c-span2's booktv is in prime time this week at the bank will look at the 2016 election. up next hillary clinton gets her account of the presidential campaign and election in her book "what happened."

on behalf of the entire staff, thank you so much for coming. [applause]. what a marvelous crowd. [cheers and applause]

>> and what a great space for a book events. fakes to the warner theatre for making this spacious lace available and as much as we enjoyed posting our authors at our store on connecticut avenue northwest, we had a feeling that a somewhat larger venue would be needed for this one. [cheers and applause] in fact, this is the largest author talk that we have ever sponsored. [cheers and applause] and it tickets sold out in a matter of minutes, so congratulations. you all are the lucky ones. since its release a week ago, "what happened", hillary clinton's new book about the 2016 election has landed on the best seller list and generated nonstop commentary and

conversation. some things never change she is given a number of any abuse about the book, but tonight she is here with us in person for what is the first to stop on a 15 city tour that will take her across the us and canada. [cheers and applause] in the dates-- days and weeks immediately following the election she took long walks in the woods with her dog, consumed more than a few glasses of chardonnay and tried and tried to gate-- regain her bearings. 10 months later she is back with renewed strength and fresh purpose and with a thoughtful and very personal accounts of why she lost and the lessons that can be learned what was in summary ways in deeply confounding and disturbing race. many are familiar with hillary's long and storied career from

lawyer and advocate for children to first lady of arkansas, first lady of the united states, us senator from new york, us secretary of state and the democratic party's presidential candidates. [cheers and applause] >> she is the daughter of hugh and dorothy, wife of the bill, mother of a chelsea and grandmother of charlotte and aidan. along the way hillary also has managed to write books. this is her sixth and reviewers of it so far seem to agree on at least one thing, in these pages she is less guarded than ever before, more revealing, blunt and authentic. she says she didn't intend the book to be a comprehensive recap of the campaign and it isn't, but it does convey with raw emotion, humor and insights how

it felt to run for president as the first woman nominated by a major american political party. [cheers and applause] and how it has felt to deal with the aftermath of a shocking defeat. one other thing comes through loud and clear in what happens, hillary intends to remain active and to speak out. [cheers and applause] hillary will be in conversation appear with my wife, lissa muscatine in the to go back a long way. at various times over the past two and a half decades, she has worked with hillary as a speechwriter, communications director, book collaborator and campaign advisor including several stints in helping in the 2016 campaign you're currently she is writing her own book about her experiences as part of

hillary land, a small group of staffers, mostly women who started with hillary 25 years ago in the white house and have remained in her orbit since. i would like to take a moment to recognize in the audience this evening are a number of of hillary's 2000 campaign staff. they are out there somewhere. [cheers and applause] they toiled mightily for months to help their candidate earned nearly 3 million more votes than the republican nominee. [cheers and applause] and now, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the woman who won more than 65,800,000 votes in the last election, hillary rodham clinton [cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause]

>> 10-- thank you all so much for coming. you sound like 65,800,000 people it's great. it's such a great crowd. thank you for being here and thank you for being here. i feel like we just did this, but that was three years ago. we did it for your last book, hard choices and we are back for what happened. it's "what happened". it's not what happened? what happened! congratulations but number six. by the way produced in record time, i might add and it's a

very personal book which i'm sure those of you that have read it no and if you watch the interviews and you'd heard about you know, but i want to say one thing before we get started. it's about the 2016 election and because hillary clinton is hillary clinton it delves deeply into a very broad range of important issues from the erosion of our democratic institution, that totalitarianism creeping into too many aspects of our lives, the really back of voting rights, healthcare, and barman protection, economic and social justice and ongoing and more advert examples of sexism and racism across our country. us as we get started that if you don't have it yet you will pick your book up on the way out and in washington there is that thing where you look an index

any pick and choose, started beginning, read all 469 pages, because she has a lot to say and she has a lot to say about really, really, really important challenges facing this country and if you read from start to finish you will learn a lot and it's fascinating and really important stuff in the book, so thank you for that, but tonight we will try to keep it a bit more personal. if that's okay and when to start with how the book even came about and i'm going to remind you that you and i had a conversation way back in the winter, early winter and you mentioned you are thinking of writing a book about the election and then we had several more conversations about this over the next weeks and months in each time i said to her emphatically, you're nuts. that's a crazy idea. why would you do that?

