>> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. > how would you describe the work you do? >> i hope it's challenging. i hope it makes people think. it's an editorial cartoon. there's a big difference. it's meant to be visual

commentary. i think people sometimes don't know that and i have a lot of me or is. me or ask me why aren't you more fair? but that's not what an us. rial cartoon people say you're just a democrat. 'm actually a registered

independent. are more ugh some liberal, conservative, we will attack anyone. i've done plenty of cartoons. >> and here is fake news example for you. i am not swedish. my late father was norwegian. my mother is german. he was working for ibm at the time. we moved every two years. we just happen to be in sweden at that time. i am actually norwegian. i started out as a norwegian citizen. -- parents became an american citizen labs a teenager. >> when did you first come here

to live? >> i left when i was a baby. we have lived mostly in the united states on the east coast. >> weightage get your schooling? >> -- where did you get your schooling? >> in the united states. >> did you need a college education to do that? >> you can't go to school for that. i did not start as an editorial cartoonist. i would to school for a couple years and i went to an art school. i started my career as a character animator. i went to california institute of the arts. i worked in the business for a few years. theanged over to engineering division at walt disney company, which is a division that creates and designs all the rides. that is how i started.

to become anntion editorial cartoonist, but i felt there were a couple situations that happened that i wanted to become one. >> what were the situations? >> i was working for the disney i hady late at night and my television on as background noise, this was 1989, and the tiananmen square esker happened. -- massacreeing happened. just decided to stop and create my own editorial cartoon. i did not intend to get it published or anything like that, i felt the need to do one. i knew about editorial cartooning, but just from an art standpoint. i admire artistic opportunities.

that got my interest. that somehow made me want to read the news. i started watching c-span in 1989. i became more interested in social issues. i -- what finally propelled me to become an editorial cartoonist was in 1991, the anita hill-clarence thomas hearings. as a young woman who worked and dealt with sexual harassment and see it firsthand, i was appalled at all of the senators, both democratic and republican. -- they all had the attitude that they didn't believe her and that sexual harassment existed because they had passed laws. well it existed. i put together a portfolio and sent it out.

i had no idea what i was doing. >> who did you send it to? i found in newspapers and a directory and sent it to every newspaper in the country. >> where were you living on? >> i was living still in florida and the working for the disney company. >> when was the first time you name i get a chance to do that kind of work? ahead.rt of dropped i was working for disney and quit in 1992 and moved here, just thinking and my friend suggested going to washington. i became a nationally syndicated in 1995. ahave never been on staff at newspaper. i was always freelance but syndicated. i started in print. i gathered newspaper clips. >> we have video of you working at your board. where is this?

where do you normally work? >> i work in my apartment. i work at my kitchen counter. >> how long have you done that? >> for 10 years. we found hervideo let's watch you doing your work. [video clip] >> the reason i'm starting with this one is i have to hit it correctly. you want the audience, the reader to understand quickly what you are doing. now i am just using motion. an editorial cartoon, regardless of the print or animated, you have to have a point of view.

♪ that was my kitchen. did you learn the animation stuff at disney? at california institute of art, i heard the traditional way of flipping. this is before computer-generated. i did print for a very long time. i was0 seven, i decided going to try to animate them. 2007, i decided i was going to try to animate them. at that point i was doing flash. animation ing photoshop. it is still the same for me. you can animate on your computer which a lot of people do.

