opportunity to have a front seat in history. >> trump invites you to trump tower, sits you down, hires you on the spot. what was that like after that? have you had a day off since? corey: it was surreal, he is so magnanimous. him, so good when you meet he brings you in close, he is embracing. inn i went to trump tower january, 15 -- a friend of mine said, would you come to new york with me to see donald trump? york, waited,new the night before my friend called me up and said, you are on your own. i did not know what i was doing, i guess i will see donald trump! so i went. i walked into the 26th floor of his office. he was sitting behind his desk, the first thing he said was,

look at you, you have a good luck. i said ok, that was prequel, right -- pretty cool. [laughter] said, joni, billy, bobby, i said, i know those guys, he said, they any good? said yes. he said you think you are better than them? i said yes. he said, you want to run my campaign for president? i said, he is not running for president. he said to me, what do you think the odds of me running -- the odds of me running and winning? i said 5%. he said 10%. i met him in the middle, he said done. that is how we started. he shook my hand and stood up and said, you're hired. i had a job, i had to have a conversation with my wife. he said get out.

i said i have a job. he said you work for me now. i left his office and called my wife and said, i think it just took a new job in new york. >> how much management was this or was it more containment? he seems like the type of person where you do not put a plan together and say this is what you are going to say. what you go out and release things out at his rallies, and you would have to react to them, what was it like? corey: it was a small core group of us that started together. >> five people? corey: yes. , one of george chicos the best. deputy glasser was our come against can be no was social media. that was the whole team, the whole presidential team, no exaggeration. we had someone in ohio and new hampshire and south carolina, that was the entire campaign, could have puts them in a minivan.

but the bond that those five had one singlehe or focus which was to make donald trump the next president of the united states was unbelievable. during that. company,like a small there were no leaks. there is nobody really can stories to the media because there was nobody to link to, there were five of us. the group is very cohesive. what we knew in that. time is weperiod of would be successful. -- to ohiop ohio where he was not supposed to win and he won. he went to new hampshire, one by 20 points. >> what was that night like? let me to you something. when you work for donald trump, winning solves problems. [laughter] there was a lot of pressure after iowa. there was a small office -- we had a small office on grand

street.- granite it is important to remind people, we left i went that night and finished in second place, a win for every other candidate. ruby is strategy was finished third -- finished third, second, go on. donald trump's strategy, all 50. i said no one has ever done that. we finished in iowa, can to new hampshire, and he was not -- came to new hampshire, he was in a bad mood. events, andple of it was a wednesday after. i said i need to speak with you. i said, here is where your numbers are, you are starting to fall. we had a good lead in new hampshire, if you do not start to outline what your vision is for america and just want to complain about the results in iowa, you will be a candidate who once ran for president. around, ande turned

up to manchester police, did a , solomon of the officers who would just come out of the hospital, went to a town ,all in manchester with cnn than thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, monday, started knocking doors in the blizzard. >> the strategy was let's trump ,e trump, go to these rallies therallies and tweets are two things that differentiate him from other campaigns. you would let him go to a rally but there are no preconceived notions, i think we will hit this issue, or he was just, go do it? ,orey: sometimes we had a plan sometimes we talked about what we wanted to talk about. i can say specifically, december 7 of 2015, we talked about rolling out a muslim band. i was very controversial, there was a lot of discussion. , we knew what the basic premise of the speech would be.

