hysteria over populism or trump is a matter -- i said esthetic. maybe a better word would be snobbery. >> you can one-half this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> thank you, everybody, for coming out. i'm the event coordinator another politics and prose. thank you for coming out to the wharf location. we host around 600 events a year at this location, at our flagship store on connecticut avenue, and also other venues around d.c. and tonight we pleased to host ann telnaes. if you could silence your cell phone, that would be wonderful. we're thrilled to host ann telnaes, who in addition to working for our very small local paper, the "washington post," is

one of the nation's most prominent cartoonists. in fact past president of the association of american editorial cartoonists. she hassed with the pew litter prize in 2001 and the ruben award in 2016, which puts her in such company as bill waters and many more. with her new book she jumps into another see of remarkable -- sea of remarkable artist, many responding in book form to the fallout of the 2016 election and their own personal way. there have been many books that have reported on president trump's words that have imitated his speech patterns but in this book "trump's abc" we have someone who is talking to the president on his own level, with a little bored book for four-year-old, but not for four-year-olds, but thank you for all thed toddlers in the audience and shows him as we

know him visually, squinting scowl, blotchy skin, many political caricatures in office or his nursery. so thank you all you kidded for coming. if you have questions, you can raise your hand after the talk and we'll have some questions. so, with that, i will turn it over. >> okay. do we need to just that's a little up or are we good? okay. so everybody can hear me? okay. so, maybe -- i'm short but not that short. okay. so, how is this? yeah? so, thank you very much for coming. this is the launch of "trump's abc book" in washington at poll fix prose, which is exactly where it should be. so since it's such a small book and i'm glad to see there are no children in the audience because there are few bad words in this. i'm going to read it.

so we're just going through the whole thing. i you have -- chris a small child. well, the adult next to the small child might want to put your hand over her ears but i'll warn you if you have your book with you, you can read along or just look up here at the projection. so, we'll start now. -for-americans who elected this guy. b is for brand, and access they'll buy. c is for conflict, of interest. don't care. d is for deafness, a trait they all share. e is for ego, so bigly and brash. f is for fake news, created for cash. hands over ears.

g is for grabbing pussies with ease, h is for helping elect such a sleaze. i is for itty-bitty his hands. j is for joke, his hair and spray tan. k is for trying to kill with no plan. l is for litmus, no abortions, a ban. m is for marriages, trump's had a few. n is for nepotism, a deal-making coup. o is for opportunityist, which trump is down deep. p is for pence, a fundamentalist veep.

q is for questions, will democracy survive? r is for rights, that they will deprive. s is for separation of powers, abuse, t is for tweeting, thin skinned and obtuse. u is for united which we are not. v is for vladimir, his election year plot. w is for wishful, thinking they had. x is for xanax which we'll all need real bad. y is for years, the damage is done. z is for zem and better days to come. [applause]

so, i'm just going to tell you a little bit about house this book came about. i did not plan to do an abc book. i had done a lot of sketches last year during the primaries, especially over the gazillion debates we had, and i originally tried to get a book published of those sketches, and my book agent went around and this is still during the primaries, still understand that people -- most people thought that hillary would win the presidency. myself included. and i just couldn't get any interest in it. think people were already kind of tired a little bit of it, and of course they thought that hillary was going to win. so the feedback i was getting from publishers was we would like to see a hillary book. said i can try that. the first female president. for some reason i had this nagging feeling and just

couldn't get it off the ground, i couldn't come up with something. then of course the election happened and we all were surprised. most of us. and i thought, okay, well now obviously everybody will be interested in a trump book. and you'd be amazed how many publishers didn't want to do a trump book, at least editorial cartooning trump book. so i tried that for a while. and then i just kind of put it aside and i happened to take a road trip down to savannah during the holidays, in between christmas and nears, new years, and i had an nine-our drive down and a nine-hour drive back and i was driving. my dog doesn't drive. so i didn't have my hands free to do any kind of sketches but i was thinking about a suggestion that a friend had begin me, which was to do a political abc book. so since my hands weren't free i put my phone on and started to

recite, aye is for blah, b is governor plow and i dade that down to savannah and back up and by the time i got to d.c. i had a book. which is amazing. if any of you are artistses, the hardest thing is to let go and let that happen. when you get something in your head that i had it in my head, i was going to do a different type of a book, but once i let go of it, and i just went with what was happening inside, it just came. so, that was the surprise. it was a nice surprise. and then i just took a few hours and did some sketching. so, then by chance i was giving a talk at the center for cartoon studies in vermont. a wonderful little art school, ifover driving through, stop, and look around. and i was talking to james

sturm, the cofounder of the college, and i was telling him about my book. he asked to look at it and say,'ll put you in touch with san ographics, and i went ahead and had an e-mail exchange with the publisher there, and it was great. it was like none of the other publisher. he said, yeah, let's do it. so basically, this was done at the beginning of 2017. the artwork was finished by may. i was a little concerned it wouldn't hold up. there's some things obviously that are not in here but i think it's held up because of everything that's going on. so i'm pretty pleased with it and happy i did it. if anybody has any questions i'd be happy to answer them. >> how has your image of trump changed as he has gone from being kind of the joke candidate to being the actual president?

