-I want to ask -- obviously you've been covering
these bombings and this is a situation
where we certainly don't know who's behind it.
And we need to let this investigation unfold.
But it certainly has been a case that everybody who's received
one of these bombs is someone
the president has been critical of.
-Right. -He basically made a call
toward some degree of civility.
But he also said that the press
is leading to anger in society,
which seemed like an escalation.
As someone in the press, how do you feel about this?
-So, we cover anger in society.
And the person creating anger is oftentimes the president.
And I think there's a lot of timidity in the press
to call out that which is right in front of our eyes.
And what's right in front of our eyes is that before yesterday,
the list of people who received pipe bombs
and suspicious packages read like a list
of most prominent Democrats in the country.
Now they're all potential victims
or attempted assassin targets.
And you can't separate the climate in which they live.
We put together -- We just looked at the month of October.
Donald Trump has attacked all of the people
who received pipe bombs at rallies this month.
So I don't believe in coincidences anymore.
And I don't think we can ignore
the climate that he's contributed to.
-You saw --
And we referenced the fact that at yesterday's rally
after these facts, he was trying to be more muted.
He was trying to call on civility.
But it looked as though it was difficult for him.
Does that -- Did you take the same from that?
-Well, I mean, it was