Transcripts For CSPAN2 Symone Sanders No You Shut Up 2024071

To participate in various events like fellow happy hours and speaker events. This spring i took a course entitled 2020, passed to the presidency or he dove into political theories and primary campaign strategies. I was looking forward to connecting topics explored in professor johnsons class. I am pleased to introduce our guests tonight, Symone Sanders Senior Advisor to joe bidens president ial campaign and author of no, you shut up. Speaking truth to power in america. As a fellow woman of power i am encouraged by her political leadership, passion for social change and representation and that places historically kept that women of color. Shes a political strategist who at 25 became the youngest president ial press secretary on record with 20 sanders 2016 president ial campaigns with 16 Young Americans shaping the 2016 election. Simone unapologetically fights for juvenile Justice Reform. Invites for our passion spread we are thrilled to have simone with us tonight to discuss her new book on the 2020 campaign trail. During tonights event please share your thoughts on social media using the political page turners and bite tagging politics. Tonight political page turners event will be moderated by executive director, moe is going to check a soft drink tickets operates thank you so much for the introduction. And congratulations on your graduation just like what 48 hour signal . Welcome to the gu alumni community. I want to welcome everyone whos tuning in via social media platforms, youtube, and to merge the Georgetown Community who are participating via zooms is going to. Interesting conversation and a fun conversation with one of the more interesting speakers we have had here. One piece of house came before we get started, for those of you in the Georgetown Community who are participating via zoom, you will get a chance to ask your questions if you look at the bottom start to type in your questions and type in them now as we transition to the student q a portion someone from the team will let you know when you are up keep an eye on the chats. That is where they will tell you and once they tell you you are up, as we say be camera ready with that, lets get started. I am very pleased to welcome back, Symone Sanders. I think this is your third time of addressing parade the first time on campus a couple years ago, then it couple days before the iowa caucus with a number of the students we brought out to iowa so welcome back. I am glad to be here. I have yet to have the pleasure to be a fellow. If you politics maybe i will get geopolitics on my card like are you with the georgetown . And im we are like one Big Happy Family these are busy days for you we will get to that shortly. Alright, you wrote a book. How you wrote a book in the middle of a president ial campaign, it is released tomorrow so we are one of the first previews here tonight. So tell us a little bit about what motivated you to write the book. I am particularly interested in the title. No, you shut up. Because i cant imagine anyone telling you to shut up. [laughter] welt moe you are wise but they are people who are not quite so wise. Im really happy to be here. I never thought of myself as a writer i was represented by my United Talent when i was my agents when i was a commentator on tnn someone from the Book Department came to me and said people want to know if you want to do a book and i said i have no plans to do a book i dont know what i would write about. We had a couple conversations and up speaking with harpercollins and my amazing editor from harpercollins, she is you need to write this book. And i said sarah, i dont know. We were having these conversations mid 2018. By the end of their we settled down we were doing this book, we had an ambitious timeline at a draft in four months they wanted by spring of 2019. At the end of 2018, i didnt think is going on the campaign trail. Obviously. And in that day in april i decided to work for Vice President bidens president ial campaign. Most of my book was actually done by the time is on the campaign trail. In the book i tell couple stories about why i joined the campaign, my first disastrous tv interview im sure the reclaiming america it comes from an interview i did on cnn. It was post charlottesville so we were having a conversation on cnns new day. This is back when chris cuomo was on the morning show it was a while back. And now we know chris has a nighttime show. This was around 730 in the morning it was myself, former attorney general of virginia who is now in the trump administration, and chris cuomo we were having a conversation, they are saying things that were not correct and i said thats not true, chris cuomo said explain what you mean. He started explaining and he was talking about charlottesville thing it really just started because some people on the permit and out other folks were trying to make it something its not. This disaster the images of neonazi white supremacist marching on the streets of virginia and i jumped in and i said and now someones dead. And they said would you just shut up and let me speak. And then shes all, how do you get them to stop talking . They keep jumping in. Who is them and who is that . I never forgot being told to shut up before people had their cocoa puffs of the morning. I was embarrassed, i was incensed because i knew i was 35 in my name is tommy i probably would not have been told to shut up on National Television by anyone, let alone the former attorney general of virginia. So i always carried that with me i think a lot of time so many people out there been given the proverbial shut up. Thats why talk about in the book i kick it off and i talk about so many of us have given the proverbial shut up. Now the time we have to speak up and not shut up. So i guess, thank you because without him i would not of had a book title. Who would ever say he was your inspiration . Who knew, who knew. See what is doing the math this morning and i should know better than to ever do the mouth. When i did my first president