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national correspondent as the speaker following the extraordinary career from her election to congress through the legislative accomplishments with universal healthcare, and impeachment. spec and the chief correspondent for the new york times and author of the nfl in dangerous times. welcome. >> thank you. >> i guess we are on. >>. >> but first of all thank you and president and mrs. obama and carter and bush for coming

thank you for asking me to do this this is a really great book and i will tell you the last couple days may be a day and a half. so before you can see yes and at the same time that's a historical thing to learn about the two or three most consequential people this century so far politically and tell you everything we need to know about nancy pelosi. it's a will ask questions for about half an hour and for

those to figure out. so do you just want to jump in with the questions? >>. >> and we appreciate you. away let's do the dialogue. >> you have never written a book before and those horror stories to put all these triumphant stories so what is it like? and to someone that's never done it before? and not to meet expectations. >> i was totally miserable. i would not recommend it. it definitely reminded me of

childbirth in the sense that people tell you how excruciating it will be and then it will be paying but you don't internalize how that will be until you go through it yourself. oh my god this is really hard. people have done much harder things and i don't feel sorry for myself but yes it's hard to write a book constantly trying to figure out where i would end it that is the wonderful to people but she kept making it difficult to finish the book in the process of research and interviewing people right before leading up to the impeachment getting underway. . . . .

host: as you know, in politics day in and day out. if find out that you start feel like you are understanding and a lot of dimensions about american politics. so for me this put away and put it all together. sort of years and years of reporting and writing about congress and women in politics and about the way political system and the congress works. and also you always right more words than you're willing to put in the magazine. 300 pages all drawn out. >> what about nancy pelosi, how did you know she would be the one poorly. >> honestly, of all the political figures.

she was the one that fell big enough for a book. molly: be enough, that i really could take that dive into her. as i write about in the book, i was assigned to profile her in time magazine when i started working there in 2017. at first i sort of was not that thrilled about that assignment. i was taking she was at all of that interesting frankly. and then once i got in there and started learning about her and thinking about her and thinking about all of the themes and characteristics of her career, then i started to really think about a lot of layers here to impact. a lot of interesting history and residence. and stuff people didn't know about her. i didn't know about her. i actually, had a conversation with david marinus a few years ago when i was try to come up with a book to) and i could not come up with anything. so is it how did you know that

you had something that was worthy of a book rather than like a long article. he said you just have to be obsessed with it. and that was my first subject that i was sort of obsessed with. >> to put you in the right headspace for that. i would say, and you mentioned in the text, maybe part of this was maybe about that she is not a great interview. she does not not make it easy. she does not speak off of the cuff that much. she's also a very private person. how did you separate how difficult a nut she is to crack. with the ambition it takes to actually know that you can actually crack note.

enough to write an interesting magazine story or book. molly: she's really interesting because so much of politics is about communication. i don't think she will ever be considered a great political person of our age right. that is not to say that she's not right bright and articulate and thoughtful . and she's one of the sort of robotic politicians because they are terrified of saying the wrong thing. that they just repeat themselves over and over and want to answer any questions. but she is not someone who engages in really published introspection . to not going to tell you all of the things that she has been thinking about herself pretty sort of have to figure her out . she's not an actual storyteller . a lot of really compelling political speech to fires duke naturallyspeaking stories. roy's really off personal antidotes pretty it was really

kind of on occasion for me to reflect on the role of communication and perspective and in politics. and setting her and thinking about what is the relationship about how a politician is perceived it and what they actually do. and how much of that are they responsible for. how much is that our society responsible for. how much is essay about the person being perceived. we care about this all of the time. a lot of the president's defenders will say, people commanded his tweets and so on a look at what he does. and all of his critics will say, what he says matters just as much is what he does. so i don't think there's quite that junction and nancy pelosi but the other thing about her is that i think the thing that you really get to understand about

her is everything is about results. what is she going to get out of it. whatever the interviewer interaction or on television, giving a speech at a fundraiser. whatever, so she is just much more interested in driving a message home that she is in making you like her making herself feel good. or even like making an audience applauded. it is about what is it that i am trying to communicate here. and how many times you have to repeat it for you to get the message. host: is a great point . a couple of days ago, i intervieweinterviewed for the f, was a bit of a kind of a shadow to nancy pelosi in some ways. a very progressive sort of insurgents in the house that nancy pelosi runs in her way. nancy she said", up into her

