Transcripts For CSPAN2 Sisters First 20170625 : vimarsana.co
CSPAN2 Sisters First June 25, 2017
Daughters, but weve been so lucky and allies to have a twin which meant we always had a partner and everything that we were doing. So whether it was out of the ordinary experience growing up in texas, everything was more fun because there was someone with those to make it more magical. As bing for starting with someone who is also going to the same experiences with all parents that understood what life was like. So i guess above everything we feel like we are sisters first and then we are daughters and we all play roles in life that we started off entering the world together as sisters. Guest makes you want to cry. Host your city use the word ordinary. What you like ordinary . Guest it was. Its a funny, people come up to both of us all the time and say you of so normal on tv. Its sort of a strange thing to hear because we want to think of ourselves as exception but we are normal. We grew up, grandparents and rewritable bit about all of what made us who we are. But our grandparents on my moms side who dont have airports and death income who havent been on cspan interviews by people like you whose names are only because we repeat them. We are from midland texas. My grandpa was a homebuilder. He built a lot of midlands and those two, both of us were just as much a part of our life as george and barbara bush. And, in fact, it was sort of this cornerstone. Midland, texas, is just as much a part of our lives as washington, d. C. I think where this juxtaposition in life that i dont think people realize. I also think we have been through things on the outside that people have witnessed but then theres also personal joys and struggles that we will share in this that i think will surprise people. Host from your upcoming book, for years right up until this day when walking to room or a restaurant or almost any public space together we invariably hear what, its the bush twins. Sometimes followed by an eye roll and then the place will fall uncomfortably quiet over those while the bush twins. When did you understand that you had lost the public narrative about your life . Guest thats a good question. I really think when we were 18, when my dad became president or when he was running for president we were entering college. And until then we were living in texas. We went to a big Public High School that is like every other, almost made for tv. Theres like cheerleaders and jocks come marching band and that whole bible. And when were 18 and a dad started running for president all of a sudden i think we became more aware that other people had narratives of us that may or may not be true. Theres always a little bit of truth and a stereotype or in a narrative, but after he was president and that was a time when there wasnt actually likely for us a lot of social media. Hallelujah. We wanted to b the college ks pick wanted to experience the world. I wanted to focus on that more than how did other people perceive us really. Guest also whats interesting is that anybody i think he can relate with the fact when youre part of siblings are part of the group or part of work colleagues, you get characterized as one way or the other. We had a really interesting time writing this book because sometimes people would say, still people say, youre the loud one. But really it people new us, barber is far more independent and really outgoing. She commutes to rwanda as a job. Has the most amazing confidence and it shines. Those who know received. But can you kind of wonder, and i think that one can this. Do you fall and other stereotypes of you or did you play into that more because thats what people think of you . Its been fun for us to explore that. Weve seen people we love dearly, our grandfather and grandmother, mother and father stereotyped insert mice and some of those of course are true and some, its easy to simplify people. A seizure to call them one word as opposed to this really, to they really are. I think we see this with cable news, no offense to cspan2, we love you but we see you with the way that we kind of simplify public figures. People are complicated and we are complicated, and weve been characterized as one way and i think its fun to share a story and tell who we really are. Host one story in the white house used during your father you went toyou ut and doing to yale and you get are purposely wouldnt be together for is a true . Guest partially. Also i couldnt get into yale. [laughing] if i couldve gotten into yale, we might have been a different narrative. We are very different. I think thank goodness and as a mother now i am such an on this, we not compared. Barbara missed one or two problems honor sats. I miss some more than one or two. We were always really celebrate for who we were. I love to perform. My parents are familiar feel like i was lesser, thank god, because i would need some serious therapy. Guest you earned that. But it do think is going to different schools, i wanted to leave texas. I was just curious to go to other places and meet new people. There was something, i did know a Single Person at yale so was fun for me, that challenge of walking in and thinking what mma to encounter any people. But the beauty of it is we both then get double the prince because i could be friends with all of her Princeton University text and shes close with my friends and yale. There was a real kind of blessing in it, too. Host twinkle, mom, i was kidnapped. Guest is not part of you wrote about it. Guest there were all these stereotypes that i was come we were secret service that my friend is not to be but as a first grader, i did take my own kidnapping. Host who is twinkle . Guest i am twinkle. That was my secret service codename. I dont know what, i dont know if we had codenames when my grandpa