With child pornography, it isnt always that easy, because it is not always easy to tell whether the person depicted is in fact a minor, so they do have to engage in some judgment calls and some investigation. Not necessarily more onerous than figuring out whether or not a picture was consensual. Unfortunately, we have broken a promise to keep it to about 60 minutes, but we were close. Wonderful conversation that im sure could continue for hours, but we appreciate all of you coming. Thanks very much. [applause] [ cable satellite corp. 2014] national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] next, president obama announces his nominee for attorney general. Then a discussion on the elections impact on state and ocal government. Cspan veterans day coverages begins tuesday at 8 30 a. M. And were live at 11 00 from Arlington National cemetery for the traditional wreathlaying ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns. Just after noon, a discussion on Veterans Health issues, and medal of honor ceremonies. In a white house ceremony, president obama announced the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be the next attorney general to replace eric holder. She is an attorney for the Eastern District of new york and over sees prosecutions in Staten Island and long island involving organized crime, terrorism, and political corruption. Following the brief announcement, president obama also commented on the release of the few american detainees in north korea. Have a seat, everybody. The attorney general is responsible for ensuring our federal laws. Working with the remarkable men and women of the justice department, the attorney general overseas the vast portfolio of cases, including counterterrorism and Voting Rights, public corruption, and white collar crime, judicial recommendations, and policy reviews, all of which impact on the lives of every american and hape the life of our nation. I a enormously grateful to eric holder. He is one of the longest serving attorney generals in american history, and one of our finest. Eric brought to this job a belief that justice is not just an abstract theory, but a living, breathing principle. It is about how laws interact with the daily lives of our people, whether we can make an honest living, whether we feel safe in our own communities and welcome in our own country. Whether the words that the founders put to paper 238 years ago apply to every one of us in our time. Thanks to eric, our nation is freer, and more americans, regardless of race, or religion or creed or Sexual Orientation or disability receive fair and equal treatment under the law. I couldnt be prouder. I couldnt be prouder that today i can announce someone who shares that commitment to equal justice under the law as i nominate my next nominee for attorney general u. S. Attorney general lower etia lynch. [applause] i also want to thank the chairman of the Senate Committee to be here on a saturday to show his support. It is pretty hard to be more ualified for this job than lorretta. Throughout her career she has distinguished herself as tough, fair, an independent lawyer who has twice headed one of the most prominent u. S. Attorneys offices in the country. She has spent years in the trenches as a prosecutor aggressively fighting terrorism, financial fraud, cybercrime all while vigorously defending civil rights. A graduate of Harvard College and harvard law school, they rose from assistant attorney to chief of the long island office, chief assistant u. S. Attorney, and chief attorney. She successfully prosecuted the trifts that plotted to bomb the Federal Reserve bank and the new york city subway. She has boldly gone after public corruption, bringing shes helped secure billions in settlements from some of the worlds biggest banks accused of fraud and jailed some of new yorks most violent and notorious gang members. One of her she prosecuted the officers in the brutal assault of abner luima. She is one of the few people people who has battled mobsters and still has the reputation of being a charming people person. She is not about flash, she is about substance. I could not be more confident that lorretta will bring her signature intelligence and including reforms in our federal justice ystem. Since 2010 she has been a member of the committee of the u. S. Attorneys across the nation who advise the attorney general on matters of policy, and she has served as chair of that committee since 2013. It is no wonder that the Senate Unanimously confirmed her to be the head of the u. S. Attorneys office in two separate situations, once under president clinton and once under my administration. It is my hope that the senate will confirm her a third time without delay. At every stage in her career, loretta has followed the principles of fairness, equality, and justice that she absorbed as a young girl. She was born in greensboro, North Carolina, the year before students there sat down at a whites only lunch counter, helping to spark a movement that would change the course of this country. The daughter of a School Librarian and a fourthgeneration baptist minister, which meant she knew when to be quiet. Latch laugh [laughter] that is a little intimidating, being the daughter of a librarian and a minister. Loretta rode on her fathers shoulders to his church, where students would meet to organize antisegregation boycotts. She was inspired by stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper in the 1930s who helped folks in his community who got in trouble with the law and had no recourse under the jim crow system. I know if he were here today, he would be just as proud of her as im sure her husband, stephen, is. I want to thank stephen, lorettas stepson, ryan, stepdaughter kia, and her other family members who came here today. We appreciate you guys agreeing to share her with the American People little bit longer. Loretta has spent her life fighting for fair and equal justice. I can think of no better Public Servant to be our next attorney general. Let me introduce to you