wyoming, fossil fuels to re renewables. the challenges of transitioning. an kohn congratulate laions to winners. to the students and teacher frs competing and making this a success. the top 21 leading entries will air on cspan in april and you can watch all 150 winning documentaries online at student cam.org. former trump presidential campaign manager offers insights into president trump's white house, what it took to get there and stories from inside the presidential campaign. he is from new hampshire, where this event took place. >> good evening. thank you all for being here. on behalf of the fakculty, staf and students, i'd like to welcome you. thank you for joining us for such a special event. my name is -- i'm a student

ambassador. the institute's mission is to educatigucate and inform citize participate in the civic life of their communities. tonight's speaker is our first. for 45. he severed for donald trump, arrived in new york city through their victory in june. a native of lowell and graduate of u mass lowell. corey ban his career as a political staffer an on campaigns across the country. he worked for the republican national committee for a brief time, also spent time lobbying here in new england with the koch brothers and americans for prosperity. >> tonight, he's going join the institute's executive director for a wide range of conversation. we'll discuss not only the 2016 election and their viktry. also president trump's style, character and ability to deliver

on promising made during the campaign. it's an honor to have somebody so connected to the white house this time here in new hampshire and we're honored to have corey and mr. oovek for what should b a terrific conversation. >> good to be home. >> i want to ask the question, the apparent question, how does a kid from the wrong side of a tracks brought wup a single mother in lowell, massachusetts go on to sort of manage and create this winning campaign for president?

>> you wake up and you don't know. you work hard. which i think is a value. they tell you you can't do something. you don't listen to them. when they say you'll never been successful, you disregard that and i think at some level, maybe puts a chip on your shoulder. to say yeah, i can do that. doesn't mean you can't substitute hd work and i've been so fortunate and you take chances in life. i had a great job. it doesn't go anywhere ch i was asked to go meet with then donald trump. ultimately, candidate trump and now, president trump and took a

job. friends, family, never thought would go anywhere, but sometimes, you have to take a chance. >> did you think you were going to run a campaign for president? ever? even being in new hampshire, where you sort of have this type of poe sure? >> it was never my goal to run a presidential campaign. it wasn't. i had done race at the local level, state level, gubernatorial and senate. campaign rs tough on the family and so cyclical because if you win, might have a job for a few year, but fo lose you are you're out of work and now, i have a family. hey, if i lose, what do i do for the next two or four years. whatever that may be.

so, he hires you on the spot. have you had day off since? >> mr. trump, president trump i. when you xwo goh to meet him. so embracing. he brings glou close. when i went to trump tower in 2015, i didn't know why i was going. i'm just going. i went there.

walked into the 26th floor of his office. sitting behind his desk. first thing he said, look at youchlt you got a good look. i said, okay. pretty cool, right? nen asked me about a couple of people. i know those guys. they any good? yeah, pretty good. you think you're better? yes, sir, i do. and he said you know new hampshire? yes, i do. he said, okay. you want to run my campaign for president? who are we kidding, we know this. he said to me candidly, he said, what do you think the odd of me running for president are and winning? what do you think u the odds of running. i said, 5%. he looked at me, 10%. meet in the middle, 7.done. done. he shook my hand, stood up, said you're hired. i had a jump. i didn't tell my wife.

he said, you're hireded. get out. i said i have a job, you work for me now. i left, called my wife, said i think i just took a new job in new york. >> so, how much management was this? he seems like the type of person you don't put a plan together and say this is what you're going say today. >> it was amazing. it was a small core group of us that started together. >> five people. >> five. >> who were the five? >> we hired george to do our advanced work. great advanced guy. one of the best. michael, our deputy detector and dan, social media. that's the whole team.

the bond those five people had, the focus, which was to make trump the next president of the united states, was unbelievable. just five of o us. the group is very cohesive and what we knew in that period of time, when we were successful, right, went on to iowa. >> what was that night like? >> look, it was let me tell you something. when you work for donald trump, winning solves problems.

we were on the street and i've told this story, but it's important to me re mind people. rubio's strategy, donald trump, i'll win every state. all 50. long flight home. came to new hampshire. not in a good mood. i was working at the office in manchester. he went up and did a couple of events ch it was a wednesday after. i said, sir, i need to speak with you. came into the office. here's where your numbers are ir sir. starting to fall. we had a good lead in new hampshire and if you don't start to outline your vision for america and just complain about the results in iowa.