ial campaign, you are i think in grade school. [laughter] i think back to how i was when i was in my early to mid 20s getting started. I was a young, i was hungry, i wanted to get into the game. But i kind of followed the steps they say you are supposed to follow. I wish i had read your book, back then. Because i think you give a lot of good advice to particularly young people. And anybody who really hasnt had the opportunity to have the political voice raise, to have advice on having it hurt or having to set themselves up. You do it very somatically. I want to touch on a couple of those themes. And then let you run with it. One of the things i thought was interesting this is later in the book summit will start later in the book and work my way back. The notion of get out of line. Think you can read that a couple of different ways what meet get out of line means. Talk about what that meant to you. Guest you dont moe, i think ive always been a line jumper im from omaha nebraska, north omaha nebraska its the Congressional District that gave obama in 2008 but the rest of nebraska is not into Democratic Politics. I knew for a really long time i wanted to work in politics. I realized early on, shortly after i graduated to get a day and National Politics in omaha nebraska. I did not have the opportunity to participate in the of the standard programs people participate in. I never interned for my congressman or my senator. I was out of boot camp sellout i did not have an in there were no avenues, natural avenues for me to it get into d. C. Politics. So get out of line, that chapter is really about taking unconventional ways like stepping out of line if you need to get to places you want to be. I can apply to business, politics especially for young people like me your young person of color summit who does not come from a lot of means, a woman, you have to be willing you could be the best, you can be the smartest, you could have the best ideas out of everyone but they still may not pick you. Whoever the proverbial they is. I have if i literally waited my career for someone to pick me we would not have this conversation, ive not of wrote a book. I would not be super active in this election to get donald trump out of the white house parades are getting out of line is necessary especially for young people. So often times that chapter i talk about how doctor king took risks. I think we remember reverend Martin Luther king junior and the reality was he was a breathtaking pungent risk taker he understood if you wanted to turn the tide of wellmeaning white people in the north to what was happening in the south in the fight to fight for the right to vote, he had to make sure they saw what was happening. So doctor king had black folks dress up in their sunday best and go down to the courthouse on thursday or friday and try to vote knowing they would be beaten, the dog would be six of them, turned on them, and had cameras there and that radios it was a strategy, doctor king had a take a risk to get out of line for the movement. Im all about getting out of line when necessary, ladies and gentlemen, i think is absolutely pertinent, especially for young people that want to do this its cool to be a changemaker damper to president obama got elected everybody wanted to be a committee organizer, now you want to be an activist in a changemaker the reality is you happy willing to be original. Host when i give career advice to georgetown students i would tell them you have to be willing to put in the hard work, the grunt work, the clicks, weve all done that but at the same time know what you want and go get it. You talk about that. You talk about knowing what you want and asking for. Even when you dont think is attainable to ask for it and go for it. I was struck by the story with your first meeting with senator sanders. You were really new in the business. Two i was fresh sender sanders is my first president ial i think at that point i had worked 14 or 15 campaigns. Fourteen campaigns but not not a president ial or campaign at all. Host talk about that was like, walk again, getting the call out of the blue saying they wanted to talk you go in and be with senator sanders, what was that like . Guest yet to read the book to get the lead up, but somehow i find myself on my way to senator sanders office, luckily i had a blazer in my car. Young people, always keep a blazer in your car. I was running around the hill of the day doing without a blazer. So i get in my car i go over to his office, and as is just he and i. Were sitting down like cracked a joke about having the same last name and we talked about everything you can imagine. This was the summer of 2015 he asked about nebraska, the work that i had done and he talks about National Politics and the campaign in the news at the time. And then we end up getting into an argument basically. If anyone has ever, he will often say you have a fundamental misunderstanding. Three told me i had a fundamental misunderstanding and i said well i dont think you understand what im trying to say. Though he me engage in a dialogue with him about Economic Policy how it is intertwined with other issues its class, race and all these other things and we ended up in a good place with the end of our conversation we reconciled we were not having an argument anymore, the senator told me he liked me and i said i like you too. They said i think i went to work here in a semi think i want to work hereto. Then senator sanders asked me something no one else had asked me before. This is my 209th interview and he asked me if i had an idea of what id like to do. And without hesitation he said yes i would like to be the National Press secretary. I would like to be on the record spokesperson and i like them ahead of messaging strategies. [laughter] and just like that. And he left me just like your laughing and he looked at me and he was like and i told my want to Cable Television. He was i could be redone Cable Television before . I said no, sir but i do believe though be very good at it. That was a thursday, i get a call on a