was president. We only had secret service for a short period, and we should investigate that but twinkle was my name when my dad became president. Barbara was turquoise. Space off of our isaac they said i had a twinkle in my eye. That has to do with mischief and barbara has these beautiful turquoise eyes. Yeah, as a first grader i had a wild imagination. She did. It made life on but complicated. Guest instead of getting in trouble i acted like him and by the way, my sword was perfectly flawless. It was exactly what you read or see in all the movies. Host what was your moms reaction . Guest my mom is unbelievably calm. I was busted. This is a good thing. She can shut us down with one look. She never even needs to raise her voice. She socalled, but she is so calm that she was not happy. I can open to think speed is strong and may be. After you to tell the secret service then you have not been kidnapped. I take my own kidnapping time what you say those are inaccurate but there was a longterm story about you, a tollbooth, yale, cars. Guest that did, in fact, happened but you need to write about that. Eitheby the way, this is how the world was back then. I didnt even know this story. I was with friends from yale. Oddly enough were going to a Pro Wrestling federation event in new york. What . I dont know why. Biting of our stride with friends back from new york to one of the tolls and i was in a car that had the toll pass so we went through. Secret service did not. We have to write about this. You have to include this. We lost them. But then it ended up somewhat in my dorm wrote about it, it became this whole come it took on a life of its own. Pretty sure i like the National Enquirer it took on a life of its own. Host maybe i should read the New York Times will more than the National Enquirer. Guest you have really been reading the nationalenquirer. Can we have intervention . It was an accidental im tired of being the only bad twin. Believe me, there are plenty of stories in the book. Host margaritas, austin. Whether it be in the book . Guest it sure will try to whats really funny is when we write about our ashes gandy, my dad to dad precious pick these unbelievable stories of him and thinks he said to me that it moved me to tears and makes them want to cry right now, thats easy to write because it meant so much to me. Writing about margaritas in austin, not that it wasnt easy to write, its not that i feel guilt about or sensitive about it. It happen. Its just that it wasnt his crazy memory that meant so much later, although i will say that our parents always said when they told us theyre going to run or he was going to run for president , we tried, this will ruin our life. And then he said no, i want you to have a normal, this is going to change. That was naive on all of our parts but you can have a normal college experience. Thats what a want for you. When we got in trouble, everybody i think thanks that based on tv and stereotypes that there was, my parents were furious. Im sure they were disappointed i know they were disappointed. The more than that also i think sad that they promised this normalcy that was not delivered upon. You know, looking back it im so happy that i parents that allowed us to make mistakes. Imagine if we were perfect. Life would be horribly boring and i dont know if i i dont think we could do it. It would be too much pressure to be these political daughters than never made a mistake, that were never able to stick your tongue out, for example, let their hair down. And also as a mom i just cant now with two little girls, im so thankful that my parents allowed us to sort of explore our own path, make mistakes and be these free humans. Also doughnut and the and caring and the big world and how much if we care we could bring life to it. Had we not i dont know if i could be a good mom. Im not sure if were told to be this one particular thing, that wasnt ourselves, i could be a mother of my own girls, not understanding that its okay to mess up. Host speaking of mothers, you write that laura bush was the family closet hippy and last nazarian. Guest she was. The low back. Our mom loves music. She loves reggae, loves it. So growing up we always had reggae music playing. We have a number of experiences with our mom going to hear great music started in first grade, paul simon was on tour. So my mom took us with a but, of course, when youre in first grader about this tall sweat stood on the contrary deceits. I will never forget it. And that a number of other memories i was just thinking about when i was nine at camp, you could get one care package and people would buy to parents anesthetists and a cd. It was a big gift of a cd playr of the tiger ivy was getting like new kids on the block in the mail, and my mom sent me bob dylan live at budapest. Which i love. I made her love it. She really wanted she would say this because she ask if she was patrolling but i think deep inside she want us to good music case. She loved van morrison so much that i as a child was convinced she is going to leave my dad for van morrison. Not that they ever cost path once. She just loved his music that much. Host brown eyed girl. Guest and that was my theme song. Host what are you doing today . Guest i am working for the today show, and its really fun. Its very ironic, wrinkly, because we had from the media. I literally ran, i dont use te work of my dad was on a oneman campaign to in the word literally. My little girl said eric told me not to go. He literally said that her and i said what did you just say . Poppa will be curious. People throw it in furious. I literally ran, spread in the opposite direction from David Gregory on the steps the white house pick we spent all these years trying to hide from the media and now i work for them which is so ironic but also really awesome because