you're going to be candidate for the president of the united states one day. with that, he literally turned around. went up to manchester police did a shift change that day. did an interview, sunday, monday, tuesday, locking doors in the blizzard. . >> so the strategy was let trump be trump. so, you let him go to a rally, but wasn't any preconceived notion, just go do it. >> sometimes, we had a plan. we talked about the muslim ban. we did on a battleship in south carolina.

maybe we should talk about snake tonight. i equate him to a great racehorse that you have to let him run. he's the american pharaoh of american politics. it's not my job to put a bridle on him and say, sir, for 40 years, you've an unparalleled success in the business and television world and book world and guess what, i'm going to tell you what to do now. it's not my job. my job is to put blinders on him and tell him, hey, you got to be b afrl on that one. that's what i tried to do. if you look at the interviews he did with oprah winfrey in 1989, exact same message.

>> isn't it heart to do that, too, all the campaign manager, all the analysts are saying you got to put a bridle on this guy. he feeds to apologize and you're saying, no, let him do it. must have felt a lot of vindication. >> you know what the press didn't see? we want a a change. i told the story, went up to new hampshire one day. in the summer of 2015. we took a small plane from laguardia and landed up at la cone area's airport. i got off the plane. had about 15 phone message frs the same number. this conditioned be good. listen, it was this police officer. said, we've got a problem.

he called up and said we're going send a cruiser. this is private secret service protection because we had so many people, we had to close the road. excuse me. yeah, we're going to come get you. we pulled into this facility. never seen anything like it. it was 120 degrees inside. people standing on the roof. we pulled in, these two black suvs. people came to the car, started shaking the car. it was like a true celebrity, like a rock concert celebrity. donald trump went in, gave a speech and as we left, we got in the suvs. and there were people outside, couldn't even fit in the building. they started chasing the cars as we left the parking lot. i said, there's something special going on here. there's something different that nobody else sees. people would wait in line for eight hours in a blizzard in january of 2016 to see donald trump speak at the pulse harbor center. i saw it time and time and time

again. what the media failed to understand, if you wait in line to say somebody for eight hours in a blizzard, you want to see that man. >> the day he said what he said about john mccain, did that -- whether letting trump be trump? >> that was a tough day. in iowa. still early in the campaign. and went up to give a speech. the plan was, he'd give a speech, do a press conference, do two other events and fly back. do a meet and greet. a speech with frank. i'm waiting for him at the door. this is pretty good, huh? pretty good speech. said, sir, can i speak to you, close the door.

i said sir, you said john mccain wasn't a war hero. he swepent a number of years in war camp on behalf of the country. i said, we need to apologize. no, john mccain hasn't done enough if r our veterans. we have people dying. the veterans deserve better and john mccain hadn't done enough. i said, sir, you don't understand. let's go downstairs and have a press conference. we walked downstairs, held a 28 minutes, probably most contentious press conference in my life. we leave. pack on the plane and i remember i called my wife, i said, guess what, campaign's over, coming home. going to be b a quick one. my friends were right. i'll never work in politics again.

until one came out, said donald trump is right. john mccain hasn't done enough. and there were people who you know that have became part of this campaign, friends of the president, who would call me on that particular saturday, we flew up to new jersey when we landed. just four of us in the room. friends. close friends of the president. you need to apologize. i will make sure the veterans have what they want. he's a fighter. does he ever apologize in public? seems like he doubles down on things. >> he's a genuine fighter. because if for his entire life i know you guys don't believe this, he was told he can't do things. you can't go build in new york. that's for a different group of people. we're good in brooklyn, but new york, manhattan is different for

us. don't do that. he has such a tenacity. such an ability to move people when he puts his mind to it. what his beliefs are, he wants everyone to believe the way he does. >> you mentioned he was at one point in a bad mood. describe what he's like. there are different characteristics, when somebody's in a bad mood. bill clinton had a terrible temper, b apparently. tell me what it's like when he gets upset. >> you get to know somebody when you spend as much time with him as i did. 18 hours a day, seven days a week for 18 months. on the plane alone, we flew 1400 hours on the plane. 1400 hours.