feelings all of the time. she's very vulnerable and open. she's very millennial that way. i wonder if you ever had the occasion to see nancy pelosi do vulnerability at all. and i wonder if she ever let herself, under sort of wondering what it feels like in some ways, what let you see what it's like to be attacked the way she is and targeted the way she is, mischaracterized the way she is and so forth. molly: i wouldn't say that i got a sense of her vulnerability from her. i did eventually feel like that she had let her guard down enough to the little part of her which is nice. to define the sort of felt like we got some information there. but she's not a person, and i think you're right there something very generational about that predict i think that the generation that she came

from, being born in 1940 and is 80 years old comes from a much more formal era . critically for women. and you alluded to as well, you cannot separate her the way she carries herself from how she has been treated in turn into this punching bag that literally republicans attacked her. like something of people and politics may be that. but i think when you are the subject of that kind of a person coming to sort of build yourself a suit of armor. she said i put my suit of armor and i go into battle. you drove hundred you take a punch. she very much sees politics as combat. and she is renowned for her toughness and for her discipline and i think that a lot of that

comes from just refusing to be vulnerable and publican refusing to let anyone ever see her spot. host: do you have any sense that there is anyone or any element in today's republican party that she feels that she can have some kind of good faith dealing with either in the house or in the administration. molly: she certainly likes some of the republican governors. she's been dealing directly with a lot of the popular blue state republican governors who have been on the frontlines of the coronavirus response. and profiles the governor of maryland. and he is someone is consonant no nancy pelosi elisabeth. so i think that she is one of these new hear this a lot from them because these days. i would miss old republican party sprinted back when

republicans were gentle and you could do with them. she was literally born into the democratic party. there's never been any doubt about her parson loyalty. she describes her upbringing that way. she said that it was the catholic church, and the democratic party where she came from. and there's an amazing antidote early in the book where she had just moved to california with her husband, she did been in finance and they had four grandchildren. they're going to have another. in the just moved from san francisco or she knows nobody. she is staying with her mother-in-law which is pretty unpleasant for everyone involved . copies they didn't like each other. but they're frantically trying to find house for this large and growing brood of theirs. they found the perfect place.

it's a rental that is just perfect for the family. and as they are about to sign the papers i think, liz early turns to the utterances, so why are you renting out your house and the owner said we are moving to washington and my husband is taking a job in the nixon administration and she turned to the real estate broker and sent were not taking it. i refuse to live in a house made available by the election of richard nixon. and she's a democratic partisan and not have particular love for republican party. with that said, she has accomplished a lot of things on a bipartisan basis throughout her career. i think that understanding the way she operates as much more about knowing what your convictions are . having a very firm sense of your valleys and where you come from. and then understanding where the other side is coming from and trying to find a way to meet somewhere in the middle that satisfies both parties. it is it like can she go and get

a drink with someone. she is not about, a politician like chuck schumer is a democratic in the senate is more about that sort of schmoozing relationship. an infection between human beings. i think that is not the way she is pretty she is much more about doing the deals. host: what is your sense in what she cares about in the ongoing stimulus negotiations. if it strikes me, the democrats are talking all of the time about both faith or vote by mail about elections and protections under sort of making sure that whatever happens in november, is on the level. and yet you don't see these things, or the leverage the nancy pelosi now has read ever come out of this. what is your sense of how this

next round of negotiations would go especially given how important those issues seem to be with democrats. molly: is been interesting to watch . sheet always is sort of on this the last thing, she is not being enough. and then republicans calling her an obstructionist for not immediately giving them everything that they want. she's got the bill as those competing demands and i think what you see is that she recognize the urgency of this moment. she knows that action has to happen fast in this hard enough congress that is gridlocked. she also feels the american people but the democrats in charge of the house of representatives for a reason and therefore they deserve to be at the table. massive trillion dollar bills that they have been passing,

there was an attempt to sort of our renter and cut her out. mitch mcconnell originally did not agree to her demands to have with the call for corner negotiations between the republicans and democrats at the white house. she said look, i need to be at that table. i need to be part of this and i am willing to be reasonable and take off some of my initial demands. but i need to be at the table. i think that is what she wanted to do going forward as well. state and local governments, that is something that a lot of republican and democratic leaders out there are squawking about right now. i think you calculated in the last round of negotiations that it would become politically impossible for republicans to continue to unite the link. so we do see initially mitch

