c-span2. in her book, "rescue board," rebecca erbelding writes about the state department created in 1944 that worked to save european jews. she talked about the u.s. response to the holocaust an event in washington. this is just under an hour. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for coming. my name is bennard fajardo and i'm a bookseller here at politics & prose. on behalf of the staff would like to welcome all of you to this afternoon's event. as you may all ready know at politics & prose rehost hundreds of events like this all throughout the year. one such event, the one we are doing next saturday, may 12, for edge of chaos in the white

democracy failing to deliver and how to fix it. a little bit of housekeeping before we start. first of all, if you could turn up for silencer cell phones. we would really appreciate it. for the q&a, please are member to step up to one of the two microphones. apparently it's only on this site. please sign-up if you want to ask the author question. not only so he can hear the conversation, but in short it's been recorded. for those of you who want to buy copies of the book come in their behind the cash registers. we will be doing a signing after the q&a. if you'd like to get your book signed, go right up to the podium. please keep the chairs where they are as we have another event after this one. now on to the main event. this afternoon i am happy to

introduce rebecca erbelding to all of you. she's an archivist, curator and historian of the memorial museum here in washington d.c. she has organized a museum's new exhibit on american response to the holocaust. rebecca has a phd in american history from george mason university. she and her work have been profiled in the "washington post," "the new york times" in the new history channel, npr and other media outlets. this afternoon, rebecca will be discussing her new book, "rescue board: the untold story of america's efforts to save the jews of europe." this book tells the little-known story of a lawyer who helped persuade roosevelt to organize in 1944. the agency mobilized diplomats, smugglers, relief workers and bureaucrats in a dozen countries across four continents. the work involved forging identity papers and recruiting

spies from a leaking is in food and money to underground organizations. the board saved tens of thousands of lives. when olson, author of the book last hope island says that with her magisterial research, and rebecca erbelding brilliantly brings to let the gripping little-known story of this trans-limited moments in american history and the young government lawyers who made it happen. calling the book of fine work of scholar detection, turning up a story that deserves to be much better known. ladies and gentlemen, rebecca erbelding. [applause] >> thank you so much. first of all, i'm incredibly excited to be here. i've been working on this project for about a decade. the first caveat when i talk about it is not a book of the holocaust museum the holocaust museum or a work. this is my work here for the

decade i've been working on this icon near and look at all the books on the shelves and think about the moment it's going to be mine. this is a big day and i'm grateful for all of you for sharing it with me. transfer begins in the first week of august in 19 to an internment camp in southern france. 28-year-old mcclelland was a californian to work for the american service committee, a quaker aid organization. in the book is watching the first deportation of foreign jews from france north of paris and as we now know to auschwitz for most of them will be killed on arrival. ross knew what was happening in general terms. a week earlier he had gone to the capital of collaboration of france and protested the president of the french government, arguing that the nazis plan to terminate these people. he laughed at the time. it was fiction he said.

if the united states is so concerned about this happening to the jews, why were we taking them? rescue board is the story of how we got to bear, how u.s. immigration laws were structured to keep out undesirable immigrants and how there is no refugee policy to speak of. it is a story of how the american people in their government were so anti-immigrant that the group of congressmen got together in 1938 and vowed that they would not introduce any legislation to open immigration for fear that even raising the debate would cause more strict or laws. it is the story of a refugee crisis that extended past pearl harbor as jews in casablanca and the income of southern france was all trying to get out. and it's a story of how a californian could be on the ground in an internment camp witnessing deportation. mainly, the book is about what happened next.

ross wasn't the only person working that weekend in 1942. gerhart wigner who works for the world jewish congress in switzerland learned about these rumors in the deportation of jews. he learned that dale had a purpose. but there was a nazi plan to exterminate and murder all the jews of europe. this seems really obvious to us now. it's hard to look back at the holocaust and not look at it with a lot of hindsight. back then they saw no precedent to this in jews had been subject it to poke around before and they inevitably ended. but a plan was different. rittner tried to send his news to the u.s. in switzerland, which had a secure communication channel to the united states in one to message back to america, state department officials locked it from being received. you seem to fantastic one row. another thought it must just be aware rumor. i can't see why they would put this thing in a telegram.

