Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words Terry McAuliffe Beyond Ch

That we keep thinking we hit rock bottom. I suspect we thought that two years ago, and we are bottoming out again. So, governor, congratulations on the book and thank you for making time to talk about it. Thank you, dahlia, great to be here today. Host i wonder if we could start with the question that hovers a little bit over your first couple of chapters in book and then hovers over so much of the debate were having right now in america and its this question of place. I think its not an accident that you start the book saying that when you wanted to run for novembers virginia, people said to you, youre from new york, youre from florida, youre not from here. I lived in charlottesville for 17 years and heard, youre not from here asian lot, but i think it has a funny echo in the things say when people protest immigrants. Youre not from here. And you clearly anxious about establishing that, look, im from here, lift here most of my life. I live and work here. Why are we having this conversation aft all . Guest and as my wife is quote, ive been going the same safeway for 25 years, but virginia southern state, they were very proud of their heritage. I was the first new yorker to become the governor of the commonwealth of virginia but i will tell you this, virginia has evolve. Northern virginia has really changed the commonwealth of virginia. Think a majority now actually were not born in virginia who actually live in the come wael of virginia. I thought it was important to lay out the context of the history of virginia and the challenges faced, bag new yorker, rug for office, and then bus a lot of the issues we had had a horrible racist past, we were the capital of the confess rade, it was con fed wase, it was different for me, i grew up in upstate new york, a lot of the thing is uncovered i never thought of. Talked early the book, one of my first events in virginia, was at an event and body man who was with me, mr. Aide, tall, young africanamerican man was at the bar witnessing for me to finish and a woman said you need to be careful, young man, and he said why . And she said, theres a kkk rally going on. And ill be honestive you issue didnt know the kkk was still having rallies, and an event after that, i was out campaigning with my wife, and she went up to a man and said i love you to vote for my husband, gave the guy a brochure. He threw it on the ground said id never vote for your husband, hes an nlover. You cant let a few define everybody. As i say the horrible thousand neonazis and White Supremacy who came to virginias that weekend withstill a nation of 335 million people. But we do have a small subset who are haters and donald trump has driven those haters out from underneath their rocks. Host and its so interesting bus i think one of the things were seeing in the wake of these new el paso shooting is this theory of replacement, that at white, White Supremacies egg know nationalists, the anxiety for them is that theyre being replaced and the crazy paradox is theyre not not from virginia, you say throughout the book these people are flying in from ohio and california, to come to, say, this is our place. Its so bizarre and i think layered of that, saying to an africanamerican women you have a moment in the park where you say, these at white, alt right protesters are yelling at an africanamerican woman they want to put her on the boat. Theyre not from here. So i think its this big, big National Anxiety where we go to places that arent even our places and then we claim that theyre our places and other people are pushing us out . Guest right. Well, and many of those they did come from 35 states. One reason i decided to write the become, i couldnt do it while ill as governor but the year every was think offering running for president so i traveled to 25 states. Wherever i went people asked me but charlottesville. It was really seared into their minds. And many people had thought these were virginians. These were citizens of the great city of charlottesville, that were doing the protests. Said, no, no they came. In they came from 35 states. Charlottesville is a beautiful community, its a liberal bastion. These folks are terrific and its just a great community, and the idea that they would be somehow involved with these folkses just nonsense. So thats one reason. But youre right, this whole idea and lets be clear, dala. It is the president who fosters this, that when he ran for office were going to ban muslims from coming into the country. He talked about the mexicans being rapists and being criminals. This is his language, trying to this White Nationalism, were going to go back to a country that is all white and i remind you that unless you were native american you came to this done from from somewhere else. The three ships to to jamestown, virginia, and we are this moment celebrating the 400th 400th anniversary of the first legislative chamber in america, which was in virginia and also was 400 years ago this month that the first slaves were brought to america and they were brought to virginia. So, this is a long evolution and my opinion, as you in the, the president totally fumbled the ball, let america down on his speech and i had to good out that da and i to these folks go home, get the heck out of virginia issue get out of our country. They paraded around like they were some big patriots. That were a bunch of coward, carrying sealed with was stick coulds on it, and adolph history her in tshirts. Really . And then friday night, as you know, was so frightening, when hundreds came off the mountain by the university of virginia, you could see them coming down, hundreds of them, in dark carrying their torches, and you could hear them as they came down, screaming, jews, you will not replace and other chants from 19331934 nazi germany. Host i wonder if you can answer one other framing question for me before we talk but the nuts and bolts of the book. And that is, i know you had several purposes in writing the book but i think a big part of the purpose was healing, reconciliation, john lewis and the introduction talking about how were all in the same fight but then by necessity there is fingerpointing. Its not that Charlottesville Police didnt do a good job, the courts didnt do a good job and some of the blowback er hearing in the last couple of days is like, dont lay blame but youre trying, i think, to do two things intention, one is bring us together, but also to reckon with what went wrong and i wonder how you thought that through when you were write. Guest the main purpose of the book is to deal we same. As horrible as charlottesville was the one benefit that came out is it ripped the scab off of racism. For far too long in our country people felt we had dealt with race sim, didnt exist anymore. Its a hard topic. White people dont like to talk about racism. They dont. They talk sit around in reconciliation commissions which i say are waste of time but it exists in this country today and thats why john lewis wrote the forward for me. He and i collaboratessed on the later part of the book which is how we do four. But the main thrust of what people should take from the book is racism is alive and well, its sad part of our history, but it exists today, and we need to do something to stop it. And i talk in the book at length about education. We cant have a system where there are two different Education Systems. If youre a young africanamerican child going to a school that is inferior to other schools because the actual facility, it may rain and water would come through and the heating doesnt work or the cooling done work or you dont have the same quality teacher, you are putting that young africanamerican child of a disadvantage for the rest of their lives because theyre not getting the same quality education. I talk but education in the book and what we need to do. In housing, in health care, but the other big pound i make mission the criminal justice system. Spent a lot of final in the book on criminal justice. Reformed our criminal justice system. Reduced the juvenile detention population by twothirds when i was governor. I did the most pardons of any governor in virginia history but there was a Lenny Singleton i talk but in book. A young man who was a drug addict, he had a problem, he committed five robberies, the total he stole in five robberies was 535. And nobody