mcconnell take the position that they were not going to mail out the states because it was sort of the states problem for not being this goalie response will enough . to pavilions millions of dollars aside for century person century pandemic. i think she realized that they were saying and happen it became politically untenable for republicans because the republican senators and members are saying my state needs us. host: give a sense power was truly threatened . probably the last time in 2017 right tim ryan of ohio, actually ran against her. molly: he did in 2016 but not in 2018. host: to have a sense in going back and forth between the majority and minority that she

was a threat from inside of the caucus. molly: there was a fair amount of angst about her leadership which were a lot of house democratics work very frustrated that they had same leaders, hurting - 16 - 17 years. on that these leaders are now in their upper 70s and early 80s and a lot of people felt it was time for a fresh face . and for reasons of perspective mostly. so a lot of house democrats felt that they should have a turn to move up the ladder. this sort of wasn't fair to a lot of members with great potential for leadership. also she had been subject of so many attacks, and becomes republicans, probably millions and and turning her into this

bogeyman, is to become pretty politically a target. they needed to keep receipts to get the majority. and so the feeling was that if she want there, to be the subject of those attacks, it would be better politics for the democrats . what would you do not hear is a summary could actually doing a better job to manage the house. taking these complex sleep pieces of legislation. there was never the appeal the challenger in 2016 or some others who did not run against her but tried to take her from the speakership in 2018. it is never been what she sees about her job and legislating. it is much more about the internal general factors. host: dueling ago welfare democrats in november. you think the key with the house is it conceivable that they'll

keep the same leadership team going for board if biden wins, someone of equal age in the white house . in this status quo. i guess as a crystal ball thing. is it probably the last hurrah in some ways for this team. molly: i don't know and i have a firm policy against making predictions. i don't think it's been previously reported that back in 2018, there is that leadership where she worked very hard to defuse this challenge. she can afford to lose less than 10 percent of the caucus. in order to be a speaker again so she would really have to window most over anyone in sort of that and really and demographically diverse robotic caucus.

and so one of the conditions that she finally accepted to make this final deal to get those votes was sheet agreed to force down in 2022. basically she serve no more than two more terms. and according to the book, she said it wasn't really giving anything away because i only was going there anyway. it does revealed that at least at the time, and this also by the way, i learned about lot about negotiating. this is one of her great tactics. to pretend this terribly painful to give something up. but actually you're not getting up at all because you either didn't mind giving it up or you didn't wanted in the first place. there's various points in the book where you see her negotiating postures where she

pretend this that she is giving up something terribly painful actually she is not. host: is on watching her, she's the parent of three young kids. molly: i really think it has. i think a lot of these negotiation tactics, came from her experience as a mother. as from one who had five children in six years pretty and by all accounts ran an extremely disciplined household. as a friend of nancy pelosi that wasn't that she knew she was destined for political success because she had five young children now fully all of their own laundry. i am not there yet with my two kids. but if you think about it, politicians have a lot in common. the bus are basically narcissistic and if you can make them feel like their ego is in

place, you can get them to do what you want. so i do feel like some of these negotiation tactics, that i've learned from watching nancy pelosi, to come in handy when you're dealing with to make concessions. some others that i like is the name your price. we say to someone, but i have to do give me x. in the name a price that they think is outlandish or impossible read a safe well, we don't want to let you do this in the national. but if you could find a way to lift up the quilt every 20 minutes so the grass can breathe, then you can do it. and she says okay fine. and she is the volunteers all stand around the sides and every 20 minutes, they lift the quilt and at that point the park service has no choice to say well, we didn't think you could

satisfy the commission but you did. so we have to do what you want. host: i wasn't actually going to speak of this. but obviously she represented san francisco. that was an issue that she was very close to her. a lot of people she knows and she has been around for a while. do you think she has, and people talk in some ways about the outbreak and the only experience with polio outbreak. are there any echoes all you think between what we are living through now and also sort of just the uncertainty and this out of control and this of having this new and scary disease that can be very fatal. just sort of taking over everything. i'm wondering if this is something you have ever heard

her talk about. molly: i have heard her make the comparison. i haven't heard everything that she's in the past few weeks but do think there are parallels. one frankly is the republican president at the time was very slow to acknowledge the extent of the crisis. the something that we scene play out abundantly. at this time, it took years for president reagan to say, hiv or aids, was a big part of what she was a big part of working with the gay community and members who were scared about the issue. she was alone but one of the things you really had to do first before she could get help for the victims of the crisis was to raise awareness of the crisis. it was a problem that had to be

dealt with the federal government had to grapple with it. so one of the things she did early on was to mail a booklet to every constituent in her district credit the surgeon general sort of information to buckle up and miss around the disease but just explaining can't get it from a toilet seat or hugging or whatever. then the federal government did the same thing shortly thereafter. so that the people understood the disease. host: so this could be a category. i'm not going to ask you to make at all. but a hypothetical, and one heavy take a swing at it. in november, the democrats to the house, nancy pelosi cézanne as speaker.

