>> spin, where history unfolds daily. tuesday and was created as a public service by america's cable-television countries and is brought by your cable or satellite provider. >> next, former trump presidential campaign manager corey lewandowski talks about the first days of the trump administration and shares stories from the 2016 presidential campaign. posted by the new hampshire institute of politics, this is over one hour. >> good evening. thank you all for being here. on behalf of faculty and

students and the hampshire institute of politics, thank you for such an event. i am a student ambassador. the institute's mission is to educate and engage citizens to actively participate in in communities, strengthening political discourse. we have been fortunate to welcome many past presidential competence. t'shts speaker -- tonigh speaker is our first for 45. a native of nearby lowell and corey beginumass, his career at campaigns across the country. he spent time at the republican national committee, also love with with koch -- lobbying the koch brothers for americans

for prosperity. we will discuss not only the 2016 election and new hampshire primary victory, but president trump's's file, character, and ability to deliver on promises. it is an honor to have someone so connected to the white house here at this time in new hampshire. this should be a terrific conversation. so welcome. [applause] >> thank you. welcome back. mr. lewandowski: good to be home. >> i think you spent more time at the institute of politics -- as we get started, the apparent question is, how does a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, product of a single mother, go

on to manage and create this winning campaign for president? mr. lewandowski: you wake up, and you don't know. hard, which is a value that was instilled in me very young. when they tell you you can't do something, you don't listen to them. when they say you will never be successful, you disregard that. onsome level, it puts a chip your shoulder to say, yeah, i can do that. my job with americans for

prosperity was going to go anywhere. presidentand no trump, i took a job that my friends and colleagues, and family thought was not going to go anywhere. sometimes you have to take agents to be successful. >> did you think you were going to run a campaign for president ever? to do think you would take this kind of job? mr. lewandowski: no. that was never my goal to run a presidential campaign. i had done races at the local and state level, gubernatorial and senate. campaigns are tough. they are so cyclical. jobou win, you might have a for a few years, but then you are out of work. it is much more difficult going into a campaign is thinking hey,

if i lose, what will i do for the next two or four years? it was never my goal to run a presidential campaign. i am lucky to have this opportunity to have a front row seat at history for the past two years. >> trump invites you into trump tower, sits you down, hires you on the spot. have you had a day off since? mr. lewandowski: it was so surreal. trump is so magnanimous. he is so good when you go to meet him. is embracing. he brings you close. saida, would you come with me to see donald trump? sure. i drove to new york and waited. the net before my friend said, i can't make it. so i guess i will just go see

donald trump. so i went there. i completed around and walked into the 26th floor of his office. the first thing he said was, look at you. you've got a good look. i said okay. that was pretty cool. [laughter] he talked about others he interviewed for the job. i. those guys. present, -- he said, are they any good? he said, are you better than them? do you know new hampshire? aid, do you want to help me run for president's? he said candidly, what do you think the odds are of of winning? him in the half. that was how it started.

he shook my hand and said, you are hired. i did not tell my wife. he said, you are hired, and get out. know.d, you work for me icalled my wife and said, think i just took a new job in new york. kind ofems like the person where you don't put a plan together and say, this is what you will say today. that he will these things out in these rallies? mr. lewandowski: it was a small core of us that start the campaign. 5 of us. we hired a great guy. one of the best.

we hired others here in new hampshire, two guys in south carolina. that was the entire presidential campaign. you could put them in a minivan. those five people had is because they had to that singular focus, to make donald trump the next president was unbelievable. it was like a small company. nobody was leaking. it was only five of us. the group was very cohesive. what we knew in that time was when we were exceptionally successful. we went on to iowa, a state where donald trump was not supposed to compete or do well. he lost by one vote to ted cruz. in new hampshire, he won by 20 points. >> was that night like? when you worki: for donald trump, winning solves

problems. [laughter] there was a lot of pressure after iowa. i remember it very well. we had a small office on granite street. it is important to remind people, we left iowa that night. it was a win for every other candidate. donald trump's saturday was a win in every state. he said, i want to win all 50. finished in second, came to new hampshire. he was not in a very good mood. i was working at the office in manchester. he did couple of events. it was a wednesday. i came in the office and said, you're aware your numbers are. you are starting to fall.

if you don't start to outline your vision for america and want to complain about the results in iowa, you will also be a candidate who ran for president one day. with that, he literally turned around and went to manchester police, did a shift change. he went and did his town hall in manchester with cnn. monday,rsday, friday, knocking on doors in the blizzard. >>'s of the strategy was to let trump be trump, go to these rallies. the rallies and the tweets were what differentiated him from the others. hitasn't, i think we will this issue today -- or just going for it? can think ofki: i specifically december 7, 2015.