so, the news of the nazi plan made it through in the press reported the story in november 1942. by that point across mcclellan had escaped from switzerland and the americans who remained behind in france were arrested and interned in germany as the allies invaded north africa and the nazi went south. for more than a year after that come after november 1942 is more information trickled out of europe, the state department as they tried to quell any attempt to public pressure for some sort of rescue action. after this stage elaborate rallies and actions that are the countries where they placed full-page newspaper ad condemning roosevelt in the state department, calling on the u.s. to do something. in october 1943, hundreds of orthodox rabbis marched on the capital, mass rescue of course is impossible. the allied armies are miles away and has only a tenuous grip on the european continent, but much

more credit done. at this point in the story, he can group of lawyers in their 30s enter. the most unlikely of heroes. they had spent the fall of 1943 frustrated by state department delays improving $25,000 in aid money that was to go to jews in france and romania. while they were writing a report detailing all the reasons the state department had given from excuses for delays, they discovered evidence the state department had been actively trying to stop information about the holocaust from reaching the united states, to stop the public pressure if americans don't know about it, they are not going to put any pressure on the state department to do anything. they specifically told switzerland not to send any more reports about atrocity. one of the best things about studying the treasury department is framework of gouging or and how junior, f. yours treasury secretary recorded all his

meetings. i was able to use the words and discuss their frustration. you can go through the transcripts of what they're saying. in december 1943, a lawyer at treasury side, and this is a quote, mr. secretary, the only question we have in our mind is the ball has to be taken by the horns and dealing with this jewish issue and get this thing out of the state department and agencies and is willing to deal differently. for an dense, take the complaint what are we going to do with the jews. we let them die because we don't know what to do with them. another staff member, randolph paul quietly added we are speaking of citizens now. armed with their evidence, the treasury department wrote a new report title in the report to the secretary on the acquiescence of this government in the murder of the jews. this is a d.c. town and a lot of us have read government reports and that is not generally the title of any of these reports.

it began one of the greatest crimes in history come to slaughter the jewish people in europe is continuing unabated unless remedial steps of the drastic nature are taken immediately, i am certain no effective action will be taken by this government to prevent the complete extermination of the jews and this government will have a share for all-time for this extermination. it was time to go to fdr they decided in demand as one of them put it, a new deal. on january 16, 1944, mercantile met with roosevelt and commit them to issue an decorative border establishing a war refugee board and agency passed with relief and rescue of jews another persecuted minority is another persecuted minorities phenomenal headed by secretary of war, state and treasury and on the third floor of treasury and 35 assistant secretary, assistant to the secretary

served as the war refugee direct her. for the first time in january 1944, united dates have an official policy about the holocaust and by the end of the lord in europe 17 months later they have saved tens of thousands of lives. rescue board is the first non-self published book about the war refugee board. who they were, what they did, how they did it. this seems strange given the tens of thousands of books published about world war ii and the thousands of books about the call cost every year and for the decade i was really writing the book, kept expecting someone to come behind me and get there first. the three self published books have come out in the last five years and they are all kind of relying on similar older scholarships of why we watch the abandonment of the trans-heaven while 6 million died. many of these play this kind of elaborate game of telephone where one person was cited document and the other personal site at citation and it becomes a more elaborate story and the

story they tell of american indifference has been really enduring. so enduring that the sheer existence and the actual effort that americans did make at the end of the lord had been completely overshadowed. that work is really important in matters. another more basic reason that's been largely forgotten which is the records are almost impossible to navigate. when i started working in 2011 and 2012, i was looking at 120 boxes at the fdr library so the original 1944, 1945 border. a correspondence series alphabetical by author and a topic series that was like six boxes cold turkey. thick skulls beaten. the historians have actually written word and longer pieces i've written the stories. this is that they were doing in

turkey, sweden and switzerland. when i started, the first thing i did was photograph everything, all 120 boxes. after deleting duplicates i had about 19,000 original documents. some one page, some a couple hundred and i had to fill in all the gaps. i ended up at the end with 43,000 unique documents that i was working through. i put them all into pdfs and they gave each one a unique title, which gave the date that the document was created and where i found it, what box, what folder. i figured out if you put all 43,000 in one folder and a computer with a lot of memory, and it all sorts chronologically and you can read things as they're happening. things that showed up -- a question and one archive, answer document and the other and all the sudden they are back together. reading through them looking at everything chronologically is really important because they