>> let's watch one of these and tell us what it is. [video clip] gif.at is not a .ou cannot do sound with gif i approach it the same way. >> let's get this. --is graphics in her same .ives interchange >> when did all of that start? what is a gif? >> when did that and who watches one of those. there are a couple of reasons

i switched over to that. they are very fast and you can do them on loops. it is great to share on social media. much easier and faster and things turn around quickly and you can put it directly on a file. when i was doing will be with flash generation, you have to go into a video system which means ads which are longer than my animation pieces. that was problematic. >> what do you call these again? the ones with sound are done in flash. what was that? i will run it again in a second what did we just see? >> there was a you and resolution against syria that china and russia would not agree

to. so i took the very old visual editorial and i changed it to a gunshot at the end where he is actually shooting. >> that is him shooting one of his own people. let's watch it again. [video clip] >> how do you get a sound effect? >> i just grabbed them off the web. you can do all this stuff on your own. about's look at animation virginia requiring ultrasounds for abortions. [video clip] >> explained that. >> it is very simple.

i look at it is if the state is requiring you to have an is basically putting their hands on your body. that is my visual metaphor. clench various parts of a woman's body tells you she has been violated and that is my point. >> how long did it take you to do that? asked that question, you have to understand it is difficult. a couple of hours, depending on how complicated. it is always about getting the idea because you are always looking for ideas and sketching ideas. i could have been thinking about that for days. >> when you get your best ideas.

>> after a walk is usually pretty good. toward the ends of the date my brain turns to mush. >> do you draw early in the day? night peoplee are that i'm a morning person. eric know you remember an array shootings question mark what made you do this one? do you remember. " why so much on the nra? >> i think the nra is crazy. i'm not against someone's right to own a gun but it should be regulated. they are dangerous. host: why are the nra crazy?

ms. telnaes: there is no leeway for them. they see any kind of regulation as taking away the right to own a gun. i think it is more about money. gun issues have always been something for me. host: what about the millions of people who pay money to the nra? what do you think they are about? ms. telnaes: i know people who are nra members. some of them do not have a problem with regulation. but some of them are rethinking their membership. you will see this with most issues, we go after people who have a lot of power and institutions. the nra has a lot of power. just because of the size in the amount of money they have people -- have. i am not talking people who i don't think should own a gun, i'm talking about the nra and

the policies they have. as you will see with any other issue i address, you do not attack individual people. host: let's watch the one we have of the nra. [gunshots] ms. telnaes: this is right after the sandy hook massacre. we could not get any legislation passed. you did not see many representatives talking about it. it went nowhere. it is telling when you have a group of children massacred and you cannot have a conversation

about it. what do you expect gun owners to do? what regulation would you want? how often have you brought that about in your cartoons? ms. telnaes: in my cartoons i do not try to push things -- in my cartoons i do not try to push things. i tried to show how absurd things are. i was born overseas. my parents are european. the gun laws are a lot different overseas. the numbers figure it out. how many numbers we have your bike guns. -- how many murders we have here by guns. i am not here to bring solutions, i bring up the questions.

host: the perpetual war on terror. ms. telnaes: i've done so many cartoons, i can't remember what i did yesterday. host: what if people want to see your cartoons? ms. telnaes: washington post online. it is only online. occasionally, they will print one, but it is usually online. host: what do they expect from you? ms. telnaes: i have a certain amount i do a week. we have an agreement. i have editors who review what i'm going to do. they let me comment on what i want to comment on. i started out doing animation.

they wanted a certain amount a week. i did that for a couple of years and then i said with how things are changing, i would like to have a blog. that way i have the option of doing an animated gif. i can still do a still drawing. i have written things about issues and i did live sketches. done live sketches when we have had debates during the presidential campaign. it gives me the flexibility of doing whatever medium hits my idea. what have the years, gotten the biggest response from the audience and what response do you get on the internet? ms. telnaes: the biggest response i received was on the issue where the french burkini, in france, a completely covered

swimsuit, there were photos of a woman on the beach who had covered herself and the police were making her undress. i show two men with a woman in the middle and one is pulling off the burka and one is putting it back on. this was on social media. it receives over a million views on the washington post facebook page. what i loved about it was i received positive reviews from both women who chose to cover themselves and those who did not.

all they were seeing was let us make our own decision on what we want to wear. that is exactly the point i was trying to make. had so much confirmation -- conversation about this but it , did not see women have a say. host: let's look at this one on terror. [video clip] ms. telnaes: ok. i was in washington during 9/11. i lived in the city. i think, every single time we have a terror issue it seems like there is always an overreaction.