it's way too soon. you are still processing everything we are still processing everything i don't know about the rest of you and i don't know about you, but everyone was experiencing weird things like insomnia and anxiety , gastrointestinal disorder. a friend of mine who is a doctor in washington said it's an election related syndrome. so we are all going through this and so i didn't see how you could possibly in such a short space of time and so soon after the election process all of it for yourself and of course you are the central actor in it, so i'd vice you to not write and of course thankfully she didn't listen to me and that was wise on your part. now here we are with this wonderful book and i am just wondering, how did you process it so quickly and apparently

this did not involve therapy along the way. [laughter] >> that's a sign of something. [laughter] >> actually, it was my therapy to be really clear. lissa has been a friend of mine and colleague of mine for a long time now and is a terrific writer, was a great reporter when she worked for the post and other publications, so i take what she says very seriously when it comes to writing and she did come to see me like a number of my friends who rallied around , came to support me, listen to me vent, share their concerns and worries and i have

after that election as you can read in the book, prima checking on to say to anyone. i was so devastated and it was incredibly painful and it took weeks of just getting up every date cleaning closets and going for walks in the woods, all the things i did to begin to clear my head, but other people were commenting and writing about the election and i didn't think there was a broad enough you really and competence of understanding of what it looks like to me in real time and what i believed happened, but i was not sure and i knew it would take a lot of analysis and evidence gathering and i do kind of believe in fax. [cheers and applause]

i just began to talk and listen to people gather information and i think that it hit me really around the inauguration when people talk to me about going to do and will you write something else and i was still just trying to muddle through. it really hit me there were these very important issues that needed to be discussed, debated even that our democracy and country relied upon the kind of self-examination and i thought, well, i need to know what happened and i need to be as honest, candid, open as i can in order to figure it out for myself and maybe doing it in a book would provide the discipline, the deadline to try

to think it through and so really starting in february i dove in and i just decided i was going to write its and it was painful. i say in the book that i would write about something and have to go lie down because it was so hard to think about the mistakes i made, missed opportunities, but then also to come to grips with these other big forces at work that i think had a determinative impact on the outcome, so it ended up being very cathartic for me personally and from what people are telling me as i begun to do book signings and talking about the book i think it provides some catharsis and some opportunity for reflection for other people also and i'm happy about that

because there is some really important issues we had to come to grips with and i wrote it not just to say what happened, but we-- what we need to do to make sure what happens doesn't happen again and that's what i will spend time on. >> amen. just to follow-up for second on how hard it is, i mean, as i said you are the central actor in writing about yourself and obviously mind-boggling experience to argue and i share a favorite author and cheryl street. i don't know how many of you have read "wild" or seen the movie and you have a call from her the book and i think i may have mentioned that she once said to me, i asked how do you write about these things so deeply personal and she said i write to get to a deeper truth. if i'm not going to be honest with myself why do i bother to write, but getting to that deeper truth of you-- as you have experienced is hurtful,

overwhelming, painful, can be set in europe to deal with things that are intensely private so i'm wondering, did you censor yourself at all. were there times when words are thought was too much and you could not go there or what did you do to try to get to that next level? >> i ended up not censoring my thoughts, not censoring what i put into the book. i will admit i censored some of the original language. [laughter] >> shocks. you should have left that in. >> some of those early then tina sessions, i had a great team of people who vented with me and did research for me and helped me better next lane what i was venting about, but i did not hold back at all on what i saw as my own shortcomings and my deep disappointment, not just

for me, obviously before the country, so it was not censored. it was candid and it was something that did help me get some deeper and bigger truth about me, about our country, about some of the really difficult forces that we have to face, the concerns i have about and i'm sure we'll get into everything from sexism and misogyny and race and the russians, just voter suppression, i mean, there's a lot there that i was learning as i was writing because when you're the mill of the campaign and i know there are people here who have been involved in campaigns and for that i thank you. when you are in the middle focused on immediate tasks and you know what the overall goal is, obviously to win and you

have your strategies in your tactics, but every day is 18 hours of the hardest concentration work trying to move it forward. it's hard to let your head up, but sometimes it's hard to really understand everything that's happening at the same time, so being able to step back a little, go through it analyze it and write about it helped me a lot. >> did you learn anything about yourself that you did not know? >> you know, i really believed anything in retrospect it was a misconception or it was certainly out of sync with the time in which we are living in the candidate i ended up running against because i did have this idea based on my prior experiences in presidential campaigns really going way back

into the late 60s and 70s that it mattered greatly if you could make clear what you wanted to achieve, didn't have to have all the details, but that it was important because when you are in office they couldn't judge you on whether or not you were fulfilling that committee made, so we spent a lot of time making sure that everything i said about policy and how we pay for things and all that was bulletproof because i kept thinking at it's really going to better and for ulcerative reasons it reasons it didn't and i think i think i stayed with two focused on a path that was not the direction that the cable is headed because of the pressures from outside forces because of the reality tv candidate that i was running

against. i think i was not as adept or as quick to try to figure out, okay what is a better way for me to try to communicate this, so these are things that you do the best you can and you think you are running kind of campaign and you realize that the press is not covering the policy you are putting out every day. they are covering an empty podium and i kept thinking we would still breakthrough because it people really do care what kind of jobs and of the structure and healthcare and other things you want to do for them and their families and their incomes, but there was a disconnect so i learned i was an i think quick to kind of make some adjustment along those lines. >> you also say in the book you developed a new appreciation for simple ideas i think that's part of what you're getting at.