we would say hey, if you talk about the snake tonight, these different narratives he would roll into his speeches. i used to say, let's trump be trump be trump. i acquit him to a great resource, you have to let him run. he is the foul of american politics. it is not my job to say sir, for 40 years you have had unparalleled success in the business and television and book world, i will tell you what to do now. that is not my job. my job is to put blinders on him and got him into corners and say, we have to be careful on this one. that is what i tried to do. he has had a finger on the pulse of the american people. heyou look at the interviews did with oprah winfrey in 1989, exact same messaging he said when he ran for president in 2015 and 16. he fundamentally understood and understands what is wrong with the country and wants to change it. >> is not hard to do that when

you are turning on television, all the analysts are saying, you have guts to put a bridle on this guy, he needs to apologize, do this, you are saying no, let them do it. there must've been a lot of syndication at the end. corey: the american people saw that they wanted a change. story, went to new hampshire one day in the summer .f 2015 we took it small plane and , and they get 15 phone messages from the same number. i said, this cannot be good. there was this police officer who said, we have got a problem. it was a friday night. nobody was there, so he tried to give us the heads up. he called and said, with the santa cruz or to get you guys, secret service protection.

there were so many people we had to close the road. into this facility, i have never seen anything like it in my life. it was 120 degrees inside, there were people on the roof of this building. with holden into black suvs, people came to the cars and started shaking the car. it was like a rock concert celebrity. they shook the car and donald trump went in and give the speech. we got in the suvs as we left, and there were people outside who could not fit in the cars as we left the parking. is something different going on that nobody else sees. people would wait in line in , forchusetts, my hometown eight hours and a blizzard in january of 2016 to see donald trump speak. i saw time and time again that what the media failed to understand was if you wait in line to see someone for eight

they will blizzard, support them. they do not want to see that narrative. >> will call it the mccain day, when he said what he said about john mccain. that must have been a big blow. the that take you off your game and question whether you should let him be trump? corey: that was a tough day. we were in iowa, it was still early in the campaign. he went out to give a speech, this conference. we had two other events than we would fly back. we got to the facility, he did a .eeting greet, does the speech i'm waiting for him at the door and they said -- he says, pretty good? i suggested speak to you over here? greenberg --rs the i closed the door. this is real you have to understand donald trump, took me

a long time. we had just launched in june, this was in july. i said sir, you just said john mccain was not a work euro. -- he was not a war hero, i think you need to apologize. he said no. this is the difference. john mccain has done enough for our veterans, we have people dying in phoenix, arizona, veterans who are dying, he said john mccain hasn't been enough. i said you do not understand, this campaign is going to be over. he said let's have a press conference. --has a 28 minutes prom probably most contentious press conference i have ever seen. ,e leave get back on the plane i called my wife and said, the campaign is over. coming home. all my friends are right. show.as a sunday one author said, donald trump is right, john mccain has not done enough.

there were people who you know that became part of this would, and float -- he flew me to new jersey. friends, close friends of the president, kennedy trump said, you cannot survive this, you need to apologize. the best minds in the political space, you must apologize. he said i am going to double down, i will make sure veterans have what they want. i said wow! he apologized after. >> he doubles down on things. corey: he is a genuine fighter. for his entire life, he was told he could not do things. you cannot build in new york, that is for a different group of people. new york, manhattan is different for us, do not do that. he has such a tenacity, an ability to move people when he

puts his mind to it. i think it is hard to apologize because he is so strong in what his beliefs are. he wants everyone to believe the way he does. >> you mentioned earlier that he was in a bad mood at one point. describe what he is like. there are different characteristics when somebody is in a bad mood. bill clinton had a terrible temper apparently. other candidates and presidents have. he spent all this time with someone in a small campaign jet or bus, and tempers flare. tommy what it is like when he gets upset. when you spend as much time with him as i did, -- 1500 hrs on the plane, about 60 days straight just being an airplane. >> price plan, though. [laughter]

best plan and the worst food, when you spend as much mcdonald's, burger king. when you get to know somebody, you have to understand, when donald is angry, it is because traditionally the staff has failed to deliver on what his expectations were. i took it very personally. hersn't angry after losing coming in second place in iowa, he was disappointed. that falls on me as the campaign manager to say, i did not do my job well enough. i'd do not know what else i could of done, looking back of course you do things differently. when he yelled at me or was disappointed in me and the campaign, i took it very personally, because i'd given up so much to be a part of it. you have to understand, you are with someone come candidate running for office at the highest of the highest. the biggest things they have ever done, running for president