, i thinkher countries of when i went to a cartoon festival in israel. they always have threats of terrorism there, but people do not live their lives according to it. you go into a restaurant and are aware of security, but people laugh and they have a good time. in this country, i see people being paralyzed by it. i think the politicians have a lot of responsibility because of how they talk about it. that was the point i was making in that cartoon. we give up things thinking we can gain security and that is not true. host: how long are these, usually? ms. telnaes: 15 seconds, not more than that.

it was a lot of work, by the way. host: how long would at 18 second one take? ms. telnaes: the animation takes longer. you have to do several drawings. in animation, you have to do several drawings and map it out and figure it out. you have to gather them and lay the track. when i was doing only animation, that was taking a very long day, up 14 hours from beginning to end. host: the next one is something i did not see until we had asked you to come talk to us about what you do. you will see why i am smiling about this. let's run this one. [video clip]

>> there is too much money in politics. >> i forget what the figures are but i think we spend less on our presidential campaign each year when there is a presidential election that the country spends on cosmetics. >> people are worried the corporations now can buy -- if you believe that, we ought to go back to monarchy. ms. telnaes: did you like how i drew you? host: it is a weird experience to see it. i remember justice scalia here saying that very thing. you dropped an app on orange on his head, why? ms. telnaes: i thought he was talking apples and oranges, that point he was making. there are so many things going on in that interview.

i enjoyed it immensely. the whole thing of him talking about that issue but he was completely against cameras in the courtroom and here he is on camera. i thought this is a great opportunity for a cartoon. host: how often do you see that in american politics? ms. telnaes: that people are hypocritical? a lot. host: where do you go for your material? ms. telnaes: i get up, turn the radio on. with the internet, i will check the overseas news first. i will go to the bbc and the guardian and see what they are

talking about because they have been up for six hours. then i will check the washington post. changedelancer, it has for me because i have this at my fingertips now. i can get research and read anything online. unlike before we knew that the newspaper at the front door and this was what you are reading. i don't get a newspaper anymore. i do everything online. i will look at a few things. i am a big twitter person. then i will start doing tiny sketches in my sketchbook and jot things down that catch my eye. by a little before lunch, i will decide on something. it really depends. i can be thinking about something the night before and know exactly what i'm going to do. and that it will be ready to be posted. host: with justice scalia, how many different pages, poses do

you do. ? ms. telnaes: that probably took me 14 hours. i had to do your mouth and his mouth. there were a lot of drawings in that. there were probably over 20. it took me a while, but it was a good piece. the audio was a good piece. host: interesting. you are the president of the editorial cartoonists association. ms. telnaes: the aaec. host: how did you become president? ms. telnaes: we are a small organization. we all try to serve at some point and this was my year to serve. host: what does it mean?

>> herding cats. we used to have about 200 members live on papers. now it is about 55. we are basically all freelancers now. everyone has something they want to do now. i thought i wanted to be a woman president. that opened a lot of things. instead we have president trump , and i have been going around wondering if one of my members is going to get sued. that is what i have been doing all year. we also have a convention that takes a long time to plan.

we have one coming up in host: november. why would you expect some of your members to be sued? ms. telnaes: this administration obviously does not understand what a free press does. i'm concerned my members, especially because they are . images and they create a lot of controversy sometimes, and we have always had members they get some kind of legal action against them. it doesn't necessarily go to court, but someone will threaten the with legal action. i am just concerned with this administration, with this president --he obviously doesn't understand what the first amendment is all about. that is what i have been doing.

host: host: i want to show some gifs. these do not have it sound with them. this is a gif depicting senator mcconnell on health care. you can talk as we look at this on the screen. what am i looking at? ms. telnaes: when was this? i guess this was before trump became president. they were trying to get rid of obamacare. they are pulling the rug out from under everybody who has health care coverage. and i can use that again. i hear they are going to try yet again. host: is a gif like this available on an archive on "the washington post"? ms. telnaes: i think you can do a search online somewhere. host: this is a gif depicting dylan roof.

