would probably be some version of nonfiction. >> thank you everyone. before getting to tonight's speaker i have special guests i would like to take note of, most importantly are the ones that keep them in line and may have gotten here online. his wife, mother and daughter-in-law trudy. [applause]

friends of the guest speaker at the district court judge. [applause] the republican committee linda ackerman and they know we have other members please stand up to be recognized. [applause] now tonight's speaker i was looking over his biography and it's pretty extensive, so i will go as quickly as i can. a graduate of the university of california berkeley and ucla school of law where he served as a member of the ucla review after a brief stint at the civil litigator he joined the los

angeles county district attorney's office, where he went on to specialize in the prosecution of gang members, murderers, excuse me. california magazine named him as one of the most effective prosecutors appointed to the bench at age 33 he became california's youngest sitting judge at the time and his colleagues later selected him to become the presiding judge. in 1994, he was elected at the california state assembly and in his freshman term elected to the majority leader. california magazine named him the most effective legislator and ranked him number one in integrity, number one in the effectiveness. in 1996, he won the first of two terms in congress and was one of only two members to serve on both the house commerce and the

house judiciary committee. the house selected him to be the lead prosecutor. president george bush nominated him to be undersecretary of commerce and director of the united states patent and trademark office confirmed unanimously by the senate he served as the chief advisor to the president on all intellectual property manners. one of the top four nonfiction books. his second book published in 2001 was behind the scenes memoithe behind the scenesmemoin impeachment and his third book one of my favorites and benign

its stories of growing up meeting famous people and annoying the hell out of them was released in 2014. his latest book on to chicago a discovering robert kennedy and the lost campaign of 1968 was released today the 50th anniversary of the death all of these are coincidentally for sale and can be purchased &-and-sign after the talks. ladies and gentlemen, politician and great mentor to me, please join me in welcoming good friend judge rogan. [applause] first i want to thank my good friend for the comprehensive

introduction book promotion. chris is an old friend and i want to thank also the wonderful people here at the nixon library foundation they not only are a great service and source for all of us here in orange county, but they do a wonderful job promoting the legacy of the 37th president. please join me in getting a round of applause. [applause] here we are 2018 and it is the 50th anniversary of the 1968 presidential campaign and that was a very important year for me for a lot of reasons, one of them is because it generated my

interest in what extent government and got me started on the path i took. i started collecting campaign buttons that here in 50 years later i'm still collecting them. i don't know if you have a chance that i've take taken up t here with a lot of campaign memorabilia from 1968 campaign so if you haven't had a chance to see them i hope that you will take a look. when you walked into night, they were passing out campaign buttons to you. they have a picture of president nixon says nixon is the one. these are the original ones for the campaign i got a big bag of about 3 pounds of them today and one of them said to me where did you get all the campaign buttons and i said when i was a kid i would've thought where all the headquarters where and get my mom to drive me around.

i went to the nixon office and they told me help yourself. she said that is a lot of campaign buttons it looks like it might have been the headquarters entire supply. i said i think it was. and she said that is so sweet of campaign workers to give the little boy old campaign buttons and i said i didn't say they gave them to me the statute of limitations is there any way if you didn't get one, please do. we are associated with gavels so i thought it would be appropriate to bring one to this

order. this is a special gavel from my collection. to preside over the iconic 1968 democratic national convention in chicago. this was the gavel used that combination of hubert humphrey as the man that challenged richard nixon for the presidency. i have a picture of him here. you probably can't see it but it's a picture of hubert humphrey at the convention being treated after his acceptance speech shaking hands with george mcgovern, here is his first hand man anfirst-handman and if you e corner you see the gavel. i thought that was appropriate and i hope you will get a chance to look at some of this

memorabilia. let's talk a little bit about a year 1968. a fascinating year, probably one of the most iconic in the history certainly in the 20th century. it got me interested in politics. one of the things yo things defl these people you've known for years come up to you and tell you i've written a book or i started a book or i'm thinking about writing a book. maybe i can take a couple of minutes and share my journey as a writer because it led directly to this new book that was published today. this book i wrote thanks to newt gingrich for my term in the house of representatives. i was on time, that he was

early. if you go to lunch with newt gingrich, the table is full. three or four notepads covering thcovetingthe table, two or thre blackberries going in his mind is playing tricks. what are you working on these days? then i'm writing something about it while bushy but it's not about impeachment you need to write about the early years and that would be a great book and here is what you should call it. here is my agent's number and you should put these things together. so i met with his agent and talked and said that's fine it sounds like an interesting story and he will se we will set you a ghost writer.

