When you wake up in the morning, say what is my adventure going to be, questions have been my best friend and my power, curiosity, such a great message for all journalists. Charlie we also emphasize writing too. Remembering charles kuralt, who said when we see a writer around cbs we stand up and salute him or her. Thank you, mike. Turning to hillary and her much testimony today, how did she do muchanticipated testimony today, how did she do . She did fantastically. Her campaign, her allies very excited. What she did was very smart she went in and she was placid, she was polished, and her basic demeanor and approach was, if you want to ask me these questions for the eighth time, i will answer them for an eighth time. She previewed the strategy when she said earlier, i dont have a lot new to say. Charlie, that is something [indiscernible] this will never be the best day for Hillary Clinton because its not a period of time that she wants to talk a great deal about. Given that, she had two pitfalls. The first was, with or be a new revelation that would say she was at fault or as a leader she did something wrong . That did not really happen. The second pitfall was, would there be a moment where she would look calloused or dishonest. That did not really happen either. If she can whether those two things, this is her last big hurdle in the month of october which was supposed to be a tough month for her. She was able to get through that, and it was a long, long day in that seat. Charlie weve had no contest yet. That comes in february and the rest of throughout the summer. But that she face any big hurdle now . Her biggest hurdle is herself and her record. If she starts to be measured against Hillary Clinton shes better when shes got some competition. That is why the debates went well for her. Shes got amazing strength in South Carolina and all the rest of the states. Shes ahead in iowa and losing a little bit to Bernie Sanders in new hampshire. If that sticks, shes in fine shape. We are seeing something we have not seen in many months, and that is Hillary Clinton on the offense of. She went in, republicans were a bit gunshot because of the accusations of partisanship about this committee and the Vice President s out of the race, her doing well in polls, for the first time, this campaign feels like they are getting their footing. The committee had a big challenge, which was to always keep the questioning centered around why did this terrible thing happen in benghazi, and use Hillary Clinton is a part of that conversation, but there were periods where what was being said was what we already knew, that there was systemic failure here, security was low and that was not addressed. There were other periods were the questioning seems very secondary to the central question, why did this happen and what was Hillary Clintons role. If you were a regular person tuning in, there were periods where you wondered what the devil all this charlie he had asked for more support. She basically said its not the role of secretary of state but it happened on her watch, so some people held her responsible. Thats right. The republicans on the committee were trying to say, here were all the mbl here were all the emails from the ambassador saying, help me. There were other emails Hillary Clinton was involved in, in which she seemed quite available and able to talk about anything. So why wasnt she getting the messages about help me from the ambassador when she could get other kinds of information about libya from Cindy Blumenthal . That was an interesting line of inquiry. When it got down into the weeds, it quickly became one where you look at it and thought, what does this have to do with the central question. Charlie she made sure everybody understood that ambassador stevens was a good friend of hers. And secondly, that after his death she was fully behind all kinds of recommendations, make sure this kind of thing did not happen again. As you pointed out, basically saying the security piece is handled by professionals. Its not really the secretary of states job to make sure the security was up to snuff. Thats a little bit of buck passing. On the other hand, that is the answer she has given before, so theres nothing new coming out of this. Charlie before we turn to biden, when you look at the question of the emails, this committee was organized to look into benghazi and then it discovered the emails and they had been done on a private server. Is anything come out of that story . Is there any potential something could come out of there that will do damage to her down the road . Absolutely potential. This is the worry for her campaign. In the campaign you want to know what the problems are. That is why kansas vets themselves, they do research on themselves so they know the worst things that are out there. Secretary Clintons Campaign does not know that. They dont know whether these emails will be recoverable, which of these emails might be problematic. Heres the biggest known unknown. As you and john know from recovering investigations like this over many years, the problem of having the Justice Department look into something is they never start with what they will and with. End with. When they start looking into it, the Justice Department can go any number of directions, it can go over many months, and you have no idea whats going on exactly the series of circumstances you dont want if youre trying to plan a national campaign. Charlie joe biden . The beginning of the long goodbye to his career when he decided not to run for president. His speech was, im not running. But everything in his speech said, i really wanted to run and this is the speech i would have given. Charlie he had a message he wanted to take to the country that he believed in. He did. One thing that struck me about it was he said, weve got to try again with republicans. There was a little dig at Hillary Clinton he said republicans are not our enemies. That is an interesting notion. Its a notion you would expect from a guy who started his career in the