he killed nine african-americans in charleston, south carolina. ms. telnaes: i know which one this is. is where i think animation works so well for an editorial cartoon. what i wanted to say is that he is not any different -- what he did is not any different than what isis does. i just had him flip over and turning to him. you could do it as a still but i think the motion adds to it. brian: here is a gif on the republican platform on women's issues. this was back during the campaign.

ms. telnaes: this was early on when i believe trump had just announced, and they were worried that he was going to be bad for them in terms of voters. you are worried now? platform with reproductive rights, equal pay? brian: speaking of president trump, has he been a gift for cartoonists? ms. telnaes: i get that a lot. let's put it this way. we do not have to look for anything to do, but now it is an issue of trying to decide what you want to comment on. we're like anyone else. this is our country, we are worried where we are going. i am not looking for anything to comment on. this summer has been amazing. summer is usually a time where cartoonists are looking for things, because congress is out of session, people are on

vacation, not this summer. there has been no let up. brian: do you have any sense of which cartoonists in history have had the biggest impact? editorial cartoonists, not just regular cartoonists. ms. telnaes: depending on the time in history. obviously, herbloc has been around. he did many wonderful pieces. walden. he is a st. louis paper. he did some very hard-hitting cartoons about civil rights which the syndicate did not want him to do. he came fresh out of world war ii. he wanted to comment on civil rights. he did hard-hitting things.

so much wonderful work. the sexual abuse scandal in the catholic church, very hard-hitting. he got a lot of pushback on those and never let up. it really depends what time in history. when do you have the most impact? what is going on in the country? us,ink right now, for especially cartoonists, there is the whole issue about what this presidency is doing to the constitution and what that means, and how he views free press. the eight -- we deal with overseas that are having issues. turkey, thatin president does not have a sense of humor, either. he likes to jail people who criticize them, including a cartoonist who is now on trial. i never thought this country

would ever have a president that seems to think along those same lines. that the press is not fair to question him, they are there to give him validation? i never would have expected that. brian: here is a gif about governor scott walker from wisconsin. let's watch. [video clip] brian: what are we seeing? ms. telnaes: scott walker considers building a wall along the canadian border. that is a bunch of americans jumping over the wall. americans looking for universal health care, since we do not have it. and the canadians do. i thought this is a good image to do. brian: did any of the canadian papers or websites run this? ms. telnaes: i don't know. brian: do you have a sense of how many of your cartoons are

used? ms. telnaes: i don't know. with social media, you do not know how many cartoons are run every day. with social media, i do not know. brian: what is your sense about the static cartoon in the newspaper and the motion you use? standpointact russian mark ms. telnaes: i think static cartoons and be very powerful. i have done them most of my career. the animation, like i said, i think certain ideas work better with animation. now with the internet, we can do that. we could not do that in the newspaper before. it is another avenue. it is also a way -- we also want to attract younger members. they are used to being online. they are used to using different mediums. it shows that they can also be editorial cartoonists, but not

in the traditional sense. i found it exciting. it is another way we can express ideas. brian: you said 55 active members now doing editorial cartoons on staff for newspapers. how many of them are conservative? ms. telnaes: we have some. not a lot. brian: i know ramirez has been here. he did a show. ms. telnaes: the georgia paper. the indianapolis paper. there is mike lester. we do not have a lot, but we do have some. brian: why is that the case? ms. telnaes: i have been asked that a lot. i think it is because cartoonists, by their nature, are irreverent. that does not fit in with the conservative persona. we tend to push. we want to create friction.

i think that is mainly the reason. but i do not know. brian: here is one last gif. a saudi official heading up the u.n. human rights council. [video clip] brian: i assume that is ahead. ms. telnaes: it is a head. it is rolling. i think the rolling shocks people. it is commenting on the ridiculousness of having a country like saudi arabia on a human rights council. that is not the first cartoon i have done on that issue. i have another one on that. brian: what do you think of the united states paying 22% of the u.n. bill and getting something like this on it?