and donald trump is reelected. unless a the senate goes to 50/50 and it's technically whoever the vice president is, would have to decide. do you see anything salvageable in the trump relationship. they could actually make sort of those two most powerful figures in washington at that scenario if it arose, to think they could do with each other. to think there is middle ground there. if they are both end up in the political position to get reelected again. you see anything happening potentially between the two of them from what you know about them. molly: i doubt it only because of the personal relationship. they haven't spoken to each other in months and is mostly because trump is mad at her for

trying to impeach him. and she does have firm set of policy predictions. in the present does not. she spent a lot of time trying to negotiate with him on infrastructure. donald trump is talked about building roads and bridges, he got himself like a democrat. he wants to spend the money and build lots of stuff. and she kept coming to that negotiating table. so he walked away. . she was willing to deal. she was willing to deal with those policy negotiations even during the investigations. but the presence would not. so as long as the president is going to diss her, there's nothing she can do about that. i think she and as a matter of

politics, is obsessed with trying to show the american people the democrats are interested in so the house is passing hundreds of bills that are sitting around ms. mcconnell's desk. because she does want people to know that she was to send a message so they can trust the democrats having put in charge of things, to be responsible. not to run out of control towards the left wing of the party and the desires but to be sensible and to actually get things done. i think is a part of why she continues to say, and i don't think she's lying, he would do a bill on infrastructure. and on prescription drugs. at least in the rhetoric there is commonality. the negotiations i think it's fair to say that are not ongoing. host: i now see a picture of you. i will see the live version of

you. i'm not sure if i'm the only one but i can hear you anyway. host: hey molly can you refresher browser really quickly. i'm getting a little bit of feedback is all. sorry everybody. sorry to have this conversation but when just to this really quickly. host: there you are. host: thank you. host: you mentioned impeachment. how did she get there. she was a hold for a while. there is certainly more aggressive members of her caucus who really wanted to move pretty early on an impeachment. what was it the brought her around. it was at the facts the ukraine case or was it something else did she feel like she had the choice. speedo i think it was both . i

think it was also a position that the caucus particularly was born about members of the carcass would great. molly: she's not like the suggestion that she caved. or that she was following rather than leaving the carcass. but i think it is fair to say that she voice thought it was a pointless endeavor. she lived through the clinton impeachment which he thought was a joke. joyce use that word for it . basically a political persecution on the part of the republican party's. that really for reasons did not take see bill clinton as a legitimate president. so when she first became speaker, chief faced a constant drumbeat call to impeach president bush. she had protesters roaming the halls of congress everyday and camped out in regard in san

francisco. actual run against her in her primary under this unwillingness to impeach president bush. that was another experience for her to say i didn't get into it then is it that it would be pointless and think she felt the same way and i think she still feels the same way. she said what we have to do it. the president forced us to do it because of his conduct but when did it accomplish. you really don't see the point of this. you know it's not going to achieve anything tangible up. joyce said yet know your wife. enjoy says the children the children the children hard any particular problem, she will say

how will this improve human rights around the world for the children. in her view the impeachment was this divisive show that didn't actually accomplish anything. she would say that and she does feel that the one thing it accomplish was to put a sort of asterix next to present from same the history book. had been impeached and can't do anything to change that. but other than that of think she does feel it was pointless. she's not a person who has regrets. i've asked her many times . she says i just don't do that. she doesn't do regrets her fear. host: is there anything, she will always edit certain

personal, will present bush was somebody that you would call a gentleman. and she still does. they had some moments but that she remembers that they had something, there was at least some kind of warm fuzzy. do you think there's anything about donald trump that she has any use for any respect for. molly: no, i don't think so print and again, i don't speak for her. when i asked her a sort of a version of this question. she's very careful to say that she doesn't disrespect the people who voted for him. she doesn't want to be caught in a sort of back in metaphor. she is a metaphor is jim know someone who dating a jerk. and you can't tell that person that there dating a jerk the just stopping friends with you.