she was a convicted felon and raised four kids as a single mom and got expelled from high school and never went back and worked my way from a community college in berkeley in every job imaginable, bartender, the hot oil wrestling markham and yes it has a 2-dollar cover charge. what i loved about that book it was my favorite until this new one. i loved about that book is a the number of letters i got from around the world from all these people who would tell me i had a

background like that. i was always afraid someone would know about it. your book made me feel like it was okay to talk about it, so now i'm sharing that with other people or now i am reunited with my father who i haven't talked to for years or so forth. my book is about the second impeachment and that is a book i could have made a lot of money on because when i was in congress i had publishers waiting to do it right then and i absolutely refused. i promised myself i would wait at least ten years because i wanted to let the passions of the moment, you know the anger and frustration people felt on both sides go away. i wanted to be able to approach it from the historian's point of view as opposed to just trying to write the book and that was good because it gave me the

chance to look at it without the emotions of the time. it finally came out in 2011 ironically the people that enjoyeenjoyit the most where myc counterparts telling me how much they enjoyed the book. it is not a history of the clinton impeachment is based on my three and a half dai diaries of what it's like to go through the impeachment. he wrote me a couple of years ago and said listen i'm having

dinner in a couple of weeks with the big guy. would you sign one for him and i will give it to him and i said i think that the better identify right now which big guy you are talking about. you may remember he had some hard issues so i signed a book and said there is something like i hope this trip behind enemy lines is something you find interesting but not so interesting it gives your cardiologist. i told them if you read it, tell me what you think if you are still talking to me.

i told him i am at the age now i am too old to remember who i am bad at. then i met stories growing up most of my time as a little kid growing up i was fascinated in the history. i would cut school all the time. if i saw somebody coming to san francisco i would sneak through the secret service barricades and take pictures of these leaders and ask them their advice on how to get into politics and it was surprising how many would take the time and urged them to be interested in history and government politics,

so it's about 55 short chapters for every presidential candidate astronauts, movie stars, you name it. that leads now to my new book published yesterday. i did not intend to write this book. three years ago i had intended to write the sequel and i purposely stopped my stories from the minute before i got into politics and congress because there i got to go meet a lot of people at a different level. i wanted to be able to approach the subjec subject and we and tt is what i had intended to do in august of 2015. then something happened that intervened and deflected me from doing that for the next three years. it was in august i was sitting

and watching the first presidential debate hosted by fox news and you may remember that. there were 17 republican candidates for president. i am a political junkie and i worked in congress and i knew a lot of people on those two spaces and i admire many of them at various levels having worked with them and so forth. but just sitting and watching this, i started thinking to myself of these 17 people, most have heard of jeb bush, governor, dad was president and brother was president of serbia and the famous real estate mogul that these other people, i know them and i know their accomplishments.

it dawned on me it didn't used to be this way. i was 10-years-old in 1968 and i am almost 61 now. if you are not old and gray, you do not know what i'm talking about. i have lawyers in my court on a regular basis and they asked what is your new book and i explained it to them. who is robert f. kennedy back nr heard of them. i started thinking about 1968 in what campaign running against each other we are not talking about the national polls.