>> there is a difference, i mean, the big simple ideas, i still believe that a big simple idea like we would raise taxes on the wealthy, that's a big simple idea and i did have that idea centered in my campaign, but there is also i think an important debates about-- in politics today when we have a really intense quick movement of news and it's very short attention span and social media pays-- plays a bigger and bigger part, trying to to develop a relationship with voters or gender competence and voters that you know what you're talking about you will deliver because you do understand the complexities may not be as

significant as repeating those big ideas over and over again and leaving the details for later your crew knows, by 2020 maybe people will want details again and policy again, so you never know. just not outlining every single detail ahead of time necessarily , which i thought was an interesting observation. one other quick thing about what it feels like because you are so revealing in the book about what it feels like to be a presidential candidate and you have constant incoming, good, bad, medium and you are trying to assess different information from different people all the time and it was interesting that you say in a number of places that there were times when you wish you had struck back that you had been criticized or challenged by bernie on wall

street's and-- wall street and others, by matt lauer in that really awful interview. by code lee and of course we had the jaws imitation by trump on the debate stage. so, in each of those it sounds like-- i want to say also by the weight even though you didn't say it, do you know how much it warmed the hearts of tens of that-- millions of americans that you thought about saying back up you creep. [cheers and applause] >> but, in those situations it was honestly such a relief to know you're even thinking about it, but in those situations you were not able to do that and you thought yourself constrained and see for yourself was in a straitjacket at times. what makes it so hard to be able to do that in those situations

and i'm sure it has something to do with being a woman, but i will let you answer that. >> i think it has a lot to do with being a woman because it's very hard to be perceived as strong as opposed to aggressive or another word you can think of so part of the challenge is how you modulate, how you present yourself in a mature appropriate way as a woman seeking a job no other woman has had and i write a whole chapter on being a woman in politics, but much of what i say goes for being a women in business, being a women in any profession. it's not just politics and i think as i try to describe my thought process up on that stage in the second debate it was

hard. we practiced what i would do if he invaded myspace because we kind of assumed he would because he had his own issues that he was trying to push through at that time and so we knew it, but once you are there and it's actually happening to you in real time in front of 60 million people or something you are discomforted. you are annoyed. you are little frustrated that he is stalking you and staring at you and so i was going back and forth, but i had believed that it's better not to show the kind of reaction in the middle of a presidential debate. as you might think back, funny gestures, facial expression,

heavy sighs, things really do affect viewers and i just ended up believing that in addition to the gender link aspect of this there was a history of people in presidential debates who had deviated in a way to show frustration, anger, dismissiveness, whatever their feelings were and paid a heavy price for it and i thought whatever price they paid i would pay double or triple and so i thought okay-- you know i sort of thought at the end of the day people would say, yeah we really do want someone who is calm and composed in the oval office. [cheers and applause] so, i was aware of all of the different crosscurrents, but i

carried on in a way that i thought was what a president or someone who wants to be president should do. >> you say in the books it-- book and i think you are referring longer to the campaign that you have to wait your composure like a suit of armor and that's what you did. >> everyone in the audience knows that feeling that the next day or the middle of the night you wake up and say if only i had said that. there's always that, i mean, it's the toughest job in the world. it's a job that requires or at least used to require a level of-- [cheers and applause] >> you know, curiosity and focus and things that you would want to think someone with that responsibility would have and i

honestly believe we were in a different kind of campaign unlike any i had ever seen before amy i watch people go up and down in campaigns. i worked in them and was deeply involved obviously in my husbands to campaigns. i know that evan flow of a campaign. this was really difference and i don't think anyone fully grasps how it was a variation on a presidential campaign unlike any we had ever seen and i now looking back see a lot of different signals about that, that maybe i could have and campaign could've done a better job at how to push back on or make more transparent for the people to understand. boy, i will say you what, that campaign of his that have the best empty podium anyone has ever seen i mean get people to think it even laugh a little bit about what was happening in that campaign, but that didn't happen

soon enough and it didn't happen and quite enough places. >> did you watch the emmys last night at all? >> i did. >> many people may know you and your husband are big fans of television dramas and comedies and if you watched as i'm sure many of you did you would know the handmaid's tale was a big winner and you and i have talked about that book in the past, written in 1985, work of fiction that of course is now this wildly popular tv series that is about a liberal democracy slowly and definitively becoming a totalitarian state, which, of course, is sadly resident at the