. becoming the president, everything else is poultry, secondary. there were days like wisconsin, it was tough. days where we lost elections, real tough. >> you are known for driving a tight ship. you have a bit of an action in campaigns sometimes. is that a persona you take on during those campaigns? you se to be enjoying the post-campaign. n, but you have a little bit of a general patton persona. corey: you know what it is? when i would always tell our staff is, every single day donald trump would give us his very best. if we are not going to do that we should not be here. who worked 18-20 hours a day without blinking.

never once did he say to me, why am i going to mobile, alabama, to give a speech to 35 -- 35,000 people? he said i will go because this is what you told me to do. it was an amazing amount of responsibility to dictate his calendar like that without any questions. what i did not have a tolerance for is for some staffer to say to me, i am tired. i do not buy that. i expect different. deadline, you will be there on time, deadlines are there for a reason. we have donald trump on the ballot. 50 has told us we could never do it. of course we can! we always did more with less because we pushed people the hardest. >> are you happy with his staff now? ,here seem to be a lot of leaks certainly mistakes in the beginning part of the presidency. now, you are watching some of this on tv, obviously you are in connection with the president.

are you disappointed, but your feelings? corey: think there are a couple different components. a big piece for the staff -- at the end of the presidential campaign, where most cap -- campaigns of thousands of people , we had 200 people in the whole campaign. 200 people. that is a decent sized u.s. senate race. >> the clinton campaign at 800? iney: they had 800 people the brooklyn office alone. what you had at the beginning part of the administration, i bunch of people who either a, did not work on the campaign that have a desire to come back trump,s not know donald or b, -- so i think when it comes to national security policy, he has assembled some of the best teams possible.

general mattis, h.r. mcmaster. that team of generals is very trump, orstrong. it is an obligation of the staff to push back on the president if they do not think he is saying or doing the right thing. the people he has around him do not have that type of experience and longevity with him in some instances to do that. the president as a person who understands two different types of staffers, i mean this in the best possible sense. the people who are the president's contemporaries, who have achieved a massive amount of wealth or success in their own right, general matters, general kelly, steve mnuchin, carson, very wealthy in their own right. are you have staff who literally the nuts and bolts of

running a day to day operation, who are much less likely to be presidentll the difficult things because they do not have a relationship or he does not see them as contemporaries. you have to be willing to have those tough conversations, i had a lot of them. i always said it to candidate trump, all you can do is go back to new hampshire. what's the worst that can how does steve miller fit into this? corey: he is a true ideologue, a big picture thinker. he fundamentally believes that government should be smaller, more efficient. he is someone who i think truly believes in putting americans first. that sounds pejorative if you are from some other country. he is not an isolationist, but he wants to put the american people first. >> you mentioned bannon, who

seems to be the great interest to everyone in the media because he does not speak that much to the media with the exception of cpac. tommy about steve bannon. he has been around since before you are around. corey: steve and the president have a long relationship. steve is someone who is exceptionally brilliant. most people do not given the credit he deserves, he was a navy officer, worked at goldman sachs made a fortune, and a small piece of the company -- of seinfeld. he has done very well, then he went off and worked in hollywood, and started with breitbart -- andrew breitbart, built breitbart into what to does today. steve has been counseling mr. trump for a long time. but think you have in steve bannon someone who the president understands, they share a

similar philosophy. that is why stephen the president have such a bond, because that relationship has been long and developed and they fundamentally agree on most issues. for being criticized everything from a racist right on through, so does the president. how does that make you feel, when this is a person, trump, who you spent a long time with. what is your opinion of some of that? these are pretty divisive statements, not that he has not been a divisive candidates, at how does that make you feel when you know someone that well and this is the political reaction to what they are saying? becauset bothers me, they have never done that their due diligence to go and actually understand donald trump. not that he has not been accessible. from the time he launched his campaign to the time the presidential campaign ended, he did 700 interviews with the new york times.