we talked about rolling in a muslim ban. it was very controversial. we did that on a battleship in south carolina. we knew the premise of the speech. we had these different narratives that he would roll into his speeches. i used to say, what trump be trump. i always equate trump to a great resource. he is the american pharaoh of policy. -- great race horse. guess what, i am going to tell you what to do. that is not my job. my job is to put blinders on the horse and say hey, be careful around this corner. he has had his finger on the pulse the american people. oprah winfrey in 1989, he and

the exact same messaging. he fundamentally understand and understands what is wrong with the country and wants to change it. >> isn't that hard to do when all the analysts are saying you have to put a bridal on this guy, he needs to apologize, then you are saying no, let him do it. you must have felt a vindication that the end. mr. lewandowski: the american people wanted a change. we were in new hampshire one day in the summer of 2015. write after we announced the campaign. we a small plane and landed at laconia's airport. i got 15 phone messages from the same number. it couldn't be good. there was a police officer that said, we have a problem. hall.e 150 in the vfw

he was giving us a heads up. present, we are going to send a surprise cruiser. there are so many people on the road. we pulled into the facility. it was 120 degrees inside. there were people standing on the roof of this building. there were 2 blocked suv's. people started shaking their car . it was like a true celebrity. the car, donald trump gave his speech. people could not fit in the building. people started chasing the cars as we left the parking lot. i said, there is something special that nobody else sees. people would wait in line in a blue-collar town, in a blizzard

of 2016 to see donald trump speak. i saw time and time again. the media failed to understand was if you wait in line to see someone eight hours in a blizzard, you are going to supporth him. >> the day that he sent what he said about john mccain. that must have been a big low. did that take you off of your game? mr. lewandowski: that was a tough day. we were in iowa. it was early in the campaign. the plan was we would give a speech, do a press conference, and had 2 other events and would fly back. we to the facility. withes a meet and greet frank luntz. i'm waiting for him out of the door. she says, pretty good huh?

i said sir, i have to speak to you in this greenroom. i close the door. this is where you have to understand donald trump. it took me a long time to understand. this was in july. i said, sir, you just said john mccain was not a war hero. i think you need to apologize. he asid no, john mccain has not done enough for our veterans. we have people dying and john mccain has not done enough. i said, sir, you don't understand. your campaign will be over. he said, let's have a press conference. he held a 28 vintage press conference. we leave the facility, get back on the plane, and i called my wife and said, campaign is over. it will be a quick one.

that was a sunday show. someone said, donald trump is right, john mccain has not done enough. there were friends of the president who would call me -- we flew to new jersey, 4 of us in the room, friends, of the they said you need to apologize. the best because the minds and the political space said, you down,t apologize, double because i will make sure the veterans have what they want. does he ever apologize in public? >> he doubles down on things. mr. lewandowski: he is a jai led fighter. he's -- you can't build in new

york, his father would tell him. we are good in brooklyn. manhattan is different for us. don't do that. to moveuch a tenacity people when he puts his mind to it, it is hard to apologize. he is strong in what his beliefs are that he wants everyone to believe the way that he does. you mentioned at one point he was in a bit of a bad mood. [laughter] there are different characteristics when someone is in a government. bill clinton had a terrible temper apparently. other candidates have. you spend all this time with someone in a small campaign jet and tempers flare. tell me what it is like when someone gets upset. mr. lewandowski: when you spend as much time as i have with him,

we flew 1400 hrs on the point. straightbout 16 days on the airplane. >> it is a nice plane, though. [laughter] mr. lewandowski: we had the best plan, and the worst food. mcdonald's, burger king. when you get to know someone you have to understand, when, trump is angry about something, additionally -- traditionally the staff failed to deliver on his expectations. he takes it personally. he wasn't angry or losing after second place in iowa, he was disappointed. that falls on the on the campaign manager to say that i did not do enough. i don't know when i could have done. when he's yelled at me or was more disappointed in me in the campaign, i took it personally. i gave up so much to be part of

,t that you have to understand you're with someone at the highest of the highs, the biggest thing they have done in their life. becoming the president of the united states. everything else is secondary. those days like wisconsin work of -- wisconsin were tough. >> view are known for driving a tight ship. during campaigns you had a bit of an edge. during. things on time -- is that -- you have a little bit of a general persona. persona.l patton mr. lewandowski: what i tell our staff is that every day jump and

get up and give us his best. if we were not willing to do that, we should be -- should not be here. he never complained. he never said, what am i going to mobile, alabama? he never questioned it. he would go because this is what you told me to do. there was an amazing responsibility to dictate his calendar without any questions. what i don't have a tolerance for is for some staffer to say, i am tired when i showed up at 9:15 today. i don't buy that. the deadlines are there for a reason. we can't donald trump on the ballot. not a team of attorneys. of course we could do it. we did more with less because we pushed people the harvest. >> are you happy with his staff

now? listen to be leaks and mistakes in his first part of the presidency. obviously you are in connection with the president. are you disappointed? what are your feelings of his staff? mr. lewandowski: there are a couple different components. at the end of the presidential campaign, most campaigns have thousands of people. we had 200 people on the whole campaign. that is a decent sized u.s. senate race in some places. >> and the clinton campaign had 800? mr. lewandowski: they had 800 people in the brooklyn office:. a, have people that either did not work on the campaign that have a desire toward confederal government. or b, has a different agenda.