so by 60 days straight just being on the plane. >> it's a nice plane though. >> 60 days is a long time on any plane. we had the best plane and the worst food. mcdonald's, burger king, if we're lucky, chick fail a not too often. when you get to know somebody, when dt is apgry, it's because of traditionally, the staff has failed to deliver. i took that very, very personally. he wasn't angry. that falls on me as campaign manager. i didn't do my job well enough. i don't know what else i could have done. but when he yelled at me or was more disappointed in me in the campaign, i took it very personally because i'd given up so much to be part of it. but you have to understand, you're with someone, particular candidate is running for office at the highest o f the highs,

right, the biggest things they've ever done in their life. running for president of the united states of america. becoming the president of the united states, everything else doesn't p matter, it's secondary. days like wisconsin, they were tough. days where we lost elections, they were real tough. >> you're kind of known for driving a tight ship. you're known for having an edge. is that a persona? you seeped to be b rather enjoying the post campaign period, but a, you have a little bit of a general patton persona. what zbl what i told our staff was every single day, donald trump would give up and give us his very beth and if we're not willing to do that, we shouldn't be here. that is man who worked 18 or 20

hours a day without blinking. never complains. never did he say to me, corey, why am i going to mobile, alabama in august to give a speech in front of 35,000 people. just said i'm going to go because that's what you told me to do. it was an amazing amount of responsibility to dick kate his cal lar like that without any questions. what i didn't have a tolerance for, never vaa tolerance for wu for some staffer to say to me, i was tired and showed up at 9:15 today. i don't buy that. i expect if we're quoigoing to a deadline, we got to be there on time. we got donald trump on a ballot not with a team of attorneys. there were two people. you can't do it, of course we can. we also did more because we pushed people the hardest. >> on that same note, are you happy with his staff? there seems to be a lot of leaks, some mistakes in the beginning of the presidency. and now, you're watching some of

this on tv, obviously, you in connection with the president, but are you disappointed, what's your feelings of the staff? >> i think there's a couple of different components. i think a big piece of the staff. at the end of the campaign wrrks most have thousands of people and the president's fulfill these jobs throughout the government to reward these people, we had to 200 people in the whole campaign. >> the clinton campaign? >> in their brooklyn office, 800 people. so what you have at the beginning part of the administration is you have a bunch of people, either a, didn't work on the campaign that have a desire to come back the federal government or work in federal government. or b, have a different agenda. and it's not the president's because they don't know the president. and so, you know, i think when

it comes to national security policy, i think he's assembled one of the very best teams possible with general kelly and mattis. hr mcmaster. that team of generals is very, very strong. very confident in that. they don't have the e appearance and longevity with him to do that. i really see the president as a person who understands two different types of stafferers and i mean this the best possible sense. there are people who achieved a massive amount of wealth, mattis, kelly, treasury, mcmahon, that small business. darr vaa carson at hud. wealthy in their own right. pinnacles of their career. then you have staff. you have staff who are literally

the nut and bolts of running a day-to-day operation. much less likely to be able to tell the president did i feffic things. so it's a tough position and we have to be willing sometimes to have those very tough c conversatio conversations. i always said to him, candidate trump, all you have to do is make me go back to new hampshire. i got a good life in new hampshire. >> what about steve miller? >> steve's a true ide log. he's a person i hired in january of 2016 to come join the campaign. he's a big picture thinker. he truly fund meant believes the government should be smaller and he is someone and i speak for steve miller, who truly believes in putting americans first.

he said it's time to put american people first. >> you mentioned bannon. he seems to be of great interest to everyone in the media. probably because he doesn't speak that much to the media with except of cpac. he's been around since before you were around. >> steve an the president had a long relationship. steve is someone who is exceptionally brilliant. most people don't give him the credit he deseves. went to goldman sachs. made a fortune. owned seinfeld. steve has done very, very well, then went off and worked in hollywood and started with andrew breitbart, a visionary. he built it into what it is today. steve has been advisining

counseling candidate truch for a long time. i think you have in him someone who the president understands, they share a similar philosophy. that's why they have suf a bond because that relationship has been long and developeded and they agree on most of the issues. >> he gets criticized from everything from being a racist right on through, and so does the president. how does that make you feel when this is a person, trump, that you've spent a lot of time with. what is your opinion of that? these are pretty devicive statements. not that he's been a devicive candidate, but how does that make you feel when you know someone that well and this is the political reaction? >> it bothers me because they've never done their due dill vens, the mainstream media, to go and understand donald trump. not that he hasn't been

accessible frchlt time he launched his campaign to the time the campaign ended. he did 700 interviews with "the new york times." 700 different types he spoke to the "new york times" in that period of time. it's unprecedented. one day, this "new york times" reporter calls me, we were on the airplane. about to take off. she said a question, i'd like to ask mr. trump. i said what's your question, i'll relay it. sit iting in front of me. mr. trump, it's mary myth from "the new york times." let me have the phone. gets on the phone. answered the question. she handed the phone back to me. i've been covering hillary clinton for four year, never once spoken to her. pibs tuiasosopo phone and has a conversation. he's that accessible, so when people make statements about him that says he doesn't respect women until you look at the number of women who are executives in his corporation. he doesn't respect minorities until you like at all that he's employed. doesn't respect jewish people

