to get any access be we are not assuming, we are not credentialed on capitol hill or the white house but we're working on that. we are going to have to find different and new ways to approach this story, and whether that's talking to people who've worked with the donald trump in the business world who may not work with him anymore whether it's hard for anyone who has since signed a nondisclosure agreement. whether it is approaching congress even harder and knowing that we can get access there. i think what we decide is just, we want access. we want to be a part of that but if are not going to get it which is going to blink it how we approach over the period where going to go at it at different way. this may be in some ways is good for journalism. i don't think it's vice news that is thinking this. like how else can he get at this story.

i think the next all work harder and think hard about what we're doing and the stories that matter. i have not figured it out. i'm not going to pretend like i have but i'm thinking about it. >> kasie, we seem donald trump called out individual reporters. he changed last night when the crowd started doing the media. he said now maybe they will write the truth. how did your newsroom, how did your leadership at the newsroom approach when he was calling out people are calling out chuck todd when you were there as well? what were those conversations like and i do think we're going to be approaching those when he is president? >> i think it's a tricky question and depending on who you were an kind of what, how focused he was on a per every newsroom had different level of conversation about how much of a

target with somebody. i think in the case of katie was a good friend of mine, we had to take security measures because of that. there was at least one instance which had to be escorted out of around by secret service, or protecting trump. something we paid very close attention to and i think to increase his credit they closed ranks around her. she was still standing up there covering donald trump all the way through. and i think that really is the kind of statement that in an age when we're worried about especially in tv when you need the picture picture, you need tn there, simply having people are willing to come back you up and say no, we will not let this person push you around. we'll still put your front and center and it would just have to deal with it i think really kind of sense a message spin at of course it's an organization situation about how you deal with the but also came down to a

very personal level. i've heard sara marie who was called out talk about what she is going through in that regard. the first time it happened sara had come to "the wall street journal" to cnn and so she was somewhat new to the television game and the fact that obviously your face is your byline. when that first happened she was at a rally where another cnn correspondent and one of our better correspondent gary tuchman was. gary actually once it happened, and sarah described not understanding sort of like how big it was when it happened oner whether there was a potential threat. she's covering the story but her parents are at home worried about her and she noticed that gary actually on the press line positioned himself behind her so that physically there was something between the public who

were at the rally, and sarah and she described going out that night and gary hit gets it willo out and talk about this. wwe're going to kind of discuss what happened and that was one of her first experience and then it becomes a situation where of course as a news outlet you are involved with it. but even just come she described the better reporter saying okay, let's talk about what this means and how this changes things going forward about, not how you cover but basically how you are present at an event speed up their something interesting in that. while all of this is going on and while he was calling out katie and the news organizations at the "new york times," up until sort of the end of the campaign donald trump was still doing interviews with all of us. he was appearing on cnn and sitting down with the "new york times" for an hour. was some of this and act to get

attention? at the end of the game it felt like he was doing fox and "the wall street journal" and "the wall street journal" editorial board and i was about it. but he kept talking to us. so that is something to be said for even though women were put in this position, in some ways it seemed like he was egging the audience on. he was still wanting to have conversations. like there is a dichotomy but i can't quite figure out that i'm still wrestling with spirit that we were a little bit of a foil at times. i accidentally ended up interviewing donald trump honestly because jake tapper could not get into des moines on time. i was not a hillary rally stand in line -- spec jake tapper was locked in a bathroom. i don't know how that happened. so i had like 90 minutes to think about and how this is going to go dedrick i thought

how is this going to go down? what i was surprised to find out in short was that he was extremely gracious, extremely welcoming, wanted to have the interview, seemed genuinely glad to see us, that we were there, that scene and was there to do the interview and certainly there's a lot of give-and-take in the interview and there's a lot of pushing back but it was actually a really interesting interview to do tonight that he want off the republican debate. on one hand i think from a having cover democrats are not having that kind of exposure on the level to donald trump, then going in and sing that actually this was as far as the reporter experience, pretty easy, you know? >> that's the thing is whether for the public, i think there's no question that he used the press and the media. it's a pretty classic republican and democratic for that matter

tactic to go out to the media. it happens every time. he took it to a new level in many ways but calling at people on one end. when used first in this race winner that over and over. i interviewed him that he announced he was running, which looking back i sort of, i at the time did not think we're going to end up. when we're doing that interview. it was at the gate is come he and mladic and ca an escalator. he talked about mexican immigrants. it afterwards we went up to his office and trump tower and it was a similar experience. it was let me show you around. the kids got like one of shacks shoes in his office. he wanted to show that off. yet scott walker had sent him a copy of the front page when he won his reelection. sided and put it in a frame. the experience of donald trump behind the scenes is very different and says a lot about

how trump himself understands the way to meet a landscape works and has for decades made a point of cultivating relationships in the press. going forward the question is going to be how does i continue for does it continue at all? avenue people who are around him helping him approach or urging him to approach the meeting in a different way? has twitter and the fact he can interact much more directly with the public change that to certain degree? how will you use the podium? how will he use the oval office? there's been a lot of back and forth in recent years with networks and sean has more context than i do but there's often resistance to putting a presidential address upon the the air in primetime at 9:00, programming that is otherwise pretty lucrative and we want to put up. i doubt some out if he wants to and oval office address that's going to pose as much of a problem. but we will see.

>> i talked to him on the phone and december 2015. i want to talk to donald trump about suspect he will call you in 10 minutes. to realize we have interviewed the president, the incoming president is kind of incredible thing. that shows the difference of hillary clinton a little bit. those situations didn't really happen with hillary clinton. going forward, you might be able to tell us donald trump was famous for calling control rooms or executive producers can maybe he called the head of nbc himself. if you want to tell us about any of those experiences, did you ever get a phone call from donald trump complain about "meet the press" or complaining about something? >> i have not got those phone calls, and i'm not sure, those phone calls exist. they definitely exist, but i would say that i would like to think it didn't change how we approached interviewing donald trump, especially on meet the press.

but he has peoples phone numbers and uses his phones and he will call whatever he wants and i'm going to leave that one at that speed up one other note i wanted to make, while we are all coming collection where all still human and especially being women. we have ou her own events were dealing with. i think all four of us have either gotten engaged or married in the last year and a half or so, coming to campaign. and i was hoping you all could say what it's been like to be so busy as we've all been while still having a personal life and still, when -- >> personal life, what is that? >> we have to go -- you are doing exclusives. >> we did. we were shooting part of our girls on the bus series. that's been a part of my year

with getting engaged in getting married in a few weeks. for me actually i have a very bizarre camping experience which was pretty normal intel may. my mom died unexpectedly in the middle of the campaign. it was the primaries were wrapping up and we were close to the california primary which was where my family lives, and for me, for anyone who covered the campaign, i assumed the assume the course of my year was going to be all about the campaign and that was what we define it. then all of a sudden this thing happened that made me realize that this, the campaign in and for my year was like a supporting role. my year has been very different than people who had the year defined by their campaign. and so i would come in may i was actually, i would have some of the normalcy of covering campaign events because they

were in california, otherwise i probably would've been off the trail for a month. i go to a campaign event in southern california. i could spend the night so i could spend time with my dad. i definitely had some time off which was weird at a time when everyone was working but also just cannot put into perspective as we go through this experience. a lot of people have these in different careers. you go through this period of time where it's so intense, what you doing here to almost endless sight i think about matters in life. answer me this year really brought that home. i think i'm just to the point where i can talk about it without crying. and i'm all about like public crying now. i just don't even care. whatever. it's like i think it, he places, i probably have woken up reporters where i'm like trying to my hotel room and they are next door. or just i have tried it out. i the convention floor. i had a really weird year in that regard.

maybe people to know what is going on the probably would have judged me. >> i think it's important and i think that's one of the reasons why i wanted to ask rihanna about this is. there is a real life outside of what we do and what we do is very important. like you said putting things in perspective is really great to keep in mind an as we all get wrapped up in everything. i consider forever and have cocktails and talk, but thank you all for coming. we really appreciate it and we will see you guys later. [applause] >> and ongoing, sorry, we introduce anna palmer back on stage for our next conversation. [applause] >> thank you. excited to be back on stage with kellyanne conway.