moment and that whole idea of the normalization of the abnormal is terrifying. by the way, doesn't it bug you when people say trump this is the new normal, i mean, we should never call it normal; right? it's like the new abnormal, not the new normal, but, i mean, seriously it's terrifying and the handmaid's tale resonates because of that work you do talk about that in your book and from voter suppression, manipulation of the media to fake news everything else and just the default on the democratic institutions we rely on that we need to be able to trust. it's scary and you, of course, we will get to the fake news a minute. >> part of the reason i was motivated to write this is because of what happened at the inauguration and i write the

first chapter about what it felt like to go to the inauguration and what a hard decision it was, but how i thought that it was important to show continuity of our government. i was certainly hoping to hear words of reconciliation and bringing the country together after a very divisive campaign. didn't hear that and i felt very uneasy about that inauguration. i have been to a bunch of them and i have been when people i supported one and people i supported lost, but this was different. this was not a normal inauguration and then it was made even more surreal with the claims about the crowd size and the introduction of alternative facts and then i started thinking, this is much more than

just transfer from a two-term democratic presidents to an unusual, but republican presidents. i just couldn't really grasp how big a challenge they intended to pose to facts and evidence and reason, all of which are fundamental to the functioning of a democracy like ours and so when i saw that-- [applause]. i thought this is much bigger than any transfer of presidential power that i'm aware of in recent history because of the assumption that the new administration was

operating on in the brazenness of their attempt to distort reality and impose their version of facts and truth on all of the rest of us despite what we saw with our own eyes. that it bothered me greatly because i have said before if i had lost to another republican candidate, someone else had emerged from the republican primary i would have felt bad. i would have been disappointed, but i would not avoid about the fundamental future of our country, our institution, our rule of law and this imperative of reason that some motivated our founders which is still absolutely essential, so i think this became a resident dame with

me because you can disagree about policies. you can disagree about all kinds of things, but you can't begin to chip away at the basis of our government's functioning our democratic norms without paying a big price, so yes in the book you won't be surprised that i mentioned the handmaid's tale. i mention 1984. i mentioned trade new world because i want readers to say, i may not agree with everything she says, but i have to agree with this fundamental premise that we can't sacrifice truth and facts on the altar of person ship and the desire on the part of a particular presidents and his administration to control

the news to undermine the first amendment, to just created this alternate reality because i think the stakes of what we face in this time are just profound and i have said before and i will repeat it here, i think this president and the people who serve him on this alternative reality track are posing a clear and present danger to the future of our country and i think one of the most powerful, clearest most persuasive chapters in the book is the one about controls and russians and fake news and you begin that section of the book

and i know what a beer favorite books-- i know one of your favorite books and you have a line that begins the section of the book, when reason fails the devil helps. then, of course you talk about fake news, troll bots and my favorite term from russia, with no love. but in all seriousness this is an incredibly clear connecting of dots based on what evidence is now available. presumably there will be more coming outs, but anyway, thank you for that because it's really essential that everyone read that. i have also no dirt-- never had a chance to thank you for something publicly that i would like to thank you for now. how many of you were in washington during what is now infamously known as pizza gate?

those of you have been-- that have been to politics and prose no that the stores only a few doors down from comment ping-pong and you were on to this stop because of what was going on in the campaign before a lot of us realized the extent of it and you and i spoke shortly after the election and you knew that comet was being targeted and politics and prose and some of the other businesses were being targeted and you said you were willing to speak out about it for which we were grateful. at the time everyone thought we needed to lie low for a bit. of the day the gunman with the assault weapon walked into comet on it afternoon, about an hour after that you and i communicated and i told you what was going on and you responded instantly and we were so supportive which was incredibly helpful. we were on lockdown in the entire block with police running up and down the street and then people don't know this, a few

days after that you and your husband said what can we do to support comet. can we buy pizzas and you bought i don't know many how many pizzas, but it was a lot of pizzas and sent them to a literacy program, afterschool literacy program in dc, which was never publicized. [cheers and applause] >> you checked in on me a lot because we were not dealing with it in the same way comet ping-pong was, but we were also getting trolled with harassment calls. i just can't tell you how important it was for me, for brad and balanced-- and our entire block to know that you and president clinton were therefore as, quietly. i just never had a chance to thank you publicly and i do want to do that. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. >> if i could just say a word because we are in washington and this horrible chain of events happened here, but this is a

terrible example of what can be done by people who are malicious , but acquainted with the truth and preserving their own agendas whether it be commercial advantage, partisan advantage or any other goal. for those of you that don't follow it or may not remember it , but john's e-mails were stolen-- i hate the word hacked. they were stolen pick they were stolen by the russians. [applause]. and they were then through cutouts give into wikileaks, which is nothing more than a tool of vladimir putin and the kremlin. [cheers and applause] certainly, people associated with trump knew about it because in august, roger stone was