ms. Loretta lynch. [applause] thank you, everyone. Thank you, mr. President , for that kind introduction. Most importantly, thank you also for your faith in me and asking me to succeed and attorney general whom i admire and to lead the department that i love. No one gets to displace this place, this room, this podium, this moment by themselves. I also must thank attorney general eric holder for your support and your friendship over the years, as well as by leading by example and always pushing this department to live up to ts name. I went to thank chairman leahy, senior officials of the department of justice, and members of the cabinet for being here today. To my colleagues in the u. S. Attorneys committee and throughout the department, on whose strength and wisdom eileen every day, thank all of you as well wisdom i lean on every day, thank all of you as well. To my beloved office, you have twice now given me the privilege of being able to serve you and to focus on nothing but the protection of the American People. It has been a joy. It has been an honor. I will carry you with me wherever i go. Of course, to my wonderful family. Several of whom are here with me today, all of whom are always with me in love and support. Most especially my parents, who could not be here today but are watching, whose every thought and sacrifice is always been for their children. They have supported me in all of my endeavors as i strive to live up to their example of service. The department of justice is the only Cabinet Department named for an ideal. This is actually appropriate, because our work is both aspirational and grounded in gritty reality. It is both ennobling and both profoundly challenging. Today i stand before you, so thrilled and frankly so humbled to have the opportunity to lead this group of wonderful people who work all day and well into the night to make that ideal a manifest reality, all as part of their steadfast protection of the citizens of this country. Mr. President , thank you again for the faith you have placed in me. I pledge to show to you and the American People that if i have the honor of being confirmed by the senate, i will wake up every morning with the protection of the American People my first thought. And i will work every day to safeguard our citizens, our liberties, our right, and this great nation which has given so much to me and my family. I thank you again, mr. President and mr. Attorney general and all of you for being here. [applause] [indiscernible] i think it is a wonderful day for them and their families. They are doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission. [applause] president obama is starting a week hf long visit to asia. Monday he stops first in beijing, china. Over three days he will take part in the Asia Economic leaders meeting. Hursday president b heads to myanmar, also known as burma. He will take part in a town hall meeting in rangoon. On saturday and subpoenaed he will be at the brisbane meeting. Continuing coverage of the president s trip here on the span network. This sent about an hour and 10 minutes. We can go ahead and get started this morning. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to governing magazines briefing on the state and local elections. Im executive editor of governing. There has been plenty to discuss this week with republicans taking control of the senate and gaining their largest majority in the house since world war ii. This morning we want to focus as we always do here at governing at whats going on at the state and local level. The governors races, blot initiatives, as well as local elections and measures that will have an impact across the country next year and in years to come. To help us make sense of all that, we have a great panel this staffers governing and contributing writers. Jacobson, a frequent contribute tore to. Governing and governing. Com lou, how did tuesdays results compare with what you were expecting to see . Well, there was always a chance there would be a g. O. P. Wave, but it could have been an antiincumbent wave. In fact, if i had to choose one before the election, it would have been an incumbent wave. There were 12 contests which were tossups prior to the election. You know, if i had to be pressed down, i think i would have said that, you know, a couple democrats, a couple g. O. P. Governors would lose. It was not at all like that. F those 12 contests, 10 went g. O. P. , and one is up in the air , but it is probably going to be. Independent in alaska there clearly was a g. O. P. Wave. It is interesting because part of the reason i would have predicted before the election is that it would be more of an incumbent wave sl that thats typically what its been when this has been a wave. There were 36 races in this Midterm Election and on Election Night 20 of those 36 flipped parties. There were largely open seats. I think a few incumbents lost. To get to 0 you have to get to 20, you have to have a significant number losing. Races , it was 1836 split parties on Election Night. Again, folks in poth parties lost. Use thag model, i kind of felt that we would see some of those arties lose. We did see one g. O. P. Governor lose in the state of pennsylvania, but the striking thing to me, at least, is how many of the g. O. P. Incumbents who were not all that controversial, not very popular in their states and had democratic popets that were scoring well in the polls, how many of them survived. People like scott walker, people like discover people like these are covers who are considered very vulnerable to very credible indicates on the democratic side almost exclusively. The only one who didnt was in ennsylvania. So clearly it was a particular partisan wave. At least with my experience in the past of seeing it cycle. So picking up on some of those specific races that you mentioned, what were some of the specific governors races that stood out to you this year . It is unissue usual to work on a competitive governors race to begin with us, but im going to go ahead and wisely correct my