[applause] >> a few housekeeping notes. we are online that hashtag women rule if you're tweeting about the event this morning. and with that we will kick off this conversation. you hardly need an introduction to this crowd who definitely knows you, but kellyanne is the president and ceo of the polling company, and a regular on the cable news circuit. and recently gained notoriety as the first woman, campaign manager to successfully when a presidential campaign for donald trump. so let's jump in. we were talking backstage on the bit about this being such a historic campaign. you the first woman campaign manager by people thought this would be historic for the first woman president what are the things people been talking about was this, the country is not woman's judgment ready for a woman president or was it a hillary clinton issue? >> thanks for having me.

we look at that question early on. i have been studying women and politics for decades, and as republican consultant i often find myself with a candidates running against a female on the democratic side. in recent years we've had four occasions to work for a female candidate which has been really nice. in this case the answer is very clear. the question for voters that we felt early on was not would you vote for a woman but would you vote for that woman. for most voters it was not a hypothetical. it was hillary. that came with many advantages. look at the end of her campaign she was able to campaign with a very popular sitting president, a very piper sitting first lady, much more popular than she has. a former president who just happens to be your husband also campaigning for her. that's pretty good. she had had a resume, a typical d.c. resident. so that aspect was a very animating to all voters.

she had a very respectable resume as first lady of attorney, first lady of arkansas, u.s. senator from new york, certainly secretary of state and now two-time presidential candidate. you are breathing rarefied air when that is your resume. hillary clinton in many ways is an atypical woman in politics because she was able to ascend to some at different levels in some way to the positions and deserves our respect for having done so. at the same time it was the negative parts of hillary and what people have lived with for so many years that had as i call the never ending scandal opera of the clintons that bothered many voters. it but it heads with 70% plus of americans who said they wanted to change, the want to take the country in new and different directions. she found herself almost a defender of this status quo. she found herself as somebody who needed to overcome and never truly did those barriers. you saw it in everybody's

polling data with strong majorities of americans saying they did not trust her. they didn't find her to be honest and trustworthy. i think was almost a resource n people almost became demure to them. they don't trust her. it'll think she is honest. naturally big. that ended up mattering to voters. the other thing i want to throw them because i think it's important generally about women and politics and here we are, but also very significant specifically significant to hillary clinton. when i look at female candidates, they normally, all of the things been equal and iran are, but all other things being equal in the dynamics of the campaign, female candidates usually have three big advantages. one is motor see them as fresh and new. we have joni ernst and i would. we never had a woman representing i were in the or the senate. this will be a first for us. let me learn more about her. let me see her biography, let me

see her positions, let me get to know the same thing happen to people like patty murray years earlier, the pta mom, visit fascinating to folks. women are often seen in politics as a new, fresh perspective -- [inaudible] >> she wasn't seen as fresh and new pg wasn't seen as i need to know more about her, where did she come from? number two, female candidates are often seen as incorruptible as beyond ethical reproach. that didn't really apply here for her. the reason you've never heard the term the older girls network, there isn't one. and so people say i see even particularly and down ballot races were folks will say we just went through this whole ethical scandal and people see women as not having their hands in the till and not making backroom deals, nepotism and special interest.

there are seen as more honest. third for female candidates, they are often seen when their candidates and when told office as really good consensus builders, genuinely interested in what the other side of the aisle believes. she wasn't necessarily seen that way fairly or unfairly by broad slots of the electorate who did see her as a bit more combated or more partisan some of things she said are some of the positions she held. that's the nature of politics today, including if not especially the presidential level. i felt early on she is not good to be able to benefit from those attributes that may be worth a point or two or 32 other female candidates. >> interesting. one of the things hillary clinton made a big issue about having 50% of women and the cabinet. appointing then. donald trump has done that in terms of winning aspect nikki

haley. how important do you think it is that he has women around him in powerful positions? >> donald trump has always had women do read them in powerful positions. that's true in his corporation, he's just always elevated women to high echelons. i know women and the trump corporation, have have gotten to know them very well. let the record reflect it was donald j trump who elevated the first female in republican president of politics to that role and then operate successfully owing in large part to him and the campaign that he was diverted. then he's doing it in his cabin. i remember we were sitting in a meeting and he walked in and you look at me and he said there maybe five or six and he said are you the first woman to run a presidential campaign? so the guys and rancid first republican woman. and i said, i always think of susan etheridge and mary kate

and donna brazile and respecting normalcy, and i said on the first republican but this is probably two weeks after he gave me the job, he never came out of his mouth come it was not like i'm not going to do well among women or i really want this to be kind of cool and new. it was he had seen it on the job. they were doing other things and he asked me if i could run the place and so i had that conversation. i appreciate that. i appreciate having been promoted on merit, and then bringing to bear whatever those extra special characteristics that all of us have. >> talk about that interns, you've never run anything of this scale before. how do you think you took the job carefully maybe then your predecessors? a lot of scandal. how did you approach the job? >> very patiently and very methodically.

i am a data purses i can't draw or decorate anything. i'm all math and science. don't even ask. i added a person to look at data and actually think about how to make those data effectively work with any campaign structure and did not i think what was very helpful to me may be as a pollster and a list. pollsters today, media data put anybody in little boxes. you are a woman, you are african-american. you are a single mom. it's important to all of us who we are demographically but those are immutable characters. the race and ethnicity, gender, age. age. i know age changes of the year you were born never will. so those are characteristics. it's the life choices we make that affect, and are circumstances that would try to overcome that affect our behavior as consumers and as voters. we took a little deeper look. we use our digital and aged

team, but people don't get credit for this campaign. when a fantastic team, small but but scrappy and entrepreneurial and resourceful and victorious. and i all a lot to them. took a look at it and instead of putting people i think my work with consumer america helped and the idea that i don't just look at people as voters. looking at people situationally. if you feel you were affected negatively by the affordable care act, obamacare, it didn't matter what your characteristics were. you were going to vote on that. management, maybe my management style is different. you could be tough and firm but gentle at the same time. i ended up being mother hen to a lot of the campaign staffers who i would look at the birthdates and i would say i have close in my closet your age. i shouldn't but i do. and so there was that aspect of it. donald trump is only was incredibly comfortable with and very similarly with having women in leadership positions.

the other thing that helps is my dutchman i don't sugarcoat anything. i'm very respectful. i told him from the beginning i not your peer. i will not call you by your first name, but at the same time i think it helped me to deliver the good, the bad, and the ugly and i think it helped a great deal for me to be very honest and candid and respected in return to have his ear by not sugarcoating things, by being a little bit tougher but with a big smile. >> there's been a lot of speculation what role you will play in the white house come inside of the white house. you recently tweeted the west wing, we need a superstructure like the one aspect plus -- >> my children are 12, 12, eight and seven which is a bad idea for moms going inside. i had this -- >> that had to be really tough.

>> i told them that mommy is on her semester abroad. i went home most nights. maybe stayed on the road one night a week. so it's just the adult absorbing the committee time and lack of sleep which edwin and the trim can relate at some level. that's just what we do and who we are. i would know every night to new jersey are most nights to help the sixth grade math homework, make breakfast and a point just to make sure that was there. when i was single and inevitable i used to laugh at the notion of quality time. i'm all in. i actually believe it. but they had to come first and there's a very -- in terms of going to the west wing, i will do whatever the president-elect and the vice president but, i worked with mike pence for 10 years. they believe is my best and highest use for them. but i know the relationship will be the sense i'm not worried about it.

it's called the kellyanne role and someone said that recently signed like that. i know what that means. i fully support the administration. i think they're going to do a lot of great things very quickly, and the excuses divided government is over. they have the house and senate as well. they have the state legislature, a majority of the governors. that's exciting but for me i think the lesson also is all the opportunities out there for women increasingly in politics and media and public policy and government affairs, all the things we do in washington, that we shall have to make choices. you are limits. when i was discussing my role with other senior campaign folks, they would say i know have four kids, but. there's nothing that comes after the but the next any sense to me so don't even try. what is of the but, but you will eat cheerios? but no one will brush their teeth until i get home? i do politely mention to them that the question isn't what you take the job, the meal sitting

across me who is going to take a big job in the white house. the question is would you want your wife to? you see the whole, would you want the mother of your children that they wouldn't want their wife to take that job. so it's all good. >> there's challenges, but on the cutting out a lot of talent to not have mothers in the white house. .. made a suggestion to me that maybe i could, if they were going to see me on the

morning shows and by 2:00, not a full daybecause it's the white house , you could then go home and help the kids and then go back and i was like sure, that would work. she was suggesting maybe i could help america's women in terms of feeling less guilty about balancing life and career and perhaps striping or face time and showing how that's done and there's something to that so will figure all that out but i've always felt like this is a very family-friendly workplace at the trump campaign. i will tell you years ago i was a lawyer and i'm married to a lawyer, half of his money goes to us but when i was a lawyer i looked around at the female partners at the law firm many years ago and there were two or three and they were lovely and that they had very different circumstances and journeys that had gotten them to that vaunted position but none of

them had children and for all kinds of different reasons so i went on my own years ago to try to create some additional choices in the universe but the most important thing for all of us to realize is you have to make your decision and be comfortable with it and every woman to be respected for making her own choice. i think if i could reverse the clock a little bit there would have been more kind of coverage among female journalists for what i was doing. i just read a story this morning that basically on the first woman, and it doesn't get covered a lot because i'm in the wrong party and for the wrong candidate to have done that but that's fine and in this magazine it referred to me as political parent and i said that's the best you can come up with? but that does happen and it

happens a lot with female journalists. i saw that a lot with hillary clinton and sarah palin in 2008. i felt the 2008 campaign feeling really icky. and it just, you just can't feel good about that. it's nice to say, it's great to ask are we making opportunities for women but to not have the support on our way there. >> that's something to think about. talk about about the issues you have with mike pence and your long-term relationship with him,there's been coverage of what role that he played , talking to brady and how they had direct phone calls, all this in terms of healthcare. what do you think knowing him so well, what is going to be his signature issue? what is the thing where he's going to focus most of his energy? >> the vice president elect is a fascinating man. he saw early on in double trump the phenomenon that's a political movement. people in politics tend to think it's easy for them to recognize because they literally saw nothing like it.

