a group of african-american women journalists on their experience covering the trump presidency in the current state of the new ink -- news industry. george washington university, this is just under two hours. erican female white house reporter. this is just under two hours. frank: good evening ladies and gentlemen. i am sorry we are a few minutes late, but i am delighted we are about to start. i would like to invite you all media.school of public and affairs at george washington university welcome -- media and affairs at washington university. welcome. director of the school of media and public affairs, and we are going to have a conversation with people who are both on the frontlines history and to make history because of

what they do and who they are. it is a pleasure and a privilege ar me to introduce to you very special student who is going to introduce professor is a junior, a journalism major, she has done unremarkable

things at gw and beyond and is president of the gw association of black journalists. lauryn hill is in her prime of her life, i would love to say here. she is the assistant editor of the multicultural magazine, she entered last summer at the afro-american newspaper in d.c., and is destined to go onto a really remarkable career, and she is launching right here, so join me please in welcoming lauryn hill, and have a very good evening. lauren: good evening, and thank you professor say that professor -- professor sesno.

i would first like to thank the school of media and public hostrs for helping tonight's event and allowing our organization to be a part of another great series of programming. our organization believes it is important to discuss the trump administration from the perspective of black women journalists, a group whose voices have historically been suppressed but who refused to be silenced. tonight's panel, which will be introduced shortly come includes some of the best, most recognizable journalists who cover this country. i hope each of you leaves tonight with a better understanding of the challenges of being a woman of color and a journalist. it is my pleasure to introduce the moderator for tonight, professor cheryl thompson. professor thompson teaches investigative reporting and newswriting at gw and has spent 21 years writing for "the washington post."

she has covered the justice department, immigration andrtment, d.c. police, spent more than a dozen years on teams.s in investigative she shared the pulitzer prize for national reporting in 2002 in 2011an emmy award for her presenter view with a young man in chicago who killed a police officer. two naacp headliner awards and dozens of other awards. named the 2017 journalism educator of the year. professor thompson has bachelors and masters degrees from the university of illinois. she is vice president of the investigator reporters and editors board, the first african-american to hold that position, and serves on the board of the fund for investigative journalism. she is also a member of our cap -- alpha kappae

alpha. please welcome professor thompson. [applause] wow, shouldn't you all be studying? [laughter] out.t -- come on out. this is our panel. they are being shy. [applause] nia-malika henderson knows more about political pen games -- political campaigns than most people. she is simply one of the best political reporters in the country. nia-malika: thank you.

[applause] i met yamiche: when shenine years ago came to "the post" as an intern fresh out of that other g school down the street, georgetown. i was thrilled to be one of her mentors. she was fearless, feisty, and dogged, traits that make her the amazing reporter she is today. and she also just took a new job with pbs. she gave up a job at "the new york times does go to go to pbs -- i know. [laughter] and she is also a considered to msnbc. -- a contributor to msnbc. [applause] prof. thompson: whether it is discussing tax reform or writing about rob porter -- you all know rob porter? [laughter]

that you didn't know him before a couple of days ago, did you? darlene superville is a rockstar at the associated press, her home for the last three decades. i know she's like, did you have to say that? [laughter] actually, three decades sounds better than 30 years. darlene: neither one. [laughter] prof. thompson: the nyu graduate has covered former first lady michelle obama and has covered the white house since 2009. [applause] well, well, well. [laughter] whether it is: confronting sarah huckabee sanders over the president's treason comments or lashing out at a fellow journalist who clearly didn't know you --

[laughter] -- for invoking her name at the end of a white house press briefing, april ryan takes no prisoners. the baltimore native joined the american urban radio network in 1997 and was one of the first white house correspondents to talk to me when i joined the ranks during obama's first-term. you probably don't were member that, but pretend like you do. [laughter] prof. thompson: welcome. [applause] so we want to have a frank --cussion -- no, not sesno a frank discussion about what is going on in the trump administration and what it is like as a woman of color, a black woman, to cover it. april is already giving me looks. first question, journalists, including the white house press corps, are under attack from the unconventional administration.

how do you deal with racially coded policies and statements? in other words, how do you keep your balance? april, you first. april: how do you keep it balanced? it is not about me. it is about the story. that is what we really aim to do. it is about the story. that room has never been a room that reflects america, number one. unfortunately, it seems like when you look like me, you stand out like a pink elephant. i sit smack down on the third row. you can't miss me, and they don't miss me. they choose to overlook me at times but you can't miss me. covering this white house as an african-american woman has been tough. that is a beat that is not kind to anyone.

but when you are not part of the , instream press -- i am not am specialty media, meaning i have a certain niche. i talk about or question about primarily black issues. but i also asked everything. cover thisu administration working on these , particularly when in this administration i am not perceived as their base, it is tough. it is very tough. there have been attacks. there's been retaliation for questions. but it is not about me. unfortunately i have been in the news, but it is not about me. it is about the story. and when you look at it as the story and not yourself, you can move on. you can keep going back every day. i haven't done anything wrong. i am asking questions like anyone else would, be it black,

white, man, woman, jew, gentile, catholic, protestant. i'm asking questions is like everyone else who has covered , 1600 pennsylvania avenue, the most magnificent place in the world. prof. thompson: thank you april. i just want to say i am delighted to be here with all these women who i have known for years. nia-malika: i will say for me -- and i don't cover the white house every day like these women do -- i see my role as sort of areecting how people registering and analyzing this president's words, particularly in regards to race. i go back to interactions i've had with voters as they were

assessing his candidacy, some of the things they would say. their real reactions to my some would say racially tinged, racial undertones, somewhat say racist, but if you look in the ways that this president talks about race and deploys race, i think it is pretty clear -- and i have written about this -- that he is playing the race card. your criticisms about the left playing identity politics because they talk about black lives matter or the dreamers. well, it is also true that president trump plays like identity politics. it is pretty evident if you look at the data and the polling him and terms of how a lot of his voters feel about race and a sense of racial grievance and resentment. i think that is the way i deal with it. you try to talk about the data,

how he talks about race. you put together the ways in which he tax -- he talks about african-americans, very easily calling for the firing of nfl players, not so easily for the , john kellyb porter making up a story about a congresswoman, that is the way i deal with it. in terms of the way i feel personally about it, this is our job. to holdn this business people's feet to the fire, to in thisthe voices country, so that is the way i deal with it. i asked myself pretty often why i am still a reporter and what i am actually going to do. the question i would go back to is this young boy, emmett till, who was killed in mississippi as a teenager.

