- Good evening ladies and gentlemen.
I'm sorry we're a few minutes late,
but I'm delighted that
we're about to start.
I'd like to welcome all of you to
the School of Media and Public Affairs
at The George Washington University.
How many students do we have in the room?
Awesome, give yourselves a
hand (clapping) and welcome.
I'm Frank Sesno, I'm the director of SMPA
and I'm delighted that you
and we are here tonight
for what will be a, simply, fascinating
and very important conversation
with people who are
both on the front lines
of history and who make history
because of what they do and who they are.
It is our place here and
really our privilege at SMPA
to host conversations like this.
That bring remarkable people
who do remarkable things
and sometimes very difficult
conversations to this stage.
Tonight what you'll hear is, as I said,
that front row seat on history.
And being a woman of color at this time
and in this place is
something that is too rare
and that we need to be thinking about
on a lot of different levels.
I know your thoughts will
be challenged with that
and I think, probably in
places, you'll be regaled
by some of the stories along the way.
It is a pleasure and a
privilege for me, as well,
to introduce to you a very special student
who is going to introduce
Professor Thompson
and bring out the panel.
She is a junior.
She is a journalism major.
She has done remarkable
things here at GW and beyond
and she happens to be president of the
GW Association of Black Journalists.
Lauren Hill is in her, prime of her life,
I would like to say here at GW.
She's the assistant editor of
GW's ACE multicultural magazine.
She interned last summer at the
Afro-American Newspaper here in D.C.
I think she's destined
to go on to a really
remarkable career and she
is launching right here.
So would you join me, please,
in welcoming Lauren Hill
and have a very, very
good evening tonight.
(audience applauds)
- Thank you, Professor Sesno.
Good evening.
- My name is Lauren Hill
and I'm the president
of GW's Association of Black Journalists.
This is our third major
event in as many years.
This event is being streamed live
on GWSMPA and the Afro-American
Newspaper Facebook pages.
I would first like to thank the
School of Media Public Affairs
for helping plan tonight's events
and the Black Heritage
Celebration Committee
for allowing our organization
to be a part of another great
series of programming during
the month of February.
Our organization believes
it is important this year
to discuss the Trump Administration
from the perspective of
black women journalists,
a group whose voices have
historically been suppressed,
but who refuse to be silenced.
Tonight's panel, which
will be introduced shortly,
include some of the best and
most recognizable journalists,
who cover this country's
elected officials.
I hope each of you leave here tonight
with a better understanding
of the challenges
that come with being a woman of color
and a journalist during
such a unique juncture
in our nation's history.
It is now my pleasure to introduce
the moderator for tonight,
Professor Cheryl W. Thompson.
Professor Thompson teaches
investigative reporting
and news writing at GW and
has spent the last 21 years
writing for the Washington Post.
She has covered the Justice Department, immigration,
D.C. police, the White
House during Barack Obama's
first term, and spent
more than a dozen years
on projects and investigative teams.
She shared the Pulitzer Prize
for National Reporting in 2002
and won an Emmy Award in
2011 for a series on guns
in her prison interview with
a young man from Chicago
who killed a police officer.
She has two NABJ Salute
to Excellence Awards,
a Headliner Award, and dozens of other
national and regional awards.
She was part of the Post
team that did a year-long
series on police shootings,
which won a Pulitzer in 2016.
She was named NABJ's 2017 Journalism
Educator of the Year.
Professor Thompson has
Bachelors and Masters Degrees
from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.
She is Vice President of
the Investigative 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 Alpha
Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
(audience chuckles)
Without further ado, Professor Thompson.
(audience applauds)
- Wow, shouldn't y'all be studying?
(audience laughs)
So, come on out.
This is our panel.
She's being shy.
(audience cheering)
April's being shy.
I got you.
- Good evening.
(audience cheering)
So, Nia-Malika Henderson knows more
about political campaigns
than most people.
As a senior political reporter for CNN
and my former colleague
at the Washington Post,
she is simply one of the best
political reporters in the country.
- Thank you.
(audience applauds)
Great to be here.
- I met Yamiche Alcindor, I
like to call her Yamichie,
she probably hates that.
(panel laughing)
(audience laughing)
nine years ago when she 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, I have to say,
she just took a new job with PBS.
She gave up a job at the New York Times
(audience reacts with disbelief)
I know.
(audience laughs)
And she's also a contributor to MSNBC.
(audience applauds)
Whether it's discussing tax reform
or writing about Rob Porter,
you guys know Rob Porter?
(audience laughs)
Bet you didn't know him before
a couple days ago, did you?
Trump's former staff secretary
who resigned this week
amid allegations of spousal abuse, twice.
Darlene Superville is a rockstar
at the Associated Press,
her home for the last three decades.
I know, she was like, did you have to
(audience laughs)
And I was like, "Well,
actually three decades
"sounds better than 30 years."
(audience laughs)
- Neither one.
(audience laughs)
- The NYU graduate has covered
former First Lady Michelle Obama
and she's covered the
White House since 2009.
(audience applauds)
Well, well, well.
(audience laughs)
Whether it's confronting
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
over the President's treason comments
or lashing out at a fellow journalist,
who clearly didn't know
you, for invoking her name
at the end of a White
House press briefing,
- Oh my goodness.
- April Ryan takes,
I saw the video.
(audience laughs)
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 remember that.
But, pretend like you do.
(audience laughs)
Alright, so welcome.
(audience applauds)
So, we want to have a frank discussion.
No, not Sesno.
(audience laughs)
A frank discussion
about what's going on in
the Trump Administration
and what it's like
as a woman of color, a black woman,
an African-American woman to cover it
and April's already giving me looks.
So, first question: journalists,
including the White House
Press Corp are under attack
from the unconventional
administration, this
unconventional administration.
How do you deal with racially
coded policies and statements?
In other words, how do
you keep your balance?
(April scoffs)
April, you first.
- How do you keep your balance?
It's not about me, it's about the story.
And that's what we really aim to do,
it's about the story.
That room has never been a
room that reflects America,
number one and
unfortunately it seems like,
when you look like me, you
stand out like a pink elephant.
I sit smack-dab 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.
But, covering this White House
as an African-American
woman has been tough.
That's a beat that's not kind to anyone.
But when you are not
part of the mainstream,
mainstream press, I'm
not, I'm specialty media.
Specialty media meaning
I have a certain niche.
I talk about or question about,
primarily urban issues, black issues.
But, I also ask everything.
But when you cover this administration
and working on those issues,
particularly when this administration,
I'm not perceived as their base,
it's tough.
It's very tough.
And you know, there have been attacks,
there's been retaliation for questions.
But, it's not about me.
Unfortunately, I have been in the news.
But, it's not about me,
it's about the story.
And when you look at it as
the story and not yourself,
you can move on, you can
keep going back everyday.
I haven't done anything wrong.
I'm asking questions
like anyone else would.
Be it black, white, man, woman,
Jew, gentile, Protestant, or Catholic.
I'm asking questions like all
the rest of these great women
and others who've covered that place.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
the most magnificent place in the world.
- Thank you, April.
I just want to say I'm
delighted to be here with
all these women who I've know,
you I've known for years--
- Not that long, we not that old.
(audience laughs)
- It's exciting to be here.
I will say this, I think
for me, and I don't cover
the White House every day in
the way that these women do.
I'm not in the briefings as they are.
But, I think for me, I
think I see my role as
sort of reflecting how people
feel and are registering
and analyzing this President's words,
particularly in regards to race.
And I go back to interactions
I've had with voters,
as they were assessing this candidate,
some of the things that he would say
and their real reactions, feelings about,
maybe you use words like racially tinged,
racial undertones, some
people use the phrase racist.
But, I think, I mean, if
you look at the way this
President talks about
race and deploys race,
I think it's pretty clear,
and I've written about this,
that he is playing the race card, right?
I mean, he does, you hear
criticisms about the left
playing identity politics
because they talk about
Black Lives Matter or they
talk about the Dreamers.
Well, it's also true that President Trump
plays white identity politics.
I think it's pretty evident
if you look at the data,
if you look at the polling,
in terms of how a lot of
his voters feel about race and
a sense of racial grievance
and racial resentment.
So, I think that's the way I deal with it.
Try to talk about the data.
Try to talk about, how
he talks about race.
If you kind of put together
the ways in which he talks
about African-Americans, for instance,
very easily calling for
the firing of NFL players,
of Jemele Hill, not so
easily calling for the firing
of Rob Porter--
- Taking the knee.
- Yeah, calling Frederica
Wilson an empty barrel,
this was John Kelly,
essentially making up a story
about this black congresswoman.
See, I mean, I think that's
the way I deal with it.
In terms of how I feel
personally about it,
this is our jobs, we
got in this business to
hold people's feet to the fire,
to reflect the voices of the wide range
of folks in this country.
So, I think that's the
way that I deal with it.
- I think for me, I ask
myself pretty often,
why am I still a reporter and
what am I actually here to do?
And the question I always go back to,
is this young boy, Emmitt
Till, who was killed
in Mississippi as a teenager
and that sparked the
Civil Rights Movement,
and I think of myself as a
Civil Rights Journalist, no
matter what beat I'm doing
and I've covered everything from
dead whales washing up
on the beach to crime
to transportation and
now at the White House,
I think that the story of
America is a story of race.
So, when I think of the
questions that I'm asking
or the stories that I'm gonna write,
I'm thinking okay, well
what are we learning
about our country and what are we learning
about how the differences in race continue
to color how people's
lives are in real ways.
I don't believe in false equivalencies.
So I think you can be fair but
you don't always have to be,
there was no false equivalency,
like segregation was just bad.
So I think of, if I was
writing in the 1960s,
I would just say,
Charlottesville wasn't something
that was bad on both sides.
So, I think as a reporter,
and I'm growing into that,
feeling like I can say, no
that was actually not okay.
So, I'm Haitian-American,
when the President was talking
about s-hole countries
and talking about Haitians
and questioning what Haitians
have been doing for America,
I was able to get on TV and
say, "Well, one that's wrong
"for you to say, that
Haitians aren't contributing,
"and two, you should
go to Savannah, Georgia
"because there's a monument
showing that Haitians
"have actually contributed
to the American Revolutionary,
"that free blacks came and
helped America get founded
"and helped you free
you from your own people
"in the former Britain."
So, I think that's what I do
to stay balanced in my mind.
- And I want to come back to your
Haitian response a little later.
Darlene?
- Yeah, how do I keep it balanced?
One thing I would say, is that I exercise.
(audience laughs)
Keep exercising, it
helps relieve the stress,
it's a stressful place.
But, as April said, it's
a hard place to cover
whether you're black or
white, male or female.
It's just hard being a
White House reporter.
I have not experienced any
kind of personal animus
directed toward me,
because I'm a black woman.
And I have a different
audience than April does.
My audience is a lot broader than hers.
But, one thing I do try to keep in mind
is that there is life outside
of the White House after work.