was injured. Nodalla, you read the book so i wont ask you the question but 533,535 no injured him was given two life sentences and 130 years. Really . And my point is we have to reform our criminal justice system. So the main thrust of the book is racism is here, quit talking, start doing something. Lean in. As governor i restored more felon rising than any governor in American History. Republicans sued me. I got sued for contempt of court. We won. We put a billion dollars into education, the most ever in our k12. I tried to lean. In i took the Confederate Flag off the license plates, through executive order. Elected officials need to lean in on this issues because racism is prevalent in the country and until we deal with those issues, and thats one over the main purposes of the book, is to have that conversation. Then you get into the permitting process and thats informative for readers. Its not but blame but the permitting process had to be fixed the permit never some have been begin for park it was in. The park was too small for a thousand protesters who were armed, and probably thousand or 2,000 counterprotesters. Physically Law Enforcement that day, they did not have the ability to keep people safe. The city correctly filed a petition to move it to a much bigger park, its the key to controlling a protest is to keep the two sides separated, which was impossible at the first park but unfortunately as i write in the book the aclu sued, and the judge ruled in favor of the commencists and the neonazi and the rally was held at a park that was untenable. Support the first apple and the Board Members of the aclu jewish members quits in protest saying im for the fir amendment but flint nor protecting neonazis to come in and dahlia that day they were screaming, were going burn you and going to burn that synagogue, like we did in ash witness. Every a wore was the f and n work, every woman was called the fing c word and how did we get to a miss in america. Thats the point of the point. How did we get here and how do we move America Forward to. Id love to have you spend a minute im sitting here in new york, youre in d. C. You and i both know charlottesville very well. Can you just describe for people who havent been the how truly tiny those parks are, how small that park is, the town itself is just its a few miles wide. Theres one synagogue. Theres a couple of africanamerican churches. This is not a town that people recognize if they live in big cities. Guest right. A small, mayberry rfd. Got a beautiful main market street, main street, that a lot of great restaurants but its right where the university of virginia is, its based there. Its a college town. The people are spectacular. Funloving. Very liberal. A very liberal city. Open and welcoming to everybody, no matter your background or whom you love or who you pray to, and thats why it was really so shattering for the city of charlottesville to have to go through this. But as i say, the park is a small little park. And the inability for anybody to keep ceo we knew friday night it would be bad when the torches cam out. The should have been allowed on the university of virginia campus. Not allowed to bring lighted torches on a campus and to the grounds and lawn of the university of virginia, but they didnt come i make the point in the book, they filed a permit after the city had voted to take don the robert e. Lee statue but i make the point they werent come half these people didnt know who robert. Lee was, this was an opportunity, this was going to be the time we could come, we can spew or hatred, the time we can all come together and sort of what trump had been tabling about, White Nationalism and neonazis. Time to come together and tried do the best could i to keep a lid on it. Continuously was on radio and tv, trying to tell folks not to come and counterprotests we would like to keep it just let the folks walk down the street and get out of town. But obviously people all wanted to come out because they were however evidence what they were hearing fromhorrified what they were hearing the folkness city of charlottesville were spectacular its sad. Sad for charlottesville, and sad for virginia, but much beyond that, this was a sad day for america and i can remember when i finally went out and gave my speech, i got phone calls and texts from folks all over the globe because what is going on in america . And then when trump came out and said, there were good people on both sides. That was the lowest point of his presidency and i talked to him that day. Had a phone conversation, told him what was going on. Host you thought you had persuaded him to say the right thing, right . You hung up the phone thinking he understood there were no good people on the nazi side. Guest foolish me. I thought the president of the yates bill clinton had issues, in oklahoma city. When he went down and healed the nation. Barack obamaed a charleston, south carolina, when he went down and heal the innings in. Bush at 9 11. I with the bull horn. When thats happen in our country theyre looking for the president , looking for the president to be the moral leader to be the uniter to prisoning us back together again, and i felt that the president understood what was in front of him and its interesting. I tell this in the book when i hung up the phone i fell he would do the right thing. I said mpresident or, do you press conference first if would wait for the president. And i felt that he was going to do the right thing, and then it got delayed half hour, hour, hour and a half, two hours, and im thinking, hes get all the information. The world is watching. Why is he not doing the press conference, and you know what happened. The folks inside the white house and said, no, mr. President , no. Youre not going attack neonazi and not going to use the word neonazi. Not going to attack White Supremacists and come out and say they were good people on both sides there werent good people on the neonazi tied. No good people on the white supremacist side there were very good people on the counterprotester side. They were up out there. You had ministers and concerned citizens who were there to protest against hatred. That is the reason they were there. Peacefully protesting against hatred. Host i want to ask you, because in weeks leading up you mention in this book that this was not a oneoff. People think that the august 11th events on the uva campus and august 12th were the totality of that summer, but we had three other nazi marches, the proud boys, the kkk, showed up, and over the summer, governor there was a real erosion of trust in the police in the community, and i think that a lot of folks felt some version of you mention in the book it was exacerbated when have the kkk march in july the crowd was pepper sprayed which seemed like an overreaction. Decided to lean back. This is a sort of dance between the public and their local police, about trust in the cops, and i guess i want to say to you, its such a challenging thing that youre trying to do in the book, which is both foster trust in the police, in the state police in the courts. You want people to believe that these institutions are going to keep them safe but they really failed on that day, and i know youre trying to thread the needle in the book and you are saying, look, the local cops just didnt know what they were in for, but i do think that what i remember that whole summer was people in town saying, theyre not going protect us, and i think two years later its one of thes on the community is still so royal roiled. They lost faith in their City Government and their police, in the state. What do you say to this sort of tension of how do we account for the fact they really made horrifying air youres youres errors and folks need to trust government. Its talk about what needed to be done. Its not fingerpointing or whatever. Just when he permit was grandded there were no restrictions put on the permit. The permit should have banned poles and sticks and masks and all types of things. That us something that you should do in the city of charlottesville admitted they probably should have put some constraints on the original permit that came into the city. You have to limit. That but i will say this, overall, all the Law Enforcement and it was sheriffs and city and state and theyre there, their goal was to keep everybody safe. Let these folks come in, keep everybody safe. That is the goal. Nobody