be viewed on the website at booktv.org. [applause] good evening, everyone and welcome to the george washington university. i am pleased to welcome you to tonight's events presented in part o worship with politics and prose bookstore and the third in the george washington university presidential distinguished events series.

we launched the series last semester to give our students the opportunity to hear from renowned leaders of the individuals that bring illuminating dialogue, insight and inspiration to the campus. in the heart of the nation's capital, the university is fortunate to be surrounded by the many governmental nonprofit and international agencies and organizations that make the decisions that affect each of us every day. our location here allows us to be part of those decisions. it allows our students access to the uniquely dc experiential learning opportunities and it allows our faculty to provide rigorous and high-quality scholarship and problem solving and iproblem-solvingand it alloo serve as a hub for timely discussions that are important and relevant to all of us. tonight, we are pleased to host former united states ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley in a discussion about her

new book, "with all due respect defending america with grit and grace," which offers a first-hand perspective on the national and international matters as well as behind the scenes account of her tenure in the trump administration. ambassador haley will be joined tonight by the moderator and united states senator who in 2014 was elected as the first woman to serve in federal elected office from the state of iowa. please enjoy this evening's discussion in thank you for being here. [applause]

south carolina governor nikki haley was sworn in she became the first female governor. his been mac i promise and i'm determined to get them. >> she says it i that is the sie largest economic investment in the state for the 200 year history. >> manufacturing right here in charleston county. >> it's a great day in south carolina. $560 million invested, 1700 jobs right here in chester county. ♪ the best part of what has happened the past couple of years is watching all of these jobs not just go into the cities but into rural south carolina because if you can give a person a job, you take care of a family and we have had a lot of families the past couple of years. >> to be the ambassador to the united nations and she has accepted.

>> considered a rising star in the republican party commission would be the first appointed to trump's cabinet. >> the new ambassador to the united nations is living proof of the promise of america. >> for anyone that says you can't get anything done at the un, they need to know there is a new sheriff in town. ♪ there is a new u.s. un. you'll see a way to beat the change in the way we do business. for those who don't have our back we are taking names. >> a protector for human rights abusers and political bias -- >> if for any reason north korea attacks the united states or our allies, the u.s. will respond, period. >> she's so consistent. you know you are not going to move her. the americans said we want our embassy in the capital and that is jerusalem. >> america will put our embassy in jerusalem. that is what the american people want us to do and it's the right

thing to do. no vote in the united nations will make any difference on this. >> what we witnessed here today at the security council is an insult. it will not be forgotten. >> standing her ground by un ambassador making it clear. ♪ she knows what american foreign policy looks like. some people see there's too much political splatter. >> i don't think its swagger. i think it's passion. i'm passionate about defending the united states. >> she says the world is respecting the united states again. >> music i didn't know that they

would be elected into the legislature or the governor and i certainly never thought i would be the un ambassador. even though i am a citizen i know i am too young to stop fighting. ♪ [cheering] good evening. welcome, everyone, welcome to gw university. thank you everyone for joining us tonight. we are going to have a wonderful discussion with ambassador nikki

haley. can we say thank you to her one more time, please? [applause] [cheering] thank you so much. thank you for being here. we are going to have a lovely discussion this evening with ambassador haley and we will start with about 45 minutes of questions and those are questions i will be asking you come ambassador, and then we will move on to about 15 minutes of questions from the audience. so with that come ambassador, would you like to start with some remarks? >> guest: first off and it's great to be at gw. i have to tell you. [cheering] thank you for hosting us tonight and allowinthistonight and alloe here. you are a rockstar and we are excited to watch everything that you do. but i was actually here on campus because our son is looking to come to gw next fall

so we will see if that happens. there is a bit of an application process we have to go to first. having said that, thank you for having us. but seriously, i know i'm here, but how cool is it to have the first female combat veteran in the senate here with us, johnny ernst [applause] [cheering] >> you were so nice to do this and we are just going to have a fun conversation and hang out for a bit. when the folks from the ambassador's office had called and my staff reached out to me and said what you like to and the minute they said your name i was like yes! [laughter] i didn't even know what it was but i was excited to do it.