.00 that is unprecedented. he has a very quick story. one day a new york times reporter calls me, we are on the airplane about to take off, she has a question she would like to ask mr. trump, i say will relate -- relay at. it. he gets on the phone with her and answer the question. the phone back, she is been covering hillary clinton for four years, never spoken to her. he is that accessible to the media. when people make statements about him saying, he does not respect women come onto you look at the number of women who are executives in his corporation. he doesn't respect minorities, till you look at all of the minorities he has employed throughout the years, tens of thousands. he doesn't respect jewish people, except his daughter and grandchildren are jewish. easierr it may be, it is

to say these things than actually and go and look at what's the history tells us. >> you mentioned the new york times, i wish you would mentioned the new -- the union leader. coverage make eclipse that if any single human being, and they are talking about donald trump. now, we have this fight with the media. do you think that is more something that is used as a vehicle to have an enemy out there that he can fence with? that he a real feeling is being unfairly targeted by the media and is reacting to that? corey: it could be a little of both. i think the media has been pejorative in sometimes, very unfair to the president. it is amazing when -- >> they have been unfair with most present. corey: we give you one example of a mistake. time magazine reporter emma to

the office and took a picture of the oval and said, the bust of martin luther king jr. has been removed. he tweeted it right away, never contacted anyone in the white house. he is fine guy, i know him well. 3000 mediat with outlets, decried the president for being a racist for removing a bust. the fact was that the bust was never touched, it was standing behind a person. if he had taken three seconds to ask the white house, he would've had -- the problem is the first story is the one that gets reported, not the mistake, not the, i apologize. that happens time and time again. look. weeks, the new york times and wall street journal have written. . what they say at the very end of , this is what has disagrees with us. that is not fair journalism. >> i would agree with that.

but, -- presidents have always had a things that they have enemny.as abn almost all of them congress. he seems to take a special liking to the media. they seem to have a -- he seems to have a hard time defending himself. his is a new tactic? corey: the media continues to talk about themselves. theycause about the media, do not understand that. they are so enraged that the president will not come to the white house correspondents dinner because that is all that want to talk about. they do not want to talk about his compliments and campaign promises that he is fulfilled. every day the media talks about themselves, they are losing. if you look at the last fox poll that shows that 45% of people believe that the president's info is accurate, and 42% believe that the media has accurate, that's telling. the media center survey after the election. 97% of responders said, we did

not allow the media bias to impact our vote. that is amazing! he said wasn't that wonderful, some people can't remember this? nbc cbs, the same three anchors deliver the news. the difference now is everyone is so quick to make the news rather than deliberate, for clicks or subscriptions or whatever it may be. that is what drives not good journalism. >> switching gears a little bit, the thing that fascinates most of us in the business of politics how the polling was off. most of us would have addicted that hillary clinton would win .his by a landslide most people including her own team believed that. your campaign, the trump campaign had a very small victory party and this -- and a small location in new york, versus hers.

totally, with a pulse of the campaign hand, those internals, or they doing internals? clearly on the mark -- were they on the mark? it seems everybody was surprised. corey: look, we looked at different factors coming into the race, the early voting ballots was a primary indicator, florida was the most tumultuous for us, because it had a huge hispanic population and we did not know if we would break -- if they would break where they has historically do. if he ended up with 33% of the hispanic vote, that's a good number. in florida, voters were exceptionally high. we thought we could be in trouble in florida, a battleground state for us. north carolina, our numbers said we are billing on -- in on 220 5000day down votes. mitt romney was down 300,000 votes on election day. mitt romney carried north carolina for-five years ago now bite 77,000 votes.