thoughts. It is really since 1928. Of their housey members but they lost 29 of the land mass they represented. Flip the map. It is all red with these urban blue pinpricks. So there was this joke on the internet the g. O. P. Now offers more coverage than verizon. Its true. They have the most legislative seats since 1920. And certainly with the governors, it was president a huge wave. It was surprising. It looked like they were elected in the last wave 2010, they were in democratic voting states for the presidency like maine, florida. And Terry Mcauliff won in virginia. I was thinking, it looked like it might be antiincumbent year, but i think it was an antiwashington year and therefore an antiobama year. We certainly heard this in the ast couple days. I was thinking about who won, who lost, and why. Some of the democrats in trouble lost wovepb as well. I think some of the incumbents went on offense. Rick scott had this joke the other day about a democratic, a republican, and an independent walk into a bar and the bartender says hi charlie crist. He never let up on that. And sam brownback, he kept hitting paul davis, the democratic on obama. Just never let up. Certainly scott walker was very. Ggressive and worked very hard he looked like he was in trouble on labor day, and he looked like he was napping, and he went into hibernation for the summer, and he finally got back into the game. It was one of those ones where everyone thought he would win. He then thought he would lose. He came back in the game. The republican governor in alaska looks like hes going to lose sean parnell. Hes a republican in alaska. He thought he would win. He really didnt get his campaign going, and then suddenly on labor day, the whole Playing Field changed because the independent and the democrat formed this unit ticket. Parnell thought it would be a threewave race and hed win easily. He didnt have a quick enough defense in. By that time, the senate race in alaska was a 53 million race. People are saturated with ads. Mike bisheau in maine didnt. Ally have a strong message lapage kind of softened his image. Martha coakley, right . She was a successful attorney general but these shes lost these two highprofile races. Lost to ted kennedy in the senate race. Her answers to so many questions whether Illegal Immigrants should get licenses, she kept saying, im open to it. Im open to it. She didnt really say anything. And then her opponent talked about his brother being a gay man living in massachusetts. He didnt seem threatening. Some of the democratic messages, these republicans are so awful they cut education, they pr extreme on social issues. Of course the big stunning race is maryland. Again, Anthony Brown was not incumbent. He ran a kind of taking it for granted incumbent campaign. He didnt have any kind of positive message. He didnt get his voters out. If you look at baltimore city, altimore county, ann arundel, prince georges county, montgomery, he got 190,000 fewer votes from those five counties than omalley got five years ago. Some of the democrats were good on offense. Malloy kept on his opponent. He said he was a rich guy with a 115foot yacht, he doesnt care about you. That ended up winning in illinois. Pat quinn tried the same thing against bruce rowner. He kept in the game with that. He was tenacious. In the end, rowner was smart, and there werent enough votes in chicago to save quinn. So a bid for candidates assertive and aggressive and maybe not so great for those hat wanted to play nice . Rowner was in trouble for a long time, and that was partly because he refused to go negative. You have looked at attorney generals, some local school board electrics along the way. Is it the same story when we look at some of those downballot races . This wave of antidemocratic, prorepublican pretty much, yeah. The g. O. P. Gained, i think, two seats in a. G. Races. In the state legislature, a gain i think currently a nine, coo turn into 10 tchamebers for the g. O. P. And even, as you were saying, state school superintendents, they were about a half dozen contested races. Some very interesting ones in wyoming, idaho. And there were freak weptly kind of tea party g. O. P. Candidates these races against establishment accepted democrats. The Tea Party Candidates actually took, i think, every single one of those races. The same in terms of the lieutenant governors race. The secretary of state races. All of those were heavily depo g. O. P. Not entirely. In a few states the democrats could salvage some. It was a strong night. The only one that is interesting, issue by issue democrats. The other one this was a little more balanced was the state Supreme Court races. Theirmocrats kind of held own. In a couple other states, it was even in terms of the number of states won, ds and rs. I think on balance the g. O. P. Did gain in the state i was looking down the road a little bit what does it mean when you have a full ticket switch as you said to the superintendents in the state to the Republican Party what does that mean looking in the future . Theres a shortterm impact and longerterm impact. The shortterm impact is pretty gridlocked between the two parties and not a lot is getting done in congress. You have the least active congress in the decade if not ever so a lot of the decisions are being left up to the states. If the democrats have fewer levels of power they cant really shape the agenda and it becomes a little bit of a self reinforcing situation when you have redistricting. It was the best thing to do so well because they could draw district lines and state legislators in congress as they saw fit and that box in for ten years favorable wins for the gdp so you have a lot of states where the democrats dont have any leverage at all because they dont control the governorship or the senate. There are some states in which they do control everything and those are fine with the democrats but in the short term in the policy impact you cant have much of an impact. The longerterm impact and i havent gotten all the figures on this i should d