that sparked the civil rights movement. i think of myself as a civil rights movement -- civil rights journalist. no matter what beat i am doing, or at theher crime white house, i think it is a story of race. when i think of the questions i am asking or the stories i am going to write, i think, what are we learning about our country and about the differences in race continuing to color how people are in real race? i don't believe in. with lindsay's, so i think you can be fair, but you don't have to always -- there is no false equivalency like segregation, so i think if i was writing in 1960's i would not say that charlottesville is something that was bad on both sides. i think as a reporter i am growing into that, being able to say that was not ok. i am haitian-american. when the president was talking about s-hole countries and

talking about haitians and questioning what they have been doing for america, i was in to get on tv and say, one, that is wrong for you to say that patients aren't contributing, to two, you should go georgia because free 6lack's came from haiti -- free blacks came from haiti and helped free you from the former britain, so that is what i do to stay balanced in my mind. i want to come back to your haitian response little later. darlene? darlene: one thing i would say is that i exercise. [laughter] darlene: keep exercising. it helps relieve the stress. it is a stressful place. but as april said, it is a hard place to cover, whether you are black, white, male, female. i have not experienced any kind

of personal animus directed towards me because i'm a black woman. different --a black woman. and i have a different audience than april. one thing i try to keep in mind is that there is life outside of the white house after work. pursue your interests, and that will take some of the sting out of whatever happened to you that they. race is such an issue in this administration. do you are member of another playedtration where race -- even in the obama administration race did not come up as frequently as it does. race has touched every president in some way, shape, or form. we started up together as a large contingent of black reporters at the time in the

bill clinton era. he was dealing with africa, putting a focus on africa. he was also putting a focus on healing the racial divide in talking about the heart. then we came to george w. bush, he intrinsically knew what his audience or his base was not black. i am republican because of my father, because i was governor of texas, because of the death penalty issue in texas, and just kept going on and on. one ofn when katrina hit the issues is if he had put a little more equity or state into the black community like he did africa were different things with africa -- he didn't want to count it because he felt the black population was not his base -- if he would have done a little bit more in saying who he was, it would not have been so rough when katrina hit. so then you had -- and i thought -- and then you have

this guy who really mesmerized both democrats and republicans for one reason or another. , race.ing about him it was race all over just because he was a black man, and s on thet wa that's on theuse black community because it was a black man. it is always on the table, from when bill clinton told me years ago and subsequently all the other presidents, and then for this president race is definitely a factor. we talk about colin kaepernick and the narrative of the nfl causing a rift with players in

the nfl and those who watch, when you talk about sons of what? then when you go to the s-hole comments and we hear from maggie haberman, a white reporter, who said something to the effect -- who said he said something to the effect that if nigerians come here they should go back to their huts because they all have aids. oh yes. i have seen race play out in some of the best way than most unfortunate ways. it ultimately comes down to a heart issue, the president is the world leader. he sets the tone.

>> i think the narrative about obama was that america had reached this place that we were able to -- a black man got this job and that there is going to be this great moment and black people everywhere were going to somehow improve their lives. i think that was lost -- what was lost in that narrative was how my people were angry to see a black man and a black family on their tv everyday, and how many people were mad at their own shortcomings because the economy wasn't working out for them. there's the idea that people are mad at obama because of the economy, but i mean that if you are someone who already has a predisposition to like african-americans and then you can't get a job and the job numbers are coming out every day saying the economy is getting better and now you have to watch two black girls on tv wearing $1000 dresses, it is not just about presidents anymore.

it is about your actual lived experience looking at what you could do. america in a lot of ways is told straight white men that you have the privilege. you are the one that is going to be up to do everything. but that obviously isn't the case for everybody. there are straight white men who are struggling, who cannot get jobs, who have issues, and that is just catapulting it. as someone who wasn't a full-fledged reporter yet, i read way more stories about how great obama's presidency was for america and not as many stories about all of the people that were starting up white nationalist groups were being very angry and stewing in their living rooms because they didn't like by people. sort of the tea party, right? at some of those rallies oftentimes they would have signs , "send obama back to kenya," there is one sign about his ugly dollars.

you cover the tea party, you see some of that desperately daughters -- ugly daughters. you cover the tea party, you see need to take we our country back like it has gone somewhere. obamak the brilliance of in running for the white house was that he didn't make anyone feel guilty about race and racism. a vote for obama was in some ways absolution for this great sin and stain of racism and this promise of post-racism. the way he did that, he had sort of his own sort of sister .oldier moment

goingama, he does that by to black crowds and essentially saying, you've got to do better. you've got to pull up your pants. this whole idea of black respectability politics, he does that and signals to voters, particularly white voters, that he is not going to coddle african-americans and is not going to be the president of black americans with a basketball hoop anyway how's. that was first term -- hoop in the white house. that was first term obama. he was different in the second term. he talked about race a lot more. i think he used the n-word once. one of the things against hillary that people brought up

is that she made people feel bad about racism. she did bring up black lives matter and talk about racism, nothing that made people feel that. prof. thompson: how has the trump presidency affected the conversation on race? while april is thinking about it, you want to respond? [laughter] darlene: i would say that under the trump presidency the conversation about race is just more out there, more prominent again. we talked about him with the football players and kneeling during the national anthem. that has generated a lot of discussion, and in some cases protest. the issue of the comments he made about haiti, african countries. and let's also remember that one of the biggest proponents of the birtherism issue against president obama was donald trump before he was president. thatlped drive that idea obama was not born in america for many, many years, and didn't

give it up until recently. prof. thompson: you think it is to cover race with more context because of him? yamiche: everyone on this stage does a great job digging up resources and talking. but we have found, i believe, we have had to dig for more facts and stats to prove certain things are not correct because we have a president now who likes to go off feeling. it is true. he sets the tone for other people to pontificate on cnn or any other network. >> a great network. [laughter] april: -- to say what they feel. i am going to give you a big example. we haven't even talked about charlottesville. charlottesville really exposed a

lot. when the president had those teleprompters in his face, we were like, we can breathe. but when he talked off the top of his head, the world shook. it was ugly. kkkhad david duke of the during the state of the union when the president said americans are dreamers, too. yet, it was like six or seven times -- i know i was with him when he went to the military base at fort myer and was military. the it was almost like an apology to tryn explanation tour

and explain what he was saying, that both sides are good people. a woman died. a white woman died. so race is exposed and its barest sense. this is not archie bunker. this is the president of the united states. and then when you have people going in talking what they feel, particularly when it comes to the issue of immigrants, we have forgotten that we pretty much, the vast majority of us, are not natives of this land. native americans are. and we are telling people who can come in who can go. this immigration issue is about the browning of this nation. we are a nation that is now seeing the numbers of babies ,orn who are majority minority so this is about the browning of the nation.

people are saying crazy things, like we want people who bring something to the table. wait a minute, talking about brown and black immigrants. ira numbered something from 2012 when they had this immigration discussion during the obama years. this is been going on for a long time. i said wait a minute, i read something from the center for american progress that said black immigrants are the most educated immigrants. now everybody is quoting it. we have to really go by fax now as journalists because people think you are race meeting, lying, because this president is so quick to tweet something, say something to the crowd, and celebrate the black unemployment rate when it just happened along the way. we have to really now be the reporters that we really are by digging. you can say what you want, but stats and figures from credible organizations really back it up and show the truth.

yamiche: i don't know if we would be having these conversations if hillary clinton had been erected that had been elected -- had been elected. what does that say about our country? i talked to a lot of people whose personal lives are going to be harder because of some the policies donald trump is talking about. people who might lose their health insurance, their medicaid , a couple who might lose money would have repaired the roof, who said i would rather have mexicans stopped at the border then. my own roof fixed -- border then have my own roof fixed. i had one person say that they don't like their taxi drivers are black now. there's a real thing that people are seeing america brown and

realizing that even if their own personal safety or well-being, they choose race or for that -- race over that. it is a good conversation to be having, and i am happy to see people having the right stories about race as part of the white house beat. not just saying we have a race reporter and urban repairs reporter, and the rest of the newsroom can just go about what this isn't happening. i think newsrooms now have to cover race in almost every single beat, and i think it has made the profession better. prof. thompson: race has become such an issue. is the president a racist? april: oh lord. [laughter] i am not is a position -- i am not in a position to say that.