except h exce except daughter and grandchildren are jewish. it's easier to these things than to look at what history tells us! you mepgsed "the new york times." >> failing "new york times." >> they said last week, coverage may eclipse by any single human being. talking about donald trump. and now, we have this fight with the media. you think that's more something that's used as a vehicle to have an enemy out there that the american public, that we can basically fence with and or is this more o a real feeling that he's being unfairly targeted by this media and he's react tog that? >> i think the media has been very unfair to the president. it's amazing -- >> they've been unfair to most.

>> but when the media makes a mistake, one example. a time magazine reporter came into the oval office and took a picture of the oval. he said the bust of martin lo t luther king jr. has been removed. tweeted it out right away. he's fine guy. i know the reporter well. he sent out 3,000 media outlets, decried the president for being a racist. you know what the fact was? it was never touched. it was behind the person who was standing there. if they had taken three segds to ask the white house, they wouldn't have had this. the first story is the one that gets reported. not the mistake. not the hey, i apologize. that happens time and time again. in the last two weeks, "the new york times" has written a story, "the wall street journal" have writtens stories that are false andoh posed to doing that and admitting it, what they say at the end o f the story even though they have on the record story ts saying it's false, whus

disagrees. that's not fair journalism. >> well, despite it's not fair, i'd agree, but the president's have had things they created as an enemy. he seeps to take a special liking to the media. is this new? sfwl they continue to talk about themselves. what they don't understand, nobody cares about the media. they only care about themselves. they're so enraged that the president cisn't coming tos whie house correspondents' dinner. they don't want to talk about the campaign promise he's laid out. they showed that 45 pes of the people believe and 42% believe the media gets information that's accurate. that's very telling story. media research center did a

survey. 97% of respeondents said he wid did not lou the media's bias to impact the vote. the world got their news at 6:. 30. they delivered the news and the difference now is everyone is so quick to make the news for clicks on subscriptions or whatever it may be. that's what drives them. >> so, you mentioned polling. switching gears here a little bit. the thing that fascinates most of us in the business of politics is how the polling was off. most would have protected that hillary clinton would have won by a landslide. most including her team believed that. your campaign had a small victory party in a small

location in new york versus hers. so, tell me, were the polls that the campaign had, were they doing internals? were those internals on the mark? what was the sense because it seems like everybody including the trump campaign was surprised. >> we looked at a couple of different factors. the state of florida was the most tum ultimate yous for us. we didn't know how they were going to break. historically or against us. donald trump ended up with 33% of the hispanic vote, which is a very good number for a republican. but in florida, the 80 voters were very high. we thought we could be in trouble in florida, which is a battleground state for us. north carolina, our numbers said we were going in 25b9,000 votes. mitt romney was down about 300,000 votes.

so we felt pretty good in north carolina. our numbers started to change rapidly in pennsylvania. wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan, they were very concerned about. the reason being is, they took them for granted. they took the states for granted and it wasn't until the last ten days, the last seven days, and really the last weekend, selfishly because i'm a new hampshire guy, i wanted the last rally to be right here. i planned it that way. the last rally is going to be at the verizon center, because they've been good to us. we had a rally, in a snowstorm the night before the primary. i said, this president will not stop working at 8:00. you have to make it like a midnight rally. they said, no, we're going to hit pennsylvania, new hampshire, and we're going to stop. i said, i know this guy, please don't make this the last stop. we had the big light show. massive blowout and he got on a plane and went to michigan. it was like this, you know, thrown together last-minute

thing. the last rally of the campaign. he landed back at laguardia at 3:30 because he wanted to stop one more time in michigan. we knew that if we could just make a turnout model, the people who have not been engaged in the election process, that have been lied to for 30 years, they showed up and they won. hillary clinton didn't connect with the african-american community. as a republican, he got a historic number. with women, donald trump won with women.