it is not the president's agenda because they don't know the president. when it comes to national security policy, and uses one of the best teams possible. is verym of generals strong. i am confident in that. there is an obligation to push back on the president when they don't think he is doing the right thing. those people around him don't have that type of experience and longevity with him to do that. i see the president as somebody who understands two different types of staffers. i mean this in the best possible sense. there are those who are the president's contemporaries, who have achieved wealth and success in their own right. chin, dr. carson --

very wealthy in their own right. at the pinnacle of their career. then you have staff. then you have the nuts and bolts of running a day-to-day operation, who are much less likely in my opinion to be able to tell the president difficult things. either they have a relationship or he doesn't see them as a contemporary. you have to be willing to have a conversation. candidate trump, paul you can make me do is go back to new hampshire. steve is a true ideologue. i hired him back in january of 2016 to join the campaign. he is a big picture thinker. he fundamentally believes should issmaller, leaner, and he

someone who truly believes in putting americans first. that sounds pejorative if you are from another country. steve is not an isolationist. >> you mentioned bannon. bannon seems to be of great interest to the media. tell me about steve bannon. he has been around before you were around. mr. lewandowski: steve and the president have a long relationship. steve is someone who is exceptionally brilliant. most people don't give him the credit he deserves. he went to goldman sachs, owned a small piece of "seinfeld." maybe you have heard of it. steve has done very well. he worked in hollywood, started with andrew breitbart and built that into one distant. it is today steve

has been. advising president trump for a long time. you have in steve bannon someone that the president understands that they share a similar philosophy. that is why they have such a bond. that relationship has been long and developed. >> he goods criticized -- gets criticized from being a racist and everything on through. how does that make you feel? what is your opinion of some of that? these are pretty divisive statements. not that he has been a divisive candidate. but how does that make you feel, when you know someone that well, and this is the political reaction to what they are mr. lewandowski: it bothers me because they have never done

their due diligence, the mainstream media to actually understand donald trump. not that he has not been accessible. from the time he launched his presidential campaign to the time it ended, heated 700 interviews with the "new york times." 700 different times in that period of time, unprecedented. here is a quick story. a new york times reporter calls me, i have never spoken to her, we are on airplane about the takeoff. she says, i have a question i would like to ask mr. trump. i said i would relay the question. i said, mr. trump, it is a reporter from the new york times, she has a question. he gets on the phone with her, answers the question. he hands the phone back to me, spoken to herver before, simply pick up the phone and has a conversation with her. he is not accessible to the media. when people make statements about him and say he does not respect women, i say look at the number of women executives in

his corporation. he does not respect minorities. look in all the minorities he has employed, tens of thousands. he does not respect jewish employees -- jewish people, except his daughter and grandchildren. it is a much better sell to say these things then actually look at what history tells us. >> you mentioned "the new york times." i wish you had mentioned the union leader. coverage mayt week eclipse that of any single human being, talking about of course donald trump. now we have this fight with the media. you think that is more something used as a vehicle to have an enemy out there that the american public -- that he can fence with, or is this more of a real feeling that he is being unfairly targeted by the media and he is reacting to that? mr. lewandowski: i think it could be a little bit of both, but i do think the media has been pejorative sometimes, very

unfair to the president. it is amazing -- -- >> they have been unfair to most presidents. mr. lewandowski: let me give you an example. a time magazine reporter came into the oval office and took a picture. he said the bust of martin luther king jr. has been removed. he tweeted it, never contacted anyone in the white house. is a fine guy, i know him well. he decried the president for being a racist because he removed the bust of martin luther king jr. from the oval. you know what the fact was? the bus was never touched. it was standing behind a person who was standing there, and if you taken three seconds to ask the white house -- the first story is the one that gets reported, not the mistake, not the apology, and that happens time and time again. in the last two weeks, the new york journal -- new york times and your journal have written stories that are patently false.