how has your portrayal of him indiana i know the ties have gotten longer. >> the question is how is my depiction of trump changed from the primaries to now. yes, the tie is wonderful. the tie is a prop that keeps on giving. still playing with that tie. you know, i didn't really think of him as a joke too much in the beginning. i remember the first one i ever did was -- i've done a couple of trump before when he ran for president which were -- which he has done a couple of times that were more joke-like. but when he announced this time, i actually did a -- one he was saying me, me, me, the whole time, because it's all about him running for president. think in terms of how he looks physically, it's more -- for me caricatures are more about who the person is, and the more i

listened to him and the more that it realized that his is all about him, i think that is developed my caricature, and of course, the different i've done in the last couple of years is i've gone back to actually doing colors by hand instead of on the computer, and water color is a wonderful medium for accidents, and i don't even know how to use water color but it doesn't matter. >> there are 18 hour marathon road trips -- do you have any ideas -- [inaudible question] -- share them with us. >> okay so the question was, on my 18 hour trip did i have any other ideas that were more angry or too obscene to do? probably, but i don't remember them. i'll have to go back and listen. actually, it's amazing. except for a couple of letter is pretty much kept to this.

i remember going back and forth on the k is for killing without a new plan, about obamacare because at that time they were just in the middle of trying to kill it and i wasn't sure should they killed or didn't? so i made it -- i said issue think they're going to try to kilt but won't killed. but still have not killed yet. so we'll see. >> would you consider doing a sequel for his second, third, fourth. >> if he lasts that long? >> oh, god. >> i mean, there's like some new crazy -- >> you're right. the only thing find wanting are other thing is want to address. maybe could i do a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten book. we'll see. >> i for -- >> yeah. [inaudible]

>> there were different dish had to page a decision what i was going to do for each letter, and there were certain things i wanted to make sure i got in there like the separation of powers abuse. and i had to include something about his appearance and his hair, even though that's kind of silly, just because i think people would notice if it wasn't in there. i wanted to hit pick things. i wanted -- the using pussy was a deliberate thing on my part because this is something new. i work for the "pose" and i had to ask can i use pussy, and they wouldn't allow me to use nittany other situation but once the president says it, i'm allowed to use it and now i use is. >> what was the -- [inaudible] >> separation of powers.

>> what would would that be. >> good point. i could have done s-hole country. i'll say it. >> [inaudible] >> you're right. i could do another book. [inaudible question] -- you know to what extent he has objected to -- to what extent you have -- >> the question is, has trump reacted to any of my cartoons or let's broaden that, has he reacted to any editorial cartoon? not that i know of. i its because the man doesn't read. he gets his information from television. we're not on television so i think that's the reason he hasn't noticed us. there's been plenty of pork out there that has been pretty hard hitting against him from the

editorial cartoon. [inaudible question] >> they're looking for ways not to make him mad. >> -- [inaudible] -- something you came to deal with? >> no actually that was something they had to sell me on because i draw very large, and i tend to want my work printed large. so at first i thought it would be a bigger book, but then i was talking to dish had really great book designer, jacob, and gary, they both were telling me, we need to do this as a board book, and i thought, it's kind of small but when i saw it, i thought, yeah, this will work. i'm pleased they convinced me to do it this way. think it's perfect. [inaudible question] >> i draw about this large.

yeah. it's something -- the reason i draw large is because my background is actually an art background, and we were encouraged in art school during life drawing classes to draw from the shoulder and not from the wrist. so i'm always doing this. so i just feel i draw better larger, takes more time, but i feel it does a better end product. >> i am struck how well the rhyming flows through the whole thing, and i just wondered if that is hard? if that was something you went back and forth about? or developing -- >> the question is, the rhyming thing that it worked well and it was -- was it hard to do? i'm not a writer, and i -- maybe because i was in the car? i don't know.