it's amazing, when hillary clinton was the first female to hold the title of nominee for a major party. donald trump won with evangelicals. donald trump won across the board. that's what nobody else saw. everyone else said he lost the day he announced. i was on the set of cnn. they were laughing at us at 5:00 in the afternoon. >> the subject of voter fraud coming up. you said you don't think there's

widespread voter fraud, but tell me what you think about voter fraud in new hampshire. >> the way the law is written unfortunately, it's not voter fraud. if i feel like toe even though i live in massachusetts, i'm going to go to new hampshire, maybe spend three or four days up there. man, i've been here a lot over the last 72 hours. i feel good. in you're not paying taxes here, here's how close the elections are. donald trump lost, kelly ayotte lost 790 votes. this is on a statewide margin. you're attracting minimal numbers. it wasn't ta long. everything is is is legal. joe biden, the vice president united states at the time. his daughter was up here campaigning. decided to register, she was

here for four weeks. thereitercriteria. democracy is too important. this state could have been, it wasn't. donald trump won a devicive victory. but these four electoral votes have decidedly outcome of the presidential election in tpast s bush. in 2000, if he did not win new hampshire, he wouldn't have been elected president of the united states. >> you're a new hampshire dpi. what's the difference here? what's really the difference with new hampshire? you see it. we think we site it because we're here all the time. tell me the difference. >> out of every state just about. froms amazing opportunity.

sophistication level from the people of new hampshire is second to none. they understand and take full responsibility of being the first in the nation primary. it's so amazing to me that my friends on the campaign with the trump campaign are here next time they'll be on the other side of the campaign. these are my friends. our chairman and co-chairman. our county chairs. next time, they're going to support somebody else for some other race. whatever that is. governor, state senate. don't take it personally. i'm privileged these people stay involved for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. they can ask these people the tough questions. people take it so seriously here and they need to. it's an obligation that nobody else has. >> on that note, you are a new hampshire guy. you're very eloquent. masters degree.

>> they're -- all that good stuff. just this week. by helping someone else. to start this. one question, make the question.

in congress. he's -- i think the president's going talk about. broad themes. the tpp. making for the environment. education security. >> let's make sure we're creating jobs.

very important. that's taking care of the vetera veterans. making sure they have money in the v va. increasing on the military to make sure they have the best tools available and something this campaign has been focused on, which is border security. having a wall built on the southern board echl whand that i can tha likes like, so if we don't control our borders, we doept have a country. i think those are the big things he's going to talk about tomorrow night and i think the speech is going to be both a reminder of what he talked about on campaign, but also very forward looking. i think he's said during the press conference, he's going to submit his plan by the second week of march. he's working with secretary price to do that and the leaders in congress. the other thing, fundamental and

wholesale tax reform when rond reagan put forward a totally different tax structure. that something very diflt to do. so, you have to grow the government greater than 1% to be successful and in order to do that, you have to have a business environment where businesses want to hire and put more money in people's pockets. >> with that, we have a question. right here. >> hi, first, i'd like to thank you so much for being able to speak to us tonight. it was an amazing experience. based on this union campaign that you've been able to work on, do you have any advice for young people who'd like to be more involved in campaigns. >> yaet graet yes.

i wrote to every member of congress and said i want to come out and run your campaign. didn't know any of them. some how, this guy sitting congressman, said why don't you come meet me. and i did. met him a couple of times. he said, i need you to move to ohio. never been anywhere. pack up everything you own in your car and you can be my campaign manager. you have to take a chance sometimes. i went out and work oed as hard as i could to help this goi. ened up with 65% of the vote. made me his chief of staff. you ask any entrepreneur, anybody who has been successful, unless you were born on third base and few of us that were. i wasn't born orne third base, but you got to do stuff no one else. if that means packing everything up and driving to where you think you'll be good at, you've got to do it. >> since you've been coming

here, our students rave about you. can't stop talking about stories you tell. another question. >> i'm a student journalist in that position sometimes, it's disheartening to see the media m and current president have such a negative relationship. what would you say could be drawn on both sides of the issue to start mending that relationship. zpl great question. the president is magnanimous in private. tried to f a relationship with him. he's got a good relationship with a number of members of the media honestly. the reason he gets frustrated is because he knows these people and doesn't think they treat him fairly. i think what you'll see is continued yoet reach by the president and his team to develop those relationships. so o that they can have a better understanding of what that looks like. you saw the president, 77 minute

long press conference, here's a beauty. obama never stood up and took a 77 minutes long press conference. the president is so accessible, he just wants to be freet trooeed fairly. by bringing some of the people in covering him on regular basis and having a better understanding of what both sides expect. if both sides agree, that they're not always going to agree on what the story is, but have a mutual understand iing towards a facts. the president will be comfortable with that. >> that's a different tactic than sean spicer. >> i know sean very, very well. very good friend of mine, as a number of of the people in the administration are. what sean did by bringing people to an off the record gaggle, there's a pool. a a group of reporters who are randomly assigned.

