this. Guest thats right. Host they didnt do it because they were such believe America Great journalism, because they wanted to help you do your story it was their belief that having daily briefings was important for the president. So as a matter of selfinterest. Why isnt there selfinterest in having the briefings still . Why did that go away . Well, one thing i observed and talk about this in the book one thing i observed over the last six months or so, Sarah Sanders, the White House Press secretary, was finding herself in a position where either she was knowingly or unknowingly passing on false information to the American People. For example, when she said in the white house said that the president did not dictate the memo to in the New York Times explaining donald trump jurys meeting with the russian attorney at trump tower in 2016 and then we found out that the president had dictated the memo. Sarah sanders was caught in a situation where she had to explain away false information that had been given to the public. Same thing with the stormy academies case, Sarah Sanders in the Briefing Room having to answer questions about why false information, inaccurate information, had been given to the American People prior to some revelations happening in the Stormy Daniels case, and as sarah was saying in the Briefing Room, im just giving you the best information i have at the time. As we later found out in the mueller report, there was one instance where Sarah Sanders admitted to federal investigators that she essentially gave false information as to why james comey, the fired fbi director, was let go. She had said that he had lost the faith and the confidence of multiple fbi agents. She admitted to federal investigators that was not entirely accurate. And so there have been episodes issuing think, where theyve been caught giving the American People false information. My sense is that they realized that was not an asset, that was a liable and now we have situation where Sarah Sanders or other top officials will go out under the north lawn of the white house to where the life positions take place on pebble beach and do an exclusive interview, typically with fox news, then walk back to their offices inside the white house and we in the press have to gather in the driveway in the hopes that theyll stop and talk to us and answer some of our questions. Its an environment that is really tilt held in their favor now because she can essentially say, thats all the time i have if have to get out of here and almost sound like a cable news host and says thaws all the time i have. Have to go back inside and take mary four or five questions. There have been episodes where she has taken more than that but its not the same when we have them in the Briefing Room,. Everybody is micd up, the cameras are on and the lying its are on theres step stenstennothing grandfatherrer there, and myunderle the driveway gaggle theres no stenographer prepared taking note, in White House Briefing room theres a stenographer there taking notes and holding a microphone and recorder up so we can have an accurate reflection of what is said in the back and forth of the Briefing Room. He wet dont have that anymore in these driveway gaggled. Theres no Public Record you can go back to say on this date in this driveway gaggle, Sarah Sanders said this. Whereas before we had that sort of thing. So the environment has changed greatly and i dont think the public is as well serve as they were when we had the briefings. Host lot of the president s tweets amount to disinformation, often has as you noted factual errors in them. Theyve can be huge distractions to what is really going on that day in washington. A lot of people that i talk to, because i criticize the press, i talk to people online all day long, about media coverage. A lot of people wonder why dont you just ignore or downplay the president s tweets . Why let them drive you to distraction like this . Why not just ignore them . Guest its a great question, jay. I talk about is in from time to time in the book. We have been grappling with just how to cover this very unprecedented presidency, unconventional presidency from the getgo, and thats goes back to the campaign because remember these tweets and these false statements were flying all around during the campaign if remember during the campaign when the president then candidate trump called into question the nations up employment rate that was generated by the labor department. He hinted that ted crews father was involved in the kennedy assassination. He is known for saying that barack obama wasnt born in this country which is obviously a flat out lie. And then he carried this act into the white house, and we saw very early on in in the administration where the president trying to explain how he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, saying that 3 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally in the 2016 election and thats why he lost the popular vote. Theres no evidence of that. Theres no proof of that. Got a you do as a journalist . I call it a game of what would you do . Do you ignore a flatout fallshood like that or correct the record . As we know, jay, the Washington Post fact checker recently discovered that the president has uttered 10,000 approximately 10,000 false or misleading statements, not sure where the number is now as of this taping since he came into office and that has made us fact checker inside realtime we spend time and energy Fact Checking the president s statements and tweets and this ups the president , upsets his team, upsets Trump Supporters who sometimes lash out at us in ways that make us feel endangered and threatened. But my question to the viewer is, and the folks onl