wants anybody to be injured. And get them, in get it done, and be finished with it as soon as you possibly can. It was at 11 15 that day that i finally declared a state of emergency. The city have done it under protocol. Id seen enough and declared it. So the state police then moved in front of the city of Charlottesville Police and they got on the bull horn and said you have 11 minutes to clear the park. 11 minutes later the park was cleared. The National Guard came in, and secured the park and at that point about 11 50, which is ten minutes before the protest was supposed to begin, the permit was a 12 00 to 5 00 protest the park was clear, we had some skirmishes some figurefight fistfights but nobody injured there had been zero property damage. Think everybody at that point felt that things had again better than people hoped. Outside of the horrible things they said but under First Amendment you have the right to say the things and then an hour late the james fields weaponnized his car and then ran down that street in charlottesville and killed 32yearold Heather Heyer and injured 35 individuals and then an hour or two hours after that the state Police Helicopter who was doing surveillance in the air, had a massive mechanical failure and crash, killing two state trooper the pilot who had flown me as governor and the copilot, a brand new co pilot who left mitt security detail to join that. So it was a heartbreaking day but i would say these folks they were there, the intent is to keep everybody safe. I do have issues ahead of time in the planning and steps that should have been taken. Barricades should have been put up around a lot of the streets but the city of Charlottesville Police had an agreement with the neonazis and the White Supremacy<\/a> who came to virginias that weekend withstill a nation of 335 million people. But we do have a small subset who are haters and donald trump has driven those haters out from underneath their rocks. Host and its so interesting bus i think one of the things were seeing in the wake of these new el paso shooting is this theory of replacement, that at white, White Supremacies<\/a> egg know nationalists, the anxiety for them is that theyre being replaced and the crazy paradox is theyre not not from virginia, you say throughout the book these people are flying in from ohio and california, to come to, say, this is our place. Its so bizarre and i think layered of that, saying to an africanamerican women you have a moment in the park where you say, these at white, alt right protesters are yelling at an africanamerican woman they want to put her on the boat. Theyre not from here. So i think its this big, big National Anxiety<\/a> where we go to places that arent even our places and then we claim that theyre our places and other people are pushing us out . Guest right. Well, and many of those they did come from 35 states. One reason i decided to write the become, i couldnt do it while ill as governor but the year every was think offering running for president so i traveled to 25 states. Wherever i went people asked me but charlottesville. It was really seared into their minds. And many people had thought these were virginians. These were citizens of the great city of charlottesville, that were doing the protests. Said, no, no they came. In they came from 35 states. Charlottesville is a beautiful community, its a liberal bastion. These folks are terrific and its just a great community, and the idea that they would be somehow involved with these folkses just nonsense. So thats one reason. But youre right, this whole idea and lets be clear, dala. It is the president who fosters this, that when he ran for office were going to ban muslims from coming into the country. He talked about the mexicans being rapists and being criminals. This is his language, trying to this White Nationalism<\/a>, were going to go back to a country that is all white and i remind you that unless you were native american you came to this done from from somewhere else. The three ships to to jamestown, virginia, and we are this moment celebrating the 400th 400th anniversary of the first legislative chamber in america, which was in virginia and also was 400 years ago this month that the first slaves were brought to america and they were brought to virginia. So, this is a long evolution and my opinion, as you in the, the president totally fumbled the ball, let america down on his speech and i had to good out that da and i to these folks go home, get the heck out of virginia issue get out of our country. They paraded around like they were some big patriots. That were a bunch of coward, carrying sealed with was stick coulds on it, and adolph history her in tshirts. Really . And then friday night, as you know, was so frightening, when hundreds came off the mountain by the university of virginia, you could see them coming down, hundreds of them, in dark carrying their torches, and you could hear them as they came down, screaming, jews, you will not replace and other chants from 19331934 nazi germany. Host i wonder if you can answer one other framing question for me before we talk but the nuts and bolts of the book. And that is, i know you had several purposes in writing the book but i think a big part of the purpose was healing, reconciliation, john lewis and the introduction talking about how were all in the same fight but then by necessity there is fingerpointing. Its not that Charlottesville Police<\/a> didnt do a good job, the courts didnt do a good job and some of the blowback er hearing in the last couple of days is like, dont lay blame but youre trying, i think, to do two things intention, one is bring us together, but also to reckon with what went wrong and i wonder how you thought that through when you were write. Guest the main purpose of the book is to deal we same. As horrible as charlottesville was the one benefit that came out is it ripped the scab off of racism. For far too long in our country people felt we had dealt with race sim, didnt exist anymore. Its a hard topic. White people dont like to talk about racism. They dont. They talk sit around in reconciliation commissions which i say are waste of time but it exists in this country today and thats why john lewis wrote the forward for me. He and i collaboratessed on the later part of the book which is how we do four. But the main thrust of what people should take from the book is racism is alive and well, its sad part of our history, but it exists today, and we need to do something to stop it. And i talk in the book at length about education. We cant have a system where there are two different Education System<\/a>s. If youre a young africanamerican child going to a school that is inferior to other schools because the actual facility, it may rain and water would come through and the heating doesnt work or the cooling done work or you dont have the same quality teacher, you are putting that young africanamerican child of a disadvantage for the rest of their lives because theyre not getting the same quality education. I talk but education in the book and what we need to do. In housing, in health care, but the other big pound i make mission the criminal justice system. Spent a lot of final in the book on criminal justice. Reformed our criminal justice system. Reduced the juvenile detention population by twothirds when i was governor. I did the most pardons of any governor in virginia history but there was a Lenny Singleton<\/a> i talk but in book. A young man who was a drug addict, he had a problem, he committed five robberies, the total he stole in five robberies was 535. And nobody was injured. Nodalla, you read the book so i wont ask you the question but 533,535 no injured him was given two life sentences and 130 years. Really . And my point is we have to reform our criminal justice system. So the main thrust of the book is racism is here, quit talking, start doing something. Lean in. As governor i restored more felon rising than any governor in American History<\/a>. Republicans sued me. I got sued for contempt of court. We won. We put a billion dollars into education, the most ever in our k12. I tried to lean. In i took the Confederate Flag<\/a> off the license plates, through executive order. Elected officials need to lean in on this issues because racism is prevalent in the country and until we deal with those issues, and thats one over the main purposes of the book, is to have