we felt good in north carolina. our numbers started to change rapidly in pennsylvania. we knew we would win ohio, iowa. the clinton campaign could not win either. wisconsin, pennsylvania, michigan, they were concerned about. the reason being, they took them for granted. it was not until the last 10 , the lastven days weekend -- selfishly because i am a new hampshire guy, i want the last valley to be right here -- rallied to be right here. i planned it that right -- way. they've been good to us, we had a rally there in the snowstorm on the night before the primaries, this is going to be it, and a -- 8:00 rally. nd i said i know this president, he will not stop working. it should be a midnight rally.

i sent guys, do not make this the less stuff, i know he will have another one. we came in here and have the light show, massive blow. he got on the plane and went to michigan. it was like this. thrown together last-minute thing, last rally of the campaign. he landed at laguardia 3:00 in the morning, he wanted to stop again at michigan and it made a difference. we knew that if we could make a people who to the have not been engaged in the election process who are fed up with the broken washington can be -- because they have been like two for 30 years, they will vote for us. hillary clinton did not connect with the african immunity, donald trump got a percent of the vote. that does not sound great, but that is historic for republicans. with women, donald trump one. when hillary clinton was the first female to hold the title of a nominee for a major party, donald trump one with evangelicals, he won across the board!

everyone else said he lost the day he announced. that was on cnn. they are laughing at us at 5:00 in the afternoon. , we won.00 you know why do that, i saw the numbers. them coming in. i said, this guy is going to be president of the united states. 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00. we won! the told me i had to be magnanimous, which are refused to be. [laughter] of voterow the subject fraud comes up, new hampshire, he brings it up quite often. there was a union leader story last week about how many people showed up, i think there were 6000 people in new hampshire that showed up without any form of id. let's do you think about all that -- what do think about that? elaborate on what you think about it in new hampshire if there is any. corey:

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. donald trump lost by 2800 votes, senator kelly ayotte lost by 790 votes in a statewide election. votes, 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.

>> on newsmakers this weekend, she talks about the nomination of judge neil gorsuch to the supreme court. she is asked about alleged contact between trump campaign advisers and russian officials and the recent decision i jeff sessions to recuse himself from any related investigations. >> 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 recusing himself for after the election but it certainly brings into sharper

focus his role as attorney general for us. we have known jeff sessions for 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 and there were very serious claims about his involvement in civil rights cases, making racist statements. we know jeff sessions really one, and we think, number at this point probably should be asked to resign. i do not think he will resign but having gone before the -- failed having made to give accurate answers to senator franken's questions, it

is very much in keeping with the testimony he gave to the cement judiciary committee in 1986. he gave a few weeks ago in connection with his role as attorney general and that is he fudged the facts, he gave misleading answers. even if you look at his questionnaire for attorney general, you see a whole host of incomplete and erroneous answers. as a top law enforcement officer in the united states, it is probably best for him, for the senate, for the country, that he step aside. >> you can watch the entire interview tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> who will wind the grand prize of $5,000 -- who will win the

grand prize of $5,000 for the studentcam competition? 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. .e received over 2900 entries the chancempeted for to win $100,000 in cash prizes in first, second and third place categories. you can log onto our website 30 minutes before our big announcement to win all 150 documentaries. be sure to watch the announcement of our 2017 grand prize winner wednesday, march 8, at 8:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this week, lawmakers pay tribute to former illinois congressman bob michael who died last month at the age of 93.

he served in the house of representatives for nearly four decades and was a republican leader until 1981 until his retirement. this tribute from the house floor is 30 minutes. the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 151. whereas the death of the late minority leader of the house of representatives, robert h. bob michael, on february 17, 2017, has created not only a personal loss to his family, his many colleagues and friends, but also a great loss to the nation. whereas bob michael led a remarkable life, personal will blessed with four children, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. whereas bob michael was born and raised in peoria, illinois. wrs as a young man, bob michael joined the united states army at the height of world war ii, landing on the beaches of normandy and fighting across europe through the battle of the bulge, earning two bronze stars,