go to april. [laughter] april: darlene? [laughter] april: signaling back to the immigration thing around martin a sad dayg, it is when any reporter, black, white, whatever, have to ask the sitting u.s. president if he is racist. didn't -- youu did it on martin luther king day, right? april: i did, and it is a sad thing. i had to ask him. when you hear credible people from the hill, federal lawmakers, saying he said this, and the whole immigration debate kind of shifted because you don't know if you can work under good conscience that this is really going to work out this way. so i said, ok. i did it. i asked.

the day before i queried a couple of sources and asked the naacp, the nation's oldest civil what is theization, definition of a racist? their definition was the intersection of racial prejudice and power. you said it, i didn't. [laughter] and now they are calling the nation's oldest civil rights organization, now calling the president of the united states a racist. you have congressman john lewis. nia-malika: maxine waters. april: when you have a pattern that continues, and then questions about issues of the confederacy -- nia-malika: and if you look at the data on this and look at the polling, there's a quinnipiac poll a couple of weeks ago le commentter the s-ho

showing over 60 people responding to the question, do you think the president respects black people as much as he respects white people, 60% of people said no, he does not respect black people as much as he respects white people. it was something like 17% of republicans, almost one in five. that was a data point that was interesting, the republicans also -- the question is, do people think that is a problem? maybe they think it is fine if he doesn't reflect that doesn't respect black people as much as white people -- doesn't respect black people as much as white people. in terms of the country, what does it mean for citizens to think that a sitting u.s. president is racist? republicans also a couple well, democrats always think that republicans -- darlene: but this is different. nia-malika: -- and a republicans have result -- have racial

animus, but this is different. >> no one suggested that george w. bush was racist. >> except kanye west. [laughter] yamiche: i interviewed donald trump's ex-girlfriend, who is black. >> hold up, wait a minute. [laughter] i interviewed donald trump's ex-girlfriend, a girl who is half black. i asked her, do you think he is racist? she said i don't know because he obviously dated me. i identify as a black woman. there was no question that he knew. prof. thompson: how long was this? how long did it last? yamiche: this was right before

melania. maybe in between marla and melania. ok, this ison: turning into the jerry springer show. [laughter] anyways, i asked him what you think he has that image? he likes to hang around black people that are famous. he was very surprised that black people like tennis because they would go to the u.s. open and be like, why are all these people here? i guess serena is playing. there's this idea that's and i also asked jesse jackson, what is the deal? jackson freee office space in what he's towers and would go to these meetings are people were trying to make wall street have more blacks, and he was doing that without cameras. wasn't.

trying to prevent point he actually said, how do i help you guys, and then actually helped. it's a very complex thing. that's the thing. you have someone being sued by the federal government for writing color on application, calling for the death penalty for innocent black men, who has yet to apologize for that to this day, who is also spending money trying to get people, more black people, to work on wall street for no apparent reason and dating a half black woman. >> basically he is a complex figure. i think he is one of the first presidents we've had that doesn't talk much about upward mobility. he talks about coal miners and getting jobs back to go miners. he never necessarily says a coal miner could become, could own the coal mining company, right? i think that is one of the most

interesting things about him as well. he doesn't mind hanging out with african-americans who are wealthy. in some ways you might believe that the son of a coal miner will grow up to be a coal miner, and the son of a millionaire can do anything. one of the things he talks about in terms of all of the people around him that recommend him to those jobs is their wealth. there's some ideas he has about class as well that aren't always brought to bear in terms of the way we talk about him. yamiche: if you ask black republicans, there are some that have fled to the hills, but will are some who really say no, he really does think about race. he is better to african-americans than obama. i've heard that. on -- huawei wait, hold wait wait wait, hold on.

this is part of our conversations and our beat. two sects of black republicans now. the vanguard is not talking about that now. ,he new black republicans girls,, the other darrell scott, that is a new crop of republican not entrenched in public -- not entrenched in politics. nia-malika: who probably voted for obama. april: i don't know what they did but i know they are doing it now. i interviewed someone who said i am disappointed -- i am disappointed in the way talks

about charlottesville and the justice department, but i still support him. you have these new age black republicans who go hand-in-hand with these new age white republicans because there's a whole crop of new age -- and of course there are holdovers -- but there's also a lot of republicans working in the white house like hope hicks and other people who would never have been able to get a job in the white house. there's a section of republicans who pushed trump aside, they can't get jobs. you have these other people from new york that the president feels comfortable with. >> but there's a situation right now, the president said that this white house with what a fine-tuned machine. no. the cogs and wheels are flying off the machine. [laughter] april: seriously. and it is sad because this new crop of people coming in, a lot of them have no grasp of governments still, a., and the

ones who really do want to help are pushed out. there is a vanguard, be it black or any race, that want to help. people are scared to do with the president because he will tweak them, he will be nasty to them, and he is a different breed. but the breed that is coming. in understand this breed -- coming in understand this breed. even paul ryan has to knowledge that the president's language is different, and how he approaches things. it is a different day in washington. covering this white house, i believe the goalpost has been moved, and i don't know if it will ever come back. this has been a shift. nia-malika: can you -- yamiche: can you imagine a president that didn't tweet?

before questioning whether he was really doing it. april: obama's tweeting was different than this. nia-malika: that's the point -- yamiche: that's the point. can we go back to an obama style president? if the next president says his team's handling twitter. nia-malika: there could be twitter fatigue after this president, and whoever the president is is going to shape the presidency, and the way obama did. obama did not set the tone for donald trump. this idea that donald trump is forever changing the presidency i think gives him too much power. whoever -- and also sometimes you have in politics the person who comes after is sort of a response and reaction.

april: let me explain why i say that. after obama, people were looking for this superstar. they were looking for another rockstar. hillary clinton or donald trump. nia-malika: didn't -- yamiche: didn't they get one? april: yes, but the key word was change. obama and donald trump were change, but you didn't know what you wanted in the change. it is here. the problem is you have a president who is now scaring republicans in his own party who don't want to run for reelection. people dealing in a different way than they have before. you got issues on the books that are just kind of -- nia-malika: but in some ways he is incredibly successful, right? high amongmbers are .epublicans

i don't know that there will be primary challengers, as much as we focus on jeff flake. april: we will see what happens in 2018. nia-malika: we will see, but i think he is also just a garden-variety republican. when you look at his policies, rolling back regulations, lowering taxes. april: abortion, they love that. this, and thatve is the crazy thing. yamiche: white evangelicals, though. why do women over trump? why did white women over trump? [applause] yamiche: you watch these stories and have to punctuated with race, or not -- actuate it -- punctuate it with race, or you are wrong. april: this thing with rob porter, the white house the

first week or something defunded or eliminated the women in violence office, the violence against women office, and look at what is happening now. women cannot come a white women came out strongly for him. yamiche: i feel really happy i was on the campaign trail for so long because it gives me a window into people's minds. why donalde explain trump is where he is right now. voters said he voted for obama -- this voters that he voted for obama in 2008 because he was the new guidance is amazing, and when 2015 can around the hot hand was in trump. hillary was just kind of boring. you knew what you were going to get. with him you just see a rock star. he was the person who was entertaining to watch. that is where we have gotten to. andre on "the apprentice"

reality tv show society. you are going to have to be popular. it is not just policies anymore. nia-malika: you have to understand tv, right? donald trump understands tv. the first television president was probably jfk, who understood that as a new medium, and i think donald trump probably understands tv and comes through the screen in a way hillary clinton didn't, and that obama obviously understood, and the power of pop culture and away we had not seen before. and he understands the media in general. "the new york times" every day even though he called them the failing "your times," but that is what his primary sources. it is a paper he used to read when he was in new york city developing his real estate deals and the casinos in atlantic city and so forth. he knows what he is doing.