you suddenly just show them what he is doing to them. so i hope these people will realize what the president is doing to them rated but i don't blame them. host: will that's an interesting way of looking at it. do have any sense of or what is the last round of fact checking. do you have any sense of that they know what's in it. molly: they've had books, and i want to be perfectly clear that the speaker in her staff had no editorial parts of the book. it is my book, my characterization. she was helpful in terms of getting the interviews. and allowing me to interview a lot of people around her. but this does not authorize and says that she knows with contact is or signed off on it.

host: has she ever done an authorized biography. molly: she's written a memo memoir memoi. but they have had the book and they been pretty busy from what i understand. whether she has had a chance to look through it. host: they could be watching. molly: i will continue to report on her. and i interact with her staff. host: the cover is right. and there's like this whole subtitle industrial complex and political books where you have your title and then estate look at the give the whole game away. in subtitle. finding a whole sort of graphics

people but would make you do decide to do this very confidently say pelosi's nothing else. and that use. molly: first of all i have to give a shout out to my publisher. the designers came up with the summer design. i never would've came up with something so hip and stylish. i absolutely love it. it's eye-catching. i really captured her in the tone of the book. it captures a lot of what i have been talking about about the ways the culture has caught up to the her brand of femininity after many years of sort of abuse. but also i think everyone knows it is about from the title. some need subtitle to communicate. if i were writing about some lecture or lesser known figure, we need subtitle disorder taken this is the man who that

invented the atomic bomb the globe mars or whenever. but you know, everyone knows who she is pretty music policy, there's only one person you're talking about. i like the diversity of it. i like the simplicity of the cover design pretty i also think it speaks for itself and that she is a figure is already plenty famous enough. people will know who she is before the pick of the book. host: nice luxury. how did you decide to have such an unintrusive voice in the book.

there a lot of people who do interviews and you have a sense of what it's like to be in the room and talk with them. the authors voice comes through. you can talk about your own experience. you really stand back. how did you decide to write in the voice into dead and how did you develop that over time as you were getting to the narrative. molly: i'm not sure. i don't know that it was even a conscious decision. i often do right in the first person. i think i can help a greater leader and no story. in this case, i just wanted to tell her story. almost in a novelistic fashion. i didn't wanted to felt like a work of storytelling. reporting. so there's not a lot of direct

quotes. there's not a lot of like people that i interviewed looking back and reflecting on things that happen because i wanted to keep it in the moment. i wanted people to feel like they were experiencing this sort of as it happened. is tricky. i'm never gonna biography this afraid to give a really interesting problem that all biographies to have a sort of funding to be inside and outside of your subject at the same time. wanting to see things from their eyes but actually want to see somewhat skeptical of the own self which will do. people will judge whether or not i did that successfully. but that was what i was trying to do. host: i just got a text, he moved to q&a.

were going to turn this over to our audience. we will take questions. some like some way you can ask questions. just sort of, i'm at the receipt of technology and hoping that at some point in the very near future, there will be questions that appear before me. and that you will ask them in a certain way. host: if you click on the question q, the lot list of questions will come up. host: okay here we go. i will pick one. is a good one. i don't know if i should mean this. martina asks, molly, was the most surprising thing you learned about speaker pelosi. it. molly: i would say at this point, i think one of the things that surprised me about her was

her aggression frankly. her assertiveness and her boldness. she came up at a time when it was not really culturally acceptable for women to be strong and driven and aggressive. but she is a real risk taker. she's a gambler in some ways. she is willing to put herself out there. and bully to get into people's faces. and now this is familiar to people from ripping up trump speech. domestic me. this is all of the way back to the earliest days of her career. she's been willing to get in people's faces and stick up for herself. and it comes from our sort of sense of feminism that she always felt people should advocate for themselves.