what they say at the very end of this story, even though they have on the record sources saying it is factually false, the white house disagrees with this. that is not fair journalism. >> i would agree with that, but presidents have always had things they have created as an enemy. harry truman, congress. reagan, congress. almost all of them congress, we can fill that right in. he seems to take a special disliking to the media and they have a hard time defending themselves. is this a new tactic? mr. lewandowski: the media continues to talk about themselves. what they don't understand is nobody cares about the media. they only care about themselves. they are so enraged the president is not coming to the correspondents dinner and that is all they want to talk about. they don't want to talk about the campaign promises he is fulfilling. every day the media talks about themselves is every day they are losing. if you look at the last fox poll, it says 45% of the people

believe when the president gives information, it is accurate, and 42% believe when the media gives information, it is accurate. the media research center did a survey after the election. 97% of respondents said they did not allow the media's biased impact their vote. that is amazing. it was not that long ago -- you and i can never this -- the world got their news from three people. cbs, the samenbc, three anchors. they did not make the news, they delivered the news. the difference now is everyone is so quick to make the news for clicks or subscriptions or whatever it may be, that is what drives them, not good journalism. >> you mentioned pulling. switch -- polling. switching gears. the thing that fascinates us in politics is how the polling was off. most of us predicted that hillary clinton would win by a landslide.

most people, including our own team, believe that. the trump campaign had a very small victory party in a very small location in new york versus harris. -- versus hers. were the internal polls the campaign had, were they doing internals, were they on the mark? what was this sense because it seems like everybody, including the trump campaign, was surprised? mr. lewandowski: we looked at a couple different factors. the absentee ballot, early voting was an indicator and the state of florida was the most to mulch u.s.. because it has a huge hispanic population, we did not know how they would break, if it would be historically or if they would break with us, if donald trump ends up with 33% of the vote, which is good for a republican. but in florida, the voters were exceptionally high, so we thought we would be in trouble. north carolina, what our numbers

said was we were going in on election day down about 250,000 votes, mitt romney was down by about 300,000 votes and he carried north carolina by about 77,000 votes, so we felt really good about north carolina. our numbers started to change rapidly in pennsylvania. we knew we would win ohio, iowa. but wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan, they were very concerned. the reason being is they took him for granted. they took the state for granted and it was not until the last 10 days, the last seven days, and really the last weekend. i am a newecause hampshire guy, i wanted the last rally to be here and i planned it that way. i said last rally is going to be at the verizon wireless center, or whatever it is called now, because it has been very good to us. the nightally there before the primary, so i said

that was going to be at. a said you can't have it at 8:00 and i said you can have it at 8:00 because the president will still be working, you have to make in a midnight rally. pennsylvania, pennsylvania, new hampshire, we're going to stop. i said, i know this guy please don't make another stop. we had a massive blowout and began a plane and went to michigan. it was like this. thrown together last-minute thing, the last rally of the campaign and he landed back at laguardia at 3:00 in the morning because he wanted to stop one more time in michigan and made a difference. because we know if we could just make a turnout model that said people who have not been engaged in the election process who are fed up with a broken washington because they have been lied to, they showed up and we won. hillary clinton did not connect with the african-american community. donald trump got a historic amount of their number. donald trump won with women.

hillary clinton was the first female to hold the title for nominee for a major party, but found cap won with evangelicals, he won across the board. that is what nobody else saw. announced, they are laughing at us at 5:00 in the afternoon. had0:00 p.m., i knew we one. because i -- i knew we had won. because i know numbers, i saw the numbers coming in and i said, this guy is going to be president. 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 -- it was a foregone conclusion. they told me i had to be magnanimous, which i refused to be. >> speaking of new hampshire, the subject of voter fraud comes up. he brings it up quite often. there was a union leader story last week about how many people showed up, i think 6000 people in new hampshire who showed up without any id.

what you think about all that? you have said you don't necessarily think there is widespread voter fraud in new hampshire. elaborate more about what you think about voter fraud in new hampshire. mr. lewandowski: here is my concern about new hampshire. the way the law is written, unfortunately, it is not voter fraud, but if i feel like today even though i live in massachusetts, i'm going to go to new hampshire and campaign and spent three or four days there, and then i feel like i have been here a lot, i feel good, i'm going to vote in new hampshire. it is perfectly legal. that is a problem with the system. if you are not paying taxes here, you are not a resident here -- here is how close these elections are in new hampshire. votes,trump lost by 2800 senator kelly ayotte lost by 790 votes in a statewide election. you are talking minimal numbers. joes perfectly legal -- biden, the vice president at the

time, his daughter was here campaigning. she decided to register as a new hampshire resident and vote in the primary. she was here for four weeks. that does not make you a resident. after the election, you pack up and go home. is that illegal voter fraud? it is not, but you can't have it. there has to be criteria. maybe you have to register 30 days before, 60 days before, have new hampshire identification. simple things. our democracy is too important. this day could have been -- it was not because donald trump won and a decisive electoral victory -- but these four electoral votes have decided an election in the past. asked george w. bush. in 2000, if he did not win new hampshire, he would not have been elected. >> so you are new hampshire god and you have been around -- you are a new hampshire guy and you have been around the country with donald trump. what is it about new hampshire? state hasowski: every