it shows that life is unexpected and it can take these crazy turns and that if youre so rigid on what you want to like to be, then you never can experience kind of the beauty of growing and changing. I think also shows you that you cant judge people. I had this to a type of a lot of the people i work with have now become my very best friends. Shes one of my nextdoor neighbor and one of my best friends. I think i thought of her as somebody who is different than she is. And i think it goes with what were trying to talk about ourselves. People are more complicated than we usually think. Host this is not the first book your coauthored . Guest that stupid have also written to childrens books with my mom who is a very vivacious editor. Shes a little more complicated to work with. You are less of a diva. Thank you. Host why did you hide from the media . Guest why did i . I dont know that id hidden from the media. Host may be i guest you mean when we were younger. Well, im a very private person, even writing this book was a leap for me. But im so proud of her because she was very honest. Thank you. There were things i learned about her. Even today ive learned that we wrote in silos and i just read her part and i was blown away. Thank you. I think we again were in college when wereyoung and so the idea of additional attention on us was uncomfortable. I think it is ironic that jenna is on tv now but when we were younger we really, our life in college and, of course, cause really was about kind of going to school, figure out what we want to do and how to explore the difference that we want to make in the world and starting our career. So much of that is personal. To me what was and is very private. I would say i probably i guess i would still hide from media except for doing this. And shes coming, she will be on tour. Host the book comes out in october. What are you doing these days . Guest i focus on competitively recruiting amazing Young Leaders who are currently solving and will continue solve the worlds most pressing Health Care Issues of the rest of their life and our life. Its really helpful way to wake up every day knowing that theres almost 1000 amazing young people who are passionate about serving others and making sure they can live and healthy and dignified life. Shes doing awesome work. Host final question. Is there a sorority or fraternity among the white house kids . I mean come have you ever talked to the johnson girls, are women i should say, or the nixon women . Guest we have. Guest we definitely have. Definitely with kelsey and malia and sasha. With malia and sasha we felt unbelievably protective of them. People i think thought it was odd how protective we were. But it isnt, we saw ourselves in thing. We saw our little self and then when a grandpa became president and then when you left the white house it was thesame age we were when our dad became president. Being a teenager with your dad as president is always that easy but its also incredibly rewarding. We have had, we kind of been penpals with them. We have learned some facts from the period we have been very open letters to them but weve heard back in a private way. Im just a proud to be part of this group. Especially other women, there are men, too, but the most recent have been women. I do think we are part of a group of really awesome women who had each others backs. I think thats whole point of this book. We are part of the group thats like that. Guest sisters first. Guest youre a part of the clay. We would not leave me out but sisters first can mean just more than blood. Host given your experience what you think is going through barren trumps mind right now as he gets ready to move into the white house . Guest i hope whats going to his might is hes an elementary school. School and friends and planes for sitting what ever, hobbies that is interested in. Because he deserves to be a kid and he is a kid. And we should treat him like that. If him the respect that all of us didnt always have but we mostly did. I think the children of the president should be offlimits, serious. You can see what you want about his father who chose to run, but he didnt make that decision. He is an elementary school, so when people attack children of president s who are not political, dont have a say, it makes us met. So sisters and brothers first. Host his the cover of the book. Its called sisters first stories from our wild and wonderful life. Guest you know what that comes from, story summer wild and wonderful life . A poem. Tommy what you plan to do with your wild and precious life. Host i didnt read about that in the National Enquirer so i dont know. Tricky sometimes they do in the crosswords. Guest thank you so much. Host the book is out in october thanks for being on booktv. Guest thanks so much. That was fun. We had a blast. Booktv takes hundreds of programs of the country all year long. Heres a look at some of the events will be covering this week. We cannot ignore the church with this whole committee get in terms of resistance, the whole idea of selfdetermination that was coming from a number of Church Leaders who were a fully with the Abolitionist Movement but no one more pronounced, profound than william lambert. His story, that would make this a fascinating film to see the kind of stuff he went through, then mystery system. That he put together. They had a coding, kind of a secret code, secret language. They are trained all these individuals on the underground railroad in case you encounter some of his bounty hunters out there. It was so instructive, later on his involvement with Clay Matthews church in his involvement in the educational process. People like Danny Richards whos a pioneering black woman in terms of first africanamerican to teach in the socalled Public School system here. So we have this conjunction