change so rapidly. options for what you can do change before d-day and after d-day before the battle of the bulge, after the battle of the bulge and the leverage the united states has over neutral nations and nazi occupying countries. reading through chronologically i could be out much time they were spending on projects, whether they were successful and i could avoid the historians trap of hindsight. so many ideas in so many different projects it's hard to explain their work and any sort of pithy summary. a couple of overall fax and then a few stories before we get to questions. the same day in january 1944 the roosevelt issued the executive order, the board that streamlined the procedure that agencies would send relief overseas. they argued that it didn't matter anymore after january 1944 of the little bits of humanitarian aid got into the

hands of the nazis. by the end of the war, did authorize more than $11 million in the witch is hundred $54 million today in humanitarian relief money to a host of different organizations and the money was used to buy guns for the french underground, to pay people hiding children in their homes, and to pay guides taking people across borders. the board appointed representatives and most of the neutral nations in switzerland, portugal, north africa and eventually london. most of them treasury department employees who were already there for humanitarian aid workers. the representative in turkey is a narcissistic bloomingdale executive. who gets in a lot of trouble. they are working on leverage and trying to leverage this near certain allied victory by 1944 to convince all of these nations at the u.s. cares about what is going to happen to these people

and if they at least pretend to care, too. so from washington, john paley lays out a strategy for the board, persuades the nazis and their collaborators to stop killing and take action to rescue people to be saved and countries like romania, bulgaria, france, move them out to safety or keep the people deep inside the territory a live one in a to be liberated. i will give you an example of each. the board launched a propaganda warfare campaign using leaflet and perpetrators by saying we will see what you're doing. we will punish you after the war. it is late in the war, why become a perpetrator now? you're going to lose. march 24th, roosevelt issued a statement drafted by the board. and one of the blackest cracks of all history because i do not even multiplied by 100 times in

times of war, the wholesale systematic murder goes on unabated every hour. march 24th, only a few days before that, germany had invaded hungary, which was home to the largest and last intact jewish population, 800,000 were still alive in hungary. the board quickly added a new paragraph to roosevelt statement. as a result of the events of the last few days am hundreds of thousands of jews have found a haven in the balkans are now threatened with annihilation as hitler's forces descend more heavily upon this land. these innocent people who are party survived a decade should perish on the very eve of triumph over the barbarism which their persecution symbolizes would be a tragedy. so we can't measure the results of psychological warfare. you can't count up the number of people who survived because of atrocities prevented.

i did interview an elderly german man who remembered as a teenager fighting the leaflet containing roosevelt statement after an alley vomiting raid in his town and that is how he told me he learned about the holocaust and since all of the other things in that leaflet, and over his town were true. he figured that was probably true as well. so, the u.s. government or the war refugee board also laundered money to help refugees sneak into sweden. i talked to people to treasury department last year to see if i could actually call it money laundering and they have been hot for a couple minutes and finally decided if the money is used for the commission of a crime in so i decided whether or not the u.s. money laundered or not depends on whether or not your speed in. sweden definitely would've thought this was a crime. the war refugee but as war refugee place iver olson served as the stockholm financial attaché.

but he was also at oss by, code-named christine and is tasked with monitoring the movement of money more material between germany and sweden. once he added the war refugee board to his duties among other things he recruited wallenberg, the now famous swedish businessman who travel to budapest, funded by american jewish organization through the war refugee board and as most of you know, issued letters of protection saving thousands of lives in budapest. to get the book for that. for much of the summer of 1944, olson is focused on the hazardous plan to rescue refugees from latvia, lithuania and estonia by water. he would need the most skillfully organized type of underground operations because the baltic countries are now virtually sealed to everything. he thought that they might be able to rescue 500 to 700

racial, religious or political refugees from each country. they were paid for this project directly out of funds from roosevelt. but they realized such a large deposit in a swedish bank would be sufficient and they wanted to avoid any impression that the u.s. was funding rivals and sweden. even the swedish jews are very interested in rescue operations so long as they don't involve bringing them to sweden. so john paley, and his treasury work has been tasked with keeping money out of the hands of the enemy to sneak it past the government and the people and is urging to staff the goodyear tire and their headquarters in akron, ohio agreed that they transfer $50,000 to their factory. there is subsidiary in sweden would give olson in the similar amount is swedish kroner. so there are no references to

the goodyear tire deal in any of the papers. it is clear they scrubbed that out. henry mercantile got a daily briefing folder off all of their work in the staff forgot to purchase records. so this arrangement worked well. wilson reported from stockholm and only found in morgan's house records. although not full proof, is desirable from a security point of view. we do not recommend bank transfers to such size by individuals involved in operations, unavoidably attract notice that suspicion. to use this money to purchase both intense because the treasury is keeping money out of the hands of the enemy now argued communicating it was more important than adhering to the rules. switzerland, which was run completely by enemy territory, prof mcclellan, as their