that conversation. Then you get into the permitting process and thats informative for readers. Its not but blame but the permitting process had to be fixed the permit never some have been begin for park it was in. The park was too small for a thousand protesters who were armed, and probably thousand or 2,000 counterprotesters. Physically Law Enforcement<\/a> that day, they did not have the ability to keep people safe. The city correctly filed a petition to move it to a much bigger park, its the key to controlling a protest is to keep the two sides separated, which was impossible at the first park but unfortunately as i write in the book the aclu sued, and the judge ruled in favor of the commencists and the neonazi and the rally was held at a park that was untenable. Support the first apple and the Board Members<\/a> of the aclu jewish members quits in protest saying im for the fir amendment but flint nor protecting neonazis to come in and dahlia that day they were screaming, were going burn you and going to burn that synagogue, like we did in ash witness. Every a wore was the f and n work, every woman was called the fing c word and how did we get to a miss in america. Thats the point of the point. How did we get here and how do we move America Forward<\/a> to. Id love to have you spend a minute im sitting here in new york, youre in d. C. You and i both know charlottesville very well. Can you just describe for people who havent been the how truly tiny those parks are, how small that park is, the town itself is just its a few miles wide. Theres one synagogue. Theres a couple of africanamerican churches. This is not a town that people recognize if they live in big cities. Guest right. A small, mayberry rfd. Got a beautiful main market street, main street, that a lot of great restaurants but its right where the university of virginia is, its based there. Its a college town. The people are spectacular. Funloving. Very liberal. A very liberal city. Open and welcoming to everybody, no matter your background or whom you love or who you pray to, and thats why it was really so shattering for the city of charlottesville to have to go through this. But as i say, the park is a small little park. And the inability for anybody to keep ceo we knew friday night it would be bad when the torches cam out. The should have been allowed on the university of virginia campus. Not allowed to bring lighted torches on a campus and to the grounds and lawn of the university of virginia, but they didnt come i make the point in the book, they filed a permit after the city had voted to take don the robert e. Lee statue but i make the point they werent come half these people didnt know who robert. Lee was, this was an opportunity, this was going to be the time we could come, we can spew or hatred, the time we can all come together and sort of what trump had been tabling about, White Nationalism<\/a> and neonazis. Time to come together and tried do the best could i to keep a lid on it. Continuously was on radio and tv, trying to tell folks not to come and counterprotests we would like to keep it just let the folks walk down the street and get out of town. But obviously people all wanted to come out because they were however evidence what they were hearing fromhorrified what they were hearing the folkness city of charlottesville were spectacular its sad. Sad for charlottesville, and sad for virginia, but much beyond that, this was a sad day for america and i can remember when i finally went out and gave my speech, i got phone calls and texts from folks all over the globe because what is going on in america . And then when trump came out and said, there were good people on both sides. That was the lowest point of his presidency and i talked to him that day. Had a phone conversation, told him what was going on. Host you thought you had persuaded him to say the right thing, right . You hung up the phone thinking he understood there were no good people on the nazi side. Guest foolish me. I thought the president of the yates bill clinton had issues, in oklahoma city. When he went down and healed the nation. Barack obamaed a charleston, south carolina, when he went down and heal the innings in. Bush at 9 11. I with the bull horn. When thats happen in our country theyre looking for the president , looking for the president to be the moral leader to be the uniter to prisoning us back together again, and i felt that the president understood what was in front of him and its interesting. I tell this in the book when i hung up the phone i fell he would do the right thing. I said mpresident or, do you press conference first if would wait for the president. And i felt that he was going to do the right thing, and then it got delayed half hour, hour, hour and a half, two hours, and im thinking, hes get all the information. The world is watching. Why is he not doing the press conference, and you know what happened. The folks inside the white house and said, no, mr. President , no. Youre not going attack neonazi and not going to use the word neonazi. Not going to attack White Supremacists<\/a> and come out and say they were good people on both sides there werent good people on the neonazi tied. No good people on the white supremacist side there were very good people on the counterprotester side. They were up out there. You had ministers and concerned citizens who were there to protest against hatred. That is the reason they were there. Peacefully protesting against hatred. Host i want to ask you, because in weeks leading up you mention in this book that this was not a oneoff. People think that the august 11th events on the uva campus and august 12th were the totality of that summer, but we had three other nazi marches, the proud boys, the kkk, showed up, and over the summer, governor there was a real erosion of trust in the police in the community, and i think that a lot of folks felt some version of you mention in the book it was exacerbated when have the kkk march in july the crowd was pepper sprayed which seemed like an overreaction. Decided to lean back. This is a sort of dance between the public and their local police, about trust in the cops, and i guess i want to say to you, its such a challenging thing that youre trying to do in the book, which is both foster trust in the police, in the state police in the courts. You want people to believe that these institutions are going to keep them safe but they really failed on that day, and i know youre trying to thread the needle in the book and you are saying, look, the local cops just didnt know what they were in for, but i do think that what i remember that whole summer was people in town saying, theyre not going protect us, and i think two years later its one of thes on the community is still so royal roiled. They lost faith in their City Government<\/a> and their police, in the state. What do you say to this sort of tension of how do we account for the fact they really made horrifying air youres youres errors and folks need to trust government. Its talk about what needed to be done. Its not fingerpointing or whatever. Just when he permit was grandded there were no restrictions put on the permit. The permit should have banned poles and sticks and masks and all types of things. That us something that you should do in the city of charlottesville admitted they probably should have put some constraints on the original permit that came into the city. You have to limit. That but i will say this, overall, all the Law Enforcement<\/a> and it was sheriffs and city and state and theyre there, their goal was to keep everybody safe. Let these folks come in, keep everybody safe. That is the goal. Nobody wants anybody to be injured. And get them, in get it done, and be finished with it as soon as you possibly can. It was at 11 15 that day that i finally declared a state of emergency. The city have done it under protocol. Id seen enough and declared it. So the state police then moved in front of the city of Charlottesville Police<\/a> and they got on the bull horn and said you have 11 minutes to clear the park. 11 minutes later the park was cleared. The National Guard<\/a> came in, and secured the park and at that point about 11 50, which is ten minutes before the protest was supposed to begin, the permit was a 12 00 to 5 00 protest the park was clear, we had some skirmishes some figurefight fistfights but nobody injured there had been zero property damage. Think