and is going to be a collaborative situation from one generation to another. Each spurred on by the of the. Each taking this kind of influence and its enthusiasm for the breakthroughs occurring in the previous generation. What going to see that happening time and time again and this will odyssey a black detroit. Thats a look at some of the events booktv will be covering this week. Many of these events are open to the public. Look for them to air in the near future on booktv on cspan2. I am reminded of the story just a few months ago from grand rapids michigan, the family owns the meatpacking company. One day the usda meat inspectors came by for a visit and they were in the break room and this also religious materials on the counter. One of the usda inspectors became offended by those materials and they summoned mr. Vander going to his office. Can you imagine that, government agents summering fascist summoning some to the own office in the business . They told him you either remove those materials because they are offensive to us or we were moved our meat inspectors. In it you know anything about meatpacking business which i did not but ive now been educated on, eat remove the meat inspectors, usda inspectors, they have to shut down that business, 45 people wouldve been put out of work. 45 people. So he did as he was ordered to do and remove the materials, and he has filed a formal complaint. This is why groups Like Alliance did in a freedom and the American Family association are urging President Trump to sign an executive order protecting religious liberty, protecting people. President reagan my favorite present, i was in Junior High School when he waspresident he said freedom is just one generation away from extinction. And last year we came close, very close. Franklin grande told me for the book that we are at a moral tipping point. But i believe god saw fit to give us a second chance. I believe one of the reasons why is because of this next generation thats coming up behind us, generation of young men and women who are unashamed to stand up for freedom and for liberty. I want to tell you about some of those stories that i write about in this book. I have hope in america because of another man named connor brewer. Hes a Football Player at Millikin University here his teammates decided to protest the National Anthem by remaining inside the locker room. But connor chose to stand alone on the sidelines. And he did so as his teammates were howard nsa space inside the locker room. I have hope in america because of young man named alex down from fayetteville North Carolina at his father served our great nation at this very moment. Alex was in class and is level teacher wanted to explain to them about freedom of expressi expression. So the teacher tried to set an American Flag on fire in the classroom. But the teacher couldnt get a lighter to work. And discussed the teacher through old glory on to the floor. And then commenced to stop on old glory. Young alex a 16 year old patriot, rushed to the front of the classroom and snatched the flag off the ground and ran out of the classroom. So that the flag would no longer be desecrated by that schoolteacher. He refused to stand by and do nothing as the flag was desecrated. I have hope in our nation because of a young cheerleader madison mississippi. It wasnt long ago that a federal judge appointed to the bench by president obama told the School District that if they engaged in anything remotely religious, they would be fined 10,000 per violation. Well, it just so happened that High School Marching band was doing a performance of how great thou art. Im originally from the south and thats a popular hymn in te church that i tend, and im sure the principal was counting up the number of people in the marching band and he was afraid that he is going to have to multiply that number by 10,000. Thats a lot of cookie sales. So he called the kids to the front office and said, kids, im sorry but you will not be able to play that song. Youre not going to be able to perform your halftime routine. And i want to pause for a moment and say this. Once again, it illustrates the importance of not just the supreme court, but the lower courts as well. This is a lower court ruling. Well, friday night Football Game kane and it was a hot, humid night in mississippi. As the players walked off the field at halftime, a very strange and unsettled hush fell over the stadium there. No one quite knew what to do. There were no marching bands. Suddenly, a young lady started singing a familiar song. And one by one people in the stands began to sing along with her, and before too long the entire stadium rose to their feet in defiance of the government and saying how great thou art. So the question i posed in the book is in this. Who among us will stand . Who will stand with the alex dunn of the people and good people of madison, mississippi . The liberals may try to silence our voices. They may try to bully us into submission, but we cannot be silent. We must not he silent. They took a stand for religious liberty in the great state of mississippi, and i believe its spreading like wildfire across the fruited plain. Thithis is a quote thats often been attributed to dietrich von offer, cited in the face of evil is evil itself. God will not hold us guiltless, not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. And i believe thi this is a momt for every freedom loving patriot in america. And the time has come for all of us to stand together and with one voice declare that we are one nation under god. You and watches and other programs online at booktv. Org. Booktv is on facebook. Like us to get publishing news, schedule updates, behind the scenes pictures and videos. Author information and to talk directly with authors to ally programs. Facebook. Com booktv