And showing your support some ways you do. So thank you very much. [applause] now i on to what we do. We are so happy to have this incredible panel of lym marys from the world of politics and journal. You. Who we know are going to give us all of the exact answers. To what has truly been one of the most bizarre and we did air the president ial debates here at politics and prose, all three of them. We were kind of surprised how packed the store was itch guess i dont owhether to say this is but anyway, we were mobbed. And it just showed the interest and intense engagement over the past really year and a half around the election. So, were really grateful to follow that up with a panel of experts from cnn who will discuss the election and its aftermath. I think you recognize all of them. They were all mainstays to the coverage through the came pain. On my far left, on your right, is brian setzer, the owes post of the show about in the news media. He covered the media for the New York Times and also the author of the New York Times best seller publish in 2013, top of knowinger, inside the cutthroat world of morning tv. Next we have a amanda carp per, she is also a political commentator on cnn and familiar case and remember former aide to ted cruz and a write for the conservative review. Welcome. Very familiar to people in washington is dana bash. She is the chief Political Correspondent for cnn and her resume cover politics would take the entire hour so i have to make it shorter. She has reported on the white house, congress, president ial campaign, questioner in quite a few president ial primary debates, recently she focused mow most of her taping on the republican field. She has an interview with virtually every okayed a lot of. The, except patty. Said republicans. So, a pro among pros, dana bash. Thank you for coming. Last out in not least, my former colleague from the clinton administration, patty doyle. I think many of you know patty very for a very long time at strategist to Hillary Clinton and is mainstay of the many cnn political roundtables we watch, offering analysis of the 20 receive prime pears, conventions and general election campaign. Pat and i have the wonderful distinct of being parents of children who were in the same class in school and im going to say nor but one was a boy and one was a girl so ill let you take the story from there. And if you also all know there are we do what to mexico theres aing into involved and that is certainly the case today. Its hot off the presses, published this week, called pow unpre densed. The elect that changed everything, including a forward from jake tapper from this neighborhood and pieces by a site of cnn contributingors and we are pleased to have in audience jody enda there is thosey jody is responsible for the books coming together. She was editor of it and we have john morgan, the publisher meter books. Thank you for being here. So they deserve a lot of credit for this final product and we are just thrilled to have this event and thank you all for coming and thank you for being here. Thank you very much. Great to be here. My first time here, imso aim thrilled to be here today. I want to first mention the book and why the book is so incredible i had no idea what the meant when i heard cnn was making a book about the election, at least a year and a half ago as the candidate were entering the race. Cnn assignedded jody, and thomas the main writer of the book to go off not have to worry about the daytoday match nations of the campaign. We all went into Election Night thinking, most of us, thinking Hillary Clinton was about to be the first female president. Unprecedented story. The title stands even more strongly today. One month later. In this book heres what amazed mei dont know how you did it it read lie trump was going to win. This book saw it come and sees white it happened and explains why it happened. Was nervous to read my own essay because i wrote it before election day. So theres some interesting things as you read the back to see the words hold up. But is does in the final, final days right after the election, they were able to get this done in record time. So, i highly recommend. Check it out, read thees stays, all three of the panelists and contributed to book, contributedded institute the beak. Want to start with our boss. Words from jeff zucker, the head of cnn. Really intriguing. He says here on page 49, i dont think donald trump ever thought he was going to be the republican nominee for president. Lets remember, zucker was running nbc when the apresent to i tis wasp on so has nope trump many years. Think the got in the race to burnish his brand and get in second or authorized. I think whats what it was all below. Until he realized he could actually win. Now, looking back 18 months, does that sound true to you as the reporter on the beat the whole time, dana . Said that afterwards. I do agree no question, i agree. Just watching him. Itself was he was just kind of doing his thing, making it up and using his master marketing skills and celebrity status to do it. I mean, the first interview i had with him was at his winery, and i remember sitting over this in charlottesville, a beautiful scene of vineyards and hill top and he had come in on the helicopter and then instead of walk up the hill, the drove him in the suv and im thinking, okay no one is going relate to this. When did i ever think i would be doing an interview with a candidate overlooking his winery. Turn otherwise of out people did relate a lot. The night of the election trumps team was trying to blame people like mitt romney for their loss ump than desite coming that night. So, you talk about unprepares den enprecedented. In the hours before he was president elect, they were saying, oh, these are the reason i lost. Does that explain some of happened in the months since Election Night . Times writ doesnt seem like were seeing a normal transition, no preparedness, because there wasnt