one is a print reporter and one is a tv reporter. what their job is, if there's an issue that the full press core can't cover, their job is to cover. as an example, i dealt with p l pools the entire campaign. trz if the cnn reporter happened to be b the pool campaign, that particular day, they would have been in the room or if "the new york times" reporter, they would have been in the room. just so happened that the individual who was the pool camera was nbc, who has been less than great to the president of the united states was in the room, but that's because that's how the pool was set up, again, the press wants to talk about it's unprecedented that the president excluded someone from an off the record gaggle in a room that's about half the size of this stage. nobody missed any news. it's not what the american people care about.

next question. >> thank you very much. both of you. how would you or i guess the promising that candidate trump made during the campaign. you think he's quoing to fulfill those and which do you think he'll prioritize as president? >> i think if you look at what president has tried to accomplish in the first 38 days of this administration through the executive order actions, which is he has implemented, he is fulfilling the promises o this campaign and i don't know if you saw this week, he, the department of homeland security felt that first solicitation for the designs of a wall. something his campaign very heavily on. so if you look at tax cuts, savings, social security, medicare, repealing, replacing obamacare, these have been in general, the campaign.

redoing bilateral deal, looking at nafta, maing sure something fidoing dpo leave our country, creating an important inside the business community that is helping. you can look at the stock market a. it's through the roof because the first time in eight years, the federal government, which is no longer reactionary and or aggressive, but trying help companies grow and it's a very different mind set with the people from the government. >> some of the things that have happen nd the last several weeks are that he will say something, then pence and many of the cabinet members will spend the rest the week reversing that. had a speaker here the other night who said pence will be b the first prime minister of the united states. doing so. but what do you think about ta relationship? how healthy is that that the vice president goes out and has to sort of o walk us back?

>> you know, i have the prif leon ledge, amazing privilege to chair the selection committee for the vice president of the united states. you want to talk about awesome power. i had the privilege of putting names on the list to run by candidate trump and say here are the people who i think would be qualified to be your vice president, sir. he said, go out and interview them. mike pence is a good, honorable man. sometimes, too good to be in washington. i had that conversation with him recently. republican pence, you're such a good man, you shouldn't be in the swamp. he's such a good man. he and the president have an unbelievably strong relationship. mike has been such a steadfast support e of the president and so good. that if the vice president were to go and help smooth things over, particularly on capitol hill, where he has fogood relationships with other governors because that's where

the vice president's from, the president's open to that. he's open to the president having the lead on issue that is the vice president wants to be engage d in, inclueing obama cae repeal. tax reform. these two individuals work hand and glove together and i don't think there's ever been a time. >> so you're working -- >> he could be the president maybe said something that he needed to walk back and instead, the apology, apology never come, but pence will come and smooth it out. >> vice president pence is a go very good individual of interpreting the president. >> i think vice president cheney would say that is a great job. >> i didn't pick myself, so

pretty smart. >> question. >> what what wilchallenge wha c you foresee? >> he's the head of the republican party. both de facto and by a faction of o simply being the president of the united states. but the challenge many face particular ly in states where yu have republicans holding office. that came to their respective offenses before the president was elected, they're not sure if they could embrace the president or run from him or try and walk a fine line. john kasich is a good example. bruce rounder in illinois is a good example. they're not sure what to do because if they step away from the president whark happens to that whole group of individuals who supported the president in his campaign. that need them to win. it's very difficult if you're a

sitting elected official to now criticize the incumbent president of the united states of your own party. what i think you have an opportunity to see coming up in 2018 is there are ten states that they're incumbent u.s. senators were sitting there in states that donald trump won for president. that gives republicans running in those places a great opportunity to tie to the trump agenda moving forward, but in states like ohio, where there has been youp, more than a public discourse between the president and governor kasich who was in the white house the week or late last week, it's unfortunate, but you have to work together. because at some point, the governors are going to need help from the federal government and want to have the best relationship b possible. >> you mentioned 2018, but in 2020, do you think he's going to be on the ballot? do you think the president will -- >> i don't think he's going quit

anything in his life. i think he's going to run. i think he could win. if the look, i don't want to be hyper partisan here. the left wing of the democratic party has gone so far to the left. with the bernie sanders wing that is almost impossible for them to win in middle america. they can win in california. win in washington state. they can win in oregon. they can win in massachusetts. the problem is, when you look at the middle states, very hard for them to win because they don't have the message of economic freedom anymore of putting people back to work. if they continue to take the african-american community for granted particularly in those big cities, it will be b so to their own demise. the president had like 00 african-american leaders in the oval offense today, talking about his recommit m to the

