Next book tv afterwards, chief White House Correspondent provides a behind the scene look of the trump administration. Afterwards is a weekly Interview Program worth relevant discuss. They are incredible bookends. I was in my twenties working for the New York Post and assigned to city hall. There was a guy that had just become mayor named rudy giuliani. And there was this absolutely unbelievable story that had gripped new york city at that particular moment. I wasnt interested in but i was at the New York Post in all my editors cared about the news had just broken that Michael Jackson had just married lisa marie presley, Elvis Presleys daughter. They were married in secret , not seen in public yet and staying at trump tower. So when the news broke out all the paparazzi, curiosity seekers, new york city. And the New York Post. And Michael Jackson is at his peak of popularity at this moment. So the crowd around trump tower was so intense they put up police corridor around the block and people had to get across the street because to me people were trying to get in there to get a glimpse of the newlyweds. Not donald trump. No. Michael jackson and Elvis Presleys daughter but they are staying at trump tower i am at city hall nobody cares about city hall at this moment is particularly not at the New York Post so i think how can i get a piece of the story . I called up this number for the Trump Organization it was just a general number. I didnt know donald trump or have any connection whatsoever i was only at the post for seven or eight months as a new reporter in town i called the number and said can i talk to donald trump . And i was connected to his gatekeeper at the time the long time press secretary presumably an old member of the family and everything went through normal. I didnt know this at the time so i said i have a story to pitch to mr. Trump. Why would the most famous newlyweds in the world want to have their honeymoon at trump tower . She passed it on i got a call back almost immediately from trump himself i didnt know how he would respond but he said come over and can you come now . [laughter] im at the New York Post office at that point they were in Lower Manhattan on the other side of chinatown i tell my editor i got this and they say great and they send me with photographers and we hustled our way to midtown we were immediately let through trump was there we were brought up to his office and there is a photo in the book which is a little embarrassing. You look like the kid that you were at that time. [laughter] and i remember at the time he says let me show you around and let me show you why they are here. The story by the way we also have a picture of the front page article that was written of the secret honeymoon hideaway for michael and lisa marie it was massive coverage. I had five pages of insight we went around we met michaels bodyguards we saw the secret tunnels they got in and out the secret getaway car and telling me where everybody lived in trump tower all the famous people spielberg, the British Royal family, sophia lorren, we actually ran inside with arrows pointing to the apartments owned by these various people who were trying to be discreet. But it was Something Else in the middle of the tour he said you want to picture . I said i have my photographer that then he met do i want to take a picture with him. Nobody just stops in the middle of an interview and say lets get shot together or a selfie. [laughter] the pitcher was snapped you can see it in the book. Actually had this picture when i was living in new york 25 years ago and then when i moved to dc a few years later i threw in a box and it was only after trump became president i thought i wonder if i still have that picture and it is an amazing moment because what is pictured in the picture you looks exactly the same is a little heavier but he is wearing the same type of suits, long red tie, hair is essentially the same he has this expression i have seen in the thousand expressions i have seen but i was thinking as i was writing this book when i was almost done i got invited to meet with the president and that is the book and and there were some complaints of what i had done and also in the Washington Post over Labor Day Weekend by the way i know if they notice the story and had some things they wanted to raise and i described the scene as one of the modern moments in a time that you spend a lot of time there, you know as White House Press secretary, was brought in by the press secretary and the chief of staff Stephanie Grisham and Nick Mulvaney and with two of my colleagues on the White House Association board and we were brought in through the outer level of the oval office that was empty we were asked to sit the three chairs in front of the desk and then told weight and then mulvaney and grisham watched us in the oval office. You worked there i dont know how many times you were in the oval office alone, but i have never been alone. Doors were closed. Just the three of us and i cannot tell you exactly how long it was. Two or three minutes. It felt like it our. We sat here what are we doing . We are definitely being watched. We just sat there in silence then the president came back in and we had this meeting lasted upwards of an hour. I at one point sat there thinking here i am sitting across the desk from the president of the United States who is donald trump and 25 years ago almost to the day i had been with him in trump tower trying to find Michael Jacksons bodyguards and doing this gossip tour of celebrity apartments in his building. Who could have imagined that i would end up where i was and he would end up where he