senate in the early 70s. The Democratic Party has demonstrated by the grassroots voters, support for Bernie Sanders is, republicans are a lost cause and we need to behave that way and we need to run our campaign that way. It would have been interesting to see if he got of gotten any traction from that kind of oldfashioned message. We can reason with them. Theres not a lot of appetite for that out there. Charlie you said earlier today this was a battle between his heart and his head, and for the first time, his head won. Thats right. This was never going to be feasible. If you looked at the hurdles for the Vice President , starting with money, he would have been paying air force two bills were ever. He went, very expensive wherever he went, very expensive. Most of the people who were willing to do this campaign are already spoken for. Hillary clinton would need to have some dramatic turn befall her to be really vulnerable. Everything the Vice President has done for weeks, months is somebody who wanted to run. My colleague said that the speech that John Dickerson referred to was the speech that clearly joe biden has been giving it his head. Charlie, i admitted to you here on charlie rose the week that i have been going backandforth about whether or not he was likely to run, i have been for it for quite a while and it turns out there was a good reason for that, and that is that the Vice President himself have been ebbing and flowing. Politico reported that even monday he came in, seemed frazzled, exasperated, and was demanding more operational details of what staff was immediately available, how they would pull this off. To the very end, the Vice President looked at whether it was feasible, but for so long, people close to him have been telling us if youre going to run, you run, and someone told my colleague that in the end, it turned out this whole exercise was more fantasy football than football. Charlie what does he do now, he remains as Vice President , he has an agenda of some kind, hes very concerned about cancer, and i think he wouldve made that a big part of the campaign, a kind of moonshot for cancer. Thats what he talked about. This is a bit of armchair psychology, but if the reporting is true, that is his whole family message, which is when you are knocked down by an emotional thing like this, you get up and redouble your efforts. The cause of running for presidency would have been a natural place. Without that avenue, the battle for cancer, you can imagine would be another avenue, another thing he could throw his heart and soul into. We cant get much higher than Vice President. He will be fascinating to see where he takes all that energy for a life that has been constantly on the ascent. Charlie the speaker of the house and paul ryan, where does that stand . Paul ryan will likely be the speaker. The way he came about it is so fascinating. Paul ryan, chairman of the ways and means committee, one of the most powerful committees, and the one that he has long dreamed of running, was the one person that looks like he could bring House Republicans together, the one person in that body that could work with democrats but work with the white house, and there was such a great hope among Top Republicans that he would do it. He came in and drove a very hard bargain. Somebody called it a reverse ransom note. That is rather than the wheeling and dealing somebody usually does when they want to become speaker or have a leadership job, he issued the conditions to the right wing of his party and he said, i will give something to you. I will have some concessions, including giving more power to the committees and entertaining many of your ideas, but the speaker under me would be more powerful, and he would remove the ability of the faction to constantly threaten to undermine him. And, they have gone along. Charlie, it looks like he is on path for paul ryan to have the gavel, something that is a big surprise. You and i talked about it, the tough calculus for paul ryan. If he is speaker today, hes less likely to be president in the future. That was a tough decision. Charlie why is that . I think this is where mike is going to these going to have a lot of tough fights because the Freedom Caucus still wants what it wants. Paul ryan has been on the opposite side of the caucus on a number of issues, whether it is the government shut down or the ryan murray budget extension, all things this group did not like. That is where his heart is, hes closer to boehner and mccarthy and his tactical views, even though hes quite conservative. Those battles are coming, that creates scar tissue, and a scar tissue if he were to run for president , you would have to explain, or you would have to have people out there in the grassroots saying, you sold us out. Charlie we talked about democrats and paul ryan and the republican race. We have new polling showing ben carson winning in iowa, beating donald trump in iowa. At the same time we see trumps Numbers Holding as the other significant fact today. If there was a state where you thought donald trump would have trouble, it would be iowa to there is an evangelical vote that somebody could go grab, is not a natural consistency for trump. Ben carson works perfectly with that group, the homeschoolers in iowa who have been studying his books, the kids have been, and the parents. They know ben carson and they like him. What is interesting, one, will trump take on ben carson or be ok with it because hes doing well everywhere else . When he has attacked other candidates, it has been ok because his taste is not like jeb bush. Ben carson they like. So what will that look like . The second thing that interests me, ted cruz had and im going to emerge in iowa strategy. I will reach out to the evangelicals and pick up these other pockets of the party. He in that same poll you mentioned where ben carson is at the top, you then have rubio, and then cruz. This put some pressure on ted cruz. Hes not rising, maybe he can wait his timeout, but i think theres evidence that he might be getting