treating about how john podesta out would find himself in the barrel at some point ahead, so on october 7, 1 of the more infamous days in the campaign the day started with the director of homeland security, the secretary j johnson, the director of national intelligence, gemma clapper, saying that with high confidence they knew the russians had been behind those hacks, those thefts of e-mails. that happened in the morning. then, the hollywood access tape broke a few hours later and within one hour such an amazing coincidence wikileaks dump all of john podesta's personal e-mails. now, if you read those e-mails, i think, it's a little embarrassing to admit very anodyne, even boring, but

because they were the way that the russians and their allies whoever they turn out to be were able to generate constant interest really with two factors. one, they sent to the press on these wild goose chases all over the place. care comes a hundred more, here comes a thousand more, oh, my gosh pair given the other was that they created the illusion of transparency. if you think you are getting something from sort of behind the screen, maybe it's more legitimate even though you are being played by a bunch of russians and the psychology of it was brilliant and of course it's part of the russian propaganda effort something

called active the measures which they used in many other settings , not just in our election. well, you can only go so far with read these e-mails and listen to people in every campaign you can imagine debate about what to do when and who says what knowledge that, so they had to be weapon i used. they had to have elements plucked outs and perverted in a way that would be hard to imagine and then sent back out into the cyber virtual world. so, in one of the e-mails john podesta is talking that pizza. he's italian and greek amine you know. >> and a very good cook. >> a very good cook. his risotto recipe is still there if you want to see it and i'm sure there's something very nefarious about that result out recipe.

so, all of a sudden john-- one of these really i consider evil people in the media world and in the online world makes up this story that john podesta and i are running a child trafficking ring in the basement of the comet pizza parlor. >> by the way, there is no basement. >> yeah, there is no basement. now, you would think people would be laughing like crazy shaking their heads, but if you migrate that crazy story to facebook posts, to news outlets, there are people who will believe that including this very unfortunate young man in north carolina, who believed it.

it was meant to be believed to influence the voting. even i have to say i don't believe it was meant to be believed to influence someone to pick up an ar 15 and drive from north carolina to washington to liberate the imaginary children from the imaginary basement of the pizza parlor, but in condition man believing that he was on a mission because he saw it on facebook. he sought another places online. he sought in quote news outlets and so he was there on a mission of rescue. people could have gotten killed. he shot his automatic weapon off inside this pizza parlor. the street where politics and prose is with the shutdown. it was an active crime scene. people who cared more about

weapon icing information, making negative stories up than the truth, then fax or even public safety and certainly any concern about children was non- existence. they were determined to stimulate to propagate the attitudes that would grab some people in some states, some congressional district, some towns and counties so that they would be saying, gosh, if hillary clinton and her campaign chairman are doing something like that, they should go to jail. i can't vote for them. that's the worst example, but there are so many other examples that were the same pattern from stealing to give into wikileaks to propagating to weapon icing into someone's google chain,

into someone's facebook post and i think it's one of the most serious challenges we face going forward in politics, not just at the presidential level, but up and down because if we don't get a handle on information that is not just controversial, protected by the first amendment , but aimed at spreading lies to the extent that they can cause behavior like we saw in this terrible instance, it will not stop. i'm glad that the congress and others are looking at facebook and twitter and google because they are the vehicles, one of the very first vehicles to deliver this kind of information to people, but i was terrified for lissa and brad and their

employees and everyone on the street because i could see what the trafficking of that absolutely horrible information was meant to do and it got out of hand and we were just fortunate that no one was injured. >> and it keeps going, but the consolation and there is consolation is that the outpouring of support from our community was unbelievable for comment, politics and prose, people feel tremendous ownership about their communities and i'm i just say mike pence at that time was living about a mile away in a rented house before he could move into the vice president-- we would see his motorcade go up and down your did he want think about going in and buying a fisa pizza? of course not, but that

community has been fantastic and any of you that come to comments , thank you. it may date huge difference. i went to be a bit lighter for a second here p there's a funny moment in the book where when you see that president obama told you, don't try to be hip. you are a grandma. [laughter] >> just be yourself and my question is what is-- did he think you would run off to a soul cycle class or take a mixologist course, i mean, what was he worried about the mac probably so many examples. >> i'm just wondering. it's okay. he was an extra nearly supportive and helpful friend throughout the whole campaign. he would call me periodically and he would say, are you getting enough sleep. are you, you know, eating well to come with a happy getting