he has an opportunity to be a very active and very successful vice president because he spent 12 years in congress and 10 years on the foreign affairs committee. number three in the house republican conference and at some point he was the face of the party before he left to run for governor four years ago and he obviously stayed with past colleagues and sitting members and also he has the trust of the president to go and execute on the legislative agenda, he had a 100 day plan, you can disagree with it but you certainly can't beat it and see it which is great for everyone in our democracy. it's very specific, it's solutions based and it's very transparent for all to see. the vice president elect pence will be cast in different pieces of that and he's been on capitol hill to speak on that, also the head of our transition so he is interfacing personally with all the cabinet. >> less like a specific, he's not going to be energy. >> no, nothing limiting

because we want this group energy and infrastructure and healthcare, childcare and eldercare including taxes and spendingand includes regulation so manufacturing , i think that he will be tasked with any number of specific things but he's been incredibly supportive, he and his wife karen. they're a great match i think one of the untold stories was how much it matter to the campaign that he deliberately went after that blue wall. very deliberately, he had the governor of indiana who brought manufacturing jobs back to indiana to cut the unemployment rate in half an increase charter schools and school choice programs in his state and it helped a great deal to have somebody from that region was perishing people into the midwest and saying i'm one of you. this is great to have the money like that. >> one big issue of the debate that's been swirling a lot is general flynn, with

the comments ping-pong and there being a tart a couple days ago. when do you think enough is enough? does donald trump have to stand up and say something about this? >> he said something yesterday, he asked if general flynn is no longer part of the transition and apart from that, i will tell you as donald trump's campaign manager and someone who loves democracy and loves freedom and loves the country, the false news was corrosive through the campaign, the idea that i can pull up your paper or any others from a tv station and just story after story, the path is closed or there is no path, the race is over, donald trump will bring down the house and senate with him. is going to destroy the down ballot , hillary clinton is not even mentioning his race anymore, the race is over, it's harmful.

>> you had to push back a little bit. the rnc, even two days before the election was getting off the record briefings about how it wasn't their fault that they were going to lose. >> i'm well aware this is out of the ether. >> i was still very obsessive in michigan. so in any event, i was very public about what our members showed. i went on once a briefings with networks and certain reporters and i was on tv every day saying we have one path and it included protecting the core, north carolina, florida highway and ohio. and only one of those, mitt romney won. he had the entire infrastructure behind him and in terms of elected fish officials and everyone, add on nevada and new hampshire and maine. you can talk about the popular vote but donald trump 14 times and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on one delegate because that's how you win, you win not for

the popular vote, all the graphics i said denied that popular vote so there's that but then we were able to sort of add additional routes and i would talk about these publicly with pennsylvania and called it a reach state and i grew up outside of philadelphia and we kept spending, sending trump and pence to pennsylvania, melanie a gave her biggest speech there and others and we recently had a fantastic team on the ground in pennsylvania and in michigan it was constant that we were out there trying to show everybody how we would win there's a confusion in the evidence and i have to say, in the names for americans who rely upon their coverage, that does voters so such a disservice. look at all these undergraduates who work in a divided country that maybe one of its two candidates in a divided country could

possibly win? >> speaking of that in terms of a divided country, we did a poll with morning consult about the questions about donald trump's and who supported him or not and everyone in washington and the insiders in washington are opposed to this kind of railing against policy but it's very popular in the country. do you think donald trump will be kind of a ronald reagan and go to the public with his opinion on things? there's this overall divide that's happening with the washington elite versus kind of people in the country? >> i called the politico and actually saw their question on that, how does it change your opinion of donald trump? and i saw that 74 percent of republicans, about 40 percent of democrats and 50 percent of independents had made that favorable and there's a reason for that, americans like progress. they like the idea even

before you been inaugurated as president, they like the idea that you can go to your campaign promises so you elevate the barrier and you've elevated this whole idea of bringing jobs back to this country from mexico or china or preventing them from leaving in the first place and you as soon as you get the opportunity to execute on that, you're like well, i've got to wait or i have an addition in congress and there are 1100 employees are so that benefited from that. americans like progress. a lot of great ideas die in congress as we know so i'm not surprised that the national resistance there but the one thing i promise you about president trump is one, he's going to try anyway to execute on these promises very specifically. two, and this is to your question, he's somebody on the campaign took his message to the people and tried to cut through the noise and silence or whatever the case was and he does that through a number of platforms and he

certainly did it through his rallies, another thing that was totally pooh-poohed by the press as being important. all rallies, anybody can fill an amphitheater. he was getting 16, 20, 200 people which is a small wedding where i come from, not a rally. and trump was packing thousands and thousands of people and it mattered from the terms of enthusiasm and it mattered for positive local coverage that maybe you didn't see because you don't live in that state or that county so that said, donald trump taking his message to the people is the donald trump you will see as president where he definitely always cares what the public inks about xy and z that he knows, ronald reagan many years ago and he taught me something at a very young age which i always remember which is president reagan used polls not to find out what he believed or which way to go.

use polls to make sure the message he intended to convey was in fact being encouraged and resonated back to him so there's wasn't this confusion or dearth of information where people say why is he doing this even though he has explained it . the way he'd like to receive information so he wants to make sure that the public understood, that there's public opinion, public opinion is one thing but public knowledge and being transparent, draining the swamp and all those things are very important to we have to pull back the layers a little bit into how you got the position that you are in, talking about backstage when you grow up,your grandma , your mom, your older sisters. >> my mom got married. >> the housecoat and everything, yes. >> how did that impact you in terms of your role models and what did you take from that

as you groan into this role? >> it's a gift that keeps on giving. i was raised in an unconventional household with married sisters and another sister that was married and i was an only child and my father left when i was very young and the impact it had on me i think long-term is to be grateful, to really have a great heart because it's so easy to complain about everything today and i kept to myself during that too often. i remind myself of all the blessings and all the gifts and opportunities and i think about my mom is a single mom in the 1930s and i really am just astonished at how she did that, hold all these single moms did it. i love my husband, i tell him on his worst day, at least he's got a drivers license and he's irritable even on his worst day and he's great otherwise but so hats off to him but i grew up in a household and i was half

irish, half italian. labor union, nobody went to college. catholic, everything that would point to a single mother in the democratic party but we never had a single political conversation i can recall, everything was based in family. i grew up in a family of small business owners and they said that you worked hard and you didn't take and the negative side of all that is i spent a lot of my life being a very self-denying person and i sometimes catch myself eating that now to that we usually don't go for and ask what we deserve maybe and i've seen that over the years and when i was first starting out many years ago, i love to tell the story, i was on cnn as a political analyst and i got a call, to my office, a polling company. i was very young and they said are you from the blah blah speakers bureau and i said hi. and the gentleman said oh, there's this industry group that's requesting mark, a

democratic poster and you. to kind come to speak on september 28 at the mayflower hotel. each of you will speak for 20 minutes and will take questions for an additional 20, you're welcome to come for lunch or stay for the conference. you work with an agent and i said, do you think this talks to me directly? he said was your speaking fee and i froze because i knew no matter what i said i was owing to be that self-denying person in the house of women and given an opportunity and i knew it wouldn't be his fault. he asked me and question, what is your work? and i really panicked so i said i just looking at the mayflower hotel outside my office window, i can walk a half a block. i took the line out of her he met sally and i said i'll have what he's having. true story. and he says what customer i said if mark and i are going to do the same thing and the

guy says 1996 and the guy says mark requested $3500 and i said that will be fine and i hung up the phone and i fell to the floor. i was like, gay. but honestly, on a different day it would have been like no, i'm privileged to come and see you. that would be great, i can't wait to hear mark, why don't you give mark my speaking fee so you need to learn to navigate i think both ways but on balance i still think it's a great time to be a woman in america. i think you've got, we are the product of her choices, not our circumstances and we are very independent thinkers and it's a very special time. >> i crowd sourced this question and ask a lot of people, i have this page with you one-on-one, what is the thing out of the selection that people wanted to hear and understand and obviously

they have this hollywood video coming out, you were with donald trump when that happened area i imagine it was a low point of the campaign but does that affect your thinking, your decision to stay on, what was the first thing you did? >> the first thing we did was we had to tell him about it. we were in debate prep. yes, along with a couple other people. and anyway, getting into those issues you see what happened that night.he apologized to everyone. i know it was a heartfelt apology that he wrote and recorded and put out and people said that you really mean it, he meant it or you wouldn't have said it. that's the thing about donald trump. and two days later it was the second debate in st. louis. and i think a couple lessons to learn from that , that there's a difference between sort of voters, what offends

you and what affects you. there was way too much credence given, not expectation given to people who are going to vote according to that take or this statement or this false accuser. and have you asked me, i've repeated this many times, if you had asked me to write 50 people close to me, even if those were all women, you asked me to write 50 or 75 men or women close to me in business, in life and i had to mark down whether they would be deal breakers are not a dealbreaker, there's no rhyme or reason to have people reacting, people reacted very differently to that and you saw across the country that people made their opinions, the poles went down quite you went into the poles to test?