with that, we are going to go ahead and get started and i am going to take us back a little bit in history because a lot of folks maybe don't know about your background or how you grew up. we will start there because they really thinireally think it sete for the wonderful years to come. you describe your american story and how you didn't quite fit in as a girl growing up in the south. what was that experience like for you growing up as the daughter we all know of indian immigrants. you are living in rural south carolina. >> guest: we lived in a small town. we were the only indian family in that town. we were not white enough to be white, we were not black enough to be black. my father wore a turban and still does to this day. they didn't know who we were,

what we wear or why we were there. and i remember being on the playground and coming home after being teased. my mom would say your job isn't to show people how you're different, it's to show people how you are similar. and it's amazing how that lesson i learned on the playground played out in my life in the corporate world as a legislator, as governor, and as ambassador because when you are faced with a challenge, if you first talk about what you agree on first, people will let their guard down and then you are more likely to get to a solution by pushing through that. little did i know that would turn out to be a great lesson along the way. >> host: and your mother is wise beyond her years. >> guest: yes, she tells me that every day. [laughter] of course she does. she's a great mom. so, some folks may not realize that before you were ambassador nikki haley and before you were

governor nikki haley, you actually served in the buddhist nature is that correct? >> i did. so, what's interesting my mom started a business from scratch in a few years into her business, her accountant was going to leave and she needed to train someone. a few days before she left she said i'm getting concerned we don't have someone to train. i happened to be walking by and my mom grabbed my arm and said train her, she can do it. they said that she's 13. [laughter] and she said train her, she will do it. so at 13 i was balancing the bank account, writing the checks, making sure we were giving bank deposits, the whole bit. it wasn't until i go t got to ce i realized that wasn't normal. now i totally realize there was

child labor. [laughter] us through that process i developed a love number is and the fact that number still a story and every problem can be fixed by moving the numbers around so i ended up graduating with a degree in accounting from princeton university, go tigers and then i got tired of working for the guys down the hall, came to come to the family business. one day i was sitting there complaining again and my mom was there. i was complaining about how hard it is to make a dollar and how easy it is for the government to take it. wants to quit complaining about it and do something about it. i did not know you were not supposed to run against a 30 year incumbent in the primary. i truly didn't. ignorance is bliss. so once i realized tha i'd gottn

myself into, the only option was to win. so, my husband drove, i was in the passenger seat and we started knocking on doors. he was the longest-serving legislator at that time in the state of south carolina. i would knock on doors and not say anything disparaging about him. i would say we appreciate what he's done all these years, but i think i can do something different. i always talked about me, i didn't talk about him and i was fortunate enough to get elected. fast forward, i'm in the legislature a few years and in south carolina whenever they were passing legislation, it was done by a voice vote. all in favor, i mac the ayes habit. when david was a piece of legislation that went across the desk that gave legislators pay raises. all in favor, all opposed on

assignment from the ayes have it but to this day you can find one legislator that says they voted themselves a pay raise. i got really upset and went to the speaker of the house and said this is why people don't trust us. the next day i filed a bill that said anything important enough to be debated on the floor of the house or the senate is important enough to have a vote on the record. the speaker called me in and said thsent the bill away, we dt need to have it. we will decide what the public needs to see and what they don't. i remember going home that night and talking to my husband and saying if i can't even get legislative votes on the record, what am i doing here and he said it and go fight. so i went across the state of south carolina and said did you know of all of the bill is passed on the house only 8% were on the record? did you know of all the bills passed in the senate only 1% was on the record. so if you didn't know how your house member voted, 92% of the