amazing opportunity. the sophistication level of the people of new hampshire is second to none. they understand and take full responsibility for the privilege they have of being the first in the nation primary. it is so amazing to me that my friends on this campaign, the trump campaign, are here and next time they will be on the other side of the campaign. these are the chairman and cochairman and county chair, but next time, they will support someone else for another race, governor, city council, state senate. i don't take it personally. i'm privileged to these people stay involved for 20 to 50 years and they have had multiple candidates in their homes so they can ask people the tough questions. new hampshire is such a special place because people take it so seriously, and they need to. it is an obligation that nobody else has. on that note, you are a new

hampshire guy. you are very eloquent, masters degree. i think a lot of people in politics who are in the back of the room many times wish they were in the front of the room. would you ever consider running for office in new hampshire? mr. lewandowski: that is not for me. i am a staff guy. i mean that in the best possible sense. i have had my share of the spotlight. i have been very fortunate. multiple tv shows and have the privilege to do sunday shows and that good stuff. >> just this week. mr. lewandowski: a couple this week, i did hannity. that is a great privilege. but you know what i know? i know i can be more effective by helping somebody else be the best they can be, and it is not for me to put my name there. >> we are going to take some questions from the audience. these two microphones. if anyone who wants to ask the question, lineup and start this.

make the question quick if you can. before we get into that, let me ask one thing -- tomorrow night, he is in congress. he is speaking to a joint session. what you expect? mr. lewandowski: i think the theme of the speech tomorrow night is the renewal of the american spirit. what i think the president is going to talk about is some broad themes. he is going to talk about what he has accomplished in the first 35, 37 days of the administration, keeping the promises he has outlined -- withdrawing from the tpp, for everyone new regulation, remove two, helping coal miners back to work, business friendly environment. he is going to talk about the economic security and education security, meaning making sure our people have great education opportunities in the inner cities and rural areas that they may not have now. make sure we are creating jobs

to grow the economy greater than 1%. the third big thing is very caretant -- that is taking of the veterans, making sure they have money in the v.a. to take care of people who took care of us. increasing spending in the military to make sure they have the best tools available. and something this campaign has been focused around, border security -- having a wall built on the southern border and what that implementation looks like. if we don't control our borders, we don't have a country. i think those are the big things he is going to talk about. i think the speech is going to be both a reminder of what he talked about on the campaign but also very forward-looking about how to accomplish those things. he will also discuss the need to repeal and replace obamacare. >> how long until that is replace, in your opinion? we are over the january 27 deadline. mr. lewandowski: he has said he is going to cement his plan by

the second week of march. he is working with secretary price and leaders in congress. the other big thing is, a fundamental tax return, the first one since ronald reagan put together a completely different tax structure. that is something very difficult to do. there have always been sacred cows in the tax structure that you can't touch. you have to grow the government at greater than 1% to be successful. 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. >> i would like to thank you so much for speaking to us tonight. it was an amazing experience. my question is, based on this unique campaign, you have any advice for young people who would like to be more involved in campaigns and work on them in the future? mr. lewandowski: a great question. let me say this.

when i had just finished graduate school, i looked at every member of congress who received less than 55% of the vote in the last campaign and said, i want to manage her campaign. did not know any of them, spoke everyone. one guy said, come in and meet with me. i did, i met him a couple times. he said, i need you to move to ohio. it could have been anywhere. he said, cap of everything, and you will be my campaign manager. you have to take a chance sometimes. i worked as hard as i humanly could to help this guy get reelected. he ended up with 65% of the vote and made me his chief of staff after that. you have to do stuff that other people are not willing to do. you ask any entrepreneur, there are sossful, few of us born on third base. i was not. you have to do stuff that no one else well. if that means packing up everything and driving to a place you have never been to do

something you think you will be good at, you have got to do it. you have to get lucky a little bit, but sometimes you make your own luck by hard work since you -- by hard work. >> since you have been coming here, our students raise about you -- our students rave about you and can't stop talking about the work that you do, so thank you for that. >> i am a student journalist and sometimes it is disheartening to see the media and the president have a negative reaction. what would you say can be done on both sides to mend that relationship? mr. lewandowski: a great question. the president is right magnanimous in private. he has tried to have a relationship with these reporters. he has a good relationship with a number of members of the media. the reason i think he gets frustrated is because he knows these people and he does not think they treat them fairly. i think you will see continued outreach by the president and his team to develop those