>> more consistently in the field, we didn't do any national polls, there would be no point to it. i didn't think there was a point to all the national polls, even the ones we were winning because that's not the popular vote. so we were in the 12 or 14 states where we were winning and look, you saw these polls. they had these hidden polls, i think people who wanted him to drop out had not learned in the first place by and large and he says someone who again took that message to that group, went to that debate, went right back on thecampaign trail and it did something that politicians and people , corporate executives don't do which is apologize and you don't always see that with people. people when i thought, i said my reaction was some commendation of what donald trump melania trump all said about it but it's also a great inflection point in terms of, that was nearly one month ago, it happened on october 7 and ... it actually

was november 8, the election was november 8 and the question was do we forge ahead with the messages on what we are doing, what's important to americans and this is an election where his voters were very loyal. they knew he was going to bring those jobs back and build a wall and provide something better for everyone and reduce the tax burden and unleash energy and entrepreneurship and the undecided voters , i think it was a missed opportunity for the clinton campaign to talk about something else so i thought that in all this too. i couldn't believe how much time she took off in august and sizing things up for the last debate, it was astonishing to me as a campaign manager who couldn't stack up the schedule enough for a man who constantly wanted to meet people in different states if i were

they i would have addressed it and talked about the bigger and brighter for america so people would say i'm done with him and she's got this amazing, positive aspiration, uplifting solution centric message for the rest of america. that can happen andthat helped us . >> you never thought about quitting.>> i did not think about quitting. i thought for a number of reasons i will keep private but i will also tell you that i committed, i also know the full measure of the man. because i'm with him every day so in fairness to everybody else, i have to judge people away i want to be judged which is the full measure of a man and i have always found him to be very open to women in leadership and a very gracious gentleman. i've never seen or heard anything from my of younger staffers otherwise and i am very beholden to them too. we have people at the campaign who, this is their first foray into politics and some of them going to school

took a semester off, specifically took a better paying job because they believed in this and wanted to see it throughfor him and for them . >> we are almost at a rap but iwanted to end on this and ask you . >> infrastructures important to.he's a close advisor to president obama. he stayed outside and i guess they kind of switch. it's probably a matter of sequence but in the short term we do need what i call the round down superstructure outside of the political operation, that you need somebody who has the president and who knows him and who speaks a little bit more than he does, it's a total mystery so don't ask that but somebody who actually, has his own discretion on capitol hill that we can play defense and also go on offense when it comes to supporting his nominee to the cabinet or the

united states supreme court or the judiciary but also to make sure we get the message out to people about how maybe there directly impacted by infrastructure or by the 25 million jobs created over 10 years or how we are going to set the 20 million people who rely upon the affordable care act but do well by the millions of others who feel like they've gotten a raw deal where their premiums were too high and their choice access in quality are diminished so that's an important . >> but they're going to work on the draft , the kelly and whisper. >> the vice president would be totally supportive of what they're trying to do for this country and i would tell everyone i know, i can tell by the reception igot as well that when it comes to him , he's our president and i just was raised in that house in a very nonpolitical house where they always voted, i'm sure they would have voted democratic and i was always raised to respect the

presidency and its current occupant and i just think i have done that over the course of my adult life but i'm just going to go with president obama on this where he has been incredibly supportive and gracious from michelle obama to melania trump to seek a transfer of power in our democracy and giving it a chance. i think with that we need to come together as americans and recognize that this is the decision that those who voted made and this is a president at a fraught time in our country where something can go one way or another and it would be fabulous to have more support among the population. what donald trump said and thereality that he wrote himself , it's absolutely true, i see it every day and

he said i'm going to be the president for all americans, not just those who voted for me. i will be the president for those who didn't support me and there were a few of you. he's aware of that, we are aware it's a divided country and we're aware that he has put forth proposals that maybe folks are embracing wholesale but at the same time i'm anxious to see what happens and to me it would be great to have people support them. >> thank you so much, i know you have a busy schedule in coming down here today. [applause] and were going to turn to our fantastic people, ambassadors will lead some conversations around the table about what we heard up here on the speech today and i want to say that after that we will be opening up where there the marketplace where there are women on the stores and we also have a photo booth in which you can take part in the joy so we will be back with some informal conversations. [inaudible conversation] here's a look at our primetime schedule on the

c-span network. starting at 8 pm eastern on c-span we remember the passing of several political figures in 2016 including nancy reagan, supreme court justice and tony scalia and news anchor when i feel. on c-span2 it's book tv with authors discussing notable books of 2016 area and on c-span three, american history tv with focuses on world war ii.>>. [music] the presidential inauguration of donald trump's friday, january 20. c-span will have live coverage of all the days events and ceremonies. watch live on c-span and c-span.org and the listen live on the free c-span radio

app. >> we now return to an event hosted by politico and google known as the women rule summit. the next portion features remarks from senior white house advisor valerie jarrett on policy and how to advance issues that are important to women. this is an hour and a half. >>. [inaudible conversation] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome editorial director louisa vantage. >> hello everyone, i know you're all having amazing conversations and i'm so sorry to interrupt them. but we are so thrilled to have you here and particularly satisfying to me as for so many familiar faces now become part of what we

consider the women rule community. i know you are all enjoying this program, we have conversations that have evolved but i'd like to ask you all a huge favor. and that is we are in a moment of transition and i know a lot of you are going to be leaving government, going to the private sector, launching your own businesses are coming from the private sector into government and would like to keep this community together so if you could take a moment as you are thinking about or figuring out your next step to send an email at women rule at politico.org and see here's where i am today, here's where i'm going next, we'd love to put that together in an email to all of you to highlight these comments so if you know where your are going and changing roles we'd love to have you have our questions in a women rule transition column with you. as a person who works on the content of all our advisory events, i'd like to just take a moment to talk a bit about the editorial mission of

women rule. at politico, we say our mantra is that our events are an extension of our journalism and that means we are here to ask important questions about women in politics and power and in policy. so the kinds of questions we been asking today and we will keep asking this afternoon are what difference does it make if any to have women in these seats of power? what are the rooms here in washington and elsewhere where men and womenare still missing ? how do women get there and what difference do they make? and especially for washington, what are the gender gaps in public policy that still allow an impact and disparate outcomes for women and girls?with all the power in this room we love to get your insights and your thoughts on these questions as we go forward in the administration and in the conference so it's women rule

at politico.com so we welcome your stories, your suggestions. another thing i'd like to share with you his comments from the newsroom side here at politico. i hope you will join me in celebrating an important transition for us as well. it will be my great honor to introduce this afternoon as two of our moderators a great politico women, you all know susan glasser who moderated at these events before and her extraordinary now former editor, her vision has shaped the ambition and sophisticated transit coverage you see today. she created and launched the award-winning politico magazine and then the agenda which is our deep dive policy magazine. even as recently has moved to israel where she will be covering world politics and miss middle east and she graciously flew back last night so she could be here to moderate at women rule. so susan was politico's first

woman editor and i think it's a great testament to this organization that we are now processing the second woman editor. i don't know how often that happens at organizations and media outlets that you see elsewhere around the country but we think it's special so tonight you are going to meet carrie brown and if you didn't know her already, she's our white house reporter. i'm happy to tell you she went to europe and became one of our top editors of politico europe and now she's back to run politico and guide our coverage through this incredible extraordinary time for politics and policy so i'm excited they are both here and in the conversations this afternoon so thank you to susan and carrie for their leadership and report of women rule and a thank you to

the politico events team led by alexis williams who put this event together, particularly catherine ragsdale and hannah edwards and their team. we've donean amazing job and we are so glad to work with them. [applause] and now i'd like to introduce another incredible woman and a friend of women rule , laurie fabiano, president of the laurie burge foundation who makes this event possible and as alexis mentioned this morning, laurie is always pushing us to do better and retire with the programming and i mention our editorial mission and one thing we are so excited and looking forward to for the new year is to launch very exciting herbalism at politico around women rule. so now i will pass it to the platform to laurie. [applause] >> thanks luisa and good morning. i think one of the most toxic things i heard was kellyanne saying it's only two months since that access video came out. it feels like a lifetime ago. i'm sure everybody can relate but thank you politico for involving the tory burch

foundation in this event. we just love being part of it. sometimes people ask me you know, why is this organization that empowers women doing this event in washington ? and the answer is entrepreneur is, entrepreneurs are scrappy and they know how to do more with less not unlike women in government in fact, i think politicians, government employees, ngos get the best quality they can have is to be entrepreneurial. when i took this job, i expected the systematic impediment to women in business. such is the difficulty getting capital, for example still, only one in $23 in business loans those to a woman and that's with women starting businesses at the same rate as men. but what really took me by surprise was the behavioral stereotypes that prevent

women from growing their businesses. that fact motivated us to plan a campaign to encourage women to embrace ambition. when awoman is labeled ambitious , there are still people who think that a negative comment. and if we were fortunate enough, and i'm not, to be told our ambition was a good thing, chances are we were also probably told to not let it show so much. our goal is for women in all walks of life to embrace ambition, to show you and for other women to help them through it. our campaign is going to launch in march and i encourage you all to join and help these words. the next panel features for powerhouse and very ambitious women who serve in the white house and will be followed by

conversation with valerie jarrett, the president's senior adviser. i'm thrilled they are here not only because i know the conversation is going to be fascinating but because it gives us the opportunity to say thank you. these women have all served this country and this administration with passion, dedication and dignity. best of all is what they have accomplished in their positions. whether it was susan monico keeping us safe from terrorism, cecilia munoz protecting american civil rights, jen psaki keeping us informed, tina tchen directing the office of the first lady to valerie jarrett serving as the president's most trusted advisor. major accomplishments aside, one of the coolest things about the women in the white house is they created something they call amplification.