prof. thompson: for you guys covering the white house, do you this orlated in supported as a woman of color in this white house press corps? well, we have each other. [laughter] i consider each one of these ladies on the stage -- let me tell you, we had this sister girl moment. if ever something is going on, we will text message. we look out for each other. that is a good thing. yamiche, i'm so glad she is at the white house now. we need more of a diverse group of reporters at the white house. we've talked on occasion about different things, and we've been there for each other. during the cbc. we have crazy experiences, all of us together, in different things.

it is a friendship. used to work nia at the white house, and then she didn't. she's been climbing higher and higher and higher. and nia, at one of the worst , said girl, life what are you doing? and we had a conversation. well, iren't for nia -- was in flux at the time and did not know what i would do -- but nia made me see clearly, and that clarity landed me at cnn. that call many say it is time that made me say it is time -- that call made me say it is time. i am from baltimore, and we talk about crabs in the barrel.

i don't like that mentality. we try to help each other because there is so few of us, and i don't like that going after each other. another,ut helping one and we help all people, but we know it is a unique situation to be in that white house. it is a unique situation for african-americans to be in that white house, and for african-american women to be in government. you don't see many blacks going into politics, political journalism anymore. you don't see a lot of us. haveans something that you that sisterhood or brotherhood, the coming together to be able to lift when either up. it is something about that camaraderie. nia-malika: if you think about there are maybe 10, 20 of them altogether, black people cover national politics in washington.

it is a very small group. are there may be covering -- maybe more covering this an estrogen and others? april: no. prof. thompson: you mean in the white house? april: in the white house. it was a lot of us. -- he the clinton years was known as the first black president, so all of the newspapers wanted to send black folks down there. now some people say there are only three of us, and there are little bit more, but you have to -- darlene: on any given day when you watch the press briefing, the news organizations, if they are doing it right, the front row could be entirely african-american.

if i go down the row there's kristen welker from nbc, kevin cork from fox news, cbs doesn't , then there'syone me -- shot -- is it it aisha? darlene: and i'm on the third row. what are youn: moving to the third row -- to the first row? april: there never moving her to the first row. [laughter] prof. thompson: this is a good

segue into this, april. this question is specifically for you. journalists --s i teach my students -- we never become part of the story. girl -- [laughter] -- where shall i start? you brought up omarosa. april: when did i bring her up? [laughter] in some ways, it has worked in your favor. april: has it? kind of a warped mentality to me -- and i am not saying you are warped. [laughter]

april: -- this is where i have a problem with it. people think they see you sitting at the desk at cnn talking or having a fellowship here at this wonderful institution, gw, or writing books and things and that makes her a writer. but behind that i have death threats, and i'm a divorced mother of two kids. there is a reality for me. children'sour school, your kids are in school when something happens in the briefing room at the goes viral, and my 15-year-old is in current events class and she has to text me, are you ok? i am great. because she saw come are you going to get the congressional black caucus to have a meeting with me, or whatever. there is collateral damage behind this.

i take it for what it is, but you know, i don't want to become the story. i haven't done anything wrong. i've asked questions that anyone else would ask. but because i asked about russia and then got russian salad dressing -- and i will eat russian salad dressing anymore because of that comment. nia-malika: did you like it before? april: not really. [laughter] april: but i definitely won't even now. and then the shaking your head thing -- nia-malika: oh god. [laughter] well nia, ith -- is true. and all of this stemmed from a certain person who wanted to discredit me because the press is wrong, we are enemies, we are the opposition party, and it started during the summer of 2016 and carried over into the white house.

and i really don't want to get into it too much because it is hard to talk about. was prepared for the time, i guessed. but you are not going to knock me down. and i am going to share this with you. i did tell hillary clinton this. i said, you taught me a lesson. when people called you a name you didn't say anything, and it stuck. you're not going to lie on me because i grew up in my on used mrs. obama was right, when they go low, you go high, but when someone believes you you have to let them know that you are not the one. and i had to do that. i'm serious. [laughter] -- i'm serious. [applause] april: for 21 years i've been doing this. me,someone to tell a lie on

that i could sue for, i am a divorced mother of two kids. my whole thing is making sure my kids go to college and we have a roof over our heads. i'm not worried about all of that, but i'm not the target. not today. [applause] prof. thompson: you mentioned russia. you know i am always looking for a segue, right? former president george w. bush said today at a summit in abu "prettyat this is clear evidence that russia meddled in the presidential elections." at the end of the day, when robert mueller is done with his investigation, do you think that trump will be charged with the crime? darlene: i can't answer that question. prof. thompson: you can. [laughter] darlene: then i won't. we don't know.

we don't know. prof. thompson: what is your best guess? darlene: 50-50. [laughter] april: he doesn't act like a man that is innocent. really, he doesn't. why are you going to continue to try to fire people who are investigating you if you have nothing to hide? he does not like -- he does not act like a man who is innocent, or this administration doesn't. take your pick. yamiche: i am with darlene, i have no idea. no one in washington knows. there have been a little bit of leaks, but for the most part they are running a very tight ship. there's nothing one-story that said robert mueller is leaning this way or that way, or he is going to indict someone with the last name trump. forget the president, any of the kids, kushner. there hasn't been one story that it is about to happen right now. until it actually happens, it is anyone's guess. nia-malika: i think that is right. i think we do know what the republican reaction will be.

there was all this talk early on, will he get impeached, all that. i think house republicans , where in vitro charges would have to originate, we pretty much know they are going to be in this president's quarter because his success is their success. i think that is one of the things that there is a lesson of what they have demonstrated pretty clearly with this new nas , that- this nunes memo they are going to find a way to protect this president. impeaching a president is hard, and it should be april: some of the republicans have shifted. they're not ready for reelection. you say they will stick with him, but for how

long? republican voters will largely stick with him. we are in an era of tribalism. in some ways donald trump was right when he said he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and would not lose any power. there are very loyal to him. they like what he is doing, certainly policy wise. by and large, if you look at polls, republicans are with this president. we know what republicans might do because robert mueller has become an enemy if you watch fox news. you talk to some republicans on the hill and they are starting this smear campaign to say he is going to be leaning this way or that way because of his political beliefs.

if illegal back to the vanguard versus new republicans, their painting him as a republican but an old-school republican who does not want to see trump be successful. asf.thompson: african-american female professor thompson: what do you think, as african-american female journalists, what is the toughest part of covering this white house? april: being a target. professor thompson: why do you think you are a target? i don't want to take her credentials. --y don't understand that and whoever said that, there is tribalism. if you look at stories, people see in different ways, people are looking at it in different ways than i may be seeing it. i am not able to see it because of partisan politics. i'm in i was chastised for

asking a question about whether , did you support slavery because of what general kelly said about the compromise about the confederacy in the civil war. and if the compromise happened, we would not be on the stage. we would be slaves. and they were calling robert e. lee honorable. honorable. so and it, again that is not , long after charlottesville, not long after trying to mess with frederico wilson. go and attack frederico wilson. this one thing they do well is targeting people. they do it very well. and i am waiting to see, going back to omarosa see how they're now since target her she came off the podium. they are very good at targeting people. and it is hard sometimes to do your job. but if you know, if you can go home at the end of the day and

say i did what i was supposed to , do. i did everything that a white reporter would do or any other reporter would do, i can go to sleep peacefully and have an eight hour rest and come up and do it the next day. the targeting is hard. darlene: the hardest thing, and this is not specifically to being a black woman, this is personal, but it is trying to get answers to questions. sometimes it is very basic questions. is the president going somewhere? i am trying to think of a recent example. it is not anything you are asking that a superduper complicated or top secret. >> when is rob porter leaving? [laughter] darlene: true. for example today we came in, and there have been reports on tv that said yesterday he said they were going to accept his resignation, and he was going to

say on during a transition period. and then there were lots of reports on television that said he was out immediately. we tried all day to get someone to say, well is he gone, , has he left, has he worked his last day at the white house? and nobody would say anything. until the briefing which was originally scheduled for 1:00 in the afternoon. then it got pushed to 2:30 p.m. we were all sitting out there waiting. and then i think it was after a , little bit after 2:30 they announced on the overhead speaker that it was not until 3:15. it did not start until almost 4:00. >> by that time he was like on a train. april: there was a video he was showing yesterday, whenever someone is resigned or terminated they are escorted , out. i'm wondering if that was an escort out. darlene: i think that was just footage. nia-malika: it said that he came into work today and packed his stuff up and left.