representative. most of his work involved jews deep inside enemy territory. they're the closest ties to sub for germany and eastern europe and among the myriad of other things, mcclellan participates in ransom negotiations with the nazis were trained to use america's supposed newfound interest in refugees to offer basically-for sale. the u.s. is never going to agree to pay rent them, but mcclellan and sally mayer, the joint distribution committee's representative in switzerland managed to string along a pair of high-ranking nazis for six runs. in 1944 travels to zürich in the with kurt ecker, dressed in his uniform he personally worked for heinrich and layer has proved to roosevelt was interested in the negotiation. during world war ii world war

ii, an american government representatives held a top-secret unauthorized meeting with a high-ranking official to negotiate on humanitarian matters. as a result, they got more than 1600 jews released as a good-faith gesture on the part of the nazis. they open a refugee camp in upstate new york and brought 1000 refugees to live there. they argued that must not be given the pretense just vacationed that the allies while speaking in horrified terms of the treatment of jews never once offered to receive these people. they spent 300,000 food packages in the concentration camp at the end of the war. they passed along requests to the war department for the bombing and the crematorium at auschwitz were to take out the entire camp. with no authorization from the rest of the government gave the american public detailed information for the first time on the process of a rival selection and caffeine at

auschwitz. in response, disinformation and "washington post" editorial introduced american to the new word genocide. i don't have time to get into all of these stories or many others, including how the war refugee board with jean-jacques aboard for the time which is now completely forgotten when the u.s. offered to evacuate all the jews of hungary. i hope you pick up the book and find out about those. in conclusion, the creation was and remains the only time in american history that the u.s. government founded an agency dedicated to saving the lives of civilians being murdered by the wartime enemy. the 21 months between january 1944 in september 1945 marked a period when american action that american rhetoric about our democratic values. in contrast to many subsequent human rights efforts, the war refugee board had no secondary

mode is spirit they are not trained for overseas power. they are not trying to help people who they intend to ever become american citizens. most of the people never had any knowledge that the american government was interested at all in their survival. the refugees -- sorry, the refugees were not intended to become american. what made the wr be such a unique audience that it was officially permitted to break tactically every important law of the nation at war and outraged humanity. one of my hopes that this book is the refugee will start to enter a public narrative in terms when i talk about american response to the holocaust because it is really relevant history. they debated a lot of the same challenges we debate today and whether or not they should pay ransom for population. they debated the push between providing relief for the many are trying to rescue this view.

they try to figure out how to bring refugees to the united states while addressing legitimate national security concerns and discussed how many resources can we permit to fall into the hands of an enemy we are at war with. while it is clear the united states could have done much more to aid jews and other sub for dems, and it really mattered and they think we need to remember to honor their efforts to bring greater nuance or understanding of american response and study their work as we continue to confront these challenges that keep coming up enough as we look at the newspapers every day. so that is the story of "rescue board" appear this at the microphone is right here. if you have a question please why not and i'm happy to address anything. ask me anything. >> it sounds like a wonderful book. what lessons can we take from what went on then to deal with

the situation now, especially muslim refugees from places like syria, afghanistan and iraq who are turned away for exactly the same reason that jews were turned away on alleged security problems. >> raid. it is clear that our security apparatus is much more sophisticated than it was back in. one of the things that is really concerning to me is humanitarian aid being cut off because there's a lot of things we did and i read this week about cutting off aid and doing amazing humanitarian work in syria. we need to pay attention that that is not something that will stand for. one of the reasons the war refugee board exists is because

there is public pressure in 1943 americans made it clear that they were paying attention. since they felt like we were winning the war, they were okay with sending some humanitarian aid and even if that falls in the hands of the enemy we are so going to win. it is not losing heart and it's continuing to be clear that these are our values. i don't have a magic ball at ford has you need an administration that is listening to that. and so, we need to vote in an administration that is more willing to listen to that. but not giving up is important in continuing to pay attention even when it hurt. thanks. >> congratulations. in addition to writing this incredible book and all the work you did in the exhibition at the museum come you also did this incredible work with those documents and taking an

impossible challenge and doing something to encourage scholarships. what are the stories are left undone in the book and are you planning to share that with other scholars? >> so when i finished photographing everything at the fdr library, and i gave them my stance and so they are available online now. i am not quite sure because they use proprietary software that i paid for. i don't know how it works to donate that to an organization. i've always been happy to look things up. i can do names here. there are lots of story. the refugees who came to the u.s. there was one book about it in the 1980s. they deserve another new book.