there were titans running against each other in various times. lyndon johnson, richard nixon, ronald reagan, robert kennedy, eugene mccarthy, vice president hubert humphrey, three term governor nelson rockefeller, newcomer to politics both won three times and each time winning in a blue state the one man just before his assassination john f. kennedy said that's the one guy i don't want to run against and 64. it and then you have the wild-card i threw in his inaugural address said segregation today, tomorrow, segregation forever and when the department of justice tried to

integrate the university they stood and walked to the front door with tv cameras saying this is an intrusion and major standoff george wallace was running as a third-party candidate, and i wanted he has over 25% of the polls he just kept taking up and up. by the way george wallace on the campaign trail if you thought any of the candidates were shelby say harsh in their rhetoric you've got to look up george wallace. he invented challenging the press during his speeches. i will talk about wallace in a few minutes. you had these major players on the stage many of whom had fingerprints all over major pieces of legislation for 20 or 25 years. then i remembered something that i read maybe 30 years ago. it was an interview with the

surgeon who thought 50 years ago to save his life. he said he was shot by a little 22 revolver. six people were shot that night and everybody survived. bobby kennedy, the bullet hit him in just the right spot. he said it was a lucky shot. if it had hit bobby kennedy 1 centimeter to the right he would have left the hospital in a week or two and finished his campaign. then as i thought about the thinking 2018 that is the 50th anniversary, that was my inspiration. three years later to write the book rediscovering robert f. kennedy and the lost campaign of 68. i should tell you that it is not a biography of robert kennedy.

he is a protagonist in the story that hbut here's one of mine. it's a comprehensive history of the 1968 campaign, the democratic campaign, republicane republican campaign and general election but looking at it from the historian's perspective of what's would have likely happened if bobby kennedy had left that hospital as the doctor said and had gon have gone on ad finished his campaign. it's not based on the sentimentality or wishful thinking. when i started i didn't have a preconceived notion of how it was going to come out. the research i did was extensive if you look at the inside jacket of the book, the photo isn't typical usually they want a headshot. what i did the day i hit the final keystroke i took all the books i've read maybe 150 of them i line them up in the

kitchen, i gave my cell phone to my wife and told her snap a picture because i wanted people to see the broad range of books i've read. they chopped off almost all the books but anyway, it really was in an extensive effort. i try to treat it from a lawyer's perspective and follow the otherfollowed the others bue best evidence what does it show and i hesitate to tell you i should say i hasten to tell you it is not a biographer he of robert kennedy because although the book was released yesterday it was released a few weeks ago on the kindle and somebody went on amazon and bought it in the on the book cover it says is a what if both the first amazon review i got that sat there for about two weeks this week to start and it was i thought this

was a biography on robert kennedy. i didn't know which was the whole campaign and all these people. i went online to find amazon's suggestion box down the road they require an iq test before you can leave a review because that was my suggestion. i won't have time to talk about the entire campaign that i just want to focus on a few of the key points. look at this as divided in three major parts, the battle for the democratic national presidential nomination, the battle for the republican nomination but the tickets would have more than likely looked like going up against george wallace and the general election in november. since i have so many people in the audience i just want to take a few minutes to talk about the democratic battle of 1968. it's fascinating because of all of the intrigue that was going on.

it starts with president lyndon johnson, john f. kennedy vice president. bobby kennedy was attorney general and treated lbj very poorly when he was president they didn't like each other. that is a euphemism. they hated each other, just despised each other. johnson becomes president when kennedy is assassinated. bobby kennedy stole his attorney general for a period of time, but the friction is tense between them. interestingly if you go back and look at the archives, even then he was giving private historical interviews to the library not to be released for many years and he starts working on lyndon johnson and can't stop. this is back in 64 committees and animal, just a horrible guy who and he was still trying to maneuver himself as the vice presidential running mate in 64. they gave a serious thought to

put him on the ticket he was going to have to reach out to kennedy supporters once they got the nomination he told his supporters that said i don't need bobby kennedy anymore you don't want to come out and say publicly i don't want him to be my vice president of what he says because the press conference and says i have decided that none of my cabinet members will be my running mate. it is directed t was directed te cabinet member everybody understood that. he came out and smiled and said i'm sorry i had to take them with me on this. kennedy leaves the cabinet, runs for the senate in new york and when he gets into the race, the election is in november, he shoots ahead of the polls. but the republican senator against whom he ran as a liberal