Pursue your interests and
that'll take some of the sting
out of whatever happened to you that day.
- Do you guys, you know race has been,
race is like such an issue
in this administration,
do you remember another administration,
or former administration
where race played such a role?
Even in the Obama administration,
race didn't come up
as frequently as it does now.
- You know, race has
touched every president
in some way, shape, or form.
But in the last 21 years that
I've been at the White House,
we started out, Sonya Ross
is in the audience, from AP,
we were there together,
it was a large contingent
of black reporters at the
time in the Bill Clinton era,
the President Bill Clinton.
And he was dealing with Africa,
putting a focus on Africa.
He was also putting a focus in
on healing the racial divide
and talking about the heart.
Then when you came to George W. Bush,
he intrinsically knew
why his audience was not,
or his base was not black.
He regaled about you know,
"I'm Republican because of my
"father, because I was
the governor of Texas,
"because of the death
penalty issue in Texas"
and he just kept going on and on.
But then when Katrina hit
and one of the issues is,
if he would've put a little
bit more equity into,
or stayed into the black community,
like when he did Africa or
different things with Africa,
he didn't want to tout it,
because they felt that 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 those were
two newsy presidents, we would never have
another newsy president again.
Then you get this guy who
has this bop and these ears
and this name, who really mesmerized
both Democrat and Republican
for one reason or,
Republican audiences, for
one reason or another.
And everything about him, race.
It was just race all over, just
because he was a black man.
And the spotlight was
on the black community
because here you have a
black man rising to the
highest of heights and then there's still
such of a problem, or so many
ills in the black community.
Race touches everything, from
covering this White House
over 21 years, race touches everything.
And it's always on the table.
From what Bill Clinton told me years ago
and subsequently all the other presidents.
And then with this President,
race is definitely a factor.
When you talk about Colin Kaepernick
and change the narrative
of why he's taking a knee,
bringing in the NFL,
causing a rift with players,
not players, but yeah,
causing a rift with players
and the NFL and those who watch.
When you talk about sons of whats, you know?
Then when you go to s-hole comments
and then we heard also,
from Maggie Haberman,
who's a white reporter,
who said that he said something
to the effect of, "If
the Nigerians come here,
"they wouldn't want to
go back to their huts."
And "All Haitians have HIV and AIDS"
Oh yeah, yeah.
That's what Maggie's reporting
and Maggie's a very credible journalist.
And I mean, you know, we
heard from the campaign trail,
Make America Great Again, code words.
So race is played, I mean
in these last 21 years,
I have seen race play out
in some of the best of ways,
and some of the worst of ways.
And the unfortunate thing is,
you can legislate all you want
but it ultimately comes
down to a heart issue.
When the President is the
moral leader, he sets the tone.
- And I'll say this, as
someone who wasn't covering
the White House when Obama was in office
and who really covered more
the campaign of Donald Trump
and the campaign of Bernie Sanders.
So, I was out there on a bus
for like a year and a half.
What I think the narrative
about Obama was that America
had reached this place where we were able to,
that a black man had gotten this big job
so America was getting so much better,
and that there was going to be this great moment
and black people everywhere
were going to somehow improve,
their lives were gonna
improve because of Obama.
I think that what was
lost in that narrative
was how many people were
angry to see a black man
and black family on their TV every day
and how many people were mad
at their own shortcomings
because the economy wasn't
working out for them.
And I don't mean that they're,
so there's two things,
there's the idea like, oh
yeah people are mad at Obama
because of the economy.
But, I mean that if you're
someone who already has
a predisposition not to
like African-Americans
and then you can't get a
job and there is job numbers
coming out every day saying,
oh the economy's getting better
and now you have to watch
two black girls on TV
wearing thousand dollar dresses,
it does something for you.
For me, it doesn't just,
it's not just about prejudice anymore,
it's about your
actual lived experience
looking at what you could do
and America, in a lot of ways,
is told, I would say, straight, white men,
that you have the privilege,
that you are the one who's
going to be able to do everything.
But, that obviously isn't
the case for everybody.
There are obviously straight, white men
who are struggling, who cannot get jobs,
who are living in
basements, who have issues,
and that's just catapulting it.
So I think that that wasn't,
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 the people
that were like starting up
white nationalist groups
or being very angry and
stewing in their living rooms
because they didn't like black people.
- But there were a lot of those stories.
- Yeah and I think it was
sort of the Tea Party, right?
I mean, that wasn't, and part
of you went to some of those
rallies, I mean, often
times they would have signs,
"Send Obama back to
Kenya," there was one sign
about his "ugly daughters."
So, there was this sense
that you could see.
I mean, you cover the Tea Party, some of that language
about taking our country back,
as if it had gone somewhere
(audience laughs)
because of Obama.
- [Cheryl] It went to Kenya.
- It went to Kenya--
(audience laughs)
So, you know, I think,
Yamiche, you're right.
I mean, this idea of politics and race,
it's always gone hand-in-hand
and I think the brilliance
of Obama in running
for the White House was
that he didn't make anyone
feel guilty about race in racism, right?
I mean a vote for Obama was in
some ways, absolution, right?
For this great sin and stain of racism
in this promise of post-race.
And the way he did that,
he had his own sort of
Sister Souljah moment, right?
And of course, this Sister Souljah moment
was when Bill Clinton goes
and criticizes Sister Souljah,
who is this black rapper
and he does that in a crowd
at a Jesse Jackson conference, and
so there's this moment
and for Obama, he does that
by going to black crowds
and essentially saying,
"You've got to do better.
"You've got to pull up your pants."
I mean, this whole idea of
black respectability politics,
so he does that and he signals to voters,
particularly white voters,
that he's not gonna coddle
African-Americans and he's
not gonna be the president
of black America and put
a basketball hoop up--
- But that was first-term Obama.
- Yeah, that was first-term
Obama, you're exactly right.
- Second term, he was totally different.
- He talked about race much more.
He actually said the n-word, I think,
in a podcast at some point.
- [April] In The Garage, yeah.
- Yeah, In The Garage.
He said, I think maybe, the
phrase Black Lives Matter
at some point but he was very careful
in running in 2008 and in 2012
and I think one of Hillary Clinton's
great weaknesses as a
candidate was I think,
she made people feel bad about race.
I mean, she did embrace the
Black Lives Matter movement,
she talked about racism and
I think people didn't like that.
- Well, how has the Trump presidency
affected the conversation on race?
(April scoffs)
Darlene?
(audience laughs)
While, April is thinking about it,
you want to respond?
- I would say that under
the Trump presidency,
the conversation about race
is just more out there,
it's more prominent again.
We talked about him with
the football players
and kneeling during the National Anthem.
That's generated a lot of discussion
and in some cases, protest.
The issue of the comments
that he made about Haiti,
African countries and let's also remember
that one of the biggest
proponents of the birtherism issue
against Obama, was President Donald Trump,
was Donald Trump before he was president
and he helped drive that idea that Obama
was not born in America
for many, many years.
He didn't give it up until recently.
- Do you think it's more
difficult to cover race
with more context because of it?
- You know what?
You have to,
when we're covering,
everyone on this stage does a great job
in digging and resources and talking.
But, we have found, I believe,
and they can say yay or nay to this,
but I believe, we've 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
(audience laughs)
no, I mean, don't laugh, it's true.
A lot of things.
And then he sets the tone for
other people to pontificate
on CNN or any other network--
- It's a great network.
(audience laughs)
- To say what they feel.
And I'm going to give you an example, okay?
I'm going to give you a big example.
Let's go back, we haven't even
talked about Charlottesville.
Charlottesville really exposed a lot.
When the President had those
teleprompters in his face,
we were like (sighs) we can breathe.
But when he talked off
the top of his head,
the world shook.
It was ugly.
You know, you had David Duke,
former grand dragon of the KKK saying,
"look now" on Twitter.
David Duke even chimed in again during
the State of the Union,
when the President said,
"Americans are Dreamers too."
David Duke said the same thing.
A former grand dragon of the KKK.
And yet, going back to
Charlottesville, he, Darlene,
it was like six or seven times, correct?
Because I know I was with him when he went
to the military base at Fort
McNair and was talking to
the military, the President.
Because he was trying to get it right.
He kept doing, he kept doing,
it was almost like an apology tour,
an explanation tour, trying
to explain what he was saying.
Because, you know, both
sides are good people?
- A girl died.
- A woman died.
A white woman died.
So, race is exposed in its barest sense.
This is not Archie Bunker.
This is the President
of the United States.
And then when you have people going on,
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 native of this land.
Native-Americans are
and we're telling people
who can come and who can go.
And this is about, this
immigration issue is about the
browning of this nation.
It's about the browning of this nation.
We are a nation that is
now seeing the numbers
of babies born who are majority, minority.
So, this is about the
browning of the nation.
Then when you have something like that,
people are saying crazy
things out of their mouths,
"Oh well we want people who
bring something to the table."
I'm like, wait a minute,
talking about brown and black immigrants.
So, I remembered something
from 2012 when they had
this immigration discussion
during the Obama years.
This has been going on for a long time.
I said, "Wait a minute,
I read something from the
"Center from American Progress that said,
"black immigrants are the
most educated immigrants."
Found it, went on TV, now
everybody's quoting it.
We have to really go by
fact now, as journalists
and pull up those stats.
Because people think you're
race-baiting, you're lying.
Because this President is
so quick to tweet something,
say something in the crowd,
and then celebrate the black
unemployment rate when it
just happened along the way.
Seriously, they're not targeting.
So we have to really now be the
reporters that we really are
by digging and giving stats.
Because you can say what you
want but stats and figures
from credible organizations
really back it up
and show the truth.
- I think that the other
thing is, as a reporter,
I don't know if we would be
having these conversations
if Hillary Clinton had been elected
and I don't know if that means
that we would've just been
like, okay well that was a crazy election
and people said some crazy things.
But, you know, most people
don't really think that way.
And it's like, well
there's at least 33 million
or something that think that way,
so what does that say about our country?
I've talked to a lot of
people whose personal lives
are going to be harder because
of some of the policies
that Donald Trump is talking about.
I'm talking about people who might lose
their health insurance or Medicaid.
I'm talking about a couple
who might lose money
that would've repaired their roof,
who said, you know what,
I'd rather have Mexicans
stopped at the border
than my own roof fixed.
I've talked to people who are
going to lose their medical care.
A woman who was in Ohio, who said,
"I just don't like that
all the taxi drivers
"are black now" in Columbus, Ohio.
So, there's a real thing
that people are seeing,
American brown and are
realizing that even if their
own personal safety or
own personal well-being,
they choose race over that.
And I think it's a good
conversation to be having.
And I think, as a reporter,
I'm happy to see people
having to write stories,
that don't just look like me.
Because having to write
stories about race,
as part of the White House beat.
Not just saying, okay well
we have a race reporter,
and we have an urban affairs reporter,
so those people can handle those issues
and the rest of the
newsroom can just go about
like this isn't happening.