everybody at that point felt that things had again better than people hoped. Outside of the horrible things they said but under First Amendment<\/a> you have the right to say the things and then an hour late the james fields weaponnized his car and then ran down that street in charlottesville and killed 32yearold Heather Heyer<\/a> and injured 35 individuals and then an hour or two hours after that the state Police Helicopter<\/a> who was doing surveillance in the air, had a massive mechanical failure and crash, killing two state trooper the pilot who had flown me as governor and the copilot, a brand new co pilot who left mitt security detail to join that. So it was a heartbreaking day but i would say these folks they were there, the intent is to keep everybody safe. I do have issues ahead of time in the planning and steps that should have been taken. Barricades should have been put up around a lot of the streets but the city of Charlottesville Police<\/a> had an agreement with the neonazis and the White Supremacists<\/a> they would enter poo one rode into the park. Theyve didnt honor that commitment. Dont know why you would believe the word of a knowow nazi but secondguessing the point of the book is not do that. Tight lay out factually from the governor where i was signature, the meet examination so forth of what actually went on, but the purpose and goal is i did right after, did executive order 67 and 68, to redo the permitting process because in a situation like this, the citys in control. I was in other a support role but we need a better mechanism of unified command so everybody is at that table. Not just one or the city police. Everybody is sitting there together early on to make the situations that is what is now in virginia, as we go forward, and i changed the permitting process. They filed right after to do another event in richmond, at a the robert e. Lee statue in richmond which is one of the few that the state controls so this came to the state, and i issued executive order, i cancelled the permit for it because once again this permit for this roundabout in downtown richmond, the permit would have allowed for 5,000 people. You can get 5,000 there if you stacked people 50 on top of each other. So i mean, i had control of that one so i stopped the permit and i got a nasty letter from the aclu, but my job is to keep people safe, and we redid that permitting process and then because they couldnt come to the state, because i wouldnt give them a permit because i wanted to review of how many people could be there safely, they then said well have the rally in richmond outside on the sidewalk and five, six people came but one of the reasons was working with the city, Richmond City<\/a> police, the mayor, and the chief of police they banned all sticks, all poles, they limited the time, they banned all masks. See, masks are important, and one of the benefits that came out of charlottesville was all of the counterprotesters had their cellphones and they were taking pictures of these neonazis and White Supremacists<\/a> and immediately put them on the next day on social media and many people lost their jobs issue talk about this young man who worked in berkeley, at a hot dog stan, got fired. A member of the United States<\/a> marine corps was thrown out of the corps. So a lot of people paid a price and i said that day, virginia will come out of this stronger. You will come out weaker and thats exactly what happened. Their Movement Really<\/a> became diminished. Many got indicted and have been charged. Their names were put up. They were held fired from employment, and a year later they tried to do as youll know another big event in washington, 20 or 30 folks, and then i tell the story of Jason Kessler<\/a> living at nome his fathers bedroom in the father kicking him out of the bedroom. How pathetic. But thats what happened to movement. Host that raise this question. You have this chilling observation toward the end of the book where you say they sort of learned not to protest and certainly we can sort of say, Chris Cantwell<\/a> and richard spencer, they all seem to have run aground and in fact as you point out, turn against each other. But theres a way in which the internet still allows this movement to burgeon and flourish. I think i absolutely stipulate youre right and i think that tim hey cede did that massive study on what went wrong and how the police need to do things different so we learn something and i think we stipulate that we learned a lot, which is why it was a oneoff. But i think at the same time we cant not reckon with the fact that el paso just happened, and the gilroy garlic festival before that and the tree of life before that. So, i feel like there are two things going on. Were talking about quelling and quashing some of the worst altright figures but definitely feels as though the movement has again from protests and marchs to something more insidious. No . Guest good point. And what is the common dough nominator there . I would go back to donald trump. And he is culpable. He let america down that day in charlottesville when he came out and they were cheering him, as you read in the book i have the quotes from spencer and kessler and all that. David david duke in there we are continuing Donald Trumps<\/a> mission to make this a white america. Have all the quotes. Theyre all documented in it. What has happened in the country is because of all the thing us you and i talk but earlier and the things he has said about people, that people who i talk but how a lot of this started when president obama got elected, and for many people, just the concept oft a black president in the oval office, for many was offensive but they didnt act on any of it. They may have done it on social media, and then you have a president comes in, who spent a lot of time on the Birther Movement<\/a> saying the president was president obama wasnt born in america and then all the other hes tweeting, retweeting, white supremacist, neonazi activities while his running for president and then trump comes in and the ban and all the stuff. Think it sent a signal to people that, wow think president come out and say this stuff i can too, and thats emboned them and the felt comfortable comeing to charlottesville. People used to wear hoods and do this at night. I dont think the have to wear hoods anymore and in charlottesville they came out, their big coming out party and but they got hurt padly in charlottesville and they got push i agree with your point. They werent able to do another charlottesville because they were so injured and wounded and charged and so forth that they werent able to do it but it has again now underground on the web, that this person from el paso, this killer, who wrote his manifesto, and specifically talks about White Supremacy<\/a>, white identity, directly quoting Donald Trumps<\/a> tweets. So, youre right, and the president he failed us this week in his speech. I wish he had come out and said, opened his speech up and said, you know what . Im sorry. Misrhetoric has created divisions and hatred in this country and i was wrong, its time to come together. I if President Trump<\/a> had done that, he could have turned the entire owner. Would have been a entire corner. But he dent have it in im. He gave amp e speech, read awful the telephone prompt are but didnt tell prompter but didnt mention he is the number one with the hate speech and i wish hed said im calling senator mitchell mitchell. , the Senate Leader<\/a> to come back into session tomorrow, the house voted for a universal background check, 160 days ago bring that bill up if want it on the floor of the senate and voted this week thats what he could he done but it was just words, and its sad. Host he blamed Mental Illness<\/a> which is terrifying. Guest games. Difficult for the mentally and i will games and the press. I mean, youre grappling with the same thing we all grapple with which is how much to lay at his feet and how much of this is kind of preexisting condition in this country that, as you point out, those civil war statute statue were not build in the civil war. They were built any 1920s to reinforce jim crow and i think theres this tricky thing er trying to do which is both blame him and also understand that this predates him and will survive him. This is in the bones of this country, and i think its one of the things that you and john lewis do the end of the book when