relationships so that they can have a better understanding of what that looks like. you saw the president give a 77 minute long press conference and somebody gets up from a liberal outlet -- this never happened in the obama administration. he never took a 77 minute long press conference. the president is so accessible, he just wants to be treated fairly. i think the way to do that is to bring people in who are covering him on a regular basis and having a better understanding of what both sides expect. if both sides agree they are not always going to agree on what the story is that you have a mutual understanding that you will report the facts and not opinions, i think the president would be comfortable with that. >> there was a different tactic then sean spicer took. mr. lewandowski: i know sean very well, he is a good friend of mine, as a number of people in the administration are. what sean did by bringing people into the gaggle was he said,

there is a pool. of pool is it group of reporters who were randomly assigned, one is a print reporter and one a tv reporter, and if there is an issue that the full press corps can't cover, these people are assigned to cover it and provide the transcript. that is what john did. -- that is what sean did. i have dealt with pools the entire presidential campaign. if a cnn reporter happened to be the pool reporter that day, they would have been in the room, or the new york times. it just so happened that the individual who was the pool camera was nbc who is in the room. that is because that is how the pool was set up. again, the press wants to talk unprecedented the president excluded someone from an off the record gaggle in a room half the size of this stage. everything was made available to everybody. the transcript was fully available. nobody missed any news.

of the press wants to talk about themselves and how they have been so wrong. that is not what the american people care about. >> next question. >> thank you very much, both of you. guess theyou -- or i promises that candidate trump made during the campaign, do you think he is going to fill those and which do you think he will prioritize? mr. lewandowski: if you look at what the president has tried to accomplish in the first 38 days of his administration through executive orders, he is the filling the promises of this campaign. saw, butnow if you this week the department of homeland security put out their first solicitation for the designs of a wall on the southern border, something he campaigned very heavily on. if you look at tax cuts, saving social security and medicare, repealing and replacing obamacare, building a wall -- these have been the themes of the campaign.

withdrawing united states from tpp, labeling china currency manipulator, redoing bilateral deals as opposed to multilateral, looking at nafta, making sure that if companies leave our country to produce goods, there will be a recourse. he is talked about those things, making an environment inside the business community that is healthy. the stock market is through the roof because for the first time in eight years, you have the federal government no longer reactionary and/or aggressive against companies but is trying to help companies grow, and it is a very different mindset with the people he has brought into government. >> some of the things that have happened in the last several weeks are that he will say something and then pence and cabinet members will spend the rest of the week reversing that. we had a speaker or other night who said pence will be the first prime minister of the united states. what you think about that

relationship? how healthy is that, that the vice president has to walk is back? -- walk us back? mr. lewandowski: i had the amazing privilege to chair the selection committee for the vice president of the united states. talk about an awesome power. i had the privilege of putting names on a list to run by candidate trump and say, here are the people i think are qualified. he said, go out and interview them, and i did. mike pence is a good, honorable man, sometimes too good to be in washington. i had that conversation with him recently. you are such a good man, you should not be in the swamp. he and the president have an unbelievably strong relationship. mike has been such a steadfast supporter of the president and so good that if the vice and help were to go smooth things over, particularly

on capitol hill where he has good relationships with other governors because that is where he is from, the president is open to that. he is very open to the vice president being the lead on issues that the vice president wants to be engaged in, including obamacare reveal, including tax reform, including the narratives on capitol hill, where mike has strong relationships with members of the house and senate and the president does not because he does not have the years of history. these two individuals work hand in glove together and i do not think there's ever been a time -- >> they are working close together? could it be the president may be said something that he needed to walk back and instead of, as you mentioned, the apology, the apology never comes, but hence bama will smooth it out -- but pence will smooth it out? mr. lewandowski: he is very good

at interpreting the president. >> dick cheney would say that is a very important job, taking the vice president. mr. lewandowski: i did not take myself. >> what challenges do you foresee for president trump and the unification of the republican party? mr. lewandowski: i think it is clear that he is now the head of the party, both de facto and by function of being the president. but the challenge that many face , particularly in states where you have republicans holding office that came to their respective offices before the president was elected, they are not sure if they should embrace the president or if they should run from him or try to walk a fine line, like john kasich. he is a good example. bruce rauner in illinois is a good example. they are not sure what to do because -- if they step away from the president, what happens

to the group who supported the president and his campaign? they need them to win. it is very difficult if you are a sitting elected official to not criticize the incumbent president of your own party. what i think you have an opportunity to see coming up in are 10 states that there are incumbent democratic u.s. senators and states that donald trump won for president. that gives republicans running in those places a great opportunity to tied to the top agenda moving forward. but in states -- great opportunity to tie themselves to the trump agenda moving forward. but in states where there has been more of a discourse between trump and the governor, it is unfortunate but you have to work together. at some point, the governors are going to need help from the federal government and you want to have the best relationship possible for your insurance. >> in 2020, do you think he is