I think that newsrooms
now have to cover race
in almost every single beat.
And I think it's made
the profession better.
- Well, race has become such an issue,
and I'll just ask straight
out because I'm a journalist.
Is the President a racist?
- Oh Lord.
(audience laughs)
- You know, I'm not in
a position to say that.
- I wasn't going to call you.
- Nia's our spokesperson,
just so you know.
(audience laughs)
- I wasn't going to call on you first.
You've got your PR person here with you.
- I usually have my PR person here.
- I was gonna go to April.
- Yeah, go to April.
(audience laughs)
- Darlene?
(audience laughs)
- Alright, so.
Okay, so.
So, going back to the immigration thing
around Martin Luther King
and let me stop for a minute.
It is a sad day when any reporter,
black, white, whatever,
has to ask a sitting
US President, is he a racist.
It's sad day, let's start there.
- [Nia] And you did it on
Martin Luther King Day, right?
- I did, I did.
(audience laughs)
But it was a sad day.
I did, you know, look, at
the base I am a black woman
and I know what Dr. King did for me.
I was torn that day.
I had to ask him.
He was right there.
When you hear credible
people from the Hill,
Hill lawmakers, federal law makers saying,
he said this in this room.
And the whole immigration
debate kind of shifted
because you don't know if you can work
under good conscious that this is really,
it's going to work out this way.
So I said, okay, I did it, I asked.
Because the day before I had
queried a couple of sources
and I asked the NAACP, the
nation's oldest civil rights
organization, what is the
definition of a racist?
And their definition was,
the intersection of racial
prejudice and power.
(audience groans)
You said it, I didn't.
(audience laughs)
No, but I'm serious.
Now they're calling,
the nation's oldest civil rights organization,
is now calling the President
of the United States a racist.
You've had Congressman John Lewis,
you've got lot of people--
- Maxine Waters, yep.
- Yeah, a lot of white people
are also calling him that too.
I'm not calling, but
when you have a pattern
that continues and then questions about
issues of the Confederacy--
- Yeah, I mean and if you
look at the data on this
and you look at polling,
There was a Quinnipiac poll a couple of weeks ago,
this was shortly after the s-hole comment,
and it showed something
like over 60% of the people
who responded to this question which was,
do you think the President
respects black people
as much as he respects white people?
60% of the people said
no, he doesn't respect
black people as much as
he respects white people
and it was something
like 17% of Republicans,
I mean it's almost one in five
and that was a data point
that was interesting,
that Republicans also, the question is,
do people think that's a problem, right?
Maybe they think it's fine that he doesn't
respect black people as much
as he respects white people.
But that's what the data showed.
And I think, just in terms of the country,
like what does it mean for the country,
for citizens to think that a
sitting US President is racist?
You talk to Republicans and they all say,
oh well Democrats always
think that Republicans--
- But, this is different.
- play fast and loose in the race card
and that Republicans have racial animus.
But this is at a different level, I think.
- This is a different level.
- Well nobody suggested
George Bush, George W. Bush
was racist.
- Right, I think that's right.
- Other than Kanye West.
- No, Kanye West.
(audience laughs)
- And all the people in New Orleans.
I want to say this, I
interviewed Donald Trump's
ex-girlfriend who is half black.
- Really?
- Wait a minute, who?
(audience laughs)
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I'm sorry, I missed that.
Can you go back?
- I interviewed Donald
Trump's ex-girlfriend.
- [Cheryl] Wait a minute, Donald
Trump Jr. or Donald Trump?
- Donald Trump, the President.
- [Cheryl] Oo, wait a minute, shut up.
- Who dated a girl who was half black--
- And is friends with
rappers, Al Sharpton.
- Right, so I asked her,
do you think he's racist?
And she said I don't know
because he obviously dated me,
I identify as a black woman.
I am someone who, there was
no question that he knew that,
her mother, I want to say, is black.
So, there's no question
that I am half black--
- How long ago was this
and long did it last?
(audience laughs)
- This was right before Melania.
- That's good that it was before Melania.
- Yeah it was in between--
- He was still married to Marla Maples.
- Yeah, or maybe in
between Marla and Melania.
- How long did it last?
- Okay, this is turning into
the Jerry Springer show.
(audience laughs)
- I did not know about this.
- I have a point to make
after I give you the--
(audience laughs)
- But it's part of the discussion.
- So, I asked her, I said,
so why do you think he acts like this?
And she said, well he likes to hang around
black people who are famous.
He loved Russel Simmons,
he loved Jesse Jackson.
He was very surprised that
black people liked tennis
because they would go to the US Open
and he would just be like
why are all these people here
and they're like oh I
guess Serena's playing,
that's why all these people showed up.
So, there's this idea that,
and I also asked Jesse
Jackson, what's the deal?
Because he gave Jesse
Jackson free office space
in one of his towers and
he would go to these meetings
where people were trying to
make Wall Street more black
and that was something that
he did without cameras.
Jesse Jackson said, look he
wasn't trying to prove a point,
there wasn't some reality TV show,
he actually got there and
said how can I help you guys,
and then he actually helped
and put money behind it.
So, there's this idea
that he's accomplished--
- Central Park Five.
- That's what I'm saying,
it's a very complex thing.
- His Trump organization
put C on the applications.
- Yeah, so that's the thing.
You have someone who's being
sued by the federal government
for writing color on applications,
who's calling for the death penalty
for innocent black men, who has yet to,
from my understanding,
apologize for that as of today.
But then you also have
someone who's spending money
trying to get people,
more black people to work
on Wall Street for no apparent reason,
and who is dating a half-black woman.
- So, basically, he's a complex figure,
- Yeah.
- Is what you're saying.
- And I think he probably
has ideas about class, right?
I mean, he's one of the
first presidents we've had
that doesn't talk much about
upward mobility, right?
I mean, he talks about coal miners
and giving jobs back to coal miners.
He never necessarily
says that a coal miner
could become, could own
the coal mining company.
So, I think that's one of
the most interesting things
about him, as well.
He doesn't mind hanging
out with African-Americans
who are wealthy, I think in some ways
he 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.
I mean, 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.
So, I think there's some ideas
he has about class as well,
that aren't always brought to bear,
in terms of the way you talk about him.
- And of course, if you
ask black Republicans,
they're some, of course,
that have fled to the hills.
But there are some who really will say,
"No, he really does think about race.
"He's better to
African-Americans than Obama."
I've heard them say that.
- So, wait a minute, okay.
(audience laughs)
- I've literally heard people say that.
Without facts, just saying.
- See, this is part of our
conversations and actually our beat.
Because when you look at
the black Republicans,
they're two sets of black Republicans now.
You have the Vanguard.
Now, the Vanguard is
not talking like that.
The new black Republican,
who's David Clark,
what are their names?
- Paris.
- Paris Dennard, Omarosa, and
what's the name (snapping)
the girls, the sisters?
You know who I'm talking about.
- [Yamiche] No.
- Yes, Diamond and Silk.
(audience chuckles)
That's now that new crop
and then the Darrell Scott's.
That's that new crop of Republican,
who is not entrenched in politics,
who thinks they're--
- And probably voted for Obama, right?
I think they're new Republicans.
- I don't know what they did.
But, I know what they're doing now.
- I also interviewed the
guy who he pointed to
and called my African-American.
(audience laughs)
That's what I like to do,
I like to find characters.
And he also was someone who said,
I'm disappointed in the way
that he's talked about Charlottesville.
I'm disappointed in the way that he's
dealt with the Justice Department.
But, I still support him.
So, you have these black Republicans,
these new age black Republicans
who actually go hand-in-hand with these
new age white Republicans.
Because there's a whole crop of new age,
of course there are some
people that are holdovers from
other White House's and you
guys know that better than me.
But, there's also a lot
of Republicans that are
working the White House like Hope Hicks
and other people who would
never have been able to get
a job in the White House, but because now,
because there was a
faction of Republicans
who absolutely pushed Trump aside,
they can't get jobs or were blacklisted
and you have these other
people who are from New York
that the President feels comfortable with.
- But there's a situation right now,
the President said, that
this White House was,
during the first press conference,
it was like a fine tuned machine, no.
The cogs and wheels are
falling out of the machine,
flying out of the machine.
But, seriously, this is where,
and it's sad because
this new crop of people
who are coming, and a lot of them are not,
have no grasp of governance
still, a year in,
and the ones who really
do, who want to help,
are pushed out and it
goes to what Yamiche said.
There is a Vanguard, be it
black or white, or any race,
that wants to help and
then some that say no,
because this is not the best
thing, because just how.
People are scared to
deal with this President.
Because he will Tweet them,
he will be nasty to them,
and he's a different breed.
But the breed that's coming
in understands this breed.
It's a different political game now.
It's a different White House.
It's a different way you handle things.
Even Paul Ryan had to
acknowledge that the President's
language, okay guys, the
President's language is different
and how he approaches things.
There is a different day in Washington
and covering this White House,
I really believe that the
goal post has been moved
and I don't know if it
will ever come back.
Because there's a change,
this has been a shift.
- I mean, can you imagine a
president who doesn't tweet?
Now, before remember we had the--
- People don't want him to Tweet.
- Yeah, the tweets "- B.O."
if he really wrote it.
The one time you saw him at
the computer typing a tweet,
you were like "Oh, Obama's
social media and doing it."
(audience laughs)
Now it's like--
- But, Obama's tweeting
was different than this.
- That's the point.
- That's the point.
- What I'm saying is, could we go back
to an Obama-style president?
- But he's not Obama.
- No what I'm saying--
- You mean after Trump.
- Like if the next president says,
sorry my team is handling Twitter.
You'll see me but with my initials.
- I think there could be Twitter fatigue.
By after this President.
And whoever the president is,
is gonna shape the presidency, right?
In the way that Obama did.
Obama didn't set the
tone for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump set the
tone for Donald Trump.
So, also this idea that
Donald Trump is forever
changed the presidency
and we'll never go back.
I think in some ways it
gives him too much power.
I mean, I think whoever is,
and I think, often times
in politics, that the
person who comes after
is a response and a
reaction against a rejection
of that other president.
- Let me explain why I say that.
It's because, after
Obama people were looking
for this superstar, they were
looking for another rock star.
It was either Hillary
Clinton or Donald Trump.
- Didn't they get one?
- Excuse me?
- Didn't they get one?
- Yes.
But they also, the key word was change.
Obama and Donald Trump were change.
But, you didn't know what
you wanted in the change.
It's here and the problem
is you have a president
who is now scaring
Republicans in his own party
who don't want to run for re-election.
You've got people dealing in a
different way than they have before.
You've got issues on the
books that are just kind of--
- But in some ways he's
incredible successful, right?
- Is he really successful
or people are just
dealing with it for right now?
- Incredibly successful,
his poll numbers are high
among Republicans
- I see what you're saying.
- The ones who would decide in a primary.
I don't know that there are
going to be primary challenges
as much as we focus on Jeff Flake
and his criticism of this President.