an expectation of winning . Sure, according to reporting, they had a transgent time and then saw what was punt was together and now were seeing live odd digses at trump tower. I think were seeing an i apprenticeship style of transition. Itch i aint broke, why fix it. Worked for him throughout the primary and the general. Why change things . Why pivot now . He has been very successful. Right. We know who he is and the way he operates. To just kind of fly by the seat of his pants. From anybody ever who work with him and obvious the way hi ran his campaign, my sense is that even if there was an expectation that he was going to win, this transition process wouldnt look much different. The in the book it identifies the real pivot point of this la 18 months. Think that the ask later, the cliches his campaign. What was it for you, dana, nosily a huge made for tv moment but a time when you started to realize something was different this year, different frost all cast pam pain past campaigns . Trump would always talk about this crowds. There was the two things most important to donald trump and still are, are his poll numbers and his the size of his crowds. Thats it. And talk about having huge rallies on day one. Two weeks into New Hampshire and he was having a pool party with 200 people and almost was too small for him. Absolutely. But that quickly changed. And until he won the primaries, started winning, a lot of people thought that people were coming out to see a concert or a show. Just like you would buy a tick to see a celebrity showing up at dar or something. And i think in some cases, in many cases, that was true. But then when those people came to see the celebrate, they started to listen and liked what they heard. Throughout the campaign, so much of what we talk about understandably and appropriately w were the thing that were so controversial but the mainstay of his stump speech had trade deals are bald, youre getting forgotten, the sim is system is rigged. Build a wall, build a wall, of course, he didnt say that at the beginning. He liked the media at the beginning. But thats a whole other story. But those are the core ideas and ideals that people really gravitated towards because it was different. Amanda, you were kind of famously cnn has antitrump conservative voicewent out and hired pro trump conservative voices to have a balance. When you came on board having worked for cruz, what did you take away . The real break opinion was between New Hampshire and florida writ was apparent that Donald Trump Trump was for real and that dedebate where Chris Christie took out marco rubio. I want to seed i come down to a cruzrubio race, but when i didnt see people gravitating towards making that happen, it seemed like this is really going to fall apart and you have the cruz camp saying we have get to it down to trump trump and cruz, we need trump to bead Everything Else and was like, wait a second temp real story of the Republican Party was the lack of unity in the prepare rep party you. Dont ha 17 people thinking they have a realist county chance of winning and that allowed donald trump to come in. So before he got the nomination, i thought parties are over. Republican parties couldnt stop this but now he is showing himself to be a very strong leader. Haver reservations but the party seems to be falling in line and saluting him in a way if never expected. That are i dont know what is going on over in the Democratic Party. The parties still have a big problem. Before we talk about my party i want to talk about the primary process and the thing found most astonishing about the republican run primary is that every candidate sort of left donald trump alone, and im sure it was because they thought he was a joke, but between him getting all of this Media Attention and nobody laying a hand on him, i think that was the two parallel tracks that caused him to rise like he did, and basically just win almost consistently through the entirely primary season, and i and by the time they did, by the time ted cruz went after him and marco rubio and jeb bush it was too little too late. Dan you wrote about jeb bush in your essay you probably thought jeb bush would we the story ididnt probably, i did. I follow el him to estonia and latvia and poland, and right before he announced he did is International Tour to kind of burnish his world stage credentials because he was thinking, like, a traditional candidate, which is their first many things he did wrong, including the fact his name was bush, which there was nothing he do could do about that. But theres no question. I remember being at jeb bushs announcement on june 15, 2015, and i remember it was definitely he did very well but took a lot of effort for him to connect and to really emotish, and to try to connect with the crowd. And as soon as it was over, all of the buzz in the back at the press table was donald trump is really going to do this tomorrow. The second it was over, maybe before it was over i was doing live shots so it was jeb bushs enable to really get through to people, but also theres no question in my mind that donald trump announced that that he was going to run for president the day of jeb bush essentially to steal his thunder, and i worked. And to create a contrast maybe. Patty, doey chalk what happened on the democratic side to the same bushlike enable to connect . Im a little biased bus i have to lop Hillary Clinton very much. But having worked for her on many of her her last president ial campaign, senate campaign, she is a flat candidate. She is not good on the stump. And in this particular election, she really did personify the. E embodiment of institutions. Not just washington institutions, but the embodiment of all of those institutions that people were just so angry at, whether its washington, whether its congress, whether its the government, whether its banks, whether its the media. She just sort of embodied all of that for them. So, was she the wrong