republican, very popular in new york. he starts ticking up in the polls and in the meantime, johnson is killing barry goldwater in new york. i think he had 22 million vote margin. kennedy is starting to lose and they are getting down to the wire. and it is apparent that he's not going to make it. kennedy had to do one of the worst things he felt he had to defend his wife and i was askedd lbj to come to help. johnson comes to new york, spends two days, plus there's ththe state stage with johnson y buttons and if you look at the trays that i have the campaign material from the senate race, you'll see all oyou will see ale things. johnson pushes him over the line. kennedy wins by a decent margin, gets its victory speech from lbj is watching on tv and thanks everybody in the room that does not think lyndon johnson. [laughter] and then johnson did not forget

it. by now, we are starting to accelerate into vietnam. johnson started to send combat troops over and when we got into 1967, the vietnam war has been going on a solid three years of open combat. we had almost half a million troops over in vietnam. a number of u.s. senators was becoming antiwar senators. kennedy was starting to move in that direction from 67, 66 and 667 but wouldn't commit to it. ..

>> to find somebody who will challenge johnson directly and his number one choice is bobby kennedy and they talk to him and bobby said forget it. he cannot be beat on the endorsement and at one point said you will be sorry. and this train is leaving. sorry but this will not work. and the senator eugene mccarthy.

and then to jump into the race. if anybody ever looked like president it was eugene mccarthy. and then to work like mad. and then to put you on the good committees. mccarthy could care less he would not knock the leaders of the senate. it is like a new guinea leprechaun with their seniority and to care of us

for any of them. no other candidate like mccarthy. to jump into the race. and to announce at the press conference why do you want to be president? i didn't say that i wanted to be president i am willing to be president and then to look at the other reporter what kind of president you thank you would make? the new hampshire primaries doesn't even bother showing up until the end of january. they are begging him they rescheduled all of these with

his speech at the auditorium promoting this for weeks and weeks halfway to the speech he says i have an idea i want to go back to the hotel to write poetry. he says i'm done take me back. the next day they picked him up with a full schedule and set where senator mccarthy he's not here. where did he go? he heard there was a monastery in town. he told me to tell you to cancel today's schedule that he's going to go meditate. they had to drag him out. so senator listen these are serious people they are major

donors they're interested in meeting you don't screw around. and that all the lights go on and smile and shakes for hands turns and says okay. i'm leaving now. and walked right back out he goes to the bar and sits and drinks and told the room is empty. that was his campaign. kennedy thought it was a joke but mccarthy got two unexpected breaks. i won't go into the history of the vietnam war in america was supporting the south for the

holiday and they hit 100 cities in the south. but it ended up to be a massive military defeat for the communists but not imported -- reported that way it took five weeks for the u.s. forces with the south vietnamese and to crush the offensive with five or six weeks on the news every night that just when you the vietnam war was winding down look what happened to you later said it is the first time to get america's intention to believe the pentagon is lying but the america's support for the vietnam war the majority of americans support the majority of democrats that is when it

started to take a nosedive but to make a major mistake to say i have to call up 200,000 more troops. with 500 troops already, every college kid in america started to hitchhike to work on the mccarthy campaign. for the children's crusade tens of thousands all across america going to new hampshire to knock on doors for eugene mccarthy. the second expected mistake, there is no republican primary nixon ended up being unopposed because one competitor dropped out. johnson was on the ballot but johnson said why bother? but mccarthy was a joke. i will not even bother.

he didn't want new hampshire to be lost in the shuffle. so he sat out the pledge cards. every registered voter in new hampshire it was up pledge card with the right in campaign. the people recoil. what happened to the secret ballot? to send this pledge to the state party office and then to say it is time for democrats to stand up and be counted or counted out. to use this as a heavy-handed big brother threat and this words that the headquarters.