ms. telnaes: i think the u.n. is important. i do not have a problem with that. i am not criticizing that. i am criticizing what the u.n. is doing. but the u.n.'s political, just like anything else. brian: why would they have somebody from saudi arabia on the human rights council? ms. telnaes: you should be asking someone from the u.n. that. not a cartoonist. brian: december 24, 2014. -- 2015 news report that involves you. >> trump is angry over a political cartoon featuring his daughters. this as he intensifies his attacks on hillary clinton. >> the washington post ran this cartoon depictg i was very young in my career. i was sexually harassed and did not get a job because of that

person. thankfully, i did get the job. you see it, being a young woman in business. it is hard to speak out against it. that is something i have always found interesting speaking with people, especially when i was younger. people are confused as to why i -- anita hill did not come forward. when you're starting your career, the last thing you want to do is be known as a troublemaker. i was in the animation business and that was a small group. if they knew i was a problem already, i would not get a job. it is different now. i am an old woman now. i will stand up to anyone who says anything, because i have the career now. brian: do you have a family? ms. telnaes: my mother is still alive, and i have a dog. brian? no children?

ms. telnaes: no children. brian: let''s look at your still cartoons. you can make some comments. we will start with this one i'm sure you have seen before. ms. telnaes: this one was in reaction to the charlottesville protests and violence. brian: in the center, it says many sides. ms. telnaes: that is what president trump said. brian: next up. ms. telnaes: i used the metaphor here no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. brian: on the left is senator o'connell? mcconnell? ms. telnaes: senator mcconnell, speaker ryan. i have done plenty of work on those two. i think they are just -- the fact that they do not seem to acknowledge what our president does is amazing to me. brian: here is one about the antiabortion vote. what is this? ms. telnaes: this is vice president pence.

i do not remember who did the interview. he was interviewed and he said he never goes to any washington dinners without his wife. brian he does not go anywhere . without his wife he is not go with any other dinner unless his wife his with him. ms. telnaes: and i thought, this is a gift. you do not have any problem voting about a woman's personal reproductive choices, one of the most personal and intimate things a woman can deal with, but you will not go to dinner with a woman fully clothed at the same table? brian: explain this one, the popcorn. ms. telnaes: i have done as many times, criticizing the media. as soon as we start having any war or military action, all of a sudden it is ratings,

television. they make it seem almost romantic. and it is war. it is violence. it is killing. brian: there is on the fbi. ms. telnaes: james comey. this was during the presidential campaign when he gave the press conference about the hillary clinton investigation. i thought, wow. that was so wrong. brian: at the bottom it says if you have any information concerning this person, call one 800 fbi. -- 1-8 00-call fbi. what is your attitude about how close they have to look to themselves? ms. telnaes: that james comey was not -- i should have labeled him. that was my first james comey. brian: here is hillary clinton. ms. telnaes: this was sketching during debates.

this was a quote she gave when they questioned her about the money she was making for speeches. brian: how much impact do you think that made on her not winning, that she was making money on speeches? ms. telnaes: yes, i think it had an impact. it appeared that she was elitist. i think it is a little hypocritical, because a lot of politicians take money for speeches. brian: who is the next person in this cartoon, we will see it in one second? ms. telnaes: that is newt gingrich and the ambassador to the vatican. you will notice the vatican colors. brian: he is holding -- ms. telnaes: the jesters radel. -- the jesters rattle.

brian: the ambassador to the vatican. finger.one with a ms. telnaes: this one was a response to the football player, the one who knelt during the anthem. everyone is criticizing him. brian: what was your personal reaction? this one is complicated, we start on the left. the justice says, i am not going to answer, you answer. you are the chief justice and that is ruth bader ginsburg. then someone says you have to answer that. and that is the far right.