april: i heard him. i heard what he said, but i also saw the picture too. [laughter] yamiche: i do not think there was any video of him today. >> not that i know about. that is what i am saying. it would not be out of the realm of possibility that he was gone last night. prof. thompson: i know about spin. but on the basic questions -- >> alternative facts. prof. thompson: do you guys get stories that, do you think you get stories that your white counterparts would not because you are women of color? or is it the opposite? [laughter] april: they don't give me stories. i find grief. but i find out from the outside. i get my stuff from the outside and just ask from the inside. they are like, how did she find out about that?

i got sources. good sources. -- ine: i think covering covered ferguson, and there were people who let me in their homes in missouri mainly because i was a black woman asking questions, and i could tell them my brother is someone who was an african-american man has had issues with the police. i could tell them i have been stopped by the police because someone thought i was a black man because my hair was too long. and i was driving my brother's car. so i think that people tell you different things for different reasons. but i also think as reporters for the most part you try to , endear yourself for people for any reason. i have been in the homes of white people who told me point blank, oh, i don't think black people do not like to work. they still give me iced tea and i did not drink it. [laughter] yamiche: i have found if you are human being, people will give it to you. but have recovered -- having covered politics for two years now, i have found people give

you things -- people do not give you things for reasons too. so if i am covering the hill, if i am a young white guy at the senator's office, they will more likely give me more information because i went to the same school, i am in aka too. so i will not have any sorority connection to any white women. prof. thompson: there is word on this campus alpha anything right about now -- [laughter] yamiche: so there is this human connection that you make with people. if you are a white woman walking around and you are of the same sorority of someone, the idea is like the connections you make is why you get different stories. i do not know the stories that i'm not getting. but you know, the hill or the white house is majority white. i don't know if they look at me and are like, we are not going to tell her because she is black

what our plans for haiti are. or they might think the opposite. they might want to leak something to april because they think, they give it to the black reporter and the unemployment story to her, maybe it will make us look like we are extra concerned about this. nia-malika: is that racist? is that racist? >> o god. april: it is not racist. it is about what they want to do is what they want to attract in that moment. it is always strategically placed. because you would, for instance when it was black history month , or when you were going, you had an interview with obama at some point. april: i had a lot of interviews with obama. nia-malika: i think a lot of times it is about outlets. >> reach and also their base. nia-malika: obama would go on black radio a lot when he was trying to sell get people to , sign up. april: i interviewed with this president. i have asked everywhere, i want

an interview with this president. i definitely do. i want to talk about the issues. and race. i want to see it and hear it from him. i tweeted him directly. yes, i did. >> was he campaigning? april: he never responded. i did it on the campaign trail while he was president. -- and while he was president. i want an interview with him. this is not about race. this is about the president of the united states of america. prof. thompson: i want to be there when you get that interview with him. [laughter] , as. thompson: so you meet everybody now knows, your parents are -- you are haitian. you are haitian, and your parents -- i hope you don't strangle me for saying this, a physician? yamiche: they are doctors. prof. thompson: they are educated. [laughter] let trump'sou not derogatory comments about your

country affect how you covered the issue? yamiche: i think -- well there is kind of an anecdote. i was leaving the new york times and i was going to start at cbs. i had a week off. i have two jobs because immigrants work hard. [laughter] [applause] forche: so i also worked msnbc and nbc news. so i have taken the week off. i am like, i am not going to do any hits, i am in ohio with my fiancee. he says these comments. i get a call from my aunt crying. i can't believe he would say this about us after what he said about aids. the aids rumor, a lot of people were like, why do people say haitians have aids? there was a time where people would not let haitians give blood. your kids are getting bullied in school. those are my cousins. my mom was being told, i do not want to share this lunchroom with you because i think you

have aids. that is happened to people related to me. there is a real deep history. you are just saying they have aids, and it is like people have lived experiences where they had to protest in the streets because people were saying haitians were the reasons why a -- aids existed in the united states. what can i -- i started tweeting. my mother said, what are you doing? i said, i am a reporter. so i started tweeting, here is what i am hearing, here is what is going on. i said i would call the haitian ambassador and sorted out with him. i am haitian and i'm a reporter. i have always gone back to interview with him. it is interesting with the haitian embassy is doing, and they have done a lot in recent years. i talked to somebody and got actual news, and the haitian government have formally asked the united states to explain themselves. so that i just started tweeting out because i have no work

anywhere. i tweeted out my notes. rachel maddow called me and said, can you come on? i had to take these deep breaths because i speak quickly naturally. i was trying to slow myself down. i was like doing yoga in the studio because i wanted to make sure i was clear, i was precise, and people did not think i was just ranting. because i had reporting that i wanted to tell people. i had facts about savannah i wanted to share with people. i facts about my parents, real fact that wanted to get to. i just focus on what i actually wanted to tell because you can get any haitian person to spew about how angry they are. but for me it is like, i interview people. whenever i feel upset or about to cry about something, i tried to report those things. every time it happens to me, i feel like i am at my best. i'm usually breaking stories on the front page because i am so emotionally invested in something that the

-- something to counterbalance how angry i am, reporting out facts that make people say, this is what people are angry. [applause] prof. thompson: one last question, and then i want to open it up to you guys. if you have a question, please go to the center of the auditorium there. there is a microphone there. this is being recorded. guess we should have told you that up front. my final question for each of you is, if you were writing a play or a musical about covering the trump administration, what would it be called? [laughter] nia-malika: a hot mess. >> oo . i will say this because -- nia-malika: i will say this because this is a white house that thrives on chaos. you feel like a hot mess covering it. because there are so many big and unexpected stories that happened. if you think about last week -- i think it was last week -- it

was the state of the union. that is a very routine thing that happens. the white house goes on tour and goes to different communities. and talks about the state of the union, but that was a blip. i think all of us have had to reorient the way in whic hwe -- in which we cover this white house. in some ways it has made a hot mess of our personal lives. i think it has worked for him in terms of his strategy. he sort of likes it that way. he thrives on chaos. i mean, he is the reality tv guide, and i think that is the kind of white house he has had. on the other hand i think in some ways it has been very effective in terms of getting the policies that he wants through congress. maybe he is not as well read in terms of those policies, but i think he has done well in terms of getting those through and doing what he wants to do. prof. thompson: he certainly guess the media attention and the ink. yamiche: i was going to go with