- 2018, I'm gonna see
what happens with 2018.
- We'll see, I mean, we'll see.
But, I think in some ways he's also
just a garden variety Republican.
I mean, if you look at his policies.
Rolling back regulations, lowering taxes--
- Anti-abortion, guns, they love that
and all the other stuff
it's like okay whatever,
we'll deal with that.
Evangelicals love this.
And that's the crazy thing.
I used to think--
- White evangelicals though.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I mean, you can
punctuate that with almost,
they're like why do women vote for Trump?
Why did white women vote for Trump?
- White married women.
(audience applauds)
- You watch these stories
and you have to punctuate
it with race or you're wrong.
- White married women voted for him, 51%.
And then now with this stuff,
and just piggybacking off
of what's happening today
with Rob Porter, it was given to me
and I found out it was
true and they answered it.
The White House, the first
day, or the first week
or something, they defunded or eliminated
the Women in Violence Office,
the violence against women office.
And look at what's happening now.
And women came out strongly for him.
White women came out strongly for him.
- [Nia] And still support him, no?
- Well, I don't know,
let's take a poll now.
- For me, I feel really
happy that I was on the
campaign trail for so long
because it gives me a window
into people's minds and
this voter said this thing
to me that I think explained for me why
Donald Trump is where he is right now.
This voter said that he
voted for Obama in 2008
because he was the flashy
new guy, it was amazing
and then when 2016 came
around he said the hot hand
was in Trump, Hillary was kind of boring.
You knew what you were
going to get with Hillary.
With him he just seemed like a rock star.
He was talking, he was just a person
who was entertaining to watch.
And I thought to myself, if
that's where we've gotten to
and if we're an Apprentice
and reality TV show society,
which I think largely we
are, if that's the case,
you're going to have to be popular,
it's not just gonna be policies anymore.
- And you have to understand TV.
I mean, Donald Trump understood TV.
I mean, you think about the
first television president, JFK,
probably and understood that as a medium.
It is a new medium then
and I think Donald Trump
understands TV and comes
through the screen in a way
that Hillary Clinton
didn't, in a way that Obama,
obviously understood the power of TV
and the power of pop culture, as well,
in a way that we hadn't seen before.
- Not only TV, but he
understands the media in general.
I mean, he reads the
New York Times everyday,
even though he constantly calls them
the Failing New York Times, right?
But that's one of his
primary sources of news--
- And of course, the Washington Post.
- And the Washington Post.
And it's the paper that 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.
So, he knows what he's doing.
- For you guys, though,
covering the White House,
do you feel isolated in this or supported
as a woman of color in this
White House Press Corp?
- Well, we have each other.
(audience laughs)
- Yeah, we do.
- All four of you.
- Now let me say this, let me say this.
I consider each one of these
ladies on the stage friends
and let me tell you, Darlene
is, and Sonya used to be there,
we had the sister girl moments.
You know, if ever something's
going on, we'll text message.
She'll say are you here?
I'm like yeah I'm here, I
didn't know you were there.
We look out for each other.
You know and that's a good thing.
And Yamiche, I'm so glad
she's at the White House now.
We need more of a diverse group
of reporters at the White House.
Yamiche, we've talked on
occasion about different things
and we've been there for each other.
Yamiche, during the CBC,
we have crazy experiences,
all of us together in
different things and you know.
But, it's a friendship.
And then Nia, I'm going to
say something about Nia.
Nia used to work at the White House
and then she didn't and she moved on,
no, no, no, she didn't,
she's been climbing higher
and higher and higher and Nia,
at one of the worst points of my life,
stop shaking your head,
she said, "Girl, what are you doing?"
I said, "I'm alright."
And we had a conversation
and if it weren't for Nia,
well I was influx at that time
and I didn't know what I wanted to do
and my agent and I were
talking about things.
But, Nia made me see clearly.
And that clarity landed me at CNN.
So that call from Nia,
"I said okay, it's time."
Because I was influx.
And I hate this thing, I'm from Baltimore
and we talk about crabs in the barrel.
If you don't know what that
means look it up, Google it.
But, I don't like that
mentality of we can't.
We all try to help each
other in some kind of way.
Because it's so few of us.
And I don't like that
going after one another.
And there are some people out there
that are not in the understanding.
But it's about helping one another
and if we can, we can.
And we help all people.
But we know it's a unique situation
to be in that White House.
It's a unique situation
for African-Americans
to be in that White
House and then for women,
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.
And it means something when
you have that sisterhood
or that brotherhood or
that coming together
to be able to lift one another up.
How you doin?
Like, it could be something bad,
they might snipe at you from the podium
or are you going to lunch?
It's something about that camaraderie.
- And I mean, if you
think about the numbers.
I sometimes get to counting, maybe ten,
maybe 20 of us all together.
I mean you look at people covering,
black people covering national politics-
- In Washington.
- Yeah.
- You can broaden it to national politics.
- Yeah, I mean maybe 20.
I mean, it's a very small group.
- And the irony is, it's more
covering this administration,
maybe than others?
- No.
- No?
- During the Clinton, Sonya, how many?
It was like 12,
it was Bill Douglas, you, me--
- You mean in the White House?
- Yeah in the White, Ann Scales,
Ken Strickland...
- It was 11?
- It was a lot of us.
Oh, Windell Goler, Jeff Ballou.
During the Clinton years,
he was known as the first black president.
So, I think all the newspapers wanted
to send black folks down there.
- But still, I mean 11?
- Yeah and now it's like--
- That's the record.
- You have to, it's this
one, how many, okay.
Because some people say
it's only three of us.
I'm like it's a little
bit more but you have to--
- Well but on any given day when you watch
the press briefing if
the news organizations
are doing it right, the front row could be
entirely African-American.
- Could be.
- And if I go down the row
there's Kristen Welker from NBC,
there is--
- Kevin.
- Kevin Corke from FOX News,
- You.
- CBS doesn't really have anyone.
- [April] No, then you're the next one.
- Then there's me.
- [April] Then was it Ayesha?
I mean, Ashley.
- [Nia] Oh, Ayesha Rascoe.
- Ayesha Rascoe from Reuters.
- Is somebody keeping count?
- Abby, Abby from CNN.
- Abby from CNN.
There used to be Joe Johnson.
- Joe Johnson, but it's now Abby
- Toluse at Bloomberg.
- Toluse, he's on the second row.
- Oh okay, sorry.
(audience laughs)
- And I'm on the third.
(audience laughs)
Smack dab in the middle.
- When you gonna move up to the first row?
How many times do you have to--
- They are never moving
her to the first row.
(audience laughs)
- No, they're not.
They are definitely not
moving her to the first row.
- Not in this administration, maybe.
But, you know, who knows?
- Actually we'll see her outside
on the White House grounds.
- What, excuse me?
(audience laughs)
Outside the gate, "Let me in!"
- I do have to add, this is a
good segue into this, April.
This question is specifically for you.
- Specifically
- We're taught as
journalists that we never,
I teach my students, we never
become part of the story.
Girl!
(audience laughs)
Where shall I start?
You brought up Omarosa, I did not.
- I didn't bring her up.
I didn't bring her--
- You mentioned her name.
- When did I bring--
- You mentioned her, yeah.
- Okay, whatever.
(audience laughs)
- And the AP is always
right, just so you know.
(audience laughs)
- Darlene says it and
I'm like, "Okay, I did."
- But in some ways, it
has worked in your favor.
- Has it?
- Uh, yeah!
You don't think?
- Let me say,
- You don't think you tell me
- Working in my favor
and see this is kind of
the warped mentality to me
and I'm not saying you're warped.
- No, because I can cut off your mic.
(audience laughs)
- That's a good one.
This is where I have a problem with it.
People think, they see you
sitting at the desk at CNN
and talking, or here,
or having a fellowship
here at this wonderful institution, GW.
Or writing books and
things to that nature,
"Oh, she's arrived."
But, guess what behind that?
I've got death threats
and I'm a divorced mother of two kids.
There's a reality for me.
And then when your children's school,
your kids are in school and
something happens in the
briefing room and it goes viral, you know?
And my 15-year-old is
in Current Events Class
and she has to text me,
"Mommy are you okay?"
I said, "I'm great."
Because she saw, "Are you going to get
"the Congressional Black Caucus
to have a meeting with me?"
or whatever he said and
then the shaking your head.
The school reached out
to both of my daughters
to make sure they were
okay and watched them.
There is collateral damage behind this.
So I take it for what
it is, it's a season.
But you know,
I don't want to become the story.
I haven't done anything wrong.
I have asked questions
that anyone else will ask.
But because I asked about Russia
and then I got Russian salad dressing
and I won't eat Russian
salad dressing anymore
because of that comment.
I'm serious.
- Did you like it before?
(audience laughs)
- Not really.
But I definitely won't eat it now.
But, no, after that, and then
the shaking your head thing.
- [Nia] Oh God, April.
(audience laughs)
(April laughs)
- Well, Nia, it's the truth.
So anyway, and then I'm like okay
and then the thing with,
but 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 it carried over into the White House
and I'm writing about it and I
really don't want to get into
it too much because
it's hard to talk about.
But, yeah, you know,
I was prepared for the time, I guess.
But, you're not going to knock me down.
And I'm going to share this with you
and I did tell Hillary Clinton this.
I said, "You taught me a lesson."
And she said, "What?"
I said, "When people called you a name,
"you didn't say anything" and it stuck.
You're not gonna lie on me.
Because I grew up, and
my aunt used to tell me,
sometimes, Mrs. Obama was right,
when they go low, you go high.
But sometimes--
(audience laughs)
- [Nia] You got to go low.
- When a bully comes at you,
you got to hit them one
good time to let them know,
I'm not the one and I had to do that.
No, I'm serious.
(audience applauds)
Going back to what I said,
for 21 years I've been doing this,
I stand on too many shoulders.
I've been doing this for 21 years
and for somebody to tell a lie on me
that I could sue for, or
continue to lie on me,
I could sue for, I'm 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 worrying about all that.
I'm not into all that.
But, I'm now the target?
I'm not the one, not today.
(audience applauds)
- So you mentioned Russia.
You know I'm always looking for a segue.
- I see. (laughing)
- That was very clever.
- Former president George
W. Bush said today,
he was at a summit in Abu
Dhabi, and he said today
that this is a quote,
"Pretty clear evidence"
that Russia meddled in
the presidential election.
At the end of the day when Robert Mueller
is done with his investigation,
do you think, Darlene,
that Trump will be charged with a crime?
- I can't answer that question.
- Yeah you can.
(April laughing)
(audience laughs)
- Then I won't.
We don't know.
We don't know.
- What's your best guess?
(audience chuckles)
- 50/50.
(audience laughs)
- Could you be a little more vague?
- He doesn't act like
a man that's innocent.
- Really?
- He doesn't.
I mean, why are you going to continue to try
to cut off, fire people
who are investigating?
If you have nothing to
hide, it should be okay.
He does not act like
a man that's innocent.