.. give over all of the hungarian jews the us will take them as far as i know there's not a lot about that but a lot of these things can be pulled off in different trucks and i might pull some off in different things coming up but still working on that but there are plenty in here and one of the things we do when you write a book is you try to lay a trail and hopefully something in it will reach something and they can go into my notes and findings and take it in their own path. that is the points. this is not the book but the first book. it's a pretty definitive book. [laughter] >> some have suggested that when you compare the good at the war refugee board accomplished to what roosevelt could have >> and what roosevelt could havt accomplished but the feeling is

with the refugee board to morgar thought in the jewish community off his back how would you respond to that? >> with the jewish community at that point was non-on his back most of those were fairlyf reliable as a demographic he was at risk to lose them in the 1944 election when at least publicly had said he was running and it becomes clear i i think pretty early 1944 internally he is dying. so there are some questionsctiv ld hher or not he should have cu run in 1944. that being said, i think theed phrase that you always hear is too little too late. i accept that in the realm of 33

through 45. 1933 for what for what they were trying to b bo do then it was but what they themselves are are noe too little too late but they're working as hard as they can everything that is proposed they try to follow up on and one of the interesting things in the first things that they do is write to the aid organizations and asking for ideas there is over 120 organizations asking at for public input.hat the shoul that is something the state department was not going to do but it shows that there is no stone unturned in 1944. so what they accomplished was remarkable but that doesn't discount the fact so much moreha could have been done earlier.t e

>> first of all thank you for all your work on this book and your research is an important topic. given. given that you did to research i imagine you have a pretty good idea and i'm just wondering if you could comment on that for a moment. >> the 30,000 ft.2 view is fairly accurate. they know that jews are deported as the east. m they are not quite clear whereto these places arew but for a long time they don't know auschwitz bid the canal is together. a lot of them think auschwitz ia 300 miles away from where it actually is in east prussia or that it is a work camp so it is

fuzzy with details because they don't have reliable journalist on the ground. have everything is third and fourth reable j hand so when the board does get en the reports from auschwitz that is what they publicized in 1944. te we know much more than they didw and it's hard to look back without you say that's not true but this is why didn't they follow this?saying ts not they didn't know that wasn'tausk true i get into it a little bit. communication is also a problems also because if you want to send something secure it has to be coded and then decoded it takes about a week to send coded codea communication to bend deliveredi the intended recipient so if weu lad something right now withs pu this particular group of people at that moment they just don'thc

have the capacity to act quickly almost ever. it does get really hard.now yout >> thanks for that talk. you said this in the beginningts but since this is at the samein published and wasce how your work influenced thece exhibit for a different audience >> i am a historian of the >> surest museum i was an archivist through 2015 when iumd moved over to work off of the new exhibit at that point i finished my dissertation. it is a hundred pages long.

i don't recommend that. the book is much better it is much more interesting as the book but all of the documentsths there is an 800 page document 800 page document waiting for you to google.s theres a i was next.di ha thisssertation topic and it t hasnt't been written on before o to that extent whichever comes first, the chicken or the egg but the museum has been working on this for five years.e years. i came to years into it and it is been one of the privileges of my life. but it gets tricky because i read through the exhibit i think read t that's what i think and i'm not sure if t that's because what wh agreed on in the room where i ro saidm and this and that's wheree went with it.

so i think work well together se and the narrative stays the same. the exhibit talks the bombingibl but doesn't get into any of the other things the refugee board is doing. o so 99% of this is not presentedf in the exhibit. and will be on display at the dlocaust museum.e a very good exhibit. anyone else? >> this isn't what your book addresses specifically looking back at the state department ant what went on there?? books.ment for what there is a good one which the

title alone with foreign bit diplomacy s to talk about the state department at that time but to look at them during the war but interestingly they wrote their own history in 1946 and 1947 asking the differente farmn divisions and all of the major l conflicts. i'm probably program probably telling you too much. don't go to the state hepartment..overseas. because but they wrote their own history this is how we function. it is how we change that when ir was never published. there. there were all these chapterer drafts with the initial archivea of the state department that nobody has ever touched.as >> the state department itself? or the government to look back at an awful history.