time to come if you didn't know how your senator voted 99% of the time, how did you know who to vote for when you go to the polls and the people of south carolina were shocked. to put it in perspective, it is the chairman of the freshman class and my second year i was majority whip, 30 year put on a powerful business committee to my fourth year as the subcommittee chair of thinking. a year i wouldn't put the bill away they stripped me of everything. i could go to the well and no one would hear it i could get support, no one would hear it. so i ran for governor. [applause] >> and one ohispanic and one oft bills we signed into law is now in south carolina. any piece of legislation debated on the floor of the house or the senate has to have a vote on the record and we took it a step further they have to show their vote on the record on every

section of the budget as well. >> very inspiring. >> i love the transparency. so, this next question, this is a hard one. you have had an inspirational life and i am going to go back to probably some very hard dark days that you had as governor of the beautiful state of south carolina many of you will know what i'm referencing that out of despair can come desperation and show leadership. so this next question, ambassador, you talk about the tragic killing of nine innocent at the episcopal church in 2015.

during your time as governor which led to the decision to bring the confederate flag down from the ground of the state capital, can you tell us a little adult that time and how the incident affected the people in the state of south carolina and then as well if you can, what did you do to bring the citizens together and reunite everyone? >> guest: my heart goes out to the community that had the shooting today. when something like that happens, it's not just the people in the room that are affected from its the entire community. on that night we had people do what they do every wednesday night, they went to bible study.

but on this night, someone else showed up. he didn't look like them or sound like them and he didn't act like them. they didn't call the cops, they didn't throw him out. instead, they pulled up a chair and prayed with him for an hour. when they bowed their heads in the last prayer, he began to shoot. these were people like ethel that lost her daughter two years prior to breast cancer and she had a broken heart. she would go around the mother in annual church cleaning the church and she would sing one day at a time, sweet jesus, that's all i ask of you, give me the strength to do every day what i have to do. our youngest victim just graduated college and was so excited about his life but on

that night he stood in front of his 87 year old great aun 87-yee and looked at the counter and said you don't have to do this. we mean no harm to you. or it was people like cynthia whose life motto was simply to be kinder than necessary. that's who these people were. they were not famous. a lot of people didn't know them, but they loved their families, they left their church, and they loved their community. and when that happened, it brought south carolina to our knees. it was the first time he had a shooting in a religious place. and i remember all i wanted to do was to protect the state because the national media came in strong. they wanted to define it, talk about it, immediately debate racism, they wanted to debate gun control, the death penalty, i need you name it, they were

talking about it. i remember strong-arming them back saying we are not going to do this. we are going to give the time to the families and go to the funeral. there will be a time and place we will have those discussions, but it is not now. the next day the killer comes out with a manifesto and he's holding up the confederate flag. the confederate flag flew in front of the statehouse of south carolina it used to be on top of the dome and then they compromised in 2000 it came in front of the statehouse. and when he did that, we have a lot of people in south carolina dihave a great respect for the confederate flag not out of reasons of hate out of the fact that it service and their ancestors and sacrifice. that was the way they look at it and then you had obviously the small minority that saw it for what it was. but he hijacked what that was. take it a step further, go another day or two days after

that and it was the first time that he was going to be in the courthouse and facing the judge. the families showed up, i'm prompted, unplanned, and one by one stood in front of the killer and forgave him. that forgiveness was so overwhelming that we didn't have protests, we had officials. we didn't have vitamins, we had was. and when we went through a tough few the where we have to debate where that confederate flag needed to go into the good people of south carolina stepped up and it was moved to the museum and the people of south carolina showed the entire world what it means to get through a tragedy. [applause]

out of despair there comes inspiration. i just want to thank the people of south carolina. with your leadership, ambassador, for showing us how we get through those difficult times by sharing love with one another, and not a trade and not violence, but love and forgiveness. so, thank you for that. we are going to move ahead a little bit and talk about the next step from being governor to the great state of south carolina, and i would like you to tell the audience a little bit about when you were offered the position to be the un ambassador and was it a difficult decision for you to make and what we want to know is what were those conversations like with president donald trump when he was asking you to take on this momentous position sex

