Policy and throughout my time in georgetowatgeorgetown might have opportunity to participate various events. This spring we dove into the primary campaign strategy. Im looking forward to connecting the topics for the class with discussions tonight. I am pleased to introduce the guest tonight Senior Adviser to the president ial campaign and offer of speaking truth to power and reclaiming america. As a fellow woman of color and encouraged by the political leadership, passion for social change in the representation in the space that has historically excluded women of color. The seasoned political strategist who have 25 became the youngest president ial secretary on record while working on the 2016 president ial campaign and was named to the list shaping the 2016 election. Unapologetically fighting for the juvenile Justice Reform and bundles like myself to fight for passion. We are thrilled to have her with us tonight to discuss her book career path and experience on the 2020 campaign trail. During big events please share your thoughts on social media the hash tag political page turner. Tonights political page turner event will be moderated by the geopolitics executive director is going to kick this off. Thank you so much for the introduction and congratulations on your graduation to school just wants like 48 hours ago. Welcome to the alumni community. I want to welcome everyone who is tuning in on social media platforms, facebook, youtube and to the members of the community participating im looking forward to your questions as quickly as possible. Tonight is going to be an interesting conversation. It will be a fun conversation with one of the more interesting speakers we have had here. Some housekeeping before we get started for those of you participating, you will get the chance to ask your question to let you know when youre asked to keep an eye and that is where they will tell you and then once they tell you you are up. So, with that, lets get started im pleased to welcome back by my count is your third time addressing on campus a couple of years ago and most recently a couple days before the iowa caucus for a fascinating briefing. I needed to have the pleasure to be a fellow. I will have to tell you you wrote a book. How you wrote about in the middle of a [inaudible] we are one of the first pc was. Tell us a little bit about what motivated you to write the book, and i am interested in the tit title. I cant imagine anyone telling you, i feel like i did have to hide under my desk if i said that to you. Guest im happy to bring you could be here with the politic family. I never thought of myself as a writer. When i was a commentator someone from that department came to me and said people want to know if you want to get a book and i said i have no plans to do a book. I dont know what i would write about. But i ended up speaking with harpercollins and my amazing editor from harpercollins. We had a very ambitious timeli timeline. At the end of 2018, i didnt think i was going on the campaign trail. That day i decided to go and work for Vice President biden so most of my book was done by the time i got on the campaign trail but i told couple of stories about why i was doing the campaign and my first was like this disastrous tv interview. The title of the book is no coming to shut up. And it comes from an interview i did on cnn post charlottesville so we were having a conversation on newsday. This was in the morning around 7 30. The former attorney general now would have any conversation saying things that were not correct. Explain what you mean and he started explaining others were trying to make it something that its not. The images of the White Supremacists marching and then someones head. Then he says how do you get them to stop talking. Who is then . I never forgot being told to shut up. I was embarrassed and upset because [inaudible] to be told to shut up on national television, i always get a bed with me and i think people may have been given the proverbial shut up so i kick it off in the introduction about so many others has been given the proverbial and now we need to speak up and not shut up. So i guess thank you because without him, i wouldnt have had a book title. Host who would have known he would be your consideration. I should know, when i did my first president ial campaign coming over i think in grade school. [laughter] guest probably. I think back to my midtwenties when i was young and hungry and i wanted to get into the game. I followed the steps they see you are supposed to follow and i wish that i had read your books because i think you gave a lot of good advice to particularly young people and anybody who hasnt had the opportunity to have their voice raise voice rad or how to set themselves up. You do it very dramatically. I want to touch on a couple of those themes today and then you just kind of ran with it. One of the things i thought was interesting and this is later in the book this notion of getting out of line. I think you can read that a couple of different ways. Talk about what that meant for you. Guest im from omaha, nebraska and its the second Congressional District that gave obama the blue dot in 2008. I knew for a long time i wanted to do work in politics and i realized early on shortly after i graduated i wont get anywhe anywhere. I didnt have the opportunity to participate in the programs that people get to participate in. I wasnt a boot camp fellow. There were no avenues for me to get into the politics, so get out of line in that chapter is about taking the unconventional ways to get to the places you want to be. It can be adult politics and business and if you want to do something you get the community. But i think that especially for young people like me if you were a young person of color you have to be willing to. We wouldnt be sitting here having a conversation and i wouldnt have written the book. I wouldnt be super active in this election. I think that for young people its about taking the risk. A lot of times we gloss over how he was an idealist and a realist and if he wanted to turn the tide of people in the north because what was happening in the south in the fight to fight