african-american colleges. he is going make enroads in places where trashl republicans haven't and can't was that's the type of person he is. >> another question. >> what you were saying earlier about during the primaries, we hear a lot about establishment and republicans fighting each other. there was a question of whether republicans who gather around embrace trump as he was an untraditional candidate and what people weren't used to. how did you team and the president teal with that when it came during the primaries, unitiuni uniting republicans? >> we didn't care. it's the fwraetest part. had a complete outsider who didn't need their money or endorsements. and didn't belong to the same country clubs. the only time we ever went to washington, d.c. in the primary was to go check on the hotel he was building. we didn't go down there and beg the common man. the first congressional

endorsement we received was after he won the nevada caucus. chris collins from new york made an endorsement. called up, said i'm interested in endorsing trump. not going win the party establish m. because you know what happened. if endorsements mattered, jeb bush would be the president of the united states today. it doesn't work that way. your endorsement is good for one vote. because it doesn't work that way anymore. the american people are smart. they want someone not beholden to washington interest. do us right be the american people and not be beholden to other people because they want a job. we didn't go autoout aembrace te establishment, us and dr. carson, we were the outside. if you look at the two people

from the time we get into the race who were leaders in the race, only two of us, donald trump ran almost wire to wire. never been done. except for two days in iowa. dr. come stab necessity in the belt buckle, and that was it. the outsider. washington has been fundamentally broken for so long. republican or democrat. they have lied to the american people. we have $20 trillion in debt. we bring in $4 trillion a year. put that in perspective. if you have $20,000 on your credit card and make $4,000 a year, and then you have to pay for all the other things that you make on $4,000 a year, how are you ever going to pay off $20,000 on your credit card? it cannot happen. that's what we have done. the american people said we've tried everything else. we've tried the establishment.

we've tried the families. we've tried everybody else, and it's never worked. let's go try something different. that's what we did in the primaries, and donald trump won in new hampshire, south carolina, and won in nevada, and then 38 times, and he received more votes in the republican primary than he can in the history of the republican party. >> now he has to deliver. change is subjective. you know, a lot of times -- your change is different than somebody else's change. now he has to deliver. if he doesn't necessarily deliver 100%, are some of those voters going to drop off, some of the trump voters? >> sure. look, i have said this, and steve bannon, who is a friend of mine, has said this at cpac the other day. you need to hold this administration accountable. i mean that in the absolute best sense of the word and the worst sense of the word.

>> i've had the privilege of traveling all around the country since the election. everybody says i was the first supporter of donald trump. that's not true. let me tell you, i turned the lights on in the building. there was nobody there before i was. everybody bought the winning lottery ticket the day after they called the number. it was amazing. that's okay. at the end of the day you have to hold candidates accountable. whether it's city council, statehouse, state senate, governor, u.s. senate, or the president of the united states, who is a friend of mine. if you do not deliver on the things that you have promised, then you will be held accountable, and i think that's our obligation. >> next question over here. >> i have a question about the travel ban. recently a few weeks ago the ninth circuit court struck it down.

>> constitutionality. as a federal judge, you have to determine being done or is constitution constitutional -- >> factually inaccurate.

there's no question about it. it's been on numerous kashsz, particularly in world war ii when we said we're not going to issue visas because we happen to be at war. there's no constitutional question about it. what i think you will see is a new executive board, most likely the tail end of this week, which further limits what the president will do to preclude people from coming here who want to cause us harm. the single biggest job in my opinion of the president of the united states is only one. there's only one. to keep our citizens safe from all enemies foreign and domestic. if we cannot be safe, then he has not done his job. >> could the roll-out have been better? >> sure. the roll-out should have been better. the difficult part was jeff sessions has -- was stuck in a

senate confirmation hearing. then senator sessions, attorney general sessions, there was no solicitor general, is no solicitor general in place. the information, which was distributed to the respective government agencies, the department of homeland security, the department of state did not seem to be adequate at the time. they were caught by surprise. there didn't seem to be enough communication between the administration and the people on capitol hill who were either in oversight capacities or had some jurisdiction over what was taking place. the roll-out could have been better, but it doesn't mean what was rolled out wasn't constitutional. what's very, very important are that there are three separate and unique branches of the federal government for a reason. you don't just get to be the judge and the jury to say i don't like what the president has said. i'm going to stop him because i'm a federal judge because a federal judge in boston said this is perfectly legal.