tuesday, and its jeff weaver telling avenue got a job. And not only to have a job, i said with my job title jeff, and he said National Press secretary. So i would say the lesson and that is, it is not every day that a sitting United States senator called you it also happens to be running for president and you happen to have a chance to speak candidly with the United States senator and work for his campaign. So everybody does not have Bernie Sanders. I think we all have a similar encounter. The question is when your opportunity comes, do you have an answer . And how may times the young people out there when someone asks you what for dinner everybodys like like oh, i dont know im unsure. We asked what kind of vegetable do it for dinner hes like i dont know is that you do know what vegetable do it. He says carrots and green beans and french fries. While french fries not a vegetable but he had an answer. Not only have an answer but ask for what it is we want not what we think someone is going to give us. Ask for what we deserve. So many times we ask for the things right up under the thing we really want because we think the thing we really want is too much. We cant ask for that is not proper once ask for this down here and maybe we can work our way up here. I own a shoe for on the moon. It is knowing what you want for dinner. Often times when son asks you what you want for dinner you know. So just tell the people what you want for dinner. You might not get it but maybe you will. Ask for what you want. Host one of the themes in the book strikes me as i listen to talk it applies to making change right . That when you are out there is an advocate youre kind of shooting for the stars policy change or political change or chapter four a radical revolutionary its about shooting for the stars. Because otherwise you dont get there. Two exactly. I mean look i say this in the book, change cant wait, you have to be willing since always tells us we can do hard things. You have to be willing to do hard things. Radical revolutionaries, doctor king is that radical revolutionary, you, moe, was a radical revolutionary. How did the institute of politics in georgetown come about . Some people got together and said is there reason we cannot do this . And maybe better than the other people into it in her own way . Lets build something from the ground up. I remember when the institute of politics started prayed we have to figure out ways that we can be a radical revolution or minor everyday space and place. Sometimes being a radical revolutionary speaking of that uncomfortable moment. Sometimes being a radical revolutionary is about speaking somebody elses truth who is not in the room to do for themselves. There are ways, i wrote a book my radical revolutionary his campaign. At one point in time i needed to be on cnn explaining to america, the world is why people were on the streets dying in why it was important to do xyz. Now it is my job to speak to my colleagues and my boss about why its important what we can do about to support these people and their cause. Thats my radical revolutionary contribution. That might not be someone elses mission. Everybody needs to find their pieces of pie. We also try to be radical revolutionaries enter everyday safe places. Change cant wait change takes time to change because of the strategy. Sometimes cant change because they dont know strategy. Host just a reminder to the students you can start to submit your questions by clicking on the q a tab at the bottom of the screen. We will be moving to student questions shortly. Symone, we will get to the student question soon. Symone, one of the things you keep coming back to in the book, are some really compelling stories about the sometimes implicit, often times explicit biases whether its because you are young, black, woman young black woman, speak to all of those combined. So many people that are tuning in dill these biases themselves whether its because they are young people dont take them seriously or because of their skin color. For much of me moe is short for mohammed. Theres a lot of challenges with that. So im curious, you tell some stories some very harrowing but one that stuck with me was here you are not quite the apex because you are still a setting, he finally made it big you are the National Press secretary for major president ial campaign. You traveled with the candidate you are sitting next to the candidate and they try to keep you out of the room. That was a state trooper. The state trooper try to keep you out of your room. Let me touch on that story a little bit. Your advice on how to overcome this bias . Guest wow. I think i rarely told the story before i put it in the book. What happens i can put the book that will help somebody. Again folks, get the book. Long story short we are someplace in northeastern United States of america at a rally in january 2016. We are outside transitioning to go inside so all he hears her walking back in was a state trooper i did notice a state trooper at the time are those a Police Officer maam, maam, moved the sydenham move. And i thought i wonder who that lady as i hope she moves. And i kept hearing mantoman move to the site and i thought theyre about to snatch a slave yet. I know a state trooper has his hands on me to it literally pull me this way and yanked me and im walking with the package as we called it, they try to pull me out of the package. Our trip director, paul a good friend of mine, comes across vincent excuse me to it have been issued this is the National Press secretary. The state troopers and im sorry i didnt know. And i look at him and i say because the black girl could not do this . And i turned rent everybodys like yeah bit like oh my god what is happening. They know me so there like what is she about to do a summary take a protester of the ceja couple of months ago. [laughter] see this as im talking about i look up all politic me. Or we can do as it was gotta work through the problem. We go into the building and to this day nobody else is ever said anything to me about it. Something what the stat