>> guest: v-victor >> to the >> it's interesting i knew the president a few years prior. after i won the primary for governor the first time, i received an envelope with a great gold trim and it had a check and a note that says you're a winner. [laughter] i talked to him then and we had stayed in contact over the years and then we had a republican primary. we had 16 people on the stage, a lot of talent on the stage. i put my backing on another candidate, and it was around that time he sent out saying nikki haley is an embarrassment to south carolina, in which i responded plus your heart. [laughter]

but we did have a respect for each other. i knew if you kicked him he was going to offer and if you push me i'm going to push back. push forward, he won the primary and i supported him in the general. i get a call from his new chief of staff brings previous and he says i need you to come to new york and i said for what. he said the president elect wants to see you and i said about what. he said secretary of state. i said secretary of state? find a governor, i can't be secretary of state. he said he wants to see you, we need you to come. i go the next morning into his office and the first thing the president says is i guess your guy didn't win. [laughter] he just couldn't help himself. i let him kind of stew a little bit and then we had a great conversation that i said above, i'm not your person. we've got a lot going on in the world today.

you don't need someone with a learning curve. i want to be hopeful and supportive. anything i can do to help you, i would be happy. later that week, they call me again. he says don't say anything. i just need you to listen. u.s. ambassador to the united nations. i said i don't even know what the united nations does i just know everybody hates it. [laughter] he said the president is going to call you on monday. i need you to think about it. so we get home, my husband is on the computer and he says i think you would be really good at this. it wasn't a good time because our son was 15. it would have been a tough time to move him, our daughter was a freshman in college. michael and i., my husband, we take care of my parents, both in their 80s and my mom has parkinsons, so it would have been tough to go to new york. the president called monday and said you've got to do this. i said that there would hav be e conditions for me to consider. he said okay what are they.

i said i've been a governor and i don't want to work for anyone again. i would want to work directly with you so it would need to be a cabinet position. he said dunn. i said i'm a policy girl and i would want to be in the room when decisions are made so i would've needed to be on the national security council. he said done. i said i not good to be a wallflower or talking head. i need to say what i think. he said that's exactly why i want you to do this. and he was true from his word from the first day to the last day. >> i love it. [applause] and i know we have a lot of young people in the audience. a lot of young people in the audience asked how i knew to ask for those things. what you have to remember is there's one lesson i've learned to live by, and that is pushed through the fear. when challenge comes in front of you, your reaction is naturally

to step back. but if you lean in and pushed through the fear, you find out you are so much stronger on the other side. they wouldn't have pushed through, i wouldn't have become a legislator and becoming governor. i wouldn't have pushed through the fear i wouldn't have said okay i can be a un ambassador. what you have to do when you push through the fear is set yourself up for success. i knew what i needed in order to be successful. so don't be afraid to ask for the platform that you know will bring out the best in you. >> that is great advice and taking risk. [applause] taking risks and challenging your self. that is very good for so many folks engaging in their first career or looking at opportunities that exist after college. so, the book is actually coming and everybody hopefully has a copy of their book, but it's full of stories about working with president trump in the

white house as a member of his cabinet, and i'm sure there's plenty of stories and inside information you can share. can you shed some light on some of the conversations that you have that would be may be enlightening for the audience? audience?guest >> a lot of people ask how i got into the administration without a tweet, and really it was just the fact that i was very honest with the president. i thought it was important to give him what i wanted from my cabinet when i was governor, and that if i wanted them to serve the people, i wanted them to be creative, and i wanted them to speak up if they saw me going in the wrong direction. so with the president i was always very honest with him. if he did something i thought was good, i supported and pushed through and rallied whatever needed to happen. if i saw him making what i thought was a wrong decision, i

would call or meet with him and say i think this is a mistake and instead i think you should consider this. he would always say how do you see that playing out and we would discuss it. he was good about hearing other opinions. it didn't mean i want all the time tha but it meant that he ws open to listening. .. >> and this was the president's first high-level week speech we had all the meetings lined up and approved