>> yes yes yes. they have officially apologized. at the museum we do trainings. so i. so i present this history to them. and the summary of the state department at that time is all of the other branches of government change with the new deal and it's the same people in the same aristocratic with the state department officials to that amazing ways. and that is the treasury department.

and they have actively reflected on it. >> thank you for this compelling work. is there any speculation theret? is a a movie about this story? >> i would love that. my agent is over there. >> thank you for being dcription articulate in your description.h jewishr research any fragmentse or events leading to the middle eastern communities?

>> because getting public support for the board for in palestin lithuaniae but he is big in thea u.s. during the war. do taking out the beautiful newspaper ads. i don't get fully into what into the book except the white paper web how many jews could enterl s palestine is inundated by thehe british. that supposedly limited how many people could come to limit the number of jews.

those that convince the british government not to tell anybodyln but to get them to land in turkey and into palestine. and with the middle eastern politics topoli reverberate with those messy origins act then. and trying to negotiate out to palestine during the war. 8,000? >> congratulations. m maybe this is more technical that you touched earlier this ir the outgrowth of your dissertation.

could you speak from the gener academic dissertation to a wider audience?? >> my advisors here know that i put my dissertation thinkingg ts this is it. this is the most interesting thing. and nobody will read it. there were parts that bored me of the dissertation nobody had written it before i thought i would just put it all there. lie somebody wants to know about labor licenses in great britaing and it isn't the story of people?

people who do things. that is the book of an agency trying those bureaucratic avenues. do they were and what they were trying to do. and more than the dissertation. >> any reason why? [l [laughter] >> and to be active during this time i'm curious if they were aware ofofwi the border or any collaborationth a happening? was the >> that was some of the best letterhead.

and a rescue to donate and rescue or something like that. it is one of the organizationsre and a lot of what they are doing or had been doing and then to help them pay to a transport to the west. but they are less involved in the day to day operations thee board is more involved with representatives in enemy territory and at that point they didn't to coalesce new york in the neutral cities.

in hungary and in poland. >> congratulations. thank you. thank you for your excellent talk.the stock uld th could the u.s. have donee more? but more questions? s what questions do you consider to answer and what does that ask? >> i am really hesitant to sayte neis is what should have happe happened because that is in thei

role of historians.. should have is for all of you to debate you should read this and to be established earlier. y saa so what wast the leverage the u.s. had? in 1942 and that nationality ant to say that was a good point. and that if that was now i wonder i wonder what would have happened.

but the board shuts down d september 45.g or so when they have just come out of hiding to delave just come ot of hiding to deliberateat to hae fingers in enemy territory and has a humanitarian aid networkif so what had happened if they had kept going? if they tried to establish this now? with the different agencies that come up since the end of the war? that is valuable. to say are we dealing with them in the right way? what about the war refugee board in syria?

>> what about the populace as a whole? to the jewish community? fly under the radar?radar? the population of resistance? pi >> they are very aware of public opinions. some of it was much of it was public you can't bring refugees to the u.s. and there is whole spread where the refugees come. those are secret they are very aware when they do somethingheye public they need public support

to before roosevelt and answered -- announces the refugee camp with a month of propaganda to get the sympathetic journalist to write a column even one with theo announcer gave a fake radio and answer like i refugee director i really think it would make your life easier for we had a refugee camp because we are asking these other countries and not taking any of our own. of course the board wrote that. th they planted the seed so they had the letters to show him to say the american people want to this. they obviously cannot that withs everything so they were just doing it anyway but that's

probably why they scrubbed the records about sweden.public sndn to prevent such a public a public scandal in the future. i was trying to get morgantown papers also looking at the footnotes and found out they were not there. yes some of that is public but s lot of it was not. thank you very much speeseventeen. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> but at his house people gave for speeches.

and let the people come to you. over the next four or five months and that's what happened. and with those delegations around the country. and whoever would come. and with their own interest. and then to take down what they said and to go over to make sure it's what you wanted to do and with the associated press the next morning was all over the country.

>> i'm here to say that judge kavanaugh with that intellectual intellect. and to be combined with strength. but the point that i'm making is that 35 months. with brett cavanaugh serving as staff secretary was a period of time that was ripe rife with issues of great constitutional moments the reason why the american people have a right to know what he said and how he advise the president, what he wrote. that is which the republicans are hiding from the american people.

>> even those partisans that judge cavanaugh is supremely qualified for the supreme court so stop playing politics and join us to support his confirmation.