you try to talk about fixes independent of donald trump. But i did want to ask you, because i think theres a moment in the book where mike signaturor, the mayor of charlottesville comes out in february of 2017 and says charlottesville is the capital of the resistance. Were going to resist trump and youre sitting there in your office going, oh, god, no, dont say this, and so i think there is always this paradox of you want to call it out, you want to si this is what it is and the travel ban was racist, and the i. C. E. Raid or racist and at the same time by doing that you make yourself a target, and you have done that in this book. You open with his failures. I wonder if there was a choice in your head when you were write tragic toy to play it without calling hmm out explicitly. Guest you had to talk but how this got started, why did the choose charlottesville is very important, and electioned officials should call out trump all the thyme but a city is not a center of resistance. Look at charlottesville, center of innovation, technology, uva the point is why did they chas charlottesville. Could have gone anywhere in the south or anywhere. I think its important that people understand why they chose charlottesville, and then of course when the took the vote to take down the statues, you mentioned the statues. Aimportant to mention that the American Revolution<\/a> started in virginia, patrick henry, give me liberty, give me death speech, and the George Washington<\/a> and thomas jefferson, and ended in virginia, the battle of yorktown cornwallis was defeat. Thats big part of our history in virginia, world war 1, the war to end all wars, world war ii, if you add all those up you have maybe a dozen monuments to all of those serious events in our nations history. The civil war, there are 358 statues and many of you as you mentioned were doing jim crow. Nothing do with the civil war and lets call it what it is. These mon. S are offensive monuments are offensive to the africanamerican community. The confederates flag is an offensive symbol to the africanamerican community. I as governor work very hard to make virginia open and welcoming. I inherited a state if you remember we had passed the transvaginal bill passed in virginia before i game governor. Passed trap laws to shut down the womens clinics, very much antigay legislation. I end. That fired the board of health and kept of womens clinics open. Your state has to be open and welcoming. That is how youre successful. When i came into office i inherited a large deficit of 2. 4 billion doors we had been two relight on defense spendingg and when sequestration came along i hurt it badly so i built a new virginia economy and thats what we sit out to do. Put a bill dollars into k12 to redo our Education System<\/a> in virginia, recite cyber, became in the number one state in the america for cyber, data, unmanned systems. Four years later i left the biggest surplus. Why . Were open, welcoming, to everyone and thats where virginia is. Why did we just win amazon . Everybody wanted it. He one won in virginia, were open, welcoming and invest in our talent and work force and thats why google, facebook, microsoft, amazon, have all come to virginia, and thats the point. You have to have your state open and welcoming. And offensive symbols should be taken down. We in virginia dont allow local jurisdictions to determine what to do with statues in their respective areas. He we august to pass a bill that local jurisdictions can determine what monuments are actually in your city or county. That should be your decision north, the state decision. Itsing worth pointing out two year later the statues are still there. Guest they have no authority, the state makes the decision. So get to pass the Republican Legislature<\/a> which that wont happen. Thats why we got to win the legislator this year. Host thats a good segue we were charlottesville. I lived there and had my babies there and love it. But i think that the fact that it stands in the shadow of minute chell monticello and you mentioned jefferson in the book and a up to that is still really complicated in its relationship to jefferson to slavery, to africanamerican women and how he treated them, and so i think the same thing youre describing, which is how do you feel sort of pride in the south, pride in the cradle of democracy, and also strive to be really candid about its failings, and thats the same problem we have with the statues. There is a point of southern pride, theres a argument about how the south feels about itself and the civil war. How do you have that conversation . How do you thread that needle without saying youre a butch of racist hater which is exactly why we get into this feedback loom loop were in. Guest i talk about is in in the become at length. Virginia is a great state of 8. 5 million people. And those people that i confront when i was running for for theyre not symbolic of who virginia is but every state is going to have folks, going to have hater ands racists and soing for and thats not who we and are thats not what defines us. Youre right, virginia has such unique history the first shapes calm to america, came to virginia. This month the first slaves, 400 years ago this month, came to virginia. We have very unique history in this country. I talk about jefferson, talk about washington in the book. They were both slave owners. Theyre a part of the history but you should talk but all of history, and no one nobody should hide who we are, where we have come from, what our leaders were like in the issues they had. Thats part of who we arement but you look at america today, such a great mosaic tile of immigrants. Would say this with trump, unless you were native american you came here from somewhere else and this idea that this is our place, this work were a country that get built, great country, but were as strong as the people who live here, and the immigrant community has made us stronger and thats why its really sad of what trump has done to attack the folks who have moved here. My 1857, mcleod came to fame from ireland came to the another of america, thank goodness he did. We have very unique history, and virginia is a great state. But we have to deal with the issues of the past, and thats why i on the issue of the Confederate Flag<\/a>, i banned it through executive order and we ought to do something but the statues because you dont want anyone living in your community who feels offended. Want to be open and welcoming. After the Supreme Court<\/a> ruled i was proud. The first governor perform a gay marriage. Thats who we are today. I restored more felon rights than any governor in American History<\/a> and get sued and sued for contempt of court. The big part of the book is you have to start doing something. Quit talking. Lean in. And thats a big part of the end of the book and we have to move past i reconciliation commissions, a waste of time, a bunch of white people sitting around feeling good. Do something. But racism exists. Charlottesville ripped the scab off. We now hey a real opportunity Going Forward<\/a> to deal with these issues and solve them. Host i wonder if you talk about thank you gender piece of this. I think it probably doesnt warrant saying but ill say it again, just overwhelmingly the White Supremacists<\/a> and nazis that marched in charlottesville were men, the perpetrators of all these hate crimes, domestic hate crimes, the Mass Shootings<\/a> are men. I do know that you think about it, you talk so tenderly about having to tell your daughter about the loss of family friends. I wonder how gender fits into this conversation about were talking about sort of southern pride, talking about 0 unreconciled idea about the civil war and talking about racial hate and displacement, but somewhere in there theres a real problem with male violence and i wonder if you could speak to that a little bit. Guest thats a good point and to honest something i hadnt thought but. Youre right, eight right there in front of you. 90 i dont never exact number, 95 probably of the neonazi and White Supremacists<\/a> were men. This match cho image of the macho image of the marching down the street screaming. Its a good point to make. We have to deal with it. The question i have is, how did these men get in this position that they actually think like this . Dahlia, youre not born this way. How do we get to this where youre screaming you want to burn