everything and he gave me a call and said i just want to touch base with you did you get the speech i said yes sir it is fantastic and it was but the un is a different kind of place. it is serious. so when you give your speech it's not like a rally. [laughter] they will not cheer for you but don't take it personal. i want you to think of it like church. just like church he said church. got it. got it. [laughter] and he said but i have this idea is that i was thinking what if i referred to kim as little rock at the end of the speech. [laughter]

lock --dash little rocket man. i said remember the part i said about church cracks it is a very serious crowd i don't know how they would take it. but you're the president you can't do it. he said i tweeted it out this morning and it killed with my base they thought it was fantastic. [laughter] now fast-forward a couple days later he's going to give his speech and we sit down the north korean delegation is in the front row. and he says it and everybody is sitting there with their translator pieces and all of a sudden you see them go. [laughter] and then they start to laugh for good now a few hours later

i'm meeting with the president of uganda and he says so ambassador, what are we going to do about this little rocket man? [laughter] and before the week was over everybody was referring to him but that was one of many stories working with the president. [laughter] [applause] i bet there are hundreds more. never a dull moment. one topic of the book i don't get confused fragoso as a woman with leadership what is it mean to cormac know the

power of your voice which is something you do reference quite a bit of your book. can you explain that lexi beck always thought people should use the power of their voice go you really can move things if you use it at the right place and the right time with the right tone. and i think it's something you learn over time of the right time you always hear a pick and choose your battles as you get further in life you get better at it i try and use the 24 hour rule is something is hot and moving you feel your blood pressure going up and it is dramatic if you can wait 24 hours usually in the morning you are more tempered and thinking more clearly and the right things come out. but the other thing you have

to learn is use your voice to protect yourself. with all due respect the book came from a time when i needed to insert my voice and we had a national security council meeting and everyone decided we would put sanctions on russia. a talk to the president the next day after that we were going forward with the sanctions i was never on the sunday shows unless they ask me and asked me to be face the nation that sunday morning were discussing the issue with russia and they say sanctions are coming down on russia secretary mnuchin has them coming if he hasn't already and then we left it. i get a call from stephen that afternoon he said nikki we have a problem.

the president changed his mind. he's not going to do the sanctions. that's fine a president can always change his mind there is nothing wrong with that. i don't fault him in any way. he had another strategy in place. i said just fix it. to come out with a statement and hopefully it will address. the next morning the statement comes out doesn't fix it the press is asking the question nikki said there are sanctions so i called multiple people in the administration the chief of staff and secretary of state national security advisor bolton at the time and i said we've got a problem. there's nothing wrong with the president changing his mind just tell the truth. tell them what happened but everybody's calling the office thing you need to fix this. that was monday tuesday

morning happened the level is rising and i said okay this is the deal either y'all fix it by 5:00 o'clock today or i will and trust me it will go a lot better if you fix it. nothing happens it's about 445 and my friend larry kudlow goes out in front of the press and they asked the question and he said i think nikki got momentarily confused. so that was ed. i happened to look at the television and the five was getting ready to come on fox i called dana perino and said call me really quick. she called they said i need to put out a statement. will you just say one sentence

with all due respect i don't get confused. [applause] that's it? i said that's it i will text it to you so that you have it in writing. so she does and within ten minutes later he calls me. nikki i am so sorry. i love you i had my tail between my legs. i said at what point do you say i am confused? he said i know i should not have done it trust me i will make it up to. i said you will make it up to me and by telling them that you were wrong and i wasn't. he said i can't do that i said oh yes you can and you will. and he did immediately he went out and contacted a reporter but what was surprising to me is that it was a simple moment

of me defending myself how it went viral on t-shirts and mugs and it goes to show you that so many people have been in a moment i hope the lesson that you take is no one will protect your integrity but you. so people can say they are going to do it but at the end of the day you have to do it. it's all you have and you have to know how to protect yourself. so that was another lesson learned. >> another powerful voice and we are glad you have been able to defend yourself particular love that it is a true strength. >> always kick with a smile. [laughter] you have to be hateful. >> use the power of your voice. you have use that like pulling

people together after tragedy or to defend yourself when you use the power of your voice other times to have the backs of our allies serving as ambassador to the united nations and i remember this how many of you remember taking names? [applause] taking names for those don't have our allies backs. and i remember that quite clearly. i was really impressed. so what is taking names mean to you quick.