you have a lot of time. i said a lot of things over and over and over. i'm sure hi dog was going like this the whole time down. but i'm not a writer. i think because i was raised on dr. seuss book that it might have helped but it worked. [inaudible question] [inaudible question] >> is there a way that it can --

>> how do i -- [inaudible question] >> i have to be honest with you. ever since trump became president, i just feel the need to draw. i have been drawing editorial cartoons now for 25 years, and even though i did a lot of cartoons that criticized the bush administration, i didn't agree with the policies there, this is a completely different situation for me because i think it's a dangerous time, and i wake up every morning just wanting to draw. i have to decide what i'm going draw. that's one thing i've made a conscious effort, to make sure that there's a lot of silliness, and being on social media, that tends to spiral out of control sometimes. i try to make sure that i'm criticizing actions and policy decisions and not just things like stupid things he says.

the to goes that have consequences. so, i don't know if imes always successful but that's what i try to do. personally, i'm having trouble sleeping a lot lately because i'm thinking about it. that's the only thing i do try to stop doing, is -- i don't tend to watch the evening news stuff, after the pbs news hour i stop because then my mind is racing for the rest of the evening. that is the only personal struggle i have. [inaudible question] >> i think it's going to go on for a while. i really do. there was a short time there right after he became president, i thought, well, maybe this is going to be over quickly. but the problem is -- and actually this is the stuff i do probably my most critical cartoons on -- is the republican

leadership are the enablers. they're the reason we're still at this point because they have decided that they are going to keep this man in office as long as he is useful to them, and unfortunately i think that the way that trump operates, what he responds to and what he wants out of this, it's going to be a back and forth situation with them and we just have to roll along with it. so unfortunately, it's going -- i think it's going to take a while. >> a little more on the point you just made. cartoonists with such visual medium, must be tempting to hop on the nuttiness, and not so much the more complicated stuff about what is going on with the -- [inaudible] -- so how do you find some way to make that visual, the more complex?

>> yes. exactly. the question is more about how do you decide the important issues to take on rather than, like, the silliness i talk about before. when he says stupid -- tweets out student words co cofve or whatever that was. it's a question of what aim going to address today and i make sure i keep the ones i might be able to come back to later. it is more difficult to do an editorar cartoon about a complicate thing. the environmental protection agency is a great example. they're gutting it. they're gutting it. and people will not realize that -- people won realize its affected them until they turn their toss faucet on and real a's they have dirty water. when people, specially tv is talking about the recent silliness, then that's what people are paying attention to.

[inaudible question] >> are there other [inaudible] of the administration that are recognizable, like -- [inaudible] -- that you can build a cartoon around. >> i love drawing pence. pence is like -- pence is one of the examples of the dish think my character doesn't look like him but it is him. i've down sarah luck huck. she is -- sarah huckabee. there's a lot of good characters in this administration. pence is -- there he is. >> you also have the shot with the kkk and the bar. >> host: pence is not in that one. >> but -- >> huckabee is. can you show the p is for -- g,

grabbing pussy. she's back there. and then -- this is interesting because -- yeah. >> there's a kkk -- >> the kkk was the last thing put in the book. that its right when that happened. this is actually dish this spread kept getting more and more people in it and i was so thankful when scaramucci dropped out because i was like, where am i going to put system and i didn't. [inaudible question] >> thank you for ending on a positive note. >> it wasn't intentional. it's funniment i have a close friend that i showed it to her and she goes, you ended it on a positive note. that's not you. and i said, yeah, well, i don't know.

z is hard but what am i going to do zebra or zen? >> can we go through from the beginning and you point out the characters? >> honor, sure, okay. so, you know who that is. so, these are just generic businessmen. and that's the generic trump person. this is actually something -- an image i remember from a post article where -- everybody talked about fake news now in the way that trump does. fake news, but in the beginning, there's actually countries they had teenagers writing fake news, which ended up on facebook, where people got all their news from. so, that was this image. so we have just a woman, trump, charlottesville, huckabee, spicer, mcconnell, speaker

ryan, -- kellyanne. ban non. remember bannon? and this one is hard to see because of this -- it's comey. the around stuck him in here is because this was just the time that he came out and he got fired and everybody said, oh, he's a hero. but we fail to remember that he is the one that decided to announce that he was reopening the investigation into hillary. that's the around stuck half of him in there. and i have fox news up there. and you know who this is. mcconnell and -- this is just the supreme court nominees. and of course, the three wives. i don't remember their names. >> ivanka -- then, of course, jared, ivanka -- eric is fun.