>> now we have a supreme court which is tied 4-4 who hasn't taken up this case. i think what you'll see this week is a new executive order on this, and then the question of constitutionality, i believe, even in a more limited scope, this new executive order that will come up will be challenged by the same exact court and the ninth circuit will take this up again. the question is does the president have the constitutional authority to do this? the answer is unekwifically yes. >> is that a move with gorsuch up? >> i think -- i think there is nothing more important than the safety of our country. it wasn't that long ago, unfortunately, where we had a woman come into this country under a k-1 visa. that means you came into this country and married in this country. the state department because of the rules and regulation of this country did not do their due diligence to check her social

media activity. that woman came into san bernadirdino committed a joihad whyi and killed a number of americans. if that means extreme vetting, it is a high, high privilege to come into the united states of america and to become a citizen here. we have the greatest country in the world, and we can never forget that. >> i think we time for one more. >> as a young politics major, and i'm sure you've answered this question a million times. if you could give one piece of advice to a young politics major who wants to get involved, what would that be? >> take an internship. start right now. start meeting friends, elected officials, go up to the statehouse. i grew up in lowell, massachusetts. there weren't any republicans down here, so i met this guy. he was a state representative, a democratic state representative, and i said, hey, man, i'll come and work for you for free, man. i'm in college. i have nothing no to do. i took the train every day down

to boston back and forth. i fell asleep on the train half the way back to boston because i missed my stop. he was a first term state rep. he went on to become a state senator, chairman of the weighs and means committee. a conservative democrat. his name still is steve -- still his name. he is not a state senator anymore. you know what that relationship did? i look back 25 years ago, he helped me on the right path, and when you are involved and people are killing me, believe me, man. i took a lot of arrows, a lot of arrow in this campaign from a lot of people who were supposed to be my friends. they called senator panji, what was he like when he interned for you back when he was a freshman in college? you get a reference from a guy that has no agenda other than to tell people what it's going to be like. you have to do that, and you look to the statehouse, you work for free, you find a statehouse or state senate country or a big

mayor candidate, and today you are the guy answering the phones and making signs and tomorrow in the next campaign you are the guy that's running the local race, and the day after that you are running the congressional race. by the time you are 25 years old, you are chief of staff to a congressman, and it just keeps going if that's really what you want to do, and you will know just internally. look, i have no changeable skill, so i got involved in politics. i have nothing else i can offer. this is all i know how to do. okay? >> you will know if you love it. you will know if it's what you are passionate about. if you do it, you're going to go all in. that's it. >> i want to thank you for coming tonight. this has been a real treat. >> my pleasure. [ applause ] >> cory kicked off the first of our new hampshire live podcast series. it's the first one. going to have many more speakers. again, thank you very much. the man from new hampshire.

>> thank you very much. >> great to be here. >> thank you. >> that was great. >> your documentary has been selected as this year's grand prize winner. >> what? oh, my god? >> seventh and ninth grade sisters of blacksburg, virginia. many year's grand prize winners of our student cam documentary tempest talks which explores immigration policy. >> a refugee is defined as someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence, and cannot return safely. >> with so many people fleeing their countries desperate without a home, politicians and

institutes today are arguing over one urgent question. should the united states let more refugees into the country? we received almost 3,000 entries from 46 states plus the district of columbia, england, germany, sing more, and taiwan. and now we're happy to announce our first place winners. in the middle school category, the first prize winners are eighth graders molly dougherty, camdyn lewis, and ava decker from intermediate school in scranton, pennsylvania, for their documentary u.s. gun violence, a complicated puzzle. the first place winner is 11th

grader matthew gannon from washington d.c. for his documentary titled invisible which deals with homelessness. matthew also won this year's fan favorite contest. he will receive an additional $500. for his piece enough is enough dealing with pharmaceutical pricing and our student cam first prize winner for the high school west category is ninth grader arundahi nair for her piece fossil fuels to renewables. the challenges of transitioning. congratulations to our winners. thank you to all the students and their teachers for competing and making this year's student cam competition a success. the top 21 winning entries will air on c-span in april and you can watch all 150 winning documentaries on-line at student cam.org.

the house oversight and government reform committee held a hearing yesterday about the death of an immigration and customs enforcement agent in the line of duty. the committee asked two official from the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms to testify about the investigation into the trafficking of guns later used in the murder. the atf officials did not -- the justice department inspector general did testify. this is two and a half hours. >> the oversight and government reform will come to order, and without objection, the chair has authorized to declear a recess at any time. we're here today