when a woman made a point, other women would repeat it, forcing the men in the room to take notice . it's in the spirit of the women of the white house that i asked all the women here today and particularly those who will be instrumental in the next administration to amplify our voices. there has never been a better time to be your sister's keeper. i truly believe if there's any hope of healing the deep divide in this country that we will start with women standing together and amplifying each other's voices. i digress, please join me in welcoming and applauding from the white house, lisa monico, cecilia munoz, jen stuckey tina tchen and moderator at editor of politico, susan glazier. [applause] >> good morning everybody and

thank you so much laurie for that great introduction and i have to tell you, i'm so delighted to be here not only at one of my favorite conversations of the year but it couldn't be a better group. we are so excited to get started, we're already beginning our panel and we have a lot to say and a short time to say it but i can't think of a better group of people, who have more collective insight into the different ways in which a white house works and the ways in which power works in washington so these are just absolute the gold standard of the people, they had so many diverse experiences at president obama's administration to bear on the conversation today and i'm excited to get started as everybody is. this is a group of specifically powerhouse titles and i know outside of washington they don't mean

very much solet me tell you something , hear those words definitely convey something important and this group just to quickly run down their backups, my college classmates, lisa monico who was assistant to the president at homeland security and counter, cecilia munoz was assistant to the president and director of the domestic policy council, jen psaki who is assistant to the president and communications director and tina tchen who is yes, assistant to the president and her most important title, chief of staff to michelle obama. this is a great group and thank you for your impressive time as the administration winds down . i'm going to jump right in here because there was something that got a big reaction backstage and it's a

little bit counterintuitive way to start a conversation framed around the idea of women's roles and this is a very famous article anything this notion that women in the white house somehow banded together and had to amplify their words. on one hand, it's a great negative and it's a great talking point and i know everybody here was to be seen as someone who's supporting other women in their workplace. on the other hand, it might not really have been the story and it's a more complicated than that, isn't it jen? >> it is, we were talking about this backstage. i would say when i read that article, most of my colleagues and current former colleagues read the article, we thought we had no idea what they're talking about. no one else had heard of this. so let me start there. but the most concerning part was that it really took us back to a 1950s depiction of what powerful women are doing with. and how we got into any of our positions and how we presented ourselves in meetings and what role we

played in the white house and that was concerning because i sent or i felt and a lot of us felt it sent the wrong message to women, it sends the wrong message to women my age, i'm 57, about what it takes to be at the table and be part of these discussions and i'll end by saying lisa monico is not the terrorist hunter in chief because she's afraid of speaking up in meetings and because she wants us to echo her at meetings and i think we need to stop simplifying what the challenges are and have a more nuanced conversation about what we can do to not only help each other help young men, help young women and i'll leave it at that. i let my colleagues say more from their. maybe you can sound off on that because i think that's something probably a lot of people in the room have experienced. if it was only as simple as standing up and applauding and saying you go girl,

probably women would not be seven percent of ceosin the united states. >> as i was boarding my colleagues here , you know i'm going to be a little contrary. i agree with jen, i grew up with two brothers, i was chief ofstaff at the fbi . so this is not an unusual environment and i think jen is right. we kind of diminish the issue when we start talking about this going back to the 50s type of approach as jen said. but i think we all are very supportive of each other and many other assistance to the president to our womenwho are not here today . i think we regularly are supportive of one another but that is not in my view a gender issue. we are similar so i hope every day of our male colleagues. i would say i think there's a

particular responsibility. we as women who operate in high stress, high performance areas to help other women, i think the same of younger men who are coming up and want advice and want to do these jobs but i it's a responsibility i would say one hallmark, the way we work in the white house which again i don't necessarily think it's respect to gender, it's a reflection of the people who have come to work for you is that we are a collaborative. we are a team and when i came in, people who served warned me that we have superhero elbows and maybe your friends were even going to be our friends and what i found is that this is a group that honors and respects building teams and sharing credit and making sure there's, if you are successful then the enterprises successful. but i think of that not in terms of gender but is a hallmark of thway the

president works and the reforms . >> let me chime in a little bit and i have another half of the white house as executive director of the white house and women and girls, part of the reason that our experience is that we have good numbers. the assistance to the president is about 50-50, close to 50-50 men and women. this is how he's made appointments. we felt that was very important. his advice and lisa and our colleagues, at the national security council issued a platform for diversity and inclusion of security space which is an unusual place to have a conversation. we had a session at the white house how we talked about the entire federal government. and the various trainings with executive orders from the president and the plans and policy that we believe make a diverse workplace happen and because we truly

believe and i think this experience we are sharing is evidence of the fact that the numbers work. when you have a critical mass of men and women, we have a critical mass of divers then the environment becomes the one we've described you but i've been from the corporate lawyer to a law firm, i have experienced being the only women in the room and that's a challenge. >> i'm glad you brought up the issue of critical mass. talking about it right now, how washington is efficient and transitioning to a new high white house which is not only a different kind of politics but a different set of advisors and in general first term seems to be when you are coming in from the campaign, looking back on some of the issues that president obama got for not having as many women advisors as he has now, that was also true through bush's presidency and look at some of the issues that donald trump is selecting for his top jobs, kellyanne conway was just ask about that with

respect to you all. earlier today, there was something about first terms and thattransition from campaigning to governing . that makes it more difficult initially for white house is to have the representation that now president obama has? >> every single one of us i think i think what you are describing isn't unlike anyone. we are hiring fast, look at the pace of the transition that we operate under some fast transitions and it's true that women and minorities aren't as visible so if you are hiring fast and you people more similar to you, i think that's what happens and that maybe that explains why there's a difference, it's not political area its circumstances. and it's what you see in the corporate suite as well which

is you are pulling someone who you see which is why we need strategies and there needs to be a conscious effort to getbeyond that, to get beyond what's easy and reach out and quite frankly you will find more talent that way to . >> identical little bit of what tina says in respect to the efforts, you do have to be intentional about it. before coming to the white house at the beginning of the second term which is been my experience, i sent 15 years at the justice department so i entered the white house at the beginning of the second term and throughout the different seats i've felt in the national security space specifically in the situation room, talking about a place that you don't get much insight into who's sitting around the table but i can see, i've held different seats and occupied different seats in that situation room over the course of the last eight years but i have steadily seen one cost which is an increase in the number of women sitting around the

table and that's news to cause you are always going to, it's good to have different voices around the table no matter what kind of package they come in but it's important to increase the number of different voices you have in their and that's including the number of women around the table to.>> i was going to say in the press world, i came in and i was the only one in the press office and 11 people, we had some female press assistance but most were men and i was the only woman. i thought of them as sort of my overexuberant brothers in the beginning and i still do but i think part of it , to give some credit to what i think is a very positive gender traits is that the president overtime has also determined what he needed and who he wanted to surround himself with an i think women shouldn't be afraid of embracing the fact that often times we bring a different kind of calm and a different kind of organizational approach and a different perspective and i don't think

he sees it through gender barriers. i don't think he was trying to check a box with how many female assistance he had but certainly i think the approach and often the demeanor of women that we should embrace is something he has decided as he's learned more about what he needs , he wants more of. so that was a journey for him, maybe it's a journey for president as they go through it's also more of a renowned other than washington. >> my story actually happened in 2010. it's not something i like to remember fondly but i did have one moment sitting in that room and looking around the table and realizing that not onlywas i the only one in, i was not the only latina in the room . and we work there because somebody said oh, we're having a meeting and we got to make sure we have diversity. we were there because we were all there doing our jobs

though there was a lot of that that wasn't so visible because we weren't all in a position, those positions that washington pays attention to but we've been there at the beginning doing the workquite i had a similar moment early on . we had an international, i believe was a bio chemistry issue that was very serious, the state department and several other people were coming in to brief valerie on this and i have to comment in the room, valerie is at the head of the table for the state department, i was sitting there and the policy person from national security council, every single person with one white male in the whole room and i looked around and i did sort of have a moment to myself which i said okay, and they were all saying yes, there's a miracle woman sitting at the head of the table. it was critical. >> this gets to the point about, i want to explore a little more on questions when