was. Here i was a really junior tabloid reporter in new york city. He was with a flamboyant developer and then 25 years almost to the day letter one later i am sitting across from that developer donald trump as president of the United States. Though whole story how we went from that moment to that final moment is really what front row at the trump show is about. There is a seductive quality that rings through all of this the one time to declare to be an enemy of the people but at the same time he is looking for approval and engagement and to have some kind of a relationship. And with that juxtaposition of that role that he plays and write about that in the book but he has a simultaneous quality and want the press to be fake news and we the people and then to be pals with you it is weird. It is fascinating because i had the incredible privilege to be a reporter to be a White House Reporter for the president i was only in there for a bit as a junior cnn reporter and asked to fill in but i remember being there with you during the chaos of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And george w. Bush and barack obama and now this. Every one of those president s complained about press coverage they thought the press focused it was way too negative with not enough accomplishments of the administration that is standard operating procedure. But trumps attacks go far beyond any of that. You have the enemy of the people which is a phrase i spent time in the book the origins of the phrase was very ugly used by stalin and hitler during the french revolution to justify the beheadings of people by guillotine. Talk more about that part of the book and you do that at some length and then to go through what a noxious phrase that is if you look back at the history. Talk about that a little bit. I spent some time looking through the origins of the phrase and it was used quite prominently during the french revolution. That is the most significant place. People were beheaded as a resul result. Basically the justification was that people targeted by the law under which they were found guilty and beheaded the actual law uses that phrase and we of the people and i document the use of it journey on during the reign of terror when blood was flowing in the streets of paris. And then the next place i saw it was in germany that gave hitler his powers. I go back and find this article in the Associated Press of the New York Times and many other papers around the world in the lead paragraph the National Socialist party anybody that votes against this is an enemy of the people so nazis are using the phrase and then later by joseph stalin. Im not saying Donald Trump New the history behind the phrase but certainly it was pointed out by a lot of people that it had a dark and morbid and deadly history and he kept using it. So the whole notion creates the sense to be an aggressive reporter trying to hold those in power accountable that you essentially are a traitor to your country. I would argue its the exact opposite this is an essential part of this is what makes america great. But the flipside that you allude to is that this is a president who consumes more news than any other president he knows the reporters he reads the stories and watches the news coverage. Privately he said tivo was the greatest invention of mankind because he had all the shows on dvr that he watches and sees how he is being portrayed. At one point phil rucker a very good reporter at that press conference the president made reference to a story that was written before the New York Primary and 2016 about the Staten Island ferry that he went and interviewed people and found out a lot of people really like donald trump and wrote a story about it. I didnt even see the story. Trump saw the story and read it now a couple years earlier and he becomes president and he sees phil rucker not exactly a household name by the way. A great reporter but he says that story about the Staten Island ferry is a wonderful story. It is mind blowing. He knows the reporters. I have known him for a long time. But he knows most people in that room by name, what they have done. Many of them have probably got phone calls by them to complain or to offer something up. Barack obama and people on the right say the media was infatuated with obama although the white house complained bitterly about the White House Press. Every president since George Washington has complained about press coverage there is nothing new about that. But obama would come into the briefing to do a press conference and i swear he had no idea who was in the room. I remember one point there was a list of questions on who to call on from his press secretary. But that was a practice with obama i remember looking at the list he reason name of the name of the ap reporter and of course they are sitting right there in front in the apc to think he would know the reporter but he had no idea. George w. Bush, he knew that people and the personalities and the camera operators because they were with him on the campaign. But trump consumes the news and is fascinated by it and it relishes it he has marveled sometimes how many times he dominates the front page of the New York Times, paper he likes to attack but so proud of the fact he is on the front page. Even if it is negative. It is a fascinating dichotomy. It is a certain lovehate relationship but you mentioned you are permanently involved with White House Correspondents associate niche association with a leadership position but why hasnt the press corps more aggressively challenge this war he has declared . He has declared you to be the enemy of the people why have you thought