enough sleep and i think i'm eating well and he said are you exercising and i take think i'm getting enough sleep and i think i'm eating well, but he really stayed up with me, stayed up with the campaign and i can't remember which of the incidents he might have been referring to, but he was always just in my corner and had my back throughout the whole 18 months or nearly two years. >> so, you love words and she's a great writer. your husband loves words. did anyone see president clinton's guest crossword puzzle couple weeks ago? we will pay-- play where game. are you up for this? have you ever heard of the game boxers or briefs? >> what? >> boxers or briefs you know like if you are a guy do you like boxers or briefs or don't

worry, you don't have to answer that question and i will give you two words and you just have to without thinking this book is very revealing, but people know now its second which kind of hot spots you like in a note you do deep breathing. we will help out with a few more things and i will give you two words and you will just immediately whichever one most suits you you will answer. ready? >> i have to say a word about hot spots first. >> okay. >> i mean, i have carried hot sauce since 1992. i just want you to know that it's true. there were people who were actually accusing me of just making that up. >> it's not made up. >> now, it's not made up, but i do spend probably more time than i should in the book talking about hot sauce, so anyone went any recommendations, just let me

know. >> it is true for as long as i have known you hot sauce has been in your purse. we can all vouch for her. two words. they get progressively a little harder, but we won't do too many. tea or coffee? >> coffee. >> beach or mountains? >> what? >> beach or mountains? >> beach. >> shower or bath? >> [laughter] these are all really unfair and that's particularly unfair. >> these are easy. >> it depends on how much time you have. >> that's fine. pilates or yoga? >> yoga. >> vodka or chardonnay? >> again, it depends on how much time you have. [laughter]

[cheers and applause] >> history or mystery? >> i-- historical mysteries. [laughter] >> vladimir putin or trump? [laughter] >> yeah, well, i have to take that under a device meant for reasons, i ran against both of them. [laughter] >> excellent. i was going to say james comey james comey, who you also ran against. okay.

i think we will take some audience questions. you guys have great questions. a lot of them were similar and first of all, lots of people just said thank you and i could go through a lot of cards that just said thank you. [cheers and applause] quite a few also, related to young people and young women especially in getting into politics, so here's one that-- there are two similar. what advice would you give to a young woman who was to go into politics and another one similar that says would you encourage her daughter to enter politics if she were interested, but you knew she would experience the same level of is him you have your political career? >> let me ask you this question in general because i would say the same thing to any young woman who were to ask, i would say look, even though i write at length about the challenges that

women in politics face and point out it's not just me and it's not just democratic women, it is unfortunately still a very tough double standard. i would still say that if you are willing to enter politics either as a candidate, as a campaign staffer, as a person in government and public service because that's how i view the bigger definition of politics, you just have to be prepared and try to have the confidence without being walled off, without being too defensive and it's easy for me to say. i've been all of those things that various points in my public career, but it's a really great

experience and it is important to have more women in politics and it is important-- [cheers and applause] that we all support each other and in the political arena. you know, one of the great quotes that i have loved for years is elinor roosevelt same for any woman that enters the public arena she needs to grow skin as thick as the height of her in a rhinoceros you will be judged by everything from your hair to your voice to whether you are married or not married, whether you have children or don't have children, so it's a constant gotcha game and you have to be clear about why you're going into politics and what you hope to achieve through your efforts, but i see the book

by pulling the curtain back and talk about how hard it is i don't want to discourage anyone. i want people to be more aware of it, so we can call it out, but this is common across every walk of life and there's a fascinating article in the "new york times" sports section today about women in the sports and the grief they take because of their voice. as someone who has been called everything when it comes to-- well, everything, but i'm thinking particularly about it really struck home with me. you know, you just have to be prepared. you have to have at least a sense of humor to get through some of what you're going to face, but if you are prepared, if you educate yourself, if you are surrounded by good

supporters, friends, family, people who can tell you the truth like. [inaudible question] said it was a terrible lie did to write this book. i'm grateful because she's a friend and you need friends to tell you when things are good or not so good. i have this new organization called onward together that i've started. ..

i think there's a lot of good work to be done and it's interesting because that is how you met earlier and thinking outside the box about how to get people involved and engaged in support because they know a lot more than people >> after the election, one of the things that got me out of bed and moving again one of the stories i would hear. people would say there is a new young group one of your campaign staffers started called run for something and it's aiming at recruiting more people or there's a group called swaying left. they are going to trade with the house. a group i worked with before has a great record of electing women. color of change, which focuses on african-american young people, getting them into politics and doing some of that

work. so i felt like there's so much we can do because at the end of the day, i just have to say this and i hope you will help me figure out how to make it happen. everything we do, we can write books or speak out for protest, recruit people to run for office. but if we don't get people to vote, starting in virginia and new jersey and then in 2018. it's gratifying to see how many were never thinking of getting into office now. a few more audience questions. which of the democratic parties went on in the next election? it has to be both economic and

social justice. [applause] we have the better side of the arguments about how to make the economy grow, to be inclusive and to lift incomes and provide opportunities. we have to keep plugging away and not get discouraged and keep calling out. it's answering everything. i mean, that is the whole inside story of what's going on with this attempt to repeal the affordable care act for tax cuts for the wealthy.