ms. telnaes: they recently put all the cases online. they announced it a year ago. this is prior to justice scalia passing away. i thought this was so funny, just the fact that they will not allow cameras. this just kind of came. i love drawing the supreme court. brian: what is the reason why they will not allow cameras in the courtroom? ms. telnaes: i do not know. it is ridiculous. they claim it is because they do not want it to become a circus type atmosphere. i can kind of understand the reasoning for that. we have cameras in congress. we get to watch that. of course, there is playing to the cameras. but i find it very hypocritical when every justice will go on camera to sell a book.

i do not understand what the difference is. i think cameras should be in the courtroom. it is not easy to get in there to watch. when it is an important case, there is always a long line. i would love to get in there and draw. i have not been able to get in. brian: right now in the library of congress, they have a big exhibit of sketch artists. most of them are women who sketch. but you cannot get in there? ms. telnaes: i guess i stood in line, i could try. it is hard to get a press pass to get in there. brian: if someone was watching and said they would love to do what you have done, and you go back to when you started, what do you put your finger on as how you got to be successful? what did you do? ms. telnaes: i tell anyone who

wants to become an editorial cartoonist that you have to want to get up every morning and read a bunch of news and be interested. not everyone is. there are a lot of great cartoonists out there that do not do editorial work. you have to because it is relentless. you are doing it everyday. that is the main thing. you have to have a passion for it. you have to be interested in it. even when you go on vacation, you are thinking about it. brian: how did you become successful when you look back on it? there must have been something that happened. ms. telnaes: as i tell anyone starting out, it is a common asian of working really hard, practicing what you do, so when the opportunity comes up, when the luck comes to you, you are ready for. i just worked. i loved it. i was still working for disney at the time and getting up at

3:00 in the morning and working on my editorial cartoons. that is when i was young enough i could do that. brian: let's go back to some more cartoons. this is president obama. what is that? ms. telnaes: you found an old one. i think you have a screenshot. brian you have money behind him. : on the left, a piggy bank. ms. telnaes: that is a screenshot from and animation. i do not remember. he was talking about money and politics. brian: let's go to the next one. would you like to explain it? ms. telnaes: i am trying to remember. i do not remember specifically what gun incident this was about. in this country, we do not seem to have a problem with violence. we see all the time on television, movies, everywhere.

but anything about sex, that is censored. brian: the next one i'm sure triggers a memory. what impact did this have on cartoonists? ms. telnaes: that morning, i had the news on. we were eight hours behind france. i heard it. i remember walking around thinking, did i hear correctly? five cartoonists were killed? we are a small group. we know a lot of each other. of course i was reading, listening to the television, contacting colleagues, finding out what happened. then when i realized the and -- realized the in norman t of

it, i hadenormity of seen online this photograph of one of the cartoonists, the editor. there is a famous photo of him standing in defiance after their offices were bombed for printing the mohammed cartoon. he is just doing a fist. when tragedy strikes, it is hard to do cartoons until you find out exactly what happens. you are almost doing an emotional cartoon. that is what that is about. brian: this one is from 2014. ms. telnaes: yes. it was the whole, i can't breathe. you're asking me to remember all of these things. brian: the guy who was killed in new york who said he can't breathe.

ms. telnaes: a lot of americans just cannot see what he is going through. brian: we have time for one last cartoon. here are a couple of cardinals. on the left, he says, oh no one altar boy. on the right, there is another one. they are drinking the wine and toasting your comments about . this one? ms. telnaes: this was before social media. this was in response to the sexual abuse cases in the church in boston. i did so many cartoons about that. this one, i thought, drinking wine, standing around. that is when you use one thing and tweak it a little bit. brian: what is the future of cartooning? ms. telnaes: i do not know.

but, i think it is good. with the internet, we have a lot of opportunities. i think we're in the very beginning stages. it is hard to make money like anyone else online. but in terms of the medium, we have so many different ways of expressing ourselves now.