you are hiring quickly and what are the pipelines that are available and how much does that matter, and also the question of a conversation that was in some way related to gender so there's a question of, if donald trump is hiring a lot of generals, we all know there aren't a lot of email generals in that pipeline that would make them the new head of public security and the defense department. lisa, you have the most experience dealing with people with impressive uniforms. how much does a pipeline issue matter and how much is it basically structural, right? >> sure, the pipeline matters, absolutely. first and foremost we also want the most qualified, capable people for the job. that's what the president is looking for in all the jobs that he feels so pipelines matter. you referenced the military , just in the last year the first female combat commander

was named . so there's been i think strides made in the intelligence community, historically aplace that hasn't seen a lot of women in leadership positions. john brennan , he's been incredibly supportive and focused on this issue and really meeting on this question because not because we need to be checking boxes as to who's sitting in which see around the table but we do not increase the numbers and quality of the pipeline across the board, that fundamentally a national security issue so i think we've been very focused on it from just harkening back to what tina said about the diversey issue. but you've got to have a commitment to first and foremost have a pipeline to pull from. >> no, i agree. i explained that like lisa but in the national security place, you want to see more women and as lisa knows, when

you go overseas, you are the only woman always at the table. there are no women from almost any country but the us and that's shocking to, we can't solve that for every country but we can certainly be a model. i was going to add one other element that i've experienced, i don't think you hear enough talking about is women can be terrible to women and i've had more mail and torsten female by far. and i don't know what that's about. is it about competition, people have to fight hard to get where they are and it makes them nervous, is it not taking time to reach out and mentor younger women? but we need to be better about that, that's not escalating in the meeting but that is something you can do in your daily life . and that's been frankly, a disappointment for me as i've gone through the last 15 years of my career in terms of what i've experienced and i'm sure i'm not alone and i hope that people who are 22 now the experience that but that's probably on people who are in their 30s and 40s to change so that's the next weekend. >> i'm glad you brought that up because that's one of the

challenges of having a conversation likethis . you can have the effect of oversimplifying something well like great, you got these terrific jobs and you are talking about the progress that we've made in the obama administration and great, why do we need to have a conversation? i think it's time to get beyond reassuring empowerment rhetoric is important because otherwise why are we having the conversation but we also have to be deliberate especially about bringing folks to the government place, we talked about that earlier. women, people of color, making sure that they have the support they need and we built these formalized structures in order to do that, make sure that we were communicating that you belong here, what you have to offer is meaningful and were going to support you so that hopefully you will have a long career in public service but if administrations are

going to have a pipeline to choose from at the cabinet level, it starts now with who we hire just coming up early in their careers. >> the pipeline as long. so for the younger people in the room, i want to encourage you to stick with it. it's not a straight line so i guess the president said, elections are not a straight rot line. your career is not a straight line and then not every pathway to washington comes from washington because this is my first job in washington and that's the other thing about expanding where we look and seeing different professions, we had a great thing that happened in our second term which was all of a sudden we realize it was this cast and it wasn't from washington that it wasn't from the guys were building government systems. it was getting all this great talent that come into one room but that was washington realizing all the talent doesn't come from dc, maryland and virginia.

>> it's a big country. we've been through the selection sort of like the elephant in the room, you all are democrats obviously. i want to talk about that a little bit and what reflection if any you have about the gender nature of the campaign we just saw, the first woman presidential nominee ran, lost the election, won the popular vote . a lot of questions about ways in which gender was a factor both positively in some ways for hillary clinton but also in undercutting her ultimately and i'm curious both what your thoughts are on how much you thought about gender in a different way as a result of seeing where we are nationally in the campaign and also you brought up the structural things we are trying to do in the government, how much is at risk as you change both the party that controls the white house but also you have an incoming president who has

taken a very different approach both on a policy and on a political level toward women. >> when i think a government what you can do and i've learned this through my first time in government, i was in the civil rightsmovement or many years before that . you hopefully are able to measure, are able to do work and you are able to defy the structures and support networks and hopefully those that don't speak for themselves, you set an example for the folks who follow you and that's the most you can do , you talk about how you get your turn in the race and then you hand off the baton and hopefully you can measure what you've accomplished, you can talk about how you accomplished it and set an example for others to follow and you know, it's to be hoped that those metrics and measuring sticks at some level speak for themselves and at some level you can hope the country will hold others accountable to the standard you had when you were in office.

>> i want to echo that because i had some personnel folks, that was going on another direction including the debates. we did this because we actually believe that's what made government work better, that's how you get better talents. you create a better work environment in which talents are recognized and attacked and utilized to best resolve and if we're right about that, that holds true regardless whether it's republican or democrat and the structures to celia is referring to, which we have a lot of them , it's the way we are recruiting folks, those things, valerie has that other role in the federal government, and we have gender and pay inequity. i think those are good for any workplace and i am hopeful that because of that, that's going to continue and we got those structures not just in one place but one of the other smart things the president did was most of the things we had gotten as a

model for women and girls is what we'vedone and what he has done, what the nsa has done is to credit through the agency, it's not a top-down effort from the white house. it was from everybody across the agency and most of the initiatives we've done actually lived outside the white house , inside agency regiments. >> i would say that supporting other women does not have to be part-time and i in my experience, while i've had some disappointing experiences in my own field i've been surprised by the number of republican women in my field who been supportive and helpful to me about my career. when i got the state department spokesperson job, janet perino sent me flowers. that was lovely. nicole wallace, there could not be in any more kind and generous advice giver. i had a great conversation with mary marilyn about what to do with my life a few years ago but i was to say that that's important to remember. we are human beings and we

can treat each other like that even in washington. i would say, this is not to be contrary to that at all but one of the things we saw from the election is certainly that sexism is alive and well and i think that's something that people in their 20s sometimes have not digestedand i'm not saying that in the blame way , i'm saying that in a you may not yet have experience sexism because everybody's coming into the same pipeline of jobs, that you are a staff personand the hill office . you will. so be present and mindful of it and realize that there is still more that needs to be done. that's not about electoral politics, that's about knowing what's happening out there. >> i agree and jen just said, in my job i use this political analysis and prognostication to others which isn't good for everybody.

>> i try not to break the law. >> my experience in this, in the last couple of months is certainly there's been a lot of boiling obviously in the politics, others, i will leave thatdiscussion to others. my focus has been in carrying out the presidents directive which has been from day one , well before november 8 but certainly on november 8 and every day sense to make sure that we are carrying out a huge, professional, comprehensive transition regardless. we had the same plan in place regardless of what the outcome of the election was and from where i sit, it's incredibly important and i think that responsibility exceptionally seriously. we all do in the national security team and our goal is on making sure we are doing everything possible to get the next team ready because that's what's in america's interests. >> i want to make sure we have a couple minutes for questions to get them ready,

several of you were talking about how you've experienced much more male-dominated environments in the white house , i can think of no more better example than the long time that you spent working at the fbi which i believe was something like 67 percent white men, not a lot of scrutiny on what the fbi did or didn't. that's playable in the elections by coming into today, how different is it, that environment that you experience versus the white house that you have and do you have anything to share with us as far as your own view about whether the fbi has moved into a more political realm? >> my experience is that the table, we will use the table metaphor. when i was staff of the fbi, it was not uncommon for me to be the only woman at the executivebranch , at the executive table other than the general counsel who is to

a terrific lawyer. but often times we were the only two likely at the table so that fact is not the same anymore for me in who occupies the table at the situation room so those are different experiences. the thing that i would say is the same is, i have had some amazing male mentors and at the top of that list is the former director of the fbi and i think i was an effective chief of staff, it was because he was especially clear that i spoke for him, i had all the authority of the director's office and nobody doubted the role that i played and that's because he was a tremendous leader and was very clear about the role that i played and at the same is true and i think all of us feel that way toward that section because of obama so those things are quite similar. unsurprising to you susan because you know i'm not going to wait into your

second question. >> who in the audience can do a better job than i have done in getting lisa to tell us what was really going on there? do i have takers for some questions for this great group? there you go in the front. >>. [inaudible] do you think that's because men have always been giving other men advice, and that's kind of like normal for them and for women maybe it's different or do you think it was for a different reason? >> i don't know, i think it's a highly personalized issue. it goes to some of these fundamental leadership qualities. their character, other than president obama, the leader who was most pivotal in my development couldn't seem more different.former attorney general janet reno

as i just explained, some of you are chuckling because these are two fundamentally different types of people but they had something very similar that i respected which is they led their institutions first and foremost focused on the facts of the law and completely impervious quite frankly to political influence and that is something that was incredibly formative to my experience but they came in two very different packages. >> i would just say mentoring is kind of like dating. it has to be mutual. i would say in my experience, i have found that i have developed kind of a mutual bond with one of my mentors in my career and he was unpopular with everybody but that's robert gift and he was one of the best bosses i've ever had and for me, that was because he gave me a safety net to know that i could always go to him and guide him but always gave me a long

leash to kind of figure out things on my own and everybody needs different mentor and and different relationships that will help you develop the best version of that but i do think there's probably, i've never thought of it that way in terms of what you said about men helping men and the kinds of advice men give versus the kind of advice women tend to give. that's probably something i know i can work on and maybe a lot of us can work on. >> this isn't necessarily a question,. i would not be where i am today if not for ... my parents. they made getting an education the top priority and we are very clear even though they were born in the depression, i never had a doubt that i could do