we make a an online argument but it doesn't take the first time we have to keep going at it that we can't be promoting and standing up for economic justice for the exclusion of turning our backs on all the progress we've made in moving people forward on civil rights and women's rights and human rights. [applause] it could only be for people with civil rights, that's ridiculous. we want everybody to rise and have a better opportunity.

just getting back, the other big context of the handmaid's tale is how women treat other women especially women with power with women who don't have power, who've been marginalized and it can be very cruel. i'm glad you asked about it. i will start with a conversation i had shortly before announcing that i was going to run. and it was with sheryl sandberg, someone i've known for a long time and appreciate the work that she's done and the research working with professors at

stanford and university of pennsylvania marshaling again the facts and evidence about what actually happens in women's lives and how we perceive ourselves. she said he wished everybody understood what she thought was one of the major takeaways from this book which is the more professionally successful a man becomes, if you know what's coming to more successful she becomes less likable because our stereotypes come our presumptions about what's appropriate and not appropriate i get so powerful. they are rooted in our dna and millennia, so you say to yourself if that's the case what can we do about it? the second point she may become equally provocative is that

women are viewed much more favorably when they are in service to somebody else. so i was in service to the country and to president obama and a member of the cabinet. i left the state department with a 69% approval rating. people thought i was doing a good job because they could see me standing up for the country, standing beside the president, trying to solve problems and what was fascinating to me and it was horrifying and fascinating is how effective it was to just begin to knock that down and get to the point where we don't know what we think about it. and sheryl made this very clear. she said if you are in the

service to someone else you are viewed favorably. succumb in the workplace, if you go to the employer and say i think she should get a raise, she's been working so hard you get points because you are viewed as somebody who is a team player looking out for your colleagues. if you go and say i have been working hard and would like to be considered for a raise, it is held against you. if you are a man, it's not. these are not just attitudes that are deeply embedded in how we see women in the public are arena. now i won the women's vote but i lost the white women's vote. i got more white women both, however, then president obama in 2012. so, the problem is one that democratic nominees have to

contend with and figure out how to communicate and breakthrough better. now i personally believe that i was doing well enough with white women, even republican white women but it stopped my momentum and it played into the concerns that women have about whether they are making a mistake with their vote. i started going door to door in politics many years ago and i was always surprised when i would knock on a door and a woman would answer and say i am here for this candidate. i just don't know enough i don't want to make a mistake. that was my personal experience, and of course, taking it to the last month of this campaign.

all of a sudden people are being told something is going on. they are going to investigate her again. we could see that a lot of women in particular turned away. they were discouraged. i don't blame them, they didn't know what to believe. it was outrageous. but you've got to see how women are trying to do what they think of as the right thing for themselves and their family. they are often under pressure from people around them, a lot of anecdotal evidence about that. so, when a woman run is just to work extra hard to convince other women that she can do the job she is running for and we've made progress, not enough in the congress and the senate and

governor's offices, but getting people to feel comfortable at the presidential level is still a challenge. there's some statistics in my book that even among democratic women and men it's not 80 or 90% who think they would like to see a woman president. it's in the high 60s for women and in the 40s for men, which is a lot more than republicans who just have a hard time thinking about a woman in the white house. succumb if these are complicated psychological, political, emotional issues and if you think there is just one answer, you're probably going to be wrong. so we have to look at a broad set of responses and appeals to persuade women to vote for other women and try to make solidarity

around that. one of the nice things in the book is the sense of support you have from your own and and women and that's been true forever. you have friendships that have gone on and they really do come through for others when they are close to each other. [applause] [cheering] next question from the audience coming if you are comin into yoo the end of the time. i'm drinking chardonnay with you in solidarity. can you demonstrate our alternate breathing [laughter] >> i do recommend it. it's not that hard. googled it. what has been the most fulfilling part of your life so far?