messenger for the time . Probably. But having said that, she did so many things right. She was prepared, she had policy. She won the debate she raised the money. She did she was a girl. She was a girl. She decide everything she wases supposed to do. She was a girl. Im saying shes a girl and thats why she did everything she was posed to do. Joe lost because the sass would girl. How much do you chalk up her gender to her loss . I think its really, really hard we cant know yet. Im desperate for more research about the electorate. So much more i want to know why people did walt they did. How much do you in your gut thing think it was. Its rally hard to run for office when youre a woman. The Little Things that really pissed me off im sorry she i it screaming too much. Dont like the tone of her voice. She was the enabler, the one who treated the women badly in terms of her husband. Thats just ridiculous. Have we ever heard that about a man . Ever . Trump . Yes, he has very mel melodic voice. You can tell news that its all our. Over were you fell going goo Election Night there was a chance she would lose . Zero. Zero. Series zero. If im being hon, zero. I was in a green rom with corey lewandoski, waiting to go on for our time at 11 00 so we were forced to watch it and he was its standard he was a little, well, and i was very chipper, and as the time sort of wore on, i was sort of and he was very, very chipper. But, yes, zero. Amanda, where wassure head its . I was watching cnn and i expected hillary to win, didnt know by how much ill thought donald trump would be comb cocompetetive but i think hillary would win. And donald trump had to win these four stays and then 0 won florida and North Carolina and once he won those games hi thought, we have a gimp. Was watching the New York Times ticker and i would say is this really happening . But it all happened as even predecked, delete, delete, complete. No surprises. Bog of you were mostly in green room or waiting to go on for a panel discussion. Dana, you were on the set the whole night. Right across from wolf and jake and you were watching is happen and see your phone blow up. What happens of the Election Night of the shock around the world . Another shock. What happened on the step, i could have been a fly on the wall. Its like look, i probably shouldnt make it is like sully landing the play. You have to focus on what is in frond of you. Theres no emotion to it just do your job and try to get things in realtime. The ultimate adrenaline rush. And it just like you guys as soon as we started to see florida look off, it was we thought, oh, okay. But one thing i will say about all of their expectations, because obviously a lot of time to think about this and i human being abigail crushfield, my partner crime, my producer in back and we have been talking about this. Is that we all of us either political provisional professionals conditioned to in these modern times, talk about and study the dat tamp the voter modeling. Especially the post starting with george w. Bush in 2004 when the had the voter files at the rnc started started started stae microcampaigning. And fastford thank you in, 2016. The Clinton Campaign had it to do what we called a science, and the republicans did, too. The Trump Campaign didnt have it but relied on the Republican National committee, and we did some story. All of the data showed Hillary Clinton winning. And now, if we didnt have any of that, if we were back in the times of Alexander Hamilton over there and just had our shoe leg leather reporting two story wes did, oh, donald trump is going to win. One was a piece on millenials in North Carolina, where we talked to so many young people who were saying, nope, i was a Bernie Sanders voter, im never going to vote for her no way no way no way no way. Then in pennsylvania, it was like two or three days after the access Hollywood Tape came out and we went to do a piece on suburban women and be went to several trump eevents, ivanka trump was through through. These were the kind of woman whoa say, forget it. He is a dog no way. To a person we could not find one woman who said that. They all said, whatever. Of course, we know this about donald trump. But his going to x, y and z for the economy, and we cant stand Hillary Clinton. Sorry. So looking back if we would have focused on those kinds of story wes did with real people, we would have said, oh, okay. But we were relying on the fancy data which have been right for the most part. I. My favorite focus groups are cab drivers and we traveled a lot throughout the campaign, to all the debates and the primaries and i always ask my cab driver, who are you voting for . And nine times out of ten they were trying to decide between Bernie Sanders and donald trump. And that was a clear warning sign that we just sort of kind of sped away. But that people were hungry for disruption, not the same old same old, and those two pete highs disresumption. Would have won sanders, trump general election . I think sanders. Really . I could have been more enthusiastic for trump instead of a socialist. I dont know if america is ready for a Jewish Democratic president. Is america rate read governor donald trump . What do i know. I think a couple questions. From the audience. Let in ask that night on cnn, after one of the debates, donald trump infull vole, jugged you created the bigger Birther Movement wait did they tell you about the playing of fake news. Let me set the stage. The first debate, hofstra, lest el hot was the moderator. Men many as us were at hofstra. Was sitting in trail watch negate. Came tone tail end of the debate but was there because im a girl, making notes about how hillary nailed the debate, and suddenly im sitting there with other commentators and im making notes and hear my name. Im thinking, is it summon in the room . No, its donald trump. First he called me dotty doyle and then he called me patty solid doyle, and then patty sweet doyle and he said i hillary