whatever i wanted to do and whatever i had set for myself. >> i will echo that, if that were my parents i would cry when i first came to washington, it was also a very male-dominated space that was important to be on my game and know my stuff and be well prepared and that advice has really stuck. >> there's a lot of people. and a lot of people who have given me a chance and they really shouldn't have to so i will just say that. i would say my parents also. i have this funny combination of parents where my dad is a super tight a person who reads seven newspapers in a day and i have it in me and my mom is like a therapist who goes to silent mindful meditation retreat think we sometimes need in this town and i did not grow up in a political family. we were aware of what was happening in current events

one of my oldest political memories is actually my dad saying to my mom that she was the only person in the country who voted for mondale. i was like five and i thought that's weird, mom. so i don't know how i got my start in politics but i wouldn't be where i am without them . >> actually, the women's movement. not just in a generalized way, that paved the way for us all to be here at a very specific way in that when i first graduated from college in 1978, yes, i was that old, i found myself at a low point so for those of you remember, my last three years of the equal rights amendment was in the state and illinois was the only industrial-strength and never ratified for the era it was a low point, the first time i met was scale, i was all of 23 years old, 19, 23 years old and cut mikey on

political action, women working with each other. it became an incredibly informative experience for me and sort of remarkable that kelly from that moment until when i arrived two days before inauguration here, in my new role as the public engagement and she came up to me and said you are that tina tchen. but there was that part, and that's something i learned from 78 and i learned that through what we've been able to do. tory burch was such a great partner with all that here, through the obama administration years later. >> good question, all right. >>. [inaudible] oh boy. >> some of you are looking,

thank you. some of you are looking at transition as you are working in the white house and to the present on how you want to overcome this. >> too numerous to mention. and not confined to rookies. but to kind of, not make light, i think it's a serious point. denies and that you've got, in my space i grew up as a lawyer. i worked for years as a prosecutor and when you appear before a judge you realize pretty quickly you'd better answer the question directly and own up when you don't have the information or you can't answer the question or you've made a mistake and that's something that has carried with me no matter what. so if you make a mistake, own it. if you don't have the information, be upfront about it and that will inure to your credibility and to the institution's credibility going forward. >> i think early on, i let

people mistake graciousness for lack of strength. and my personality is, i'm low-key, i'm not a person who sucks up all the oxygen in the room and the white house would be a scary place for starting and it took me a minute to make sure i was asserting myself with full confidence i think.>> i have many as lisa said, maybe just today i'll talk about but i would say two things i've learned. one is that, and this is from the states early on, the assumption that everybody else is doing it or presenting your point of view is often inaccurate or hitting something, i don't mean that for other people to do the work. if you have a good idea, put it forward. and then the second thing professionally, this is personal but it's also broader than that, we learned probably late that if

something isn't working, stop doing it. don't do it again.don't time again, this means even communications strategies and how you are going about communicating and this pace of engagement that the president does or we do, how we talk about things.have some humility about failure and embraced at and oftentimes you can build out of a hole and you learn the most from that so this is probably not an uncommon thing for most people, it's probably in every advice book in americabut that's something i learned from my experience . maybe not mistakes but like what happens to mistakes from the white house. >> i came from a big corporate litigation environment where you've got mistakes and you could make mistakes but usually in that environment there's a way to recover, you can go back to the judge and a plea for mercy another day, to review the brief area in this environment though, it's unlike any other.

it's like many people came to work in the white house, there is no job that you have ever done before that has prepared you for this and the constant microscope that you are under is unlike anything else i've ever experienced and so that although it tends to be something i tell young people, to make sure youlearn to do , no matter what your career i had no idea how much attention to detail mattered in this environment so that when you, which my team and i had the mistake of doing early on in the first year, and you leave someone like queen nor out of the first date when she can't get into the building and she standing at the front gate in front of all the press walking into the building , queen nor left out the gate, out on pennsylvaniaavenue, walking by the new obama white house, it becomes a new cycle to deal with . you have no idea. >> i remember this. >> you have no idea, nothing

prepares you for that level of scrutiny, of every little small thing that can become the thing that's like the new thing for that new cycle and that was about what happened at the white house but a good lesson to carry into my next life. >> thank goodness the news cycle is so quick. thank god. >> my colleagues here, we can look at this last section because then we need to move on. i think i'd like to thank you all for being here and giving us this opportunity . it's not looking necessarily so great for women's leadership in the post-obama democratic party. we don't see any women having up to run for chair, nancy pelosi is still there but a young white man gave her the strongest run for hermoney yet so do you , any of you or do you see the obama trying

to help elevate women in the democratic party and also as far as the firstcouple , letting girls learn so it's a focus on girls abroad. my brother's keeperhas been increasingly focused on both genders but it is a race related program . when we expect to see the obama is doing something to help women or girls in this country after they leave the white house? >> i don't think any of us knowbeyond the vacation what the obama's have planned or ourselves . we are not going but we are not going with the press here. >> a vacation would be nice. >> yes but beyond that idon't know that we know what they will do. i'm going to challenge you a little bit, you name to programs they do.i will say on a 5000 person summit , his gifts to something on the united states women that showcases more things, i apologize how long we went there because of what we have done for women and girls in

the united states and around the worldwent on for that entire day , between violence against women and combating calls which has been a continued thing and obama, it's been a government effort. on violence against women from a broad-based race background and elimination, economic opportunity and what we've done for women entrepreneurs and out there, i could keepgoing on and on . it's the legacy that i am quite out of that we have gotten out of president obama's leadership and with the first lady's leadership as well for women and girls. i can't speak to how much they will continue doing. i know there's lots of people in this room who will continue it. that's something i will always do and work on . and i think it is a record of progress, i've been telling a group the other night that

it's forward moving on its own momentum, that doesn't mean the white house is falling apart. >> i would quickly that susan obviously cares a lot about civic engagement as a first lady and that will play a role in their future they will take a vacation but one of the things he alwayssays and i think he would say if he was here, when you work for someone with 10 years you know what they would say is that it's never been about him and about them . i think is he going to be out there leading the march? probably not but is he going to, is he hoping that people will feel empowered and lead the movement for whatever they care about moving forward? yes. part of that is women, part of that is women's issues so i think that will be some of the role. the last thing i'll say and just turn to you is it was a tough year for democrats across the board but there were some rays of light in the were a lot of women elected are very prepared, at least the one young women who work for me. i worked for tom harris who

want personal notes, one of my sisters from college is stephanie murphy who beat john mica in florida, she's amazing and she's young and vibrant and excited and so look, i think we have a new age, we have a senator from illinois, my home state. >> there you go. i would say that there's always something to hope for and believing but i think it's now time to pass the baton and pass the baton on to who the next leaders are, that's how the obama steel and in a lot of ways that's how some of us feel were going to be involved in this in a different way so hopefully people in this room will come lead some movement . >> nice try. >> melissa, i think we are out of time, what a great conversation this and i want to thank all of you for sharing your experiences in the white house with all of us today and i'm going to turn theconversation over to our final discussion of the day .>>

>> so everybody here knows valerie jarrett. but she is, of course, deserving of an introduction, which is she's the senior adviser to the president, she oversees the office of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, and she chairs the white house

council on women and girls. and, of course, she is the first friend, as we know. [laughter] it's wonderful to have you here. >> thank you. thank you, carrie, it's good to be here. >> let's start with some news. this morning the white house put out system news about -- some news about the equal pay pledge that the white house has been pushing. tell us what the new development is. >> sure. well, tina mentioned the united state of women that we had back in june, and that's where we launched this pledge. and what we basically are asking employers to do is to commit, to take a good look at the data behind their numbers to see whether there is pay equity, to focus on some of the unintended biases and structural impediments that keep women from not just earning equal pay, but also competing on a level playing field and to speak out on this issue. we're happy to announce today we have over a hundred companies to take the pledge, and it's everyone from accenture to at&t, apple, mastercard, visa, johnson & johnson, estee lauder,gm, you

name it. and another thing that happened today is there's a new organization led by women who are ceos or former ceos called paradigm for equity. and they too have announced commitments by the private sector to look at the broad ranges of insuring that women are moving up the corporate level, receiving equal pay and competing on a level playing field. so we're very proud of the way that the focus has changed on issues of equity in the work force and that they're no longer women's issues. there are working families' issues, issues that are important to business. there's mounting evidence that shows that companies -- well, employers in both the private and public sector who appreciate the importance of raising the minimum wage, equal pay, paid leave, insuring that there's workplace flexible, that these are are what working families demand. if you going to attract and, importantly, retain the best talent, then you better make some serious reforms that