Or, this administration doesn't.
Take your pick.
- Yamiche?
- I'm with Darlene, I have no idea.
But no, no one in Washington knows.
Robert Mueller, there have
been a little bit of leaks,
but for the most part, they're
running a very tight ship.
So there's not been one
story that I've read
that said Robert
Mueller's leaning this way
or leaning that way, or
he's gonna indict someone
with the last name Trump,
forget the President,
any of the kids, Kushner.
There hasn't been one story that's like,
it's about to happen right now
and until it actually
happens, it's anyone's guess.
- Yeah, I think that's right.
I mean, I think we do know what
the Republican reaction will be.
You know, there was
all this talk early on,
will he get impeached and all that.
I think, House Republicans particularly,
and that's where impeachment charges
would have to originate.
I think we pretty much
know that they're going
to be in this President's corner.
Because his success is their success.
So, I think that's one of the things
I think that's been the lessons
and what they've
demonstrated pretty clearly.
This Nunes Memo, for instance.
They are going to find a way
to protect this President
and impeaching a president
is incredibly hard
and it should be hard.
So I think that's one of
the things we learned.
But, I agree about the Mueller thing,
we have no idea.
- But some of the Republicans, you know,
they've shifted, they've gone away.
- But very few, right?
- [Yamiche] They're also
not running for re-election.
- They're not running for re-election.
I mean, it's McCain, it's
Flake, it's very few.
- Gowdy.
- Corker.
Yeah, Gowdy, Corker.
- [April] And the list will probably grow.
- That's what I was going to say,
do you think that list will grow?
You say they'll stick with him,
but for how long?
I mean, if their political
lives are at stake?
- I think they will stick with him
because I think Republican voters
will largely stick with him.
I think we're in an era of tribalism.
In some ways, Donald Trump was right
when he said he could shoot
somebody on 5th Avenue
and he wouldn't lose any followers.
I mean, I think they're very loyal to him,
they largely like what he's
doing, certainly policy-wise,
the economy's doing well.
The stock market had a terrible day today
and a terrible, terrible week.
But, by and large, I think
if you look at polls,
Republicans are with this President.
- I also think that, we know
what Republicans might do
because, Robert Mueller,
even though he's Republican,
has some how become almost an
enemy if you watch FOX News
and you talk to some
Republicans on the Hill,
they're starting this smear campaign
to say that he's going to be
leaning this way or that way
because of his political beliefs.
So, even when we go back
to that Vanguard versus
new Republican, they're
almost painting him as,
he's a Republican but it's
an old-school Republican
who doesn't want to see
Trump be successful.
- What do you guys, as
African-American female journalists,
what do you think is,
what is the toughest part
of covering this White House?
- Being a target.
- Why do you think you're a target?
- I'm not the base.
I mean, the Twitterverse
that supports them just,
"Why is she in there?"
"Take her credentials."
You know, I mean, they don't
understand that there has been,
and going back to what Nia
said, there's tribalism,
or Yamiche, whoever said it.
There's tribalism and I
think if you look at stories,
people see it different ways.
People are looking at
it in a different way
than I may be seeing it
and I think people are not
able to see it, too, because
of partisan politics.
I mean, I was chastised
for asking the question
about, "Did you support
slavery" or something,
because of what General Kelly
said about the compromise
about the Confederacy and the Civil War.
And if the compromised happened,
we wouldn't be on this
stage, we'd be slaves.
Then they were called
Robert E. Lee, honorable.
Again, that's not long
after Charlottesville,
not long after trying to
mess with Frederica Wilson,
or attacking Frederica Wilson.
This one thing they do
well, is targeting people.
They do it very well.
And I'm waiting to see,
going back to Omarosa,
I'm waiting to see how
they're going to target her now
since they came out at
the podium talking about,
"She was fired three
times on The Apprentice,
"and then we fired her", you know?
They are very good at targeting people.
And it's hard sometimes to do your job.
But 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 get up and come back and
do it again the next day.
The targeting is hard.
- One of the hardest things,
and this is not specifically
to being a black woman,
I think we all have experienced this one.
But it's just sometimes trying
to get answers to questions
and sometimes it's very basic questions.
"Is the President going somewhere?"
I'm trying to think of a recent example.
It's not anything that you're asking
that is super duper complicated or--
- When's Rob Porter leaving?
- Top secret.
Right, when is Rob Porter leaving?
For example, today, we came
in and there had been some
reports on TV that,
well yesterday they said
he submitted his resignation,
they accepted it,
and he was going to stay on
through a transition period.
Then we came in this morning
and there were a lot of reports
on television that said
he was out immediately.
And 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 pm, then it
got pushed to 2:30 pm.
- Then 3:15.
- We were all sitting
out there waiting then,
- 3:15.
- I think it was a little bit after 2:30
and then they announced
on the overhead speaker
that briefing is now pushed until 3:15.
- [April] Yeah.
- And it didn't start until almost 4:00.
- [April] But I have a question--
- [Yamiche] By that time
he was like, on a train.
- Remember the video everyone
was showing yesterday
and he walking with the two people?
Whenever someone resigns or is terminated
they're escorted out.
I'm wondering if that was the escort out.
Do you remember the video?
- I think that was just footage--
- Okay.
- Yeah, because he said that.
He said that he came into work today
and then basically packed
his stuff up and left.
- I heard him.
I heard what they said.
But, I saw a picture too.
A video, I don't know.
- I don't think there was
any video of him today.
- No, not that I know about.
But, no this was from yesterday.
I was wondering if--
- That's what I'm saying.
There's no video of him today
so it wouldn't be out of
the realm of possibilities
that he was gone since last night.
- So, and I know about spin, right?
But, on the basic questions
like when Rob Porter--
- Alternative facts?
(audience chuckles)
- When's he leaving.
Do you guys get stories
that your white counterparts
wouldn't because you're women of color?
Or is it the opposite?
- They don't give me stories.
- They give you grief.
- Yeah.
But, I find out from the outside
and I push it on the inside.
I get my stuff from the outside
and just ask them on the inside.
And they're like, "How did
she find out about that?"
(audience laughs)
I've got sources. (laughing)
Good sources, too.
- I think after, I covered Ferguson
and there were people who let
me in their homes in Missouri,
I think mainly because I was
a black woman asking questions
and I could tell them my
brother is someone who's
an African-American man, who's
had issues with the police.
I can tell them I've 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 things
for different reasons,
but I also think that
as reporters, for the most part,
you try to endear yourself
to people for any reason.
I've been in the homes of white people
who told me point blank,
"Oh, I don't think black
people like to work."
They still gave me my iced
tea, I still didn't drink it.
(audience laughs)
But I sat on the couch.
But the thing is, if
you are a human being,
I've found that if you're
a human being to somebody
then they'll give it to you.
But, having covered politics
now for only like two years,
I think people don't give
you things for reasons too.
So, if I'm covering the Hill,
if I'm a young white guy,
is the Senator's office
more likely to give me
information because I'm
going to be sitting at the bar,
I'm frequenting the same bars as them,
or I went to the same school,
or I'm in the same sorority,
I'm a AKA too.
So, I'm not gonna have
a sorority connection
to any white women, unless
you pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha.
- [Cheryl] Oh, that's a
dirty word on this campus.
Alpha anything right about now.
(audience laughs)
- Whatever.
So, to me,
- I'll explain later.
- So there's this human connection
that you make with people
so I think if you're a
white woman walking around
and you're from the same
sorority as someone,
like maybe Hope Hicks or whatever,
I don't know if she's in a sorority.
But the idea is that the
connections that you make
is why you get different stories.
And I don't know the
stories that I'm not getting
but the Hill or the White
House is majority white.
So I don't know if they
look at me and they're like,
"We're not going to tell her
what our plans are for Haiti
"because she's Haitian."
They might look at someone else and say,
"Well we think that this person's
"going to spin it because of this."
Or they might think the opposite.
They might want to leak something to April
because they're like,
"Well if we give it to the
"black reporter, the
unemployment number story to her,
"maybe it'll make it look like
"we're extra concerned about it."
- But, is that racist?
Is that racist?
- Oh God.
- I don't know.
- It's not racist.
It's about what they want to do
and who they want to
attract for that moment.
It's 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--
- I had a lot of interviews with Obama.
- I think a lot of times
it is about outlets, right?
- The reach and also their base.
- Obama would go on black radio a lot
when he was trying to
get people to sign up.
- Wait a minute, I want an
interview with this President.
I have been actively,
I've asked on Twitter,
I've asked Sarah Huckabee,
I've asked everywhere.
I want an interview with this President.
I definitely do.
I want to talk about
all the issues and race
because I want to hear
it and see it from him.
- Did you tweet him directly?
- Yes I did!
- Okay.
Did he respond?
- I did it when he was campaigning,
No, he never responded.
I did it on the campaign trail,
I did it while he's president.
I want an interview with him.
And this is not about race,
this is about the President of
the United States of America.
- And I want to be there when you get that
interview with him, too.
(audience laughs)
- I don't know it might be too many of us
in the room at the time.
(audience laughs)
- So Yamiche, as everybody now knows,
your parents are Haitian.
- Haitian.
- Your Haitian and your parents,
I hope you don't strangle
me for saying this,
are physicians?
- No, they're doctors.
- Oh, that's different?
- Doctorates.
- Yeah they're Ph.D.'s.
- Yeah, Ph.D.'s
- They're educated.
- My mom has two.
- They're educated.
So, how did you not let
Trump's derogatory comment
about your country affect
how you covered the issue?
- It's kind of an anecdote.
I was switching jobs, I was
leaving the New York Times,
I was going to start at PBS.
So I had a week off.
I have two jobs because
immigrants work hard.
(audience laughs)
(audience applauds)
So, I also work for MSNBC and NBC News.
So, I'm taking the week off.
I'm like, "I'm not going to do any hits."
I'm in Ohio visiting my fiancee
and he says these comments.
I get a call from my aunt, who's crying.
She's like, "I can't believe
he would say this about me,
"Say this about us after he
said what he said about AIDS."
Because Haitians have gone
through a lot in this country.
The AIDS rumor, because a
lot of people were like,
"Why does he say Haitians have AIDS?"
There was a time when people
wouldn't even let Haitians give blood.
Your kids were getting bullied in school.
Those are my cousins,
my mom was being told,
"I don't want to share
the lunch room with you
"because I think you have AIDS."
That happened to people
that are related to me.
So there's a real deep history.
So you don't just say, "Oh they have AIDS"
and it's like a thing.
It's like people's lived experiences are
that they had to protest in the street
because the United States was saying that
Haitians were the reason why AIDS existed
in the United States.
So, all that was happening.
And I was like, "I'm off of work."
Okay, like I'm not trying to do this.
My mother calls me and said,
"So you're reporting right?"
Like, "What are you doing" and I'm like,
"Well, I'm off this week"
and she's like, "So?"
(audience laughs)
So then I'm like, "Alright, fine."