and one of my favorite lesser-known stories from her career that's in the book is about her activism on human rights in china. this is someone who in 1991, traveled to beijing with some of her colleagues in the last day of their sanctioned trip, he told the chinese authorities that they were too tired to go on their tour of the great wall and they snuck out the back of the hotel and took a taxi in. the congress men, he had smuggled this banner is everywhere from hong kong and the foldout. they immediately were attacked with chinese police who chased him out of the square and you actually detained some of the journalists who were covering this. you can still see a video of

this incident. she quite literally took bodily harm to state this very bold demonstration for what she believed in. and politically, back in 2003 when a lot of the top democrats including the democratic house leader at the time, including people like hillary clinton and john kerry thought that would be bad politics. and she came out against it in and encourage her colleagues. winning is the war resolution, gets her own leadership because he believed so strongly that were was the wrong thing to do. she seen what the administration was doing. she's known for her

aggressiveness but that kind boldness which empowered her to be where she's at today. no woman had ever had a top leadership in the house of congress. she is still the only woman to lead a party in the house of congress and she has to take on the male-dominated establishment to do that. they're only 23 women there when she got there. at a 435 members. and what she said she wanted, through the grapevine, minute power were saying was who said she could run. and she said i don't need your permission. because i believe i can do it. host: did pelosi have a frustration with obama that obama's cabinet relative experience. molly: yes.

that is big theme of this about the obama era. was that, and became very close. a lot of mutual respect and like. so i don't want to make it seem like there's a grudge between them. there was a theme of congressional coverage throughout the obama years. they never felt like they didn't get enough attention. is there a particular great negotiator when he came to dealing with the republicans. they felt give up too much up front. and made this promise of bipartisanship and healing the country and bringing people together. and so the republicans relate right off the bat, we can keep him from fulfilling his promise. and hurt him politically.

and she realized that early. he continued to go to great length to try to do republicans to do things with him. she didn't think they ever had any intention of cooperating. so a lot of the frustration came from that dynamic. host: i see the questions that have the most votes on your they want me to ask the. i've been very impressed with speaker pelosi's ability to bring together the diverse actions. what strategy did you identify and how she was able to do this so effectively. molly: that is a great question. i spent a lot of time about this one. this is her great strength. it stands in great contrast to the republican speaker to her

who preceded her. the entire house with the speaker but they were unable to keep their conference together. so diverse, you have this unreasonable freedom caucus people and people from the liberal district. more urban and rural districts. but the democratic caucus is far more diverse than the republican caucus. and yet, there has been some disagreements. between different factions of the caucus. can you still hear me. from the time she became democratic leader, she is always put a premium on party

discipline. change some of the rules of the caucus in the house to make it harder and more painful for members to vote against the caucuses position. but i think similar to her strategies, she is an expert she's very good at letting people know if she's hugely disappointed that and that feeling of disappointment is huge. you may live to regret if it if you cross her. i mentioned some of these negotiating strategies. there's tips and tricks that you can point to. what i ended up concluding in a larger sense, is it really is just an incredible understanding of human nature on her part. she has an incredible memory for

detail and people. never forget the face, always knows not only who you are, she also knows your spouse and your pets and what your priorities are and what issues you have and are interested in and what your caucuses remember of and with the make up your district is and what might be difficult for you to do politically. she has all of that in the pot file in her head. she does all of our people. she maintains those relationships. she makes everybody to listen to and be heard. she seemed to have endless time to just listen to people and she will kind of throw them out. she will keep them in the

negotiation setting until they give up. because she has outlasted them. host: we now have over 500 people on this list here. before i asked the next question, want to thank everyone for coming. there will also be a separate page for this but since we are all in computers today, there be this tendency to buy this on to kindle. you should do it on politics and prose in online or some kind of ordering thing that they can tell you about. but anyway think you've all for being here in the next question, sort of falls on what you were just talking about. did you talk to nancy pelosi about what it was like growing up in a political family in baltimore. the reason, i heard an echo of what you were just answering, writing thank you notes and

stuff, old-school political way. i'm wondering what or whether she sort of talked about what her political background was like. and how it would apply to running congress pretty. molly: her father was a congressman. when she was born by the time she was seven, he become the mayor of baltimore. this is old-school democratic machine, urban politics where there's favorite training and all of the different demographics in the city and have a sort of political boss who controls their vote. you can see a lot of that old-school political style and the legislative tactics has used credit at the same time, a lot of what i tried to do in the early chapters of this book is to refocus attention on her mother. it is so natural to see the political heritage of her father

but she has always taken pains to say that she was equally by the influence of her mother. she talked very openly which is interesting about how her mother felt stifled in her life. she was never able to achieve your dreams and goals because she was a woman. and our mother wanted to be an auctioneer, wanted to go to law school, wanted to market and sell beauty products that she invented and patented and her husband would not give her his signature which was needed at the time in order to do things like that. so she was very shaped about it but her mother was very strong and assertive italian-american lady. also not afraid to get up in people's faces. one sheep punched a poll worker in the face who she was mad at. she ran a lot of the political operations for her husband. she democratic, the name was on