antsy. Jeb bush is doing the opposite of rising. While hes not rising, rubio is. Charlie how does the republican race look to you from where you sit . The factors john was just outlining there are another reason that jeb bush has to be saying to himself, i cannot believe my life this week, coming in single digits, collapsing in florida. These iowa numbers, you have carson rsing. Rising. Somebody pointed out to me that totally apart from governor bushs last name, if you look at the message of ben carson and donald trump, we dont trust them, and their antiestablishment message, its a rebuke. The bush and the family and the record. This week saw mike murphy, the early strategies for jeb bush, now in charge of his super pac in california saying that governor bush would last until march, and if after those early states, then would be his strength, but charlie, as you and john know, thats a tough gamble to make. Charlie thank you very much, mike. Last word to you, sir. You could get back in, charlie. Picking up on mikes point, and with joe biden, who knows. Jeb bush has to show that he has some facility somewhere that would allow the scenario mike murphy talks about to happen, which is to say ok, he takes some defeat but when the moment happens, hes there. That has yet to happen on the campaign trail, he has yet to show that he has a talent he can exploit at the right moment. Thats the real challenge in addition to the one mike raised, after you lose a bunch of times its really hard to get up again. Charlie thank you so much. Charlie john grisham is here. The New York Times said there is a reason why he moved so many crates of books. His newest novel is called rogue lawyer. He sells the story of a street lawyer who takes on cases that other lawyers would not touch. Im pleased to have john grisham back at this table. John always a pleasure. Charlie this is the 28th book. 28 novels. A collection of stories, and five novels for young readers. John book number 35 yard 35. Charlie unbelievable. John stephen king knows im behind him and he feels the pressure. Charlie the client, the rainmaker, the street lawyer, bleachers, the last jury, and on and on and on. Kid lawyer, the activist. You are what they call prolific. John thats over the last 30 years. Charlie thats one a year. John i write for four or five hours in the morning and when im writing, i start a new book january the first, thats my dropdead go, and the goal is to finish by july the first, six months. Charlie and it will be published when . John october the 20. Charlie start january, get it to the publisher in june . John spend a month to do revisions. It goes to press around labor day and it takes a while to print the books. It comes out in october. I have had that schedule for a number of years. Charlie do you have the impression that the critics are catching up with you . John i dont care. Charlie i said, is it your judgment that you are getting better, they are appreciating you . Did you read what the New York Times said . Im not even asking if you like it. John i think at some point in popular fiction and probably all areas of popular culture, whether its writing or music or film or television, whatever your area is in popular fiction, at some point you have been around for so long charlie you have to appreciate it. John or the critics realize at some point you are teflon. Charlie or they see something they had not seen that they do see. John some books are better than others. You will have a good year with a hook, a really good year or you like something and you think ok its hard to look back on your stuff and judge it. Occasionally when you write when you say, this is good. Charlie my name is Sebastian Rudd and though i am a wellknown street lawyer, you will not see my name on billboards, bus benches, or screaming at you from the yellow pages. I dont pay to be seen on television, though i am often there. My name is not listed in any phonebook. I do not maintain a traditional office. I carry a gun legally because my name and face tend to attract attention from the type of people who also carry guns and dont mind using them. I live alone, usually sleep alone, do not possess the patience and understanding necessary to maintain a friendship. The law is my life, although always consuming and occasionally fulfilling. It is more than an overbearing wife who controls the checkbook. There is no way out. Thats pretty good. Where did we find sebastian . John you lives in a city of a million people. He lives in a city of a million people. Hes a lawyer the works out of his van. His chauffeur is his bodyguard, a guy he got off from a murder trial. He takes cases nobody else will take. Hes at war with prosecutors, police, politicians, big corporations. He is not above cheating. He thinks if the police and prosecutors start cheating in a criminal trial, and they often do, that clears him to cheat as well. Charlie he assumes they are, so why not me . John in the course of the book there, theres more law in that book, more courtroom stuff and all my other books. In the course of the books you go through three different trials. On the last trial, the prosecutor is not cheating. Sebastian has a chance to cheat bigtime and he says, im not going to cheat. The police and prosecutors are trying this case straight and if they are playing straight, im going to play straight. If i start cheating, that legitimizes the cheating. Hes the kind of guy hes the kind of guy you want in the foxhole when youre under attack. This is a pitbull whos also very colorful and has a lot of issues. Charlie and has enough clients, because he doesnt advertise. Theres no billboard that has him. Call sebastian. John he doesnt make a lot of money, but he makes enough to do what he wants to do. He doesnt spend a lot of money. He has no secretary, no office, no overhead. Charlie no girlfriend. John hes on the prowl but has an exwife that drives him nuts. One of the compelling subplots is the fights with his exwife. They really are at war with each other. Its some funny stuff.