and then of course pence and trump again. sessions. just a reporter. >> thank you. >> okay. >> at this point do you see trump as wrong or evil and if the latter issue is that going to affect your drawing? still draw him as a kind of funny stupid person versus evil person, and i'm won -- >> you think my drawings are funny stupid? really? >> trump is evil. >> i do the republican leadership as evil. i don't think he is -- >> has your perception of him changed and has that affected

how you draw him? >> no. i mean, i think he's an opportunityist, deep down. that's what i've always done in my work, an opportunist. he has lot of faults. he is an on opportunityize in the worst sense. he anything to get what he wants and a lot of people around hmm tom enables him. he is how old? 71-year-old man. he -- that's him. >> i think you draw him as disgusting. >> disgusting. >> as you -- to me and then as you make him blotchier and blotchier which you have done over the last year, he gets more and more disgusting. >> okay. so, i'm being told i draw him disgusting and more blotchy. do make him more and more blotchy. die have to explain that?

>> what extent do you get -- [inaudible] >> the post -- i come up with the idealism run it by them and they've nix -- >> ever say, would you due -- not that they would -- did they ever make -- >> no, huh-uh. [inaudible] >> no. they've always let me decide what want to do it on. they've nixed a few things. around the time of the charlottesville protests and then the killing, came up with an idea they wouldn't allow me to do because it was just -- i think they were concerned about the tenor of the country, and i think if i had offered that idea at any other time, that probably would have gone through. so, you know, something they've got to think about. >> do they have right of first

refusal -- [inaudible] >> i'm not syndicated. i'm exclusive to the "washington post." i do other work but, yes, they have the first rights. >> [inaudible] >> i did. they ran it. [inaudible] >> people? oh, yes, all cartoonists gets threatened at some point or another. depending on what is happening at the time. after 9/11 was a difficult time. i did a cartoon about senator cruz and i got a lot of threats for that. so, yeah, i think when everybody's emotions are rung eye is when you get the most. mostly we get e-mails tells us

how stupid we are. >> talking about having been -- cartoonist for the past 25 years. can you talk about the transition from before that to political cartoonist and then if you have the desire to move out of that and do other forms of illustration. >> the question was how i got into editorial cartooning and then do i have any desire to get out of it. sometimes. sort of depends. i actually started -- i went to school for animation. i went to california institute of the arts and studied character animation, and the traditional disney style, and i worked for a few years the animation industry. had no interest in politics whatsoever. i didn't read newspapers. i lived in l.a. why do you need to read

newspapers? and i just happened to one night -- i was doing a free lance project and i had the television on and the tianimen square massacre in 1989 happened in front of my eyes and that woke me up. i became more and more interested in political events, and i just started watching c-span a lot, and i just started doing my own editorial cartoons, and then what finally caused know decide that it wanted to be an editorial cartoon nist is watching the anita hill/clarence thomas hearings. was a young woman in my late 1020s in and i had dealt with sexual harassment dismiss new perfectly well it was problem, and to watch a bunch of senators up there, both conservatives, liberals, say that couldn't possible by have happened and didn't believe anita hill. i decidedded needed to become an

editorial cartoonist so you can think the senators the rope i'm an editorial cartoonist. [inaudible question] >> do i think the me-too movement will affect the 2018 elections? i hope. so women are mad. i speak to my friends of my age and they're mad. really mad. and i hope so, because i think it's about time. it's funny to hear people talk about sexual harassment and other forms of sexual discrimination. there's all forms. i've dealt with this. i've debt with it my entire career. it's -- i laugh when i hear people express doubt about it. i mean, every woman has gone through it at one way or another. it's not all rape, but it's definitely mild forms of assault.

here, i'm going to give you a personal thing i've never told publicly anywhere. so, i'm in my 50s. when i was just turn ing 50 i was walking down the streets of washington, dc and n broad daylight. had a guy come up behind me and grab me like trump grabs people, in broad daylight. i'm not a young woman. i was floored. and to deal with the police after that, they took -- sent two female policemen, took down everything and did nothing. i was furious. that's just unacceptable. and this was some 30 something-year-old guy just thinking he can do it. it's a problem. and it's not just for young women. it's for older women, too. there. now i'm really mad. [inaudible question] >> i'm going -- first start in

l.a., book signing there and then san francisco, oakland and pixar and talk there, and i -- the reason i'm smile is a lot of my old colleagues from cal arts walks there and then i'll finish up in february. so i you're out west, come on by. are we done? yeah and okay. thanks so much for coming out. [applause] >> for the next two hours we'll explore the local literary life, start wig author william schwab and his rye search on the development, release and education for alien minors or dream act. >> i had an experience right after daca was approved, and there's a woman that