chaos, but i think i'm going to go with america. because my parents are from outside the country, or my dad still is in my mom is in miami, they watch american -- international news a lot. we think this is all crazy, but it is very much america's story. we have a lot of race issues. america's story is someone knows someone that likes donald trump or has voted donald trump. everyone knows there might have been somebody who is super educated and african-american, who got good jobs. and then there was a counterpart that maybe not do the same thing but got the same job. everyone has had that experience where once you might have a coworker who can say crazy things all day, and somehow everyone thinks they are great and cute. and somehow you have somebody who works hard and says very little and some how just tries to get it done, and that person is seen as problematic the moment they raise their voice they are angry. the idea that your father can

give you a lot of privilege and that america is built on whether or not we question affirmative action is something that is good. but we never talk about the fact of georgetown and other places. one they still have the building to begin with. and the number your parents two, might have gone to georgetown at a time where my mom was legally barred from going there. but somehow, they call that -- i forget what it is called when you have it, loyalty -- legacy. you have legacy, and that is seen as something that is not normal -- is normal. affirmative action is this evil thing that hurts people. so america is a great way to think about this presidency. because the president's reality tv social media, our country has , changed. we are not someone who -- we are not interested in politically correct people i think at this point in our country. prof. thompson: darlene. darlene: i was going to go with

never a dull moment, but i charged -- changed to a new title. my book would be called omg. [laughter] darlene: the story of donald trump's presidency or something like that. i go with the second title because this goes back to a year ago in may. my colleagues and i were sitting in our booth in the white house, and we were waiting for something to come from the press office. finally it comes into the inbox. i open the email and i said oh , he just fired jim comey. the year has just been filled with moments, a lot of omg moments. and i think a lot of us thought mightr two that year two have begun a little differently, a little calmer or more stable. it has not. it has not started that way. it could be omg, never a dull moment.

prof. thompson: ok, april? april: my real book coming out in september is called "under fire." prof. thompson: is that just a plug? april: oh yes. [laughter] >> omg. was that just a plug? oh yes. april: so, but if i had to do for this moment, the two words fake,ome to mind, one, and then the other one is un-american. --american because un-american you know why fake. , we're supposed to be fake. nothing fake up here. but when you go to un-american, that was a poignant moment in cincinnati when this president said that the people who sat down and did not clap were un-american. we have seen this over the years, at every state of the

union's address. one party sits down when they do not like something, the other stands up. i remember a time when there was one person from the opposite party, when president obama was lied. house and set you no one said a word about treasonous or un-american. they said to koran. that was the word, decorum. so i guess it is perceived as unpatriotic and the press is too. i think a lot of people have not read the constitution. un-american. it is just the exact opposite where the play would be to prove how american and patriotic we are because we love this country and stand firm close to the first amendment, freedom of the press. yes. [laughter] [applause] >> hello, then you hear me? >> we can hear you.

>> thank you, ladies for coming , out. i really enjoyed it. if trump is impeached scenario and hence would become president, i am tereus about what you would think a pence administration would look like? nia-malika: i think he would be effective and would get things done, and it would be way quieter, but the country would probably change more. >> that is how government works. april: he understands how our government works. yamiche: i think he has relationships where people would trust him where he says, i need you to do this, defund planned parenthood. i think he would be able to get those things done in a way trump can't. there is a section of republicans that are like, am i going to stake my release -- my reputation on this guy? i would never have done that. i never realized all the things they did. all those things were terrible when he told me to do this. darlene: it would certainly be less dramatic.

the vice president as you said is more conservative. so the country would continue to change and go down this more conservative path but just with less drama and chaos. nia-malika: i think he is an ideological center in the knowledge of policy. he is a rock conservative in the way trump just isn't. we mentioned before, i think trump is a standard issue republican. in some ways. but i think for pence it would be even more bad. but you know, i think we are getting way ahead of ourselves. >> thank you. >> good evening. professor thompson asked you earlier, you know if you feel , supported by your colleagues in the white house. in the moments when you become the new story, how -- what do you end up doing when your editor or producer or employer pulls you aside?

do they support you in those moments? prof. thompson: all right, thank you for that question. do you want to answer? [laughter] >> never become part of that story. april: i have to say this. the great thing is -- and everyone up your nose i am a talker -- up here knows i am a talker. the one thing that has been great is that i talk to my bosses. and i've always talked to my bosses. they have known from day one, , and itngs happened wasn't like a shock -- it was not a shock. when they got a call from a certain person who i shall not fire mesically say after we had an altercation in the white house my boss said let , me stop you right here. we know everything that has been going on from day one. if you are truly friends, you

will go out and have drinks. the person said i will not. my company has been 2000% behind me. they stand with me. they see, they watch the briefings. we talk constantly. they know what is going on. they check, they know what is going on. they have been behind me. i mean, they have just given me so much support. i am good. thank you for asking. >> thank you. >> thank you for the very wonderful and nourishing conversation. one thing i was wondering is with the rise of the term fake news and alternative facts, how often do you see the administration or president trump himself call reporting by people of color more often being fake news or less credible than reporting by white journalists? and furthermore when you have to to disprove that are proof that your reporting is just as credible, more than just digging

through facts, what do you do to kind of proof your reporting is more credible when they question it? darlene: the president -- if he calls the news media fake, we all take that. >> yeah. and -- yeah. darlene: sarah huckabee sanders did say to me on twitter that i fake news. am i said, no. we have had dinner. we have talked. we have tried to have a coming -- not a coming together but an understanding of one another. there is a situation where they do not understand why i asked. everything comes to the white house from war to peace, and everything in between. and race is that in between. and i'm allowed to ask that. but you have a new wave of people coming in who have a new point of view and they see things differently. at one point is this onus is on the readers, listeners, or the viewer, to take a look at

what the person is saying. if i say, this is such and such, and such and such, it may give you documentation. like i give you the documentation from the naacp. when i ask my questions, i try to press them because like to say, you are fake. no. i just told you why i asked the president if he is a racist. didn't i give you the definition from the naacp? today rob portman. they were talking about the president is so incensed and upset and saddened. s.a.t.. saddened by this. so i asked, if he is so saddened about violence against women, why did he close down or defund the violence against women office and also shut down the women and girls office? that is real stuff.

they could not deny it. i do not care if he thinks i am not trustworthy or whatever. i tell you what i put out there it is fact. ,and you can look it up. that is the only way. just keep doing the who, what, when, where, why. make sure it is fact-based. i am not giving your opinion. up here we have given our opinion. when i am talking to you over there, i am giving you the facts. nia-malika: i do nothing trump and his allies make a distinction in terms of fake news. i think fake news to them is news that they do not like. it is generalized. it is not like the black reporter or the latino reporter. it is just as they do not like it, it is fake news. >> thank you. >> hi, thank you all for being here tonight. it really means a lot. i want to know what is something that you wish you knew going into your profession now that you have -- that you know now? nia-malika: everything works out. i did not necessarily have a

plan. i started in print. i was a late bloomer. i went to grad school a lot before i ended up going into journalism. so i think -- and also be nice to everyone. a lot of the people we end up working with, we end up hiring or getting hired by, you come on panels you meet them on the , campaign trail. i mean all of us go back to 2008 with april covering obama. it is such a small net community if you are a national political reporter covering the white house or the hill that those relations are really important. >> thank you. >> hello, everybody. i wanted to thank you guys for coming to this panel. i had a question for each one of you guys. so like at the end of your career, when you are in retirement age when you -- not like that. [laughter] >> what is one thing that you want to be remembered by as a person and as a journalist?