going to be on the ballot? mr. lewandowski: he has never quit anything in his life. i think he is going to run, he would win. i don't want to be hyper partisan. the left wing of the democratic party has gone so far to the left, with the bernie sanders wing, that it is almost impossible for them to win america. they can win in california, washington state, oregon. they can win in massachusetts. they can win in vermont. the problem is, when you look at the middle states, it is very hard for them to win because they don't have the message of economic freedom anymore, putting people back to work. they have taken people for granted. if they continue to take the african-american committee for granted, particularly in big cities, it will lead to their own demise. i just saw this today -- the president had 100 african-american leaders in the oval office talking about his

recommitment to the african american colleges and making sure they have the resources they need to be successful. he is going to make inroads in places where traditional republicans have not because that is the type of person he is, a consensus builder. >> going off what you were saying earlier, during the primaries, we heard a lot of establishment republicans fighting each other. there was a question over whether republicans would embrace trump because he was not a traditional candidate. how did your team and the now-president deal with that during the primaries, uniting republicans? mr. lewandowski: yeah, we didn't. [laughter] mr. lewandowski: we didn't care. that is the great part. you have a complete outsider who did not lead -- did not need their money or endorsements. the only time we ever went to washington, d.c. in the primary was to check on the hotel he was building.

we did not go there and back congressman -- the first congressional endorsement we received was not until we had won the nevada caucus. on february 24 last year, congressman chris collins from new york made an endorsement. he called up and said, i'm interested in endorsing. can i talk to him? we said, just go endorse him, endorse him or not, we don't care. we are not going to run a party establishment. if endorsements matter, jeb bush would be the president. it does not work that way. your endorsement is good for one vote. it does not work that way anymore. the american people are smart, i see it all the time. they want someone who is not beholden to washington special interests, who can find his own campaign, do right by the american people and not be beholden to people because they want a job. we did not embrace the establishment. we said, we are going to be the

outsiders. us and dr. carson, we were the outsiders. if you look at the two people -- from the time we got into the race who were leaders in this race, there were only 2 -- donald trump ran almost wire-to-wire, never been done, except for literally two days in iowa, dr. carson passed us. donald trump stood up and gave the same as the belt buckle speech where he said, come stabbed me in the belt buckle. and that was it. in dodge city. 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 a credit card and you make $4000 year, and you have to pay for all the other things on $4000 year, how are you ever going to pay off

$20,000 on your credit card? it cannot happen. that is what we have done. the american people said, we have tried everything else, tried the establishment, tried everybody else, and it has never worked. let's go try something different. that is what we did in the primary. won in newp hampshire, then south carolina, the nevada, then we won 38 times and he received more votes in the republican primary than any candidate in the history of the party. >> now he has to deliver. a lot of the time your changes different than somebody else's change. if he does not necessarily deliver 100%, are some of those voters going to drop off? mr. lewandowski: shore. -- sure. i have said this and steve bannon said this at cpac the other day. we have to hold this administration accountable. i mean that in the best and worst sense of the word. if these elected officials make promises and do not hold them,

they need to be voted out of office. there has been no one who has been a bigger cheerleader than the president. i've had the privilege of traveling around the country since the election. everybody says, i was the first supporter of donald trump. that is not true. that me tell you, i turned the lights on in the building. there was nobody there before i was. everyone else bought the winning lottery ticket the day after they call the number, amazing. at the end of the day, you have to hold candidates accountable -- city council, statehouse, governor, u.s. senate, or the president of united states. if you cannot deliver, you will be held accountable. that is our obligation. >> thank you, mr. lewandowski, for coming in tonight. i have a question about the travel ban. a few weeks ago, the ninth circuit court struck it down. what will the trump administration do if they are to release a new travel ban, to

make sure the federal courts do not file an injunctive tro against the order? mr. lewandowski: a good question, and the short answer is -- i'm not here to make disparaging comments about the ninth circuit, although i should. they are a kangaroo court. what they are is justices who want to legislate from the bench. if you want to be a legislator as a federal judge, you can do what the governor of nevada did. he was a judge, stepped off the bench and became the governor. you are entitled to do that. the differences, it is a question of constitutionality. as a federal judge, you have to determine, is what is being done or said constitutional within the law? that does not matter if i agree or disagree -- is it constitutional? the ninth circuit has stepped in and said the president does not have the constitutional authority to limit people's

visas from-- peoples countries that are potential terrorists. that is factually inaccurate. it has been implanted in numerous occasions, like japan in world war ii. there is no constitutional question about it. what you will see in the coming week is a new executive order, 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 is only 1 -- is only one -- to keep our citizens save from enemies foreign and domestic. if we cannot be safe, he has not done his job. >> could the rollout have been better? mr. lewandowski: sure, it should