So I was like, Okay, well what can I,
so MSNBC, so I started
tweeting just saying,
"Here's what I'm hearing,
here's what's going on."
and then I said I would
call the Haitian Ambassador.
I'm sourced up with him
because I'm Haitian, I guess
and I'm a reporter so
I've always gone back to
interview him or talk to him.
And I'm always interested
in what the Haitian Embassy
is doing, and they've been
doing a lot in the recent years.
So I talked to him and
got some actual news,
which was that the Haitian
government had formally
asked the United States
to explain themselves.
So, that I just started tweeting out.
Because, again, I don't work anywhere.
So, tweeting out my notes
saying this is what I heard, this is what I heard.
Rachel Maddow calls me and
says, "Okay, can you come on?"
So I come on and I have
to take deep breaths
when I come on because I
speak quickly naturally.
Like I was trying to slow myself down.
So I had to take so many,
I was like doing yoga
(audience laughs)
in the studio.
Because I wanted to make sure
I was clear, I was precise,
and people didn't think
that I was just ranting.
Because I had reporting that
I wanted to tell people.
I had facts about Savannah
that I wanted to tell people.
I had facts about my own parents
and my mom who has two Ph.D.'s.
I had real facts that I wanted to give.
So I just focused on that.
I focused on what you
actually want to tell people.
Because you could get any Haitian person
to spew about how angry they are.
But for me, I interviewed people.
So whenever I feel like I'm upset
or like I'm about to cry about something,
I try to report those things.
And every time it happens to me,
I feel like I'm at my
best when I'm doing that.
I'm usually breaking stories,
or I'm having stories on the front page.
Because I'm so emotionally
invested in something
that to counterbalance how angry I am,
I'm reporting out facts
that make people say,
"Okay, this is why people are angry."
- Okay.
Alright, one last
(audience applauds)
one final question.
One last question and then I
want to open it up to you guys.
If you have a question, if you would,
please go to the center of the auditorium,
there's a microphone there.
This is being recorded, guess
we should've told you that
up front.
(panelists laugh)
So 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?
(audience laughs)
- A Hot Mess.
- Woo!
- And I'll say this, I
think partly because,
this is a White House
that thrives on chaos.
And I think, covering
it, sometimes you feel
like a hot mess covering it.
Because there's so many
big and unexpected stories
that happen, right?
I mean, if you think about last week,
I think it was last week, it
was the State of the Union.
I mean, that's a very
routine thing that happens
and the White House goes on tour
and goes to different communities
and talks about the State of the Union.
But, that was a blip, right?
So I think all of us have had to reorient
the way in which we
cover this White House.
I think, in some way, it's made a hot mess
of our personal lives
and I think it's worked
for him in terms of his strategy
and he likes it that way.
I think he thrives on chaos.
He's the reality TV guy and
I think that's, in some ways,
the kind of White House he's had.
On the other hand, I think, in some ways,
he's been very effective
in terms of getting
the policies that he
wants through Congress.
Maybe he's not as well read,
in terms of those policies,
but I think he's done well, in terms of
getting those through and
doing what he wants to do.
- Well he certainly gets
the media attention.
- Yeah 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 of the country,
or my dad still lives there,
my mom lives in Miami.
They watch international news a lot
and I think that, we
think this is all crazy.
But, it's very much America's story.
America's story is that we
have a lot of race issues.
America's story is that
everybody probably knows
somebody that is like Donald Trump
or has spoken like Donald Trump.
Everyone knows that there
might have been somebody
who is super educated, African-American,
who got a great job, and
then there was a counterpart
that didn't do the same
things but got the same job.
Everyone's had that experience where
you might have a coworker
that can say crazy things
all day and somehow everyone
thinks that they're great
and that they're cute, and
then you can have somebody
who works hard but says very little
and tries to just get it done
and that person is seen as problematic
or the moment that they raise their voice
they're angry, they're critical.
So I think, the idea that your father
could give you a lot of privilege
and that America is built on this idea
that we question whether or not
Affirmative Action is
something that's good.
But we don't ever talk about the fact that
Georgetown and other places,
one had to sell slaves
to build the building
and to have the building to begin with
and then, too, your parents,
the people that are my age,
your parents might have gone to Georgetown
at a time where my mom was
legally barred from going there.
So, but somehow, they call
it, I forgot what it's called,
when you have it the other way.
But it's like loyalty
or whatever it's called,
- Legacy.
- Legacy.
You have legacy and legacy is normal.
Because that's what you get
if you went to an Alma Mater.
But Affirmative Action is this evil thing
that hurts people.
So I think America is a great way to think
about this presidency.
Because The Apprentice,
reality TV, social media,
our country has changed.
We are not interested in
politically correct people
at this point in our country.
- Darlene?
- I was going to go with Never A Dull Moment.
But I just recently
changed to a new title.
My book would be called OMG.
(audience laughs)
The Story of Donald Trump's Presidency
or something like that
would be the subtitle.
And I'm going with the
second title because,
this goes back to a year ago in May.
My colleagues and I, we
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 my God,
he just fired Jim Comey!"
And the year and what is it?
A month and six weeks that we're into now,
it's just been filled with moments,
a lot of OMG moments.
And I think a lot of
us thought in year-two,
that year-two might've
begun a little differently,
might've been a little
calmer or more stable.
But, it hasn't...
It hasn't started that way.
- [Yamiche] It could be
OMG Never A Dull Moment.
Okay. (laughing)
- April?
- So my real book that's
coming out in September
is called Under Fire...
- [Cheryl] Was that just a plug?
(audience laughs)
- It was.
- Well, I mean, but, okay.
No, well, anyway.
(audience laughs)
- [Cheryl] OMG, was that just a plug?
- Oh yes!
But if I had it to do for this moment,
there are two words that come to mind.
One, fake.
And the other one is un-American.
Un-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 didn't clap were un-American.
We've seen this over the years
at every State of the Union address.
One party sits down when
they don't like something,
while the other stands up.
And I remember a time
when there was one person
from the opposite party,
an opposing party,
when President Obama was
in the well of the House,
said, "You lie" and no one said a word
about treasonous or un-American.
They said, "Decorum." That
was the word, decorum.
So I guess I'm perceived as
unpatriotic and un-American.
I think the press is too.
Because, you know, we're
in the First Amendment,
but I think a lot of people
haven't read the Constitution.
So, I think that un-American.
But it's just the exact opposite.
The book or the play would be to prove
how American and patriotic we are,
because we love this country
and we stand firm, cloaked
in the First Amendment.
Freedom of the Press, yes!
(audience laughs)
(audience applauds)
- Thank you, guys.
- Hello, is this on?
- We'll take questions.
- [Female Audience
Member] Can you hear me?
Oh, okay, cool.
- Yes, we can hear you.
- [Female Audience
Member] Thank you, ladies,
for coming out, I really enjoyed it.
I guess my question is:
Say America, I guess, or the
people who don't like Trump,
if he is impeached scenario
and he has to step down
and Pence was to become president,
I'm curious to know, what do you think
a Pence Administration would look like?
- I think he would be effective
and would get things done and would be
way quieter, but the country
would probably change more.
- He understands how government works.
- Yeah, less tweeting.
- Yeah and he understands
how government works.
- He has governance, yeah.
- But I think he has relationships
where people would trust him when he says,
"I need you to vote for this,
"I need you to defund Planned Parenthood,
"I need you to do these things."
I think he would be able
to get those things done
in a way that Trump can't.
Because there is a section
of Republicans that are like,
"I'm not going to stake my
reputation on this guy
"and then he's going to turn
around next week and say,
"I can't believe they
unfunded Planned Parenthood,
"I would never have done that.
"I didn't realize all
the things that they did.
"That Senator so and so was so terrible
"when he told me to do this."
- It would certainly be less dramatic.
But the Vice President is,
as Yamiche said, more conservative.
So the country would continue to change
and go down this more conservative path,
but just with less drama and chaos.
- Yeah I think he is an ideological center
in knowledge of policy
and is a rock-ribbed conservative
in the way that Trump just isn't.
So, I think it would be,
in some ways as I said before,
I think Trump is a
standard-issue Republican,
in some ways.
But I think for Pence it
would be even more like that.
But, you know, I think
- But would you think,
- we're getting way ahead
of ourselves.
- Sorry.
- One question.
Thank you.
- [Male Audience Member] Good evening.
Professor Thompson asked you earlier
if you feel supported by your colleagues
in the White House pool but in the moments
when you actually become the news story,
what do you end up doing when your editor,
or your producer, or your employer
actually pulls you aside
and do they support you
in those moments?
- Alright, thank you for that question.
I guess it's, do y'all want to answer?
Okay.
(audience laughs)
- Because they've never
become part of the story.
- Well, let me say this, let me say this.
The great thing about it,
and everyone up here knows,
I'm a talker.
- Really?
(audience chuckles)
- Breaking news, alright.
Anyway, so...
One thing that has been great is that
I talk to my bosses and I've
always talked to my bosses
and they've known from day
one when things happened
and it wasn't like a shock.
It was not a shock.
So when they got a call
from a certain person,
who I shall not name,
to basically say fire me
after we had an altercation
in the White House.
My boss said, "Let me stop you right here.
"We know everything that's
been going on from day one.
"If you're truly friends,
you'll go out and have drinks."
And that person said,
"Oh, the boss doesn't
"want us to drink."
So, my company has been 2,000% behind me.
They stand with me.
They see, they watch the briefings.
We talk constantly, they
know what's going on.
And they check, they know what's going on.
So they have been behind me,
they've just given me so much support.
So, I'm good.
Thank you for asking.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- [Male Audience Member] Well, thank you,
for the very wonderful,
interesting conversation.
One of the things I was wondering,
with the rise of the term fake
news and alternative facts,
in your day-to-day reporting,
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 disprove that
or prove that your reporting
is just as credible,
more than just digging through more facts,
what do you do to prove your
reporting is more credible
when they question it?
- Well the President, if he
calls the news media fake,
we all take that.
But, Sarah Huckabee Sanders
did say to me on Twitter
that I'm fake news.
And I was like uh-uh, no, no, no, no.
And we've had dinner.
We've talked.
We've tried to have a coming-together,
not a coming-together but an
understanding of one another.
There is a situation where
they don't understand
why I asked this.
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 one point of view and
they see things differently.
But when I report, I think the onus is on
the reader, the listener, or the viewer
to really, now because
the line has been obscured
between fact and opinion,
to really take a look
at what the person is saying.
If I say this is from such
and such, and such and such
and give you documentation,
like I gave you the definition
of the NAACP, when I ask my questions now,
I try to preface them because like to say,
"Oh, you're fake" no.
Because if I just told you
why I asked the President
is he a racist and didn't
I give you the definition
from the NAACP?
Today, Rob Portman, they were
talking about the president
was so incensed and
he's upset about this--
- Saddened.
- Huh?
- Saddened.
- Saddened.
Well, yeah, okay.
(audience laughs)
That's the AP, I love them.