april: this is an obituary question. >> yeah. [laughter] >> no. prof. thompson: pretty much. pretty much. >> what drives you guys? nia-malika: i think mentoring. that is one of the things i tried to do with the younger folks, particularly black women and people of color. i just think it is important. we have got this next generation. we are not going to be in these roles forever. to be generous to folks who are coming up behind us. i did not necessarily have a lot of mentors. them, the was one of late, great amazing glenn idol, and she was one of my mentors and role model, who was looked up to and wanted to be. so i think that is one of the things for me, just bringing up the next generation and mentoring and pouring into the folks who come up behind you. yamiche: i also would say -- go

ahead. i hope that people say that i told the truth and made a difference. that i really represented everyday people, concerns, and challenges. i really hope that, if i die -- because apparently that is what it's going to be, i do not plan on retiring, hopefully not, i think that is what it is. i hope i can be remembered as a civil rights journalist. and that the body of work that i leave behind is not in a hodgepodge of all sorts of cool and interesting things that i have been able to do, but that people can thread together the stories that i wrote and see that i was a 2018 civil rights journalist. darlene: i think that i would like to be remembered as someone who worked hard, tried to do my best every day, put everything into whatever story i was working on at that moment. i think i would also like to be at that time, i hope there would

be some other woman of color who would come behind me and work for the ap and get to cover the white house. because right now there have only been two, right sonia? just you and me? >> how long has the ap been around? darlene: since 1846, right? >> that is another panel. darlene: mentoring. also exposing truth. putting fact out there. making sure that people really understood the truth about communities that were underserved. heart in covering these presidents. four presidents. i hope i get to cover five and six presidents. who knows. i don't mind if i would be considered the next helen thomas

in terms of longevity. no one can beat helen. >> then you get the front row. april: i don't know if i want the front row. [laughter] april: but i also want the respect from both helen and gwen eiffel. those were some wonderful, trailblazing women whose shoes can never be filled. thank you. >> thank you. i think you are all great. i would like to ask you, i, like a lot of other people, have not paid as much attention to the news as i have since this election and administration. >> self-care. [laughter] >> need a support therapy group. whether you like him or not, the reality is that a lot of people are exposed to you by name and would know you if they see you in the grocery store because we are so attuned to the news. you have in various ways become celebrities, intentionally or not, just because the criticism

directed at you directly in your case, ms. ryan, from the white house. what if anything can you find that is positive about the coverage you have had to do in terms of -- how has it affected you as a journalist? or is there something positive you can take away from this entire experience? >> i mean everything, i think. , this is a privilege and an opportunity to cover and administration, cover the country, to talk to people about how they feel about this, go into their homes. so yeah i am delighted to be in , this role. i feel lucky to be covering this administration. there are not that many people, certainly not many black women, black people, who get to sit in these it chairs. -- in these chairs. it is an honor and a privilege, the job i have. >> i think it has helped me meet people face-to-face, that are watching me. i think -- [laughter] >> i try not to think about how many people are watching pbs

news hour or msnbc when i am on because i might throw up. i think about my mother. my mother wants me to slow down. my mom wants me to speak today. [laughter] yamiche: i did not realize how many african-americans would say i am so happy you are on msnbc. i am so happy for your pbs news hour. i am so happy you can be in my living room. when i first started going to pbs, i started getting all these emails like, i get to see you every night. you are going to be in my home. i never thought about that because i was a print journalist. you think people pick up the paper or on the train. but there is something about being in people's homes that pbs stations reach that is different. and that reminds people -- i can tell people when the whole haitian thing happened. you are watching a haitian reporter working right now. just in the presence of being on tv affects the conversation and

it helps people feel they are being represented in a way i never really thought about. >> thank you. last two questions. i'm sorry, april wants to answer? >> telling a story. >> she is. >> you know, the ap is quick. april: quickly i would just say off of what nia said, there is a saying, but it is a cliche, but it is very true. we have a front row seat to history every day. every day when we go into the white house, some history is happening. and there are very few people who get to be there every day. and we are all privileged to be among them, among that small group. i would say the challenges we are all facing in terms of covering this administration i think has made us all redouble know makes to, you

, sure our facts are straight, to do the best job we can. because this climate right now is so hyper partisan, toxic. there is all this talk about fake news, and you don't want to give anyone any ammunition to come at you. >> for a kid that grew up in baltimore, comes from baltimore, still live in the community, five generations from slaves on my mother's side, it is a blessing to cover history, to have four american presidents call me by name. this last one may have called me some other names. [laughter] april: but it has been a blessing to be able to watch history and report on history. and for people to know that when i come to you, i am telling you the truth. and understanding that may bethe -- understanding that maybe the reason why i am being targeted is that i am effective, and they do not like that. so it has been a blessing. you can never dream what the lord has for you. >> thank you.

>> thank you. [applause] >> yes, my name is juliet adams. >> we can hear you>>. >> my name is juliet adams. i have a different perspective. i think the chaos is good because americans have been silent for too long. it has come in a way that individuals did not expect. my question to you is that we have heroes and powers from old that we need to draw on and send a statement, how would you as the press, even the entertainment industry, how will you maximizing on this experience? >> let me say this to you, and i am glad you said that. the wayng to yamiche

she goes into some people houses. [laughter] april: icons, activist before he became an entertainer, harry belafonte, invited me into his home. he said let's have dinner. i did not have time. we had tea. >> you drank the tea? april: yes i did drink his tea. [laughter] this is right after the election, and i have been watching facebook. when a lot of people were like in the fetal positions for months. that night you remember the , moment when barack obama was named president, and you remember the moment donald j. trump was named president. i went straight to twitter. a friend of mine come up former prosecutor of the o.j. simpson trial. he said -- black republican -- he said oh, they have let the , town the clown have the keys to the white house. i said oo, chris you are going

, to get into trouble. then we hear bob johnson and other friends say we have to , find common ground. so i call my former congressman -- >> you have the name dropping through this whole thing. [laughter] [indiscernible] april: no, he did not. i am saying this because he is asking about the people. the former congressman who used to be the head of the naacp. while we are here, i want to recognize the current head of the naacp. >> oh, she has a second. [applause] april: and that was a name drop, yes. >> it was. april: but no, he said -- i gave him all the scenarios and said, both men are like. we are at a crossroads. people are still in the fetal position, before the

inauguration, after the election, and people are still having fits. when i go to new york and sit belafonte, ice that and say, sir what were we , seeing? because he was an activist, walked with martin luther king, lay down with these mothers, made tomatoes when they were going out to march in selma and the civil rights act and the voting rights act and all that stuff. he said, look. when i was under the tutelage, dubois tell me something. this is the greatest time. why would you say that? he said because when there is great pain -- this is what dubois told him -- there is radical activism that affects change. but the question is, where is that activism? people are talking -- people will get up on twitter and do this, you know, i am upset. take that. have an emoji. have an emoji.

like you are doing something. i will block you, but people are not willing -- i am not saying -- as reporters, i am not seeing -- we might see women go out the next day after inauguration, and i haven't seen -- and a year later. but i am not seeing the ground swell that harry belafonte was talking about. when i talked to him again, he was kind of upset about that. because people talk about this disease on twitter, but i am not seeing them scuff up their shoes on the streets. so as a reporter i am not seeing that. i get where you are coming from, so i see what you are saying. but if you are really upset -- give us something to report on. we will report on it. i am not saying it -- remember how they used to come to the white house? jeff used to be like let me in, , with a tin can, scraping it up against the run iron. i don't see that in lafayette park like it used to be.