for the right to vote they had to make sure they saw what was happening. So he had folks dressed up and go down to the courthouse knowing that they would be beaten. They had cameras and media. I think it is absolutely pertinent especially for young people. Now everybody wants to be an activist and change maker. People want to help move mountains you have to be willing to do more conventional things. Host when i give advice to georgetown students, i would tell them youve got to be willing to put into the hard work. But at the same time, know what you want and go get it. You talk about knowing what you want and asking for it. I was struck by the story you tell of senator sanders when you were really in the business. Guest i had worked for 14 or 15 campaigns host talk about what it was like walking in getting the call out of the blue saying that they wanted you to meet with senator sanders. What was that like . Guest you would have to read the book but somehow i find myself on my way to senator sanders office. Always keep a pleaser in your car because i was running around doing meetings and when he said he wanted to meet the, so i go over to his office and we were sitting down and i joke about is having the same last name and then we talk about everything you could imagine. This was the summer of 2015 he asked me about nebraska and the news at the time and then we ended up getting into an argument. He will often say you have a fundamental misunderstanding. He told me i have a fundamental misunderstanding. And i said i dont think you understand so he let me engage in a dialogue with him about Economic Policy and how it is intertwined with others. We ended up in a good place. But at the end it wasnt an argument anymore. He said i think i want you to work here and i said i think i want to work here to. It was something no one else had asked me before. At this point it was like my 29th interview. I had an idea of what id like to do and without hesitation id like to be the National Press secretary, the spokesperson and i want to have a hand in some of the strategies. He laughed and looked at me like im ended with him i wanted to do cable television. I do believe i would be very good at it. That was a thursday. I get a call on tuesday and hes telling me i got the job and not only got the job but what is my job title and he said National Press secretary. So i would say the bus and that is it is and every day that a senator calls you, but happens to be running for president and then go work on their campaign. The question is when the opportunity comes, do you have an answer and how many times did somebody ask you what they wantt for dinner and everyone is like i dont know, im not sure. He said caret and green beans and french fries. He had an answer and i think we always have to have an answer so many times we ask for the things that we really want. Its improper to ask for this. Lets ask for this down here and maybe we can work our way up. So its knowing what they want for dinneyou wantfor dinner andf someone asks you what you want you do know. Just told them, you might not get it but you dont know. Ask for what you want. Host one of the things in the book that strikes me is that it doesnt just apply to purveyors of change when you are out there as an advocate fighting for something that you believe in certain shooting for the stars when it comes to the political change or as you call chapter four the revolutionary its about shooting for the stars otherwise you dont get there. Guest change can wait but it takes time. You have to be doing hard thin things. There was no institute of politics. Some people got together and said is there a reason we cant do this and it may be better than the others. Lets build something from the ground up. We have to figure out ways they can be a radical revolutionary. Sometimes being a radical revolutionary means speaking up and not putting something fly. Sometimes being a radical revolutionary is about taking somebody elses truth that isnt in the room could do that. There are ways. At one point in time i needed to be on cnn explaining this is why it was so important that they were doing x. Y. And z. And now it is my job to talk about why its important. That is my radical revolutionary contribution but that might not be a someone elses mission. They also try to be radical revolutionaries because that is how we create change. It comes with a strategy. Host a reminder to the students you can submit your questions by clicking on the tab at the bottom of the screen. We will be doing the questions shortly. One of the things you keep coming back to in the book are some compelling stories about the often times explicit biases whether its because you are young or black or a woman or a young black woman. So many people turning in deals with the bees themselves whether its because they are young and people dont take them seriously or because their skin color. So im curious if you tell some storietold somestories but the y stuck with me here you are not quite at the apex but you finally made it. National press secretary for a campaign traveling with the candidate. The state trooper still tried. Your advice on how to overcome the bias. Guest i was like what havent i told you that could help somebody in long story short we are in some place in the United States of america and in a rally in 2015 from outside to address the overflow crowd and all i hear is a state trooper. I didnt know at the time, i thought it was a police officer. Move to the side. The next thing i know, a state trooper has hands on me attempting to pull me this way and im walking as the trip director throws his hand across me and says excuse me, this is the national secretary. The state trooper says i am so sorry, i didnt know. I have a second and said because a black girl couldnt, right clicks everyone is like what is happening. They know me so they were like what is she about to do. I turned around and said this is what im talking about. Nobody else to this day has said anything about that and i dont think that its because what he was doing is okay but because everyone was shocked. People may not remember the encounter but it is in my