reflect those values of the 21st century worker. [applause] thank you. [laughter] >> tell us what happens to that initiative and similar ones that the white house has done on its own trying to bring in the private sector to make commitments. what happens to this program in particular after january 20th? >> well, as tina mentioned, a big piece of what we've tried to do by engaging all of you and folks from around the country in our initiatives is to empower change to happen outside of the white house and outside of washington. and that's where it's most sustainable. and so simmons college, for example, has agreed to be really central point of a consortium of employers who want to help one another figure out the best practices for pay equity. and so that will be housed outside of the white house. it's on us, many of the first ladity's to initiatives -- lady's initiatives are housed outside the white house. it shouldn't depend on who's in

the white house if we've done our job right. >> on that point, we're familiar with the white house, the council on women and girls. a big part of that is you placed folks in the agencies as point people to consider women as they make policy. again, it's manager that we, you -- it's something that the president did early on in his first term through an executive action. is so give me your best 30-second elevator pitch as to why the next administration should keep this. >> well, it's really important that you have a whole-of-government approach to insuring that every young girl gets a fair hot. and it isn't enough just to have an isolated office in the white house. what we've done is to empower people in the agencies, many of who are career workers who will be there long again after we leave to see it as their respondent to look at everything they do through a gender lens. and that that's the way you actually can have the maximum impact from the federal government. and then the other piece of it, most importantly, which i've already talked about is it isn't

enough just for us to talk to each other, we have to talk to all of you and really build momentum for the kinds of policies and practices that will create that level playing field. >> a little longer than 30 seconds. >> i know. [laughter] hard to condense. >> but it was pretty good. [laughter] you know, on the issue of supporting women in the workplace, i had a conversation or with kelly anne before. she gave you a little of the same flavor i got which is why she isn't going into the white house. and the reason is her kids. she has four kids under the age of 12. and really it's, she's essentially saying it's different for women than men, and she can't do it. and her implicit message really, to me, was motherhood and white house service at the highest levels is not compatible. so i'm wondering from you after spending eight years there, can you really disagree with her on that? >> yeah. in fact, i ran into kelly anne backstage. i won't show all of our conferring, it was private.

but i encouraged her to give it a try. first of all, because the experience inside the white house, working with somebody who you respect and know as well as she does the president-elect is unique. and i've had the benefit of that, and i wouldn't have traded the last years for every -- for anything, the last eight years for anything. now, my daughter is 31, so it's obviously easier on me. i'm single, so this this can be4 hour a day focus. but i know there are a lot of women who did raise young children in the white house. and i think it starts at the top. if you have a relationship with your boss such that you can say, look, this is a top priority. i have nothing -- there's nothing more important to me than being a good mom. but i think i can be a good mom and have the flexibility enough to do this job well p. that's manager i encouraged her to try. and it also depends. i mean, i think early on when we first arrived if you look at the crises that the president inherited with the economy in a freefall, the banks on the verge

of collapse, the automobile industry in collapse, people losing thousands of -- millions, really, of jobs, 800,000 a month, millions over a very short period of time, homes evaporating before people's very eyes, we had a lot going on. and the economy was the biggest challenge, but we had many other challenges as well. we're leaving the new administration with a very stable economy. the up employment rate's gone from a high of 10 down to 4.6. we have a very, very good, affordable care act in place providing health care the millions of americans. [applause] we have a great climate deal on the global stage. there's a lot that's much more stable now. i guess what i'm saying. and so -- i encouraged kelly anne to try it. you can always leave if it doesn't work out, but i think that, actually, it's good for the president-elect to have people around him who he knows well and he trusts. >> i know there was some thought given to this when, when the president first came into office. and i guess maybe probably every

president that comes in gives some thought into how the kind of culture you create in the white house. i even think i might have written a story early on about the attempts to dod that. and i think -- to do that. i think there were some people who thought can you really -- i think there's a kept sit. what advice would you give to this next president on how to create an environment in the white house or really anywhere or that's good for not only women who have children, men who have children as well, for families? what is, like, the one piece of advice you'd give to donald trump about how to create that? >> well, i'm not going to give advice to just the president-elect. i'd like to speak more broadly to say the tone starts at the top. so if the boss says it's a priority to have workplace flexibility, to prioritize working families, to insure that people can thrive and compete on an even playing field, you have to not just say it once, you have to reinforce et. and you have to reinforce it through your policies. so, for example be, we have a

three month maternity and paternity policy in the white house. it's not just good enough to have those policies on the books, you have to actually encourage people to take advantage of them. and they won't do it unless the culture gives them permission to do so. so my advice to people who are forming a team and want to have the best and the brightest which includes women, that you have to not just talk the talk, you have the walk the walk. and you have to encourage the senior members in the organization to do the same. i was just mentioning backstage to a few of the folks when josh earnest, the press secretary, took paternity leave, it sent a very important message to the men in the organization that one of the senior men made that decision. early on when his infant was young, he didn't do the travel with the president. he said, no, i need to be home at night. and so i think my message to people who want to create this kind of workplace where you cannot just attract, but retain the best possible talent is you have to reinforce those policies

so that they become culture. and when they become culture, that takes some time, it took us some time to develop kind of culture we have today in the white house which i am very proud, i consider to be, supportive of working families. if you build that over time and people at the top set the right tone, it can actually happen. >> sure. shifting gears just slightly, something that i'm fascinated by finish and we talked a little bit about this on the way up here -- i really could love to be a fly on the wall inside the white house right now. the final days of an administration, of a white house, people who have, obviously, you've been through a lot together. you've said this many times, you just said this to me, that you don't want to leave anything on the table. it's busy, you're going flat out. i get that. i would really love to know, like, what is it like right now? s what is the mood inside the white house, take us inside in the final days. >> well, i've been there since day one, so i'm not going to

pretend that it's not traumatic. i've spent eight years of my life doing this. i've had the same job, which i don't know how that reflects on me -- and i'm proud of this, every other woman who is an assistant to the president has been promoted into that position by president obama. and i think that reflects on how he has not just recruited women, but promoted them actively within his organization. and i think -- i say all this not just to brag about the president, which i do every chance i get -- [laughter] but also to say that we're a family. and many of us, jen, i started working with her during the campaign. tina i've known for 30 years. and we're all like family. and so it is, in a sense, i suppose the analogy would be when my daughter went off to college. you knew it was going to be different. it wasn't necessarily going to ever be quite the same again. but just because it's different doesn't mean those relationships end. but it is, it is hard to say good-bye to the people and also to the privilege of working in the white house. so there's that element.

the president has been clear with us that our number one priority -- other than finishing up the business that we have left to do before january 20th -- is to insure a smooth and orderly transition. and i often say, as the president has said, that president george bush and his team could not have been more supportive of us. and i was skeptical. i was one of the co-chairs of the president's transition, and i didn't expect -- considering we'd been quite critical of him during the campaign -- that he and his team would be as supportive as they were. they were terrific. and so we want to make sure -- it's part of what we should pride ourselves about our democracy -- that we do everything possible to prepare for that smooth transition. and the other thing that's taking up a fair amount of my time is i want to make sure all the folks on my team land well. to see them go out and change the world from outside of the white house. so i'm trying to help them as well. so, you know, obviously, we were surprised by the outcome of the election, and it's kind of, you

know, was like a -- i'm not sure what the right analogy would be, like a punch in the stomach, let's say. soul-crushing might be another description. [laughter] but that's the democracy that we have. the people get to decide, and the elections matter, and we have to get about the business of doing our job. so i think the president is, as you all have seen through the media, i always say about him when people say what's he really like, i always say just like you see, him on television and in the press. he sets the tone, and he's upbeat, he's excited about what we've accomplished and also beginning very early stages of figuring out what he's going to do next. so i think the mood is a lot better today than it was the day after the election, that's for sure. >> given that we're on the election, let me just is ask you one question. from your perspective, what did democrats, the white house, what did you get wrong about america in assuming that donald trump had no chance? >> you know, i don't know.

i think there are political pundits and researchers who will be asking that question for weeks and months and years ahead. >> but what better person's position than valerie jarrett? >> i don't know. i think it's complicated. i think there are lots of different factors that probably entered into his success in winning over our country. and i think part of what not just democrats, but people in general have to do is some soul searching to figure out what can we do to continue where i think president obama did so effectively both in 2008 and 2012 of creating an inclusive coalition. and that's why he won, because he made people feel as though they were a part of manager and that we were in this -- something and that we were in this together and the wove the fabric of our country together. i think we have to figure out how to do that again. >> we did hear from the president-elect this morn, he spoke about his relationship with the current president, and i found this to be pretty interesting, and i'm going to quote it. i really like him -- this is donald trump --

[laughter] about president obama. i really like him. we have, i think i can say at least for myself -- i can't speak for him -- but we have a really good chemistry together. we talk. he loves the country. i will tell you, we obviously very much disagree on certain policies, but i really like him as a person. and i must tell you i've never met him before this and never spoke to him before. i really, i really do like him. [laughter] >> i like him too. [laughter] >> i love getting his ideas. so i think maybe to some of us who just, you know, through the campaign, i mean, to a lot of people i think in this room it probably feels a little like whiplash, right? what is your reaction to that? >> i understand why he likes him. [laughter] i guess i wish he'd gotten to know him sooner and had spent some time with him. i also think it reflects on president obama's attitude which is he's being very open and available and accessible. and, look, we've learned a lot