>> my family and my friends obviously for me and doing work that i believed in and about isaf made a difference i write in the book about my marriage and my husband and my daughter and motherhood. i write about my mother, i write about my friends and because at the end of the day everybody has disappointments and losses. i view the book much about resilience and running for president because for me, having the support and the encouragement that i got from my family during the campaign and the aftermath and from my friends made all the difference

as to how i felt and whether i could sort of summon the energy and commitment to continue to play a public role on behalf of the causes and values that i care about. so, i think i am a very fortunate person and no matter what happens to you in life, understand that there are ways to get up and keep going. don't give up on yourself. [applause] >> here is a serious question we here all distressed about. [applause]

i was so distressed because there is experience and expertise among federal employees across the government. it's been hard won and years in the making. there seems to be a total disregard and even a contempt on the part of many in the administration for what the federal workers know and what they've done and the advice that they could give. the other night, i was talking with rachel matthau about this when it came to the state department. i have such a high regard for many of the foreign service officers and civil servants i worked with at all levels in the state department and i think about some of the crises that we

confront with north korea. people that know the language and history and have the experience in the korean peninsula and china and japan, they should be sitting in meetings with the highest levels of this administration providing advice and information that could be useful on behalf of the country. if there is such a disdain for the federal workers, so if we can stick it out, stick it out because the tide has turned. [applause] if we can take back one or both houses of congress in 2018, you will have people that you can talk to again.

but i know how difficult that is because i worked with people in the state department just being frozen out and mistreated. so i know that it is not easy for me to say this but i don't want us to lose the decades if you add it all up into thousands of years of experience in the epa in the state department and the labor department and a lot of the places that are being targeted by the administration. so i hope that we can maintain a core of experienced public servant and the government. [applause]

we are going to have to wrap it up unfortunately. i want one last audience question though what is your favorite flavor of ice cream? [laughter] >> hard questions. i guess chocolate. anything with chocolate. [applause] but i did want to say just a few more words about the future because that is what i am most focused on. it is important to figure out what happened in order to be better prepared. on the politics of who we are as americans, i am concerned that a

lot of permission has been given to people to be prejudice and lash out at others based on religion or gender or race and every other kind of identifying characteristic. i think it is very important that we not grow weary in standing up for what we see as core american values not permitting the clock turning back into people's progress to be reversed. there's a lot to be proud of and resistance and people doing the resistance every single day. [applause] and of course the great contrast that i write about seeing the inauguration on a friday and the women's march on a saturday. [applause]

and holding the line on repealing the affordable care act in a saving insurance for millions of americans is a really big deal. and there was praise for everybody to play a role. not everybody will start an organization or run for office, that everybody can be sure that everyone you know is registered to vote, you can be sure that if you have a free weekend, you can go to kansas and this year in virginia and new jersey you can start looking to see strategically where your vote will count for most because there's going to be some really competitive seats. i want 24 congressional districts that have a republican member of congress in them and so thinking hard about how you

can support people who stick their necks out and decide you're going to run going online to combat untruths and attacks into the trail, be one of those people that is standing up and posting something on facebook or making it clear people are not going to be given a pass if they are promoting falsehoods and personal attacks and really horrible positions whether it's white supremacy were ku klux klan. but we are not going to be able to get that answer because it is critical that people have a sustained commitment to taking our country back in the way that we believe it is at its best in

order to have a future that we believe it' is possible. and no one has more of a stake in that van young people. for me if i'm going to spend a lot of my time supporting young people, talking with young people, encouraging young peop people. cross every line that is meant to divide us instead of obliterating them into the lead integrated full lives with each other. it would be the rebuke to those that want to divide and undermine us and i'm very optimistic at the end of my day at the end of my book i talk about love and kindness that we

talk a lot about in the campai campaign. it's th the sights from the sits on the other side, their veins bulging in their necks, the yelling and pushing and even the violence. at the end i talk about what he can dwecan do and showed to goig forward. at the end of the book i'm optimistic because i believe we always summon the energy and keep moving toward a more perfect union. i'm going to do everything i can to help us get there.

[applause] we start the book with. thompson and keep going so this book by the way is a collection of the favorite source of inspiration. thank you for not going quietly into the night. [applause] >> none of us can afford to go quietly away. we need our voices and energy and i do believe it takes a village or in this case it takes a country to get us back on the right track and it's very

consistent with my beliefs that we have to bring people together to work together in this children's version of it takes a village, which is intended to say we all have to work together and may be you think it's politically correct, i think that it's america at its best. we are not going to go anywhere. we will still be here hiding and moving. let me end with a couple of quotes. by using your voice and writing this book and supporting work together you are a model for a lot of people who wonder what they can do and i just want to end with a few quotes that you include in your book and we can alter as we resist, persists and enlist, nelson mandela story is

not in never falling that rising every time you fall. consider yourself not with what you try to fail but everything possible to do and t.s. eliot. it's only trying. ralph waldo emerson, life goes on. but here's the best one and we will end on this and i think this is most appropriate for this evening and for you and what you've done for this country the last 25 years and well for the next 25 plus years. maia angelou but still i rise. thank you all very much for coming. [applause] [cheering]

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