mind because it is something that made me feel like i didnt belong. Someone tried to make me feel like i was out of place. A state trooper tried to pull me out. Someone told me in 2016 and he asked do you still have a job, are you still being paid . I will never forget she says to me if you cant handle this, perhaps this isnt the job for you. I quickly ended the conversation because i was upset. I was a young millennial doing to these things. I called her back a couple days later. What she was saying is ageism, racism, things you have to combat everyday up to them, you have to call them out and fight for a better america, workplaces, institutions. But these things are also not going away tomorrow. It is really important that we navigate through it. Because they still had to try and go do my job. But not the fact that i what i just experienced but i still have to go to work. Among those pieces of advice whatever donna brazil says you do. [laughter] i want to talk about with this radical revolutionary with the progressive revolutionary talk about this in the book. You had to have and is Vice President biden. And talk about that thought process how do you see that mov move. I will say i am really proud and everything i know now i would sign up and do it again. And i would do it again. But in june 2016 and then i was on cnn and then Senior Advisers and i was teaching a class at usc. And then when it came time to decide if i want to go back on the campaign trail are not but i did not want to spend this election cycle for what other people were doing because for me that wasnt enough. Was a Campaign Staffer i wanted to do everything i could to get him out of office. [laughter] but i wanted to go in there and do the work. That when i said down with Vice President biden it was like i have known him for years but we are in a battle for the soul of the nation an Inflection Point for all these people around america is 1 percent we see from the white house and administration and that was an abuse of power. And then to say i want to spend this election cycle what is. Me to you. Im not talking about the president. And was absolutely right he is the democratic nominee and those have those political ideologies whether sanders or biden or barack obama or kamala harris. Because we have to have something that what i believe from my work for i still believe in fairness and the juvenile Justice System so that it actually serves young people and does not further harm them. I believe we have to do something the quality in this country and the president has completely mishandled the coronavirus pandemic and now its an economic crisis because donald trump so my political ideology my own values is what i have been one believing. I know some people dont understand in this but they will think about you. So at the end of the day i feel good. You should. I want to touch on that last point a little bit and Democratic Politics for a long time one of the favorite storylines that there is the storyline that there is so with senator sanders or senator warren and that was pure enough for that. And still harboring doubts. And that the party is still unified and when i would say look at senator sanders who wholeheartedly they had wide ranging conversation of the issues make he said before and told people why he support President Biden my they need to come together and how they plan to Work Together its the people who are truly believe if you believe Bernie Sanders hes telling you why hes got behind joe biden but it will take all of us we will defeat donald trump to build on his vision that they had to gather. Vice President Biden himself has said for a long time that he needs the jean people that senator sanders brought in. And senator warner. And then they need and enthusiasm and thats important and the engagement to these folks is so genuine going organization by organization meticulous surgical precision. And then to truly show them but to actively demonstrate a number of our friends that we are on this for the long haul. And then launching and then next week ladies and gentlemen not that they have been working on with the input. And young election officials. I care not only of beating donald trump and whats happening now didnt need to be this way so we can get on the road to the joe biden recovery. Running against an incumbent is hard and why not many are defeated in the modern time but it has to be much harder when youve got to redefine what it means to campaign because were all stuck in our homes and you cant do rallies and you cant go doortodoor. So how do we imagine campaigning and how you tackle that challenge and get the message out. George stephanopoulos asked him this very question and framed it is a hurting and that you cant get out there he said that we are in the Virtual Campaign role right now because of covid19 and we are actively engaging so Vice President biden was doing virtual travel days. Last week he was in florida a doctor biden was in michigan and pennsylvania. And then doing the roundtable. Did a snapchat the other day. But we fully believe one of those rules one of those others a campaign joe bidens talk about the recovery and is highlighting not just but right now that what he does when he is elected. And to have that forward thinking vision and then to get out there and campaign in the world. And then hes chomping at the that. And then to be informed as a scientist. Incidentally this is one of the state on the students that you met. Hello. Its so nice to see you but im studying government linguistics and to talk about the struggle that we faced about your gender in the political arena and i am wondering could you speak about your identity and what is your experience that comes with that quick. Thats the question. Thank you. And with the Sanders Campaign with the headlines that they have issues with that press secretary and it fixes it but so often in the meantime and 2016 people assume i am somewhere because i am a young black person and not that i have a job because i earned it or worked for it but again imagine going through that so the best way to combat that is whatever your job your summer experience your first job