no, no. you can get a permit. -- itlso think it is to is important to note people greeted obama's presidency with cheers and they loved him as president, and it is the same for trump's presidency. but what about the majority that are against him? i am not seeing it. april: when you talk about charleston, i am not saying -- >> you had the protest, the weekend the travel ban was put , in place. that was a ground swell. all these people could not come into the country, you have people at airports. >> consistence, that is what i am talking about. >> they had the women's march. they did it two years running. april: yeah but continuously. [speaking simultaneously] april: it is not persistent as the tea party for instance. that is something he brought up as well. harry belafonte said the resources are some of the problem. he said republicans are funded

by the koch brothers and different organizations and the nra, whereas the liberals have trouble finding resources. >> not as much -- april: i do think there was an organizing principle around the tea party in a way there is not necessarily that around progressives. >> progressives, the diversity of their coalition sometimes makes organizing hard. i mean, it is essentially african-americans, latinos, it is college-educated white people -- >> and women. >> and those people feel very differently about issues at times. >> i am talking about a movement that has changed made change. , think about it. the four kids that sat at a woolworth's counter, they got the whole dynamic changed. they started a ball rolling, part of the ball rolling, and the civil rights movement. dr. king only had 40% of churches supporting him at the time. that is that.

>> but the tea party was a movement and they affected change for donald trump. >> i also think there is -- as journalists, i think this is a big moment. as someone who is i would say just starting my career, i talked to a lot of my mentors and say, what would you do? i mean, i don't even try to say it is -- it is so upsetting to me that i am working at pbs and she is not there. to me it is like i have to constantly tell myself, i talk to gwen before she died, she told me i could do the job. she told me i could do the job. i am kind of in this place now, who do i have, who am i going to talk to? because for me there is this feeling where i have to step up as a journalist. and the person, the main person i would be asking questions to isn't here. but i find myself asking questions of the reporters because i am new. i am definitely a street reporter. i feel like until a year and a half ago, i was a backpack and

speakers kind of reporter all the time. i do that now, but there is the politics and wrapping my head around policy, how do you look for what is taking place in the streets is probably the more poignant reporting right now because of what is going on in the white house, but it is a tough thing to wrap your head around. >> thank you. and the final question belongs to you. >> thank you so much for coming. so you are all very obviously established in your careers. so advice to a young media especially journalist, you have to be aware of everything that is happening all the time in this field. how do you maintain your mental health throughout this? >> do we? i don't know. how we maintain our mental health? say for me, i have always had a balance. my mom was a social worker.

she was someone who was very good at balancing stress. when i was stressed out in likege one year, i was very stressed out. she was like you need to start , watching "grey's anatomy." it -- [laughter] life.e: it changed my [laughter] it is like myr me mom had the summers off because she was a social worker. i wanted to hang out with my kids and go on trips of my children, to let you know you were the most important thing to me. the idea i was raised by someone very precise about how she set up her life, and i am doing that now. i am about to get married in three weeks. [applause] yamiche: for me it made sense to , want to make room in my life for a boy that had been like calling me for a year. it made sense for me to be like maybe i should go on a date. , maybe i should see what this love thing is about. like i think that there -- you have to make room in your life for other things. and you have to have even if it

, is very hard to disconnect. because i get donald trump's tweets as text messages. the point is even if it is for 30 minutes or for an hour up at the gym, i am working out mainly because i want to get into my dress -- [laughter] yamiche: i fill my time with netflix and other things. i feel like you have to give yourself an hour where you are just chilling out. >> and you have to learn to say no. that was a big thing at cnn, one of the things john king told me in my first weeks there which is learn how to say no. which is very hard at cnn. cnn is the kind of place, when i was literally on set on live tv getting a call from cnn booking me for another hit in the next our. i mean, that is the kind of pace and expectation that comes from these jobs, because of the white house, because of where all of us work, it is constant. i think one of the things is

learn to say no and learn to know that "no" is a complete sentence. you don't have to say no, i can't do it because of this, this that, and the third. ,>> i need to learn that. i have not learned that actually. >> find things you like. for you, it is "grey's anatomy," which i find stressful. [laughter] >> for me, i watch a lot of hgtv, house hunters. fixer upper, joanna and ship. [laughter] prof. thompson: and darlene, you do yoga. darlene: well, i run, and you can't be texting and writing and reading your phone when you're running. i also do yoga, that is an hour without the phone. you can do texting and all that stuff when you are in a downward dog. so i -- [laughter] darlene: second everything that nia has said. you need to carve out little pockets of time here and there. a couple weeks ago i took myself

to the movies. >> what did you see? darlene: i was just trying to remember. i saw the post. [laughter] >> like work. >> and you forgot that? darlene: i could not remember the other day that the state of the union was just last week. [laughter] >> i want to say this really quickly, i once took a nap because i had gone on a show at 6:00 a.m. and was dead tired. i woke up and omarosa had been fired. [laughter] >> didn't say a word. >> used to be. for me, self-care is important. >> you have kids. >> i have my kids, but i need self-care, too. [laughter] >> i do a lot of driving. and i drive two hours each way every day. so i just kind of like decompress there go home, and , i try to watch mindless television, something i can get engrossed in that takes me away from all of that.

when i am not on tv -- it is just, yeah. i need to learn to say no. and i tried to go into some kind of mindless state because really it is bad when you wake up in the middle of the night and pick up your cell phone off the nightstand and see who has text messaged you what you have missed. i think we have all been guilty of that. my day is 24/7. it never stops. but i have got to learn. i am also now for my health and my well-being. i am doing the strength training and doing the ropes and all that stuff. i am trying to get there. and enjoying my kids more, you know taking them out of , town, just going places and having fun. my daughter has a "hamilton" workshop. she is that the "hamilton" workshop next weekend and we are going to do a couple theater shows. just mindlessness, enjoying life. for those of you who are stuck

on the tv, i love cnn, great network. >> it is a great network. [laughter] april: but how many of you are political junkies? oh lord, there is a thing called self-care. back away and come back. what i have learned is the roller coaster will keep going. but it is ok to get off. i want to get back on it when i , get off, i breathe. >> there have been stories of reporters -- i lost a friend i will never forget michael , feeney who died at 32, the day the iowa caucus happened. i like to not get out of bed because i was crying so hard. there, you -- i have gotten reminders from the world that, yes, work is important. and he had just gotten his dream job at cnn as an entertainment reporter. he was supposed to be moving to atlanta when he died. and the idea is that yes, work , is important, but you want to savor the moment. because you just don't know what

is going to happen. you don't want to -- i always think, i don't want to be an old woman sitting in my rocking chair, which is what i hope i turn into, and not thinking, i never got to see my kids, or i am divorced because they did not answer my husband's phone calls because i was so entrenched in work. a local new york reporter did that. died of a brain aneurysm. her mother was like, she worked too hard. it is not a fun thing to do, it is a life or death thing in my mind. >> you can work hard and then carve out time for self-care. >> right. >> all right, i want to say like -- thank you for that question. and thank you, guys, you are amazing. this is why -- [applause] >> and i want you to know, we have got gift bags. >> we have got gift bags. >> there are bags. >> we've got gifts. >> and so this is because what

we do and who we are -- bam! [applause] [speaking simultaneously] >> no, no. >> going to give it to you here. you were afraid of that? oh because you are georgetown. >> i just want to say, thank you, guys, again for coming to see you guys. really appreciate it. [applause] >> now my students, go study. ,you know i am going to be off campus. don't take advantage of it. and thank you, guys, again for coming out. thank you, this is wonderful. and those of you -- [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]