the estimated would get between five and 10% on election day came within 200 votes and then two days later he jumps in the race. so a lot of the kennedy supporters moved to bobby that mccarthy supporters would have been kennedy supporters but this terrible tension between the campaign had occurred. but when johnson saw the polls he would be killed by eugene mccarthy three days later that lbj drops out. and then to drop out of the race without the guys they

were in the race begin with. bobby kennedy and mccarthy over the next couple of months. so at the end of april. did not have to enter any primaries. and and to drive them out of the race. and that they cannot. and then to spend a ton of mone money.

the next primary to spend the time of money they have that knockout in oregon nobody saw it coming. tuesday if i lose california i will drop out of the race so all eyes turned to california and a fight up-and-down the stage and on june 4 bobby kennedy one they still had the anemic when so it wasn't a great victory.

that mccarthy conceded to go down to the ballroom. and my thanks to all of you that where the democratic convention was held and if you moments later that we are taping this on june 6 the anniversary of the date robert f kennedy died and so to see the campaign i wanted to try to answer the question that has been out there 50 years. what if he had really lived? and what with the republican

campaign would look like if there was a possibility of a bobby kennedy on the ticket then the third part what would america and have done? but i'll tell you why i love this book. i used to track them down. i had never dreamed and then to say of hubert humphrey and bobby kennedy but it gave me a chance to come back to life and into the new generation but then to finish that

journey he started in 1968 for better or for worse with the imagination of the reader? after half a century robert kennedy will go on to chicago. thank you. [applause] >> we will take questions i see some hands going up in the back. what would have happened had that dreadful incident not happened 50 years ago? >> read the book to me to tell

you what happened? [laughter] >> good to see you your honor. the convention ended up being extremely to mulch with and it is my sense they could have helped nixon because a lot of folks saw the lack of law and order. had kennedy lived without giving away too much of your book would that has been as tumultuous? what effect would his living have with that convention? >> relating to the chicago convention go youtube that. calling the police riot the antiwar protesters. people were seriously injured.

i have never seen anything like this before. all that violence could have been averted even without robert kennedy being there with hubert humphrey as a presumptive nominee and with the kennedy people to unify the party they just told humphrey with the negotiators so humphrey did. they hammered out the language that made everybody happy the secretary of state and those negotiators said we could deal with that. everybody in graham park wanted to have the lovefest and he put the kebabs on it with the chairman of the committee kellett i don't care

if they will be the nominee i run this party to blowout the language and that is when all hell broke loose in grant park so just to allow the personal privilege few minutes ago one of my colleagues 1968 with the tet offensive united states navy right in the middle of that warfare. fifty years later on the anniversary he went back with some widows with the men with whom he had fought rick stand up so we can thank you. [applause] >> by the way the story is in the book two days before he was assassinated at breakneck

speed he took a few hour break in the campaign to keep a promise to his kids that was to take them to disneyland to ride pirates of the caribbean so two days before he was shot he had his kids on pirates of the caribbean. he was on leave and there was his girlfriend hear somebody say there he is there is robert kennedy right in front of him he picks up the camera and then has the picture. [laughter] >> what would dick daley have done? and second how would a piece candidate responded to russia's encouragement? >> the first question deals with would richard daley have done? he was the powerhouse mayor of

chicago who ran it. and was very much of a party guy and also very close with president trump. he was not pleased that the anti- party people as he perceived the word challenging the establishment of the incumbent president. he ran chicago on the party system understood the party organization and lived by and expected other party people to do the same. bobby kennedy was not there in chicago mccarthy wise. there is a story in the book that really happened. mccarthy said people brought their signs to the convention hall and had them stored in the lockers but through some accident the national guard made all of the signs unusual

one -- unusable. there was a story i did not know until i research the book and really had not been written about very much. once johnson dropped out his poll numbers shot up 50% in one day unprecedented nobody had this type of crime. and that was sacrificing into soonest johnson saw that why do i need to get out of the race? lyndon johnson behind the scenes? coming up to the convention was plotting to work it out to get a draft because humphrey was a weak candidate he thought eugene mccarthy was a fluke and johnson was getting pressure. it was almost set up.

johnson had mere daily invite him to chicago for his birthday party he wasn't going to the convention but going to the birthday party to announce he was going to russia soviet union as the first president to visit to get peace in vietnam than his boys was start the draft and that might put the kebabs on all of that was a few days before that was going to happen the soviet tanks rolled into one of the nations of jumpers about the and that was the and of the summit. lbj came this close to claim that nomination. >> be nine be nine.