these people alive like they did in germany. How . And i make the point that we have to do a better job in our Education System<\/a>. We have to go back k to 6, early on, we have to start teaching, talking about these issues much earlier than we have done it before. We dont do a about job in education, talking but diverse to and exclusion and openness. We have textbookses but that be a big part of how you fit into the social work off our nation and fabric. How we deal with one another is as important as your mag class, your english class and we dont. And i do think so i establish self commissions of charlottesville, and the recommendations for that are really on education. Have to begin earlier, dealing with young people and a lot as you know happens at home. Because as i say youre not born this way. At some point it evolves and have to get the root problem earlier. Host what would you say i know that charlottesville is still in pain two years later, and still working through so much anger. I know you have heard some of it, even around the book, in term out of mistrust of the police, mistrust of the system. What would be the thing in your view, i if you could magic up something to move forward, is it just youre describing so many programs and policies, trying to be more inclusive, more bighearted. Is it just going to be a function of at some point saying, we need to do the next thing . How do we get past what feels like just a very, very bruised and angry city, even two years later . Guest its hard for the citizen of charlottesville because as i say, idyllic community. So outside of how they think and i think thats what is so shocking to us. But what we have to do is, we have issues in charlottesville on schools and teachers and so forth. Nobody is exempt from this. So i try to take any situation that ive had, any negative situation, and i try make a positive what we can do next, and i think the folks in charlottesville just like anywhere else, lean in on these issues, o education, and affordable housing, are people being taken care of . Are some of the folks who aim to my become event the other day to real estate the issue there are still people who were impacted and were hurt and still have not had medical care. The first i heard. That of the that tragic, and anybody. And as community not just charlottesville but have to make sure everybody that wag physically harm that day that were doing everything we can with care, but the other big issue,s assay the book, we have to start doing something. Elections matter. I dont want to make today political, but the biggest thing we can do to heal the nation toilings get rid of donald trump bus honestly, he i dont blame million for specific acts but i do hes culpable. Think about this. Is a mentioned before you had obama and bush and clinton, address the nation in a real crisis. Here he had the president coming out after all these individuals were killed in el paso and dayton, its the first time in hour history the president went out to give a speech that he was actually a player in a sense in the events that actually happened. There was culpability to him, and thats never happened before. And its his rhetoric. You can talk out congressman Elijah Cummings<\/a> and the squad and charlottesville and all of the stuff thats gone on. He has brought this out in a lot of people. And so talk but what we can do issue is get red of trump in 2020. Have to win back the United States<\/a> senate but a if we dont win the senate back there wont be any comprehensive common sense gun restrictions. As governor every year i put up summon sense background checks, assault weapon, high capacity magazine back, closing the gun show loophole. Every year. Every year. And every year they died and republican subcommittee at 6 30 in the morning with no recorded vote. 59 of americans today 95 of americans today are for universal background checks. How hard is this . So if you really to me, theyve been dealt a blow, the neonazis and White Supremacists<\/a>. To me the real big change in how to heal the prosise is to elect a democratic president who will lead on healing and bringing the nation back together again, defeating trump and winning the senate and then many of the things with guns, we can start dealing with the issues and to have a National Leader<\/a> who were all one together, and talking more about unity than disunity. Host can you describe theres a really to me heartbreaking part right toward the end of the book where youre talking to haegering her heyer their paralegal who is killed tragically by fields with his car and youre talking to her mam and she describes a sense of faltering urgency in america, that people dont have that if youre not mad, youre not a paying attention sense anymore attempt have green a little bit numb, and i wonder dish think about this all the time. You start the book with the travel ban, people go out to the airports. You go out to the airport and everybody is riled up. Theyre fired up and the seems to be a creeping numbness that it happens again, happens again, happens again. We cant be dial up to 12 all the time and yet here you have this woman who is the person who literally gave her life to protest, and her mom is saying, were all falling asleep. I wonder what do you say to people who are just trying to live their lives, do their shopping, raise their kids, and theyre just tired of being angry all the time. Guest i hate to say it you can just think about to youre goingout four everyday life. Those folks in walmart in el paso were going bet their everyday lies. Folks in date ton were go about their every everyday life, having aber and a good time but look what happened. Guess what im trying to say is, the ordinary life as long as we have his hatred, divisions, thats what i talk but in the book, everybody has to lean in, as long as we have a president today who continues to do what he does, to bring out this hatred in people, your everyday will be challenge he. You dont know nietzsche time you go into a grocery story or bar theres someone out there lurking with an ak47 and thats sad for our country. But we can fix it, and suzanneborough was in book a lot. I talked to her and she had all the manuscripts. She is a really special woman. She lost her daughter, she talks about the night before she, she had dinner with daughter and talks about dish itself was interesting heather gave her an extra long hug that night and she never suzanne never in her wildest dream do at that point to heathing was thinking of not going and the next day she decided to go suzanne never thought with would be her last hug then the tragedy with heather and then the Memorial Service<\/a> where suzanne bro got up there and did a callout to america and he has continued. She has a foundation now traveling around the country. Heather heyers dig cant be in vain, has to be a rallying cry. Do something, get out there. And she is continue we all need to do it. Have to move forward for the sake of our kids. Host when you say do something, i want to go back to the place you start, because you talk about voting. And i think but this all the time. A moment blessed by the Supreme Court<\/a> forgery maundering, for jerrymandering and vote suppression and voter i. D. Its a version of the question open with and what to ask it different way. People are frustrated, theyre angry, they think their vote doesnt count, they think government has failed them, they would rather just tune out. What is your best pitch, governor, for why your vote still matters, your vote still counts, this is still your country when i think folks feel as though they are utterly disempowered. Guest you cant say your vote doesnt count. You cant. Look at the 2016 president ial election. Three states, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. Hillary clinton lost those three states, combined, by 77,000 votes. People woke up the next day and said, holy cow, how disthe happen. It appeared because 92 million americans did not vote. To 77,800 showed up in those three states, hilary would have been president and we would not have hat donald trump and all the insanity that trump has brought to the presidency, and look at today. Where we in the issue of Race Relations<\/a> spend the last 45 minutes talking about. That comes into office and tries to destroy the Affordable Care<\/a> act, took away the individual mandate, sowed confusion and uncertainty in the Insurance