>> i really didn't think it would ruffle as many feathers as it did that i realized i wasn't that much of a diplomat. when i went to the united nations obviously there was a crash course in foreign policy to study our friends and foes and conflicts and what we needed to work on. i purposely did not study the do's and don'ts of the un program wanted to go in with fresh eyes and wanted them to know i had goals to achieve and i didn't want the bureaucracy to get in the way. so when i first talk to the press for the first time i said it is a new day the united states mission of the united nations it is important to me countries didn't have to

like us but wanted to know what we were for him to be very clear what it was for and against with no gray areas in the process and i said we will have the backs of our allies and taking names of those that are not with us. you have 193 countries most to resent us on any given day and every day felt like you had to put on barred law - - body armor. but they would jab and jab and then turn around and have their hand out wanting foreign aid. and that was the part that bothered me perfect example you have pakistan we were giving them $1 billion of aid for their military and they were harboring terrorists trying to kill our soldiers. it did not make sense they were not being a good partner

or having our backs and we don't get that million dollars to pakistan anymore. [applause] it doesn't mean they cannot be our friend in the future but it changes the way we do relationships and that was important and having the backs of our friends i went in there it was almost reliving that feeling is a five -year-old on the playground that israel was bullied at the united nations was most unconscionable thing i have ever seen. here you have a country that is a bright spot in a really tough neighborhood they share our democratic values all the values that we share and you saw is real constantly kicked and kicked and kicked because they always had been so they

had this one session on the middle east every single month we have plenty of issues in the middle east probably would ever talk about is israel i call it the israel bashing session is taking names of our friends and foes to make sure everybody knew we were holding each one to account. [applause] >> i do want to be cognizant of our time so i have one more general question to use as all-encompassing but following that same vein of taking names and using the power of your voice i think this is important. you really were an outspoken champion for human rights while you are at the un including areas such as venezuela syria and the

democratic republic of congo. much of your advocacy really came from time you spent visiting those affected areas by war and conflict. thank you for doing that. can you tell us about those experiences? and how they shaped your work at the united nations. >> everybody deserves human dignity the unfortunate part of the job at the when you go to places most americans will not go, or don't want to go. and you see things you cannot un- see. i would always make a point to ask when we go to an area to sit in a room with a group of women no offense to the men but the women have a way to sit down with them to tell you what the problem was, how they got to that point and how to fix it. they were very clear.

in many cases i would see refugees they had started their own businesses, focused on their kids they always had what was needed so for example when i went to jordan and turkey talking with the syrian refugees. those women could tell me how their children needed psychological help because they had seen so many things. what they were dealing with in terms of finding jobs when we went to south sudan refugee camp. one woman that i talk to start as you tell me a story how she had six kids and she could not look them in the eye in the mornings for breakfast. and she started to cry. i said why can't you look at your children? she said because they saw me get raped in front of them.

there were 100 women in the room and i was sitting right there. and they would tell their story. one would start crying then the whole room because they had all been traumatized. so i start on the chair ending up on the floor hugging them and then you really realize every person deserves the freedom and the ability to worship and to be safe and there are a lot of places in the world that don't do that my parents reminded my brother and sister and me how blessed we were to live in america. if you go to those places and you come back then you realize we truly are very blessed. [applause]

>> thank you, we are very much we will move into audience questions and this is current event that we experienced here in recent weeks but how do you feel about the removal of armed forces out of syria and what actions will you personally recommend for the united states government to do next. >> this is tough because i think that i disagree strongly because the kurds had been there and fought alongside us against terrorism for years. they have lost a lot of blood