[inaudible] >> i can repeat the question did mayor daley with the kennedys to see if edward would get into the race? that delegation was supposed to break for hubert humphrey to announce the endorsement daly called everybody together the delegation together at the sherman hotel and said we will not endorse anybody until nomination night people suspected that was that tragedy of ted kennedy but i think the evidence actually shows lbj would put the kebabs on that. that is why he didn't want the delegation to go.

>> and the first case of fake news like the tet offensive was announcing a military victory and then it with that election that one reason it wasn't the people in the riots in the streets and with the radicals. >> america was so divided i guess that's true with the red state blue state phenomenon but what we and do her as a nation pales in comparison when shot in 196-8100 major cities were aflame in the riots campus riots on the

university colleges all across the country were breaking out people were injured and losing their lives. by the end of 68 we really were as a nation looking like the possibility of civil war or a revolution talked about openly. i'm not sure if that really answers the question but, i served in congress i have no statements. [laughter] >> i look forward to reading your book but writing fiction compared to your nonfiction which is easier is this your new trend? >> by the way don't write a book like this if you ever want to get it published my

literary agent i was not going to introduce you because i know every time i tell somebody this is my literary agent people say you are an agent i have written a book and then she has to escape from the room but she will tell you i ended up inventing a new genre of writing when you write about me the right fiction or nonfiction if you write historical fiction it is expected to be fiction. this box -- but the shop was several publishers who handled historical fiction they would say we love it but it's not historical fiction historical fiction as you make everything up and then stick it into 1861 but this is not fiction. publishing contracts and agency contracts wanted me to

sign a contract to say this is either friction or it is nonfiction it is not one or the other. the book you are holding in your hands is 517 pages what you are not holding is the other 400 pages of 1000 source endnotes that tell you in this book what really happened and here are the sources to prove this really happened. apparently nobody has done that before and no publisher wanted to take a chance with it because it didn't fit the paradigm. so make it all up and don't .1000 notes. they were so extensive they could not print them they had to do a second volume so they created a dedicated website. it is in the book. if you read something and

think this is no way it could happen, if there is an endnote identified you not to look it up one guy who e-mailed me that i really like the book he gave it a five star review but that one part you put in there that was an appropriate you didn't need to make that up i sent him for a half pages of sourced and notes and he wrote me back and said nevermind. [laughter] i love being able to write fiction because it gave me a chance to tell the story of the dialogue but if you do that the nobody will want to publish it. >> one last question but i want to remind everyone the book is available in our store.

and last question so do you think in your opinion? >> i don't want to give you my opinion. read the bus. >> and to say what if? now under second season i didn't want to fly to washington so if you look at it he has a perfect studio then i have a camcorder in my house and while out shopping at the grocery store i set up the camcorder the only light

attached to the ceiling fan in my office. with a ten minute discussion about the book. it is very professional and all these people were posting afterwards. that was just the book promotion he didn't tell us what would happen or bobby kennedy would become president. i am telling you. don't get these brain surgeons off the media. but i will tell you that the kennedy people for 50 years you loved bobby kennedy are absently convinced he would have been president of the united states. others say there is no way he is the guy that nixon would

have preferred to run against because he didn't have jack's charm he could tie him to stuff going back to the bay of pigs. i do know the answer to that question after you finish my book you also will know the answer. [laughter] [applause] . . . .

in 2020 offers his vision for america. he's interviewed by the former chair of the democratic national committee. "after words" is a weekly program with guest host is interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work is. how we can unify a divided nation. congressman, you wrote this book at a time in the country is very divided. what motivated you to spell off the challenges and