Market<\/a> that premiums are going up. He destroyed alliance us around the world that we have had with our allies pick he the european union. Look at us now like were crazy so you cant say your vote doesnt count, and as i say, 77,000 of you had come out, donald trump never would have been president. But ill give you another case in point. So, in 2017, we have our house of delegate elections in virginia, we have for control of the chamber, we have one election that is a virtual tie. A tie. And the winner is pulled out of a bowl, the name is pulled out of a bowl. Really . I guess i have in sympathy for that. This still is the greatest nation on earth. Men and women, are all over the globe, wearing the cloth of our country to keep this democracy safe, and i travel, ive been to 150 countries around the world. Traveled, done business all over the globe. Theres nothing like coming back to the United States<\/a> of america. With all the issues we have its the great is nation on earth. How do we take it to the next level . And im a half glass full guy, and we can do this. Trump is really trying to take the water out of the glass but we cannot let him do it. Every day we cant let him get us down. Im optimistic. In 17 of those elects in virginia we head the biggest pickup of democrats in 140 years inch 2018 we won the house of representatives, netted seven new governors, picked up eight any state champ. Part of the 92 million realize he made a mistake and im go vote. But we have to theyre making it harder to vote. Shutting down early volt days and taking names off ballot. I started the Voting Rights<\/a> institute when i was chairman of the Democratic National<\/a> committee in 01 because of disenfranchisement of africanamerican slowers. I restored more felon rights than any governor in American History<\/a>. Republicans keep seeing new. Got sued for contempt of court. Give people the right to vote. This is our democracy. And dont let anyone ever undermine it. They is why winning the white house and having the senate and house of representatives, will make such a difference for our nations future but not going to happen if you dont vote. Host and that leads me to i think my penultimate question but one i thought throughout reading this book i thought what youre really trying to say here, i think, is that words matter. And the president s words matter. Those protester who were chanting, blood and soil, you will not replace us, those were not pro Civil War Monument<\/a> chants. Those were nazi chants their words matter. Your words mattered after donald trump said there were fine people only both sides. Your word mattered. And i think that theres a way in which were in a funny moment where people are being recallized on eight chan. This isnt an national problem. This global problem. Words are incredibly powerful and i think thats what er book is trying to tell us, that the president cant say i was kidding or joking or i was winking at a rally about assaulting asylum seekers. That words are really propoundsly powerful, and profoundly powerful and we cant lose our confidence in the power of our own speech. Guest lose thing power of our speech and how we now thats right why i try end the book with john lewis we inside to use our words in a positive way to bring pout positive change. And that is how i end the book mitchell last sentence is doing something but words matter, clear his has proven thats hatred we have seen in the ken tribut folks watching this today you cant think but it. You have to do something and your words can change. Not going say were not going to tolerate this anymore. Eyeful very optimistic but the future and 2020. Were going to get this country back together again, going to end this racial divide. Going to do the thing is talk about. Education, and sentencing reform. We have a lot of issues but we can fix it. We have to stay positive lets do it and please, dont let donald trump get you down every single day. You cant. Have to get out of bed, have to fight, have to move on but were going to be vigilant on all these haters out there, and we have government to do a better job on monitoring the web, better job of getting guns off the streets and out of the hand. People who should never be owning weapons. Host okay so this is my very last question. I have only 270 more written down but ill end with this. One over the things that i noticed post charlottesville was a real sense of who gets to tell the story, whose story is this . And a real feeling that at one level it was the story of the tiny town that felt like it was misunderstood and like you, everywhere i went for a year after with my people would say, my god, was that like crystal . What was that like theres an urgency to both tell the story and to make sense of the story and also not to impose meaning on it; that my meaning isnt youre meaning and what trump said isnt the same thing as what suzanne brow and i won disif you can talk how you trade to navigate the problem of both telling your story. You were the governor some watched this unfold and you had to declare state of emergency, and triangulate against all these other people whose story it and who are still bren broken in and sad. Guest this is a story that it told as the governor, as the information i had in front of me. Others have written books and have done stories and so for everybody has their own perspective. I think people would find i talk but running for office, the history, and as governor, leading up to charlottesville, all the preparations and things, but this was from my perspective of what happened and how we good forward. But as i say, ive been involved in politics for a very long time. Had every job you can have in the democratic party. If a spend more than half my life as a fulltime volunteer for the democratic party. Was sickened. Heartbroken, sickened, disgusted and couldnt stay silent. Like you i travel everywhere and really ported me when people said the folks in charlottesville were bad people. Said no, the folks in charlottesville were great people. Its the people who came in just a lot of misperceptions and i think is important that everybody gets cleared up. Its a great state. But like every state we have folks that dont think the way we do, and theyre angry and want to take it out, and trump is telling everybody that mexicans are takingor jobs. This is not the case but he has get everybody riled up. Lets rile folks up in a positive way. Thats the end of my book. What we need to do. But dahlia the important thing is, you and i have just had this important discussion. Had i not written the book we wouldnt have the discussion ive traveled around the country and newsweek but the book on its cover, because of el paso and dayton and things have not changed. You dont want chicago to fade interest the enemy want charlottesville to fade into the memory. Wedded a tragedy in virginia beach. People dont remember the 12 People Killed<\/a> in virginia beach. We cant let all of the lessons and the thing that occurred in charlottesville be froggen. I wam to memorialize that and its important to have the conversation and were having this conversation today, conversation on race, and its important. Racism exists. We have to defeat it. We have only made some progress. We have a long, long way to go. Host thats the Perfect Place<\/a> to end this, governor and i want to thank you so much for your time and for this book and for helping us remember a day that was two days that were the worst of us and also as somebody who was there and you saw, too, a day that was the best of us as well. Guest and dont forget all the people who were there, all the support teams this ems personnel, the volunteers, nurses who vonned that day this he clergy who came out, there were a lot of people there who stepped up to help folks that day and you cant forget those folks. Host yes and many, many more of them than were there nazis. The book is beyond charlottesville, taking a stan against White Nationalism<\/a> by Governor Terry<\/a> mcauliffe","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia801005.us.archive.org\/11\/items\/CSPAN2_20190818_160100_After_Words_Terry_McAuliffe_Beyond_Charlottesville\/CSPAN2_20190818_160100_After_Words_Terry_McAuliffe_Beyond_Charlottesville.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20190818_160100_After_Words_Terry_McAuliffe_Beyond_Charlottesville_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}