He's saddened by this
violence against women.
So, I asked, "If he's 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?"
So, that's real stuff and
they could not deny it.
So the only way that I can,
I don't care if you think I'm
not trustworthy or whatever.
But what I tell you, what
I put out there, it's fact
and you can look it up.
So that's the only way.
Just keep doing the who's,
what's, when's, where's,
and why's and make sure it's
fact-based, not opinion.
I'm not giving you, well up
here we've given our opinion.
But, when I'm talking to you over there,
I'm giving you the facts that I have seen
and that I know.
- Yeah and I don't think
Trump and his allies
make a distinction, in terms of fake news.
I think fake news to them is
news that they don't like.
Right?
- Right.
- It's not--
- Generalized.
- Right, it's generalized.
It's not like it was the black reporter,
or the latino reporter.
It's just, if they don't
like it, it's fake news.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- [Female Audience
Member] 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, that you know now?
- Everything works out.
Right?
I mean, I didn't necessarily have a plan.
I started in print, I was a late bloomer,
I went to grad school a
bunch before I ended up
going into journalism.
So, yeah, I mean I think that's,
and also be nice to everyone.
Because a lot of the people
we end up working with,
who we end up hiring or getting hired by.
- [Cheryl] Allowing
them to come on panels.
- Yeah, yeah.
(audience laughs)
You meet them on the campaign trail.
And all of us go back to 2008
with April covering Obama.
So, it's just a small-knit community
if you're a national political reporter,
covering the White House or the Hill.
Those relationships are really important.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
- [Female Audience
Member] Hello, everybody.
I wanted to thank you guys
for coming to this panel.
I had a question for each one of you guys.
At the end of your career
when you're at retirement age,
what is one thing that you,
no, not like that but,
(laughing)
What is one thing that you
want to be remembered by
as a person and as a journalist?
- This is an obituary question.
- Yeah.
(audience laughs)
- Pretty much.
Pretty much.
- [Female Audience Member]
Or what drives you guys?
- I think mentoring.
That's one of the things
I try to do with the folks
in the younger, particularly women,
particularly black people
in the newsroom at CNN
and other newsrooms I've been in.
Because I just think it's important.
We've got this next generation,
we're not going to be in these roles forever.
To be generous to folks who
are coming up behind us.
Because in a lot of ways,
I didn't necessarily have
a lot of mentors.
Gwen Ifill was one of
them, we should mention her.
The late, great, amazing Gwen Ifill.
You're, of course, now at PBS News
and she was one of my mentors
and someone who was my role model
and looked up to and wanted to be.
So, I think that's one
of the things for me.
Just bringing up the next generation
and mentoring and pouring into folks
who are coming up behind you.
- I hope that people would say,
Oh, go ahead.
- Go ahead.
- I just hope that people
would say I told the truth.
And that I made a
difference and that I really
represented everyday people's
concerns and challenges.
I really hope that if I
die, because that's clearly
what it's going to be (laughing)
because I don't plan on
retiring, hopefully not.
I think that that's what it is.
I think I hope that I can be remembered
as a civil rights journalist
and the body of work
that I leave behind is
not just like hodge podge
of all sorts of cool
and interesting things
that I've been able to do
but that people can thread
together the stories that
I wrote and say that,
"She was a 2018 civil rights journalist."
- I think that I would
like to be remembered
as someone who worked hard,
tried to do my best everyday.
Put everything into
whatever story I was working
on at that moment.
I think Iwould also like
to be, at that time,
I would hope that 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 Sonya?
You and me?
Three?
Two?
- [Nia] And how long
as the AP been around?
- Since 1846, right?
Yes.
- That's another panel.
April?
- April?
- Mentoring.
Also, exposing truth.
Putting fact out there.
Making sure that people
really understood the truth
about communities that were underserved.
And also, my heart in trying
to cover these presidents.
Four presidents.
I hope I get to cover
five and six presidents.
You know, who knows?
But, I wouldn't mind being considered
the next Helen Thomas, you know?
As far as longevity.
No one can be Helen.
But also--
- Then you get the front row.
- But I don't know if
I want the front row.
(audience laughs)
But I also, want the heart and the respect
of both Helen and Gwen Ifill.
Those were some wonderful,
trail-blazing women
whose shoes can never be filled.
- Thank you, guys.
- Thank you.
- [Female Audience Member] Hi.
I just think that you all
are great and welcome.
I'd just like to ask you,
I probably like a lot of
other people, have not paid
as much attention to the news
as I have since this election
and this administration--
- That's self-care.
(audience laughs)
- [Female Audience Member]
Yeah, we needed support,
a therapy group not to watch.
But, whether you like him or not,
the reality is that a
lot of people are exposed
to you and know you by
name and would know you
if we see you in the grocery stores,
because we're so attuned to the news.
You've, in various ways,
become celebrities,
whether intentional or not,
just because the criticism
that is sometimes 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 that you've had to do,
in terms of, how has it
affected you as a journalist,
or is that something
positive that you could
take away from this entire experience?
- I mean, everything, I think.
I mean, this is a privilege
and an opportunity
to cover an administration,
cover the country,
to talk to people about
how they feel about this,
go into their homes.
So, yeah, I mean, I am
delighted to be in this role.
I feel lucky to be covering
this administration.
There are not that many people,
certainly not that many
black women, black people,
who get to sit in these chairs.
So, yeah, I mean I think it's
an honor and a privilege,
the job that I have.
- I think it's let me
meet people face-to-face,
that are not just my
mom, who I could think of
that are watching me.
(audience laughs)
I try not to think about
how many people are watching
PBS News Hour or MSNBC when I was on.
Because I would, like, throw up.
(audience laughs)
And if I just think of my mother
and think, "My mother
wants me to slow down.
"My mom wants me to look decent today."
(audience laughs)
But I think that I didn't realize
how many African-Americans, frankly,
would walk up to me and say,
"I'm so happy that you're
"on MSNBC, I'm so happy
for your PBS News Hour job,
"I'm so happy that you
can be in my living room."
One of the things, when
I was leaving the Times
and coming to PBS, everyone was like,
"Oh my God, what are you doing?"
and I thought to myself, I
started getting all these emails,
they were like, "Oh my God,
I get to see you every night,
"you're going to be in my home."
And I'd never thought about that
because I was a print journalist.
And you think, people pick up their paper,
or you're on the train.
But there's something about
being in people's homes
and being in people's home
that PBS stations reach,
that's different, that reminds people.
I can tell people, when the
whole Haitian thing happened,
you know you're watching
a Haitian reporter
working right now, just
the presence of being on TV
affects the conversations
and it helps people
feel like they're being represented
in a way that I never
really thought about.
- Thank you.
Last two questions.
I'm sorry, April wanted to answer?
- I didn't, I thought
Darlene was going to.
- Oh Darlene?
- Well, time?
- Darlene's like following a story.
- She is.
(audience laughs)
- You know, the AP is quick too.
- Quickly, I would just say,
piggyback off of what Nia said,
there is a saying, it's kind of a cliche,
but it's very true that,
we all have a front row
seat to history everyday.
And literally, everyday when
we go into the White House,
there's some history is happening.
And there are very few people
who get to be there everyday
and we are all privileged to be
among that small group.
The other thing I would say
is that some of the challenges
that we're all facing,
in terms of covering this administration,
I think has made us all, kind of,
redouble our efforts to make
sure our facts are straight,
to do the best job we can.
Because this climate right
now is so hyper-partisan,
toxic, there's all this
talk about fake news
and you want to, you don't want to give anyone
any ammunition to come at you.
- For a kid from Baltimore,
who grew up in Baltimore,
still lives in the
community, five generations
removed from the last
known slave in my family
on my mothers side, it is a
blessing to cover history.
To have four American
presidents call me by name.
This last one, he may
call me some other names,
(audience laughs)
but, no, it's been a blessing.
And to be able to watch history
and to report on history
and for people to know
that when I come to you
I'm telling the truth
and understanding that maybe the reason
why I'm being targeted
is because I'm effective
and they don't like that.
So, it's been a blessing.
You could never dream
what the Lord has for you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
(audience applauds)
- [Juliette] Yes, my
name is Juliette Adams
and are you--
- Yes, we can hear you.
- [Juliette] Okay, my
name is Juliette Adams
and 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 didn't expect.
So, 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 are you
maximizing on this experience?
- Well, let me say this to you,
and I'm glad you said that.
I had a conversation,
I'm going to Yamiche,
like she goes into people's houses.
Well, I've gone into somebody's house too.
(audience laughs)
Icon, activist before he
became an entertainer,
Harry Belafonte, invited me into his home.
He said, "Let's have dinner."
I didn't have time, we had tea.
And this was between--
- You drank the tea?
- I drank his tea, yes I did.
Yes I did drink his tea.
(audience laughs)
So this was right after the election
and I had been watching Facebook
and a lot of people were in
the fetal position for months.
That night, you remembered the moment when
Barack Obama was named
president and you remember
the moment when Donald J.
Trump was named president.
But I went straight to Twitter.
I mean, I saw Chris Darden,
a dear friend of mine,
the former prosecutor in
the O.J. Simpson trial,
he said, black Republican, said,
"Oh, they've let the town clown
"have the keys to the White House."
I said, "Oo, Chris, you're
gonna get in trouble."
Then we hear, Bob Johnson, another friend,
who says, "You know, we
have to find common ground."
So I called Kweisi Mfume,
my former congressman--
- [Nia] You're just
going be name-dropping
through this whole thing?
(audience laughs)
- Well, no, no, no, no.
- [Yamiche] And then Bill
Clinton had me over--
- No he did not, thank you.
No, but I'm saying this,
she's asking about the people
and I'm giving her the people.
So I called Kweisi Mfume,
who used to be the head
of the NAACP, and while we're here,
I wanna recognize the former
Chair of the NAACP, Ros Brock,
stand up, raise your hand.
- Oh, she has just taken over this panel.
(audience laughs)
- Yeah.
So, anyway, so, I saw
her when she walked in.
So, anyway, and that was a name drop, yes.
(audience laughs)
I gave him all the scenarios,
I said, "What's going on?"
He said, "Both men are right."
He said, "We're at a crossroads."
So, people were still in the
fetal position weeks later.
This was before inauguration,
after the election
and people were still having fits.
So, when I go to New York
and sit with Harry Belafonte,
I said, "Sir, what are we seeing?"
Because, he was an activist.
He marched with Dr. King, laid on pallets
in the homes of these mothers who fed them
tomatoes from the garden when
they were going out to march
for Selma and the Civil Rights Act
and for the voting rights
and all that kind of stuff.
He said, "When I was under
the tutelage of people
like Paul Robeson and W.E.B Dubois,
Dubois told me something, he said,
"This is the greatest time ever."
I said, "Why, why would you say that?"
He said, "Because when there's great pain"
and this is what Dubois told him.
He said, "When there's great pain,
"There's activism, radical activism,
that effectuates change."
But the question is,
where is that activism?