have been better. but the difficult part was, jeff sessions was stuck in a senate confirmation hearing. , there wasr sessions no solicitor general in place. the information, which was distributed to the government agencies, the department of homeland security, department of state, did not seem adequate at the time. they were caught by surprise. there did not 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 rollout could have been better. but it does not mean what was rolled out was not constitutional. important arevery 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. a federal judge in boston said, this is perfectly legal. so you have two competing federal judges. court,have the supreme 4-4, which has not taken up this case because neil gorsuch is waiting for confirmation. i think what you will say this week is a new executive order. on the question of constitutionality -- i believe in a more limited scope, the new executive order will be challenged by the same court and the ninth circuit will take it up again. the question is, does the president have the constitutional authority to do this? the answer is unequivocally yes. they want to move the hearing for gorsuch up? mr. lewandowski: nothing is more important than the safety of our country. it was not that long ago that we had a woman coming to this country under a k-1 visa. that means you married a citizen, perfectly legal.

the state department, in their infinite wisdom, because of the rules in this country, did not do their due diligence to check her social media activity. she came into san bernardino and killed a number of americans. she came and perfectly legally. we need to have a better understanding of who is coming into our country, and if that means extreme betting, it is a high privilege to come to united states of america and become a citizen. we have the greatest country in the world, and we can never forget that. >> time for one more. >> thank you for coming. i amung politics major -- sure you have answered this question a million times -- if you could give one piece of advice to her young politics major, what would that be? mr. lewandowski: taken internship. start right now. start meeting elected officials. go up to the statehouse. in massachusetts, there were not any republicans, so i met a state representative, democratic

state representative, and i said i would work for him for free because i got nothing else to do everyday. i took the train to boston every day to work for him. he was a first-term state rep. he went on to become a state senator, chairman of the ways and means committee, a conservative democrat. he is not a state senator anymore. you know what that relationship did? ago, he put25 years me on the right path. -- and iare involved took a lot of arrows in this campaign from a lot of people supposed to be my friends. they called him and said, what was corey lewandowski like when he interned for you in college? they got a reference from a guy who has no agenda. go up to theyou

statehouse, you work for free, find a candidate or city council candidate or big mayoral candidate and you put your time and, you are the guy who is answering the phones in making signs. the next campaign, you are the guy running the local race. day after that, you are running the congressional race. by the time you're are 25, you are chief of staff to a congressman and he keeps going. know, i have no skills, so i will get involved in politics. to offer, so this is all i can do. [laughter] if it is whati: you are passionate about, go all in. >> i want to thank you for coming tonight. this has been a real treat. [applause] mr. lewandowski: my pleasure. [applause] this is the first of our new

hampshire live broadcast series. we are going to have many more speakers. again, thank you very much. the man from new hampshire, corey lewandowski. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] on newsmakers, our guest is the alliance for justice president. she talks about the nomination of judge neil gorsuch to the supreme court and the upcoming confirmation. allegedalso asked about contact between trump campaign advisers and russian officials and the recent decision by jeff sessions to recuse himself from any related investigation. >> he is only recusing himself for a very limited purpose, and that is looking into being part of that investigation into the 2016 campaign before the election.

he is not -- he has not recused himself for after the election. but it certainly brings into sharper focus his role as attorney general for us. forave known jeff sessions an awfully long time, going back to 1986, when we were very troubled when he was nominated for a judgeship to a district court in alabama. there were very serious claims about his involvement in civil rights cases, making racist statements. we know jeff sessions really well. one, thatnk, number he at this point probably should be asked to resign. i don't think he is going to resign. but having gone before the think,ee, having made, i

just failed to give accurate answers to senator franken's questions, it is very much in keeping with the testimony that he gave at the senate judiciary committee in 1986. again, in keeping with testimony he gave just a few weeks ago in connection with his role as attorney general, and that is he fudged the facts, gave misleading answers. even if you look at his questionnaire for attorney general, you see a whole host of incomplete and erroneous answers. we think as the top law enforcement officer in the united states, it is probably best for him, for the senate, for the country, that he step aside. announcer: you can watch that entire interview with nan aron tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.

>> who will win the grand prize of $5,000? join us at 8:00 a.m. eastern on march 8 for the announcement. this year, we asked middle and high school students to produce documentaries telling us, what is the most urgent issue for our new president and congress to address in 2017? 2900 entriesver from 46 states and the district of columbia, england, germany, singapore, and taiwan. students competed for the chance $5,000 in first, second, and third-place categories. you can log on to view all winning documentaries at studentcam.org. be sure to watch the announcement wednesday, march 8 at 8:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. no