the ballot she was the one when running the women's democratic services operations out of her basement. and out of the family parlor. they would take people's names and refer people for services for getting into the hospital or job or whatever. so mother was a big part of that work. in the last thing i'll say about her political heritage is that very grassroots ground level. if you are urban politician you got an oak tree precinct. you can't run a campaign just with a bunch of expensive television ads reroute really go together and do the work. she recruits and runs for office is still the way she thinks about electoral politics is precinct by precinct and block

by block down at the ground level. her older brother who later became the mayor of baltimore it was great friend and mentor to her call it human nature and the rock. and i love that. host: have a couple more questions. this question is a lot of support from the voters. nancy pelosi ever been interested in running for president of the senate. you think it makes her more powerful of the house. molly: no and yes to those two questions. she's never, there was a time when she was up-and-coming in politics when she was newish to the house where once in a while should be in some basic list of potential vice presidential

candidates. she always said she was not interested. dangled in as she wanted a higher office. assorted part of the repertoire then somebody asked you, are you looking at the next rung of the letter produce what they know no. but i think she's been saying that for long enough that is become believable. it is a big part of your power, very smart observation by jessica. our members no she's not trying to make a name for herself. her predecessor as leader of the before, he wanted to be president. so everyone knew that is much as

he was guarding their interest in running the office in the house, he also had his eye on the next thing. had a personal ambition and steak and was going on. she's never had that. no member of the caucus think that she is just kind of address make she can sync the next rung up on the letters that gives her a lot of credibility. she is focused on their interest. host: up until this is the last question for him go with the majority rules here. this is from jeff, will have access to get from a speaker. molly: she went through a series of interviews. i have been covering her since before i started covering the book. i interviewed her prior to working on the biography.

she never invited me in. i introduced me to her family are the kind of thing. there is fidelity to her. a sense of what she has. she has good relationships. but she isn't this sort of chumming politician a really, that strikes the reporter like colorful and entertaining. and talk about this elisabeth in the book. i do sort of right the personal route feelings and reflections. and about the reporting process. i never felt like a really gutter inside of her head that way. to understand about the way she works and operates but because she is not someone who engages

in public introspection, i think she's a fundamentally private person. host: i will say it again. it is a great book. thank you all for being here. i know some of you are wearing masks. appreciate the great social distancing. but also, everyone, by the book. the national treasure and thank you for watching us. i guess we can sign off now. host: yes, before we close tonight though, to give me think all so much for being here . thank you guys for a lovely conversation about a personal favorite figure mine at least. in his much.

i do encourage the audience to buy the book. the patron tension is what allows us to stay up and running right now. and we are offering you the option tonight to come to politics and prose. we really appreciate everyone comes in. but definitely, purchase this book by volleyball tonight molll tonight. until then, i hope we see you again and stay well, they will read predict and take care everybody. why you all.

here's a look at some publishing industry news. last week's simon & schuster, died at the age of 71. she began her publishing career in random house and moved assignmenshelet the company's ft 12 years. the publisher, one of the biggest in the world, will provide greater discounts. extend the dates and invoice payments and assist with freight costs on returned books for stores who are looking to reopen. the new york times reports and the money was coming books about the coronavirus pandemic. harper publisher says the difficulty for publishers as we know there will be a lot . amino only a few of them will work. also the news, mtv reports that book sales were up nearly 10 percent for the week ending may 9th. led by a surge in young adult nonfiction purchases. the sales for the week work on

part with 2019 but are still down almost 9 percent for the year. and many book festivals and conferences that were forced to cancel continued offer a virtual experience. most americans largest book industry conference book book eo will offer online events next week. all the programs will be hosted on the facebook page and will be free to the public. next month the festival will take place online on june 5th . the american library association annual conference virtual from june 24th - 26 . book tv, will continue to bring you new programs and publishing news. ... ...

>> welcome to this wonderful book discussion. thank you for joining us. i want to jump right in, chris you talk about the power of unrestricted cash transfers to transform the lives of people. i know you came slowly but surely but every time i ask others about this idea, they say why should we trust people? how do you answer that from your own experience? >> first, thank you for having me am looking forward to having conversations