that more aggressively . First of all there has been fighting back on that when he first use the phrase, i was anchoring our sunday show this week on that sunday i did a thing at the end of the program where i pointed out the history of the phrase and pushed back aggressively. But doing that is not easy because its not the role no journalist feels they want to be researching the news that at is part of a dilemma. And not the resistance we are not the Opposition Party that is the phrase steve bannon was using and then trump latched onto that we do have to push back on this especially my role as representing the White House Press corps its dangerous when it is over the top it needs to be called out there was an incident there was an event of a pro Trump Organization that one of the president s properties in florida. And they had an exhibit where they played a video clip from a movie showing somebody in a Church Killing newspeople and democrats. It was horrific. Youve got to call this out. It is actually dangerous. We saw with the guy who sent to the pipe bombs to cnn. There will be people and i have said this to the president directly and i recount that at the end of the book that there are sick people who will take these words literally into heart and hurt people and its dangerous and it is particularly irresponsible coming from the biggest bully pulpit of all. You raise that with white house staff and the press secretary and other people. Yes. But you have to recognize with this white house is, another theme of the book, the donald trump does listen to people but ultimately he goes in his own direction. Sometimes he takes the advice and sometimes he doesnt but he truly is his own chief of staff john kelly tried to change that for a while. He is his own National Security advisor we saw that with john bolton and the president goes off to be diametrically opposed on several major hot button issues he has his own press Secretary Communications director. Talk about the press briefin briefing. Obviously that something i care about having done many myself but turning the press Briefing Room into his platform to deliver a daily message. So why do we need to have a Daily Press Briefing . What is the role of the press secretary . What you need as you are covering the white house . We went a year without having any briefings by a press secretary. Occasionally like mulvaney came in. I think we just passed the oneyear anniversary of no press briefing by the press secretary that i find astonishing. It is. And you make a point that is valid and important, which i want to get to but my argument about the need for a press secretary having regular press briefings. We are in an extraordinary moment right now where the president is doing his own briefings every day that we are an extraordinary time of crisis. But i think it is important to see the person who was speaking on behalf of the executive branch to come out and take questions every day from all comers. Even though in the news garden admitted the the information isnt all that useful some is more than others, its important symbolically to send a message to the country and to the world the most powerful person in our government is accountable. We dont have question. Like the british Prime Minister has but this is speaking on behalf of the executive branch who since erin takes questions and some of them are uncomfortable. But you make another point which is the process of preparing for that briefing with clarify aid policymaking and thats an interesting point. In the preparation to do that briefing every day requires you to go around the government to talk to cabinet officials and other senior officials in the white house to get real clear information. You know you will get the questions. The process of getting the right answer leads to better policy. So with clinton i was a here is the answer i am supposed to give today. And say that your policy so he would pick up the phone and call someone and say we have to get this right what are we doing on this issue . It improves the functioning of government. The reality of doing that briefing is much more than taking care of the press giving what it needs every day but also to have that reverberating effect of government because people have to come up with better answers if you come up with better answers you will get better policy. I have a very strong advocate of doing that. But to deal with your questio question, certain times it turns into performance art. And i wonder if the whole encounter with what is on tv and sitting on the front ro row, doesnt make it less useful . Is that and impediment . What should we do about that . Is not easy to ask a Television Personality but what do you think . And we have disagreed on this point we have talked in the past suggesting the briefings might be more useful if not televised. I am sure there is an element and i certainly looked to my colleagues. We are trying to do a serious things. And they play to the cameras and it happens and it is annoying when it does but again, there is symbolic value in the world seeing this play out that this is the way our system works. Nobody is above the law. Nobody is above public scrutiny. Keep in mind, 49 seats in that Briefing Room its a very small room is you know. And now being spaced accordingly we have had to reduce that and say people cant stand in the aisles anymore for obvious Public Health reasons. But a lot of people watch the briefings in realtime including reporters who cant be there. People watching cspan. They may agree with me on this. I think it is important they are televised. Thats not to say theres not an Important Role for backgr