People will get up in Twitter and do this,
you know I'm upset, take that!
(audience laughs)
Behind an emoji.
Behind an emoji like
you're doing something.
All somebody has to do is block you.
But people are not willing.
As reporters, I'm not seeing,
you know, we might see the
women go out the day after,
the next day after inauguration.
But I haven't seen and a year later.
But I'm not seeing the ground swell that
Harry Belafonte was talking about
and he was, when I talked to him again,
he was kind of upset about that.
Because people talk about
this dis-ease on Twitter.
But I'm not seeing people scuff up
those red bottoms on the street.
So, as a reporter, I'm not seeing that.
And I get where you're coming from
so I see what you're saying.
But if you're really upset,
and we would love to, give
us something to report on.
We would report on it, but
I'm not seeing it to report.
I don't see people coming
to the White House.
Remember how they used to
come to the White House?
Jesse Jackson, during the
Regan years, "Let me in"
with a tin can.
You know, scraping it up
against the wrought iron fence.
I don't see that, even in
Lafayette Park like it used to be.
- Because they'll shoot you.
(audience laughs)
- No, no, you can get a permit.
- Yeah you can.
- I also think it's important to note that
people greeted Obama's
presidency with cheers
and they loved him as president.
And it's the same for
Donald Trump's presidency.
- But what about the majority
that are against him?
You don't see that.
When he talks about the immigration stuff,
when he talks about
Charleston, I'm not seeing it.
- Well you had the protests the weekend,
the travel ban was put in place.
That was a ground swell.
All these people can
come into the country,
you had people at airports protesting--
- But not the persistence
and the consistency,
that's what I'm really talking about.
- You had the women's march
a couple weekends ago.
- It's not persistent.
- They did it two years running.
- But yeah, continuously.
I'm not knocking them.
- So you don't think it's
as persistent as the
Tea Party, for instance?
- Right.
- Yeah.
- And that's something
that he brought up as well.
Harry Belafonte said the
resources are some of the problem.
He said the Republicans are
funded by the Koch Brothers
and different organizations and the NRA
and things of that nature.
Where as, the liberals
have a hard time finding
the resources.
- But the liberals,
- Not as much as the Republicans.
- But I do think there was
an organizing principle
around the Tea Party, in
a way that there isn't
necessarily that around
progressives, right?
I think for progressives, the
diversity of their coaliltion,
sometimes makes organizing hard.
I mean, it's essentially
African-Americans,
it's Latino's, it's college
educated white people,
- And women.
And those people feel very
differently about issues sometimes.
- But young people have led
movements around the nation
that have made change.
Think about it.
I mean, the four kids that sat
in at the Woolworth's counter
17 and 18-years-old and they
changed the whole dynamic.
They started a lot of the ball rolling,
part of the ball rolling in
the Civil Rights movement.
Dr. King was a young
man and he only had 4%
of black churches that
supported him at the time.
So, that's fact.
- But I mean, the Tea Party was a movement
and made effective change
and it's Donald Trump.
- I'm talking about on the other side.
- But there is an other side.
- I mean, I hear you.
- I also think, you asked
about, as journalists,
I think that this is a big moment.
As someone, who's I would
say, just starting my career,
I talk to a lot of my mentors
and say, what would you do?
I don't even try to take
Gwen Ifill's name that much
because it's so upsetting
to me that I'm working
at PBS and she's not there.
They still have Gwen's office,
they still call it that.
So to me, it's like I just
have to constantly tell myself
that I talked to Gwen before she died,
she told me that I could do these jobs,
that she told me I could do this.
I think about, and I'm
kind of in this place,
now where I'm like okay who do I have,
who am I going to talk to, because for me,
there is this feeling where I'm like,
I have to step up as a journalist
and the main person that I
would be asking questions to
isn't here but I found
myself asking questions
to other journalists because I would say
I'm still very new and I'm
definitely a street reporter.
I'm a reporter who until
like a year and a half ago,
I was a backpack, sneakers
kind of reporter all the time
and I still do that now.
But there's also like the politics of it
and trying to wrap my head around how
you look for policy to
explain what's happening
on the street, it's
probably the more poignant
reporting right now
because of what's going on
in the White House but it's a tough thing
to wrap your head around.
- We're gonna have to go to,
was that your thought?
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- And the final question belongs to you.
- [Female Audience Member] Hi.
thank you so much for coming.
You're all, obviously, very
established in your careers.
So advice to a young media,
especially, journalists,
you have to be aware of everything
that's happening all
the time in this field.
So how do you maintain your mental health
throughout this?
- I don't know.
- What did she say?
- How do we maintain our mental health?
- I'll say for me, I have
always had a balance,
my mom's a school social worker.
So, she always was
someone who was very good
at balancing stress.
When I was stressed out
in college one year... just like very stressed out,
she was like you need to
start watching Grey's Anatomy.
(audience laughs)
- That show is stressful.
I find it very stressful.
- It changed my life.
(audience laughs)
For me, it's really about,
my mom has the summers off
because she's a school social worker.
She's like, because I wanted
to hang out with my kids
and I wanted to go on
trips with my children,
because I wanted you guys to know
that you are the most
important thing to me.
So there's this idea that
I was raised by someone
who is very precise about
how she set up her life
and I'm doing that now.
I'm about to get married in three weeks
and for me
(audience cheering)
For me, it made sense to
want to make room in my life
for a boy that had been
calling me for a year.
It made sense for me to be like,
"Maybe I should go on a date."
Maybe, I should just see what
this love thing is about.
I think that you have to make room
in your life for other things.
And you have to have,
even if it's very hard to disconnect
because I get Donald Trump's
tweets as text messages.
The point is that at some point,
even if it's just for
30 minutes or an hour,
I'm at the gym or I'm running, I work out,
mainly because I want to get in a dress,
not for mental health.
(audience laughs)
But I fill my time with
Netflix and other things
but I feel like you have
to give yourself an hour
where you're just like chilling out.
- Yeah and I think you
have to learn to say "no".
That was a big thing
when I started at CNN,
that's one of the things
that John King told me
in my first week there.
Basically, learn how to say
"no," which is very hard at CNN.
Because CNN is the kind of place,
I mean there was an instance
where I was literally
on set, on live TV,
getting a call from CNN,
booking me for another
hit in the next hour.
I mean, that is the kind of pace
and expectation that
comes with these jobs.
Because of this White House,
because of where all of us work.
It's just constant.
So I think one of the
things is learn to say "no"
and also learn to know that no
is actually a complete sentence.
You don't have to say,
no, I can't do it because
this, this, that, and the third.
And I think what you said too.
- I need to learn that.
I've not learned that, actually.
- Find things you like.
For you, it's Grey's Anatomy,
which I find stressful.
(audience laughs)
For me, I watch a lot of HGTV.
Fixer Upper
- Yes!
- Chip and Joanna, I love them.
- House Hunters.
- Over Shonda?
- Yeah.
- Really?
No. (laughing)
- And Darlene, you do yoga.
- Well, I run and you can't
be texting and writing
and reading your phone
when you're running.
I also do yoga and that's
an hour without the phone.
You can't, again, do
texting and all that stuff
when you're in a downward dog.
(audience laughs)
So, I second everything that Nia has said.
You do have to carve out
little pockets of time
here and there.
A couple of weeks ago, I
took myself to the movies.
- What did you see?
- I was just trying to remember.
I saw The Post, okay?
(audience laughs)
- And you forgot that?
- I couldn't remember the other day
that the State of the
Union was just last week.
- I'll say this really quickly,
I once took a nap at like,
because I had gone on
a show at like 6:00 am
and was just dead tired.
I woke up and Omarosa had been fired.
(audience laughs)
It just happens.
- April, don't.
- I didn't say a word.
(audience laughs)
- Don't, don't, don't.
- No that's her girl.
Used to be.
- For me, self-care is important.
- Well you have your kids.
- I have my kids.
But I need self-care too though.
I do a lot of driving.
I drive two hours,
basically each way everyday.
So I just kind of like decompress there.
Go home and I try to
watch mindless television.
Something that I can get engrossed in
that takes me away from all of that.
When I'm not on TV or whatever which is,
yeah I know.
- CNN.
- Yeah and I need to learn to say no.
But I try to go into some
kind of mindless state
because, really it's bad when you wake up
in the middle of the night
and pick up your cell phone
off your night stand and see
who has text messaged you,
what you've missed and I think we've all
been guilty of that.
My day is 24/7, it never stops.
But I have got to learn
and I'm doing this now.
I'm also now, for my
health and my well-being,
I'm doing strength training
and doing the ropes
and all that stuff.
Yeah, I'm trying to get there.
And enjoying my kids more.
Taking them out of town, just going places
and having fun.
My daughter's got a Hamilton
workshop next weekend,
she's at the Hamilton workshop
and we're gonna do a couple theater shows
and just mindless things.
Just enjoying life.
Because there's life beyond this.
And for those of you
who are stuck on the TV,
I love CNN, Nia and I love it.
- It's a great network.
- It's a great network.
How many of you are political junkies?
Oh Lord, there's a thing called self-care.
Back away and then come back.
(audience laughs)
And what I've learned is the
roller coaster will always,
it'll keep going.
But it's okay to get off because
I'm going to get back on it.
So when I get off, I
breathe, so that's what I do.
- There have been stories of reporters,
like I lost a friend, I will never forget.
Michael Feeney who died at 32,
the day that the Iowa Caucus happened,
I couldn't get out of bed
because I was crying so hard.
I've gotten reminders from the world
that yes, work is important
and he had just gotten
his dream job at CNN, he was
going to be 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 really want to
savor the moments.
Because you just don't
know what's going to happen.
I always think, I don't
want to be an old woman,
sitting in my rocking
chair, which I hope that's
what I turn into and think back and say,
"Oh my god, I worked so hard
I couldn't even see my kids
or I'm now divorced because
I didn't even answer my
husbands phone calls half the time
because I was so entrenched in work."
Reporters are dying of brain aneurysms.
A local New York reporter did that
and her mother was like,
she worked too hard.
So really, it's not
just a fun thing to do.
It's like a life or
death thing in my mind.
- But you can work hard but then
carve out time for self-care.
- Right.
- Alright, I want to say,
thank you for that question
and thank you guys, you're amazing.
This is why--
- You, you are amazing.
(audience applauds)
- Thank you guys.
And I just want you to
know that there are bags.
- Oo, we got gift bags.
- There are bags.
- We've got gifts.
- So, because this is
what we do and who we are,
bam!
(audience laughs)
- Those are nice!
- Black journalists, we do matter.
- I was scared you were going to give me
George Washington gear because
I wasn't going to wear it.
- Did you hear this?
She was afraid we were
gonna give her GW gear.
You were afraid of that?
(audience laughs)
Oh, because you're Georgetown.
- Across the walk.
- Anyway, I just want to
say, thank you guys, again,
for coming and thank
you guys for coming out.
(audience applauds)
Really appreciate it.