11000 it goes back to taking names you have the backs of your allies you take names of the enemies the kurds have been allies with us and fought alongside of us understand the president's point of wanting to get out of endless wars none of us want to be in a war. but the asset of having troops on the ground especially for intelligence purposes is so important. when you saw the aku bakr al-baghdadi get killed because those troops were on the ground with the ability to communicate and know where he was. that's what we have to remember. military in japan and south korea and not because we are in a war but for prevention to make sure we don't get into another war for intel and make sure we know what's happening on the ground glad the

president has decided to leave someday or whether to watch the oilfields that in hot spots i strongly believe we have to have a footprint it doesn't have to be large. if you look at afghanistan with over 100,000 troops now we are down at 14000 i hope it is lower than that but having those people on the ground my husband is a combat veteran serving in afghanistan having them on the ground and that we can let the kurds know we appreciate their partnership over the years. >> and we could use some more of those dogs.

>> ambassador haley what led you to conservativism? mimic that's an interesting question. when i was running for office the first time i didn't know if i was republican or democrat. i remember my friend saying i want to run for office will my mom said do something about it i decided i wanted to run and started to talk to different people. everybody gave me a reason why i should not do it i was too young, i had small children. start at school board level and not the state house. interestingly enough i went to a women's leadership event and hillary clinton was they are.

and she happened to save for all the reasons people tell you not to do it that is exactly the reason that you should. [applause] so hillary clinton is actually the reason brick i may not agree with her but she is the reason i made the jump so then i had to figure out if i was republican or democrat. i said i don't know. should government tell you how to live your life or should you decide? i said i want to decide and she said do you think should you control how you spend your money or democrat i said if i work hard i want to spend my money. she said do you think

government can fix more things than not? i said definitely a messes that up and she said honey you are a republican. [laughter] [applause] >> as a first-generation american of parents a senator and female and conservative how to respond to those that don't feel the republican party is welcoming to minorities and women? >> they can always do better. we should always want to be better. you are a strong republican woman.

and then to encourage women. without voting population we need to have as many women out there using the power of their voices. [applause] do i want them to be republican? of course i do but having said that it's really tough right now because what i have found is left is really hard on republican women. they really give us a hard time if we don't think like they do. you can see how toxic it is and all the reasons it would be tough to do that but i'm constantly hit from the left to be a woman or indian

yesterday one was being hit by the left and we just get badgered. actually saw ben shapiro gives us speech and he was criticizing anti-semitism and hate against the alt right and the left came out against him. the one thing we always said republicans shouldn't wait for minorities to come to them. you should always go to places that are uncomfortable to go. because you will open doors of communication that you never had. i see that with jewish community.

and that the republican party needs to do a better job to voice it. and then bashing the women on our side. [applause] >> with just a few moments left so i will ask the last question. so the final audience question tonight partisanship scenes dead in american politics what

can they do to bridge the divide to bring more civility backed american politics? >> it is very toxic right now. you know it is bad because as somebody puts a good piece of policy they want to know whose it is before they supported. and that's when we hit a low. what bothers me is me have watched both parties refer to each other as evil and that hits a soft point with me but i have seen evil perk i have been to the democratic republic of congo where rape is a weapon of war. south sudan where i have met with women who have said military came and took their babies from them and threw them into a fire. and then force them to eat the bb /.

i have been on the bridge watching thousands of venezuelans walk hours in the heat to get the one meal they would get that day. the average venezuelan adult has lost 24 pounds. and by looking at chemical weapons in syria that is evil. what we have in our country are real issues that deserve real debate but we need to be responsible and realize through that debate still on her worst day we are blessed to live in america and we need to be grateful for that. [applause]

>> before we and i want to take a point of personal privilege you cannot write a book like this to pour out your heart - - your heart and soul without having a fantastic partner. i had amazing collaborator she is here with me tonight. jessica stand up please. [applause] >> a enjoyable evening we have one last thing we would like to do. thank you for the wonderful hospitality you have shown at gw university. and for your leadership as well.

>> we will memorialize the moment with a cell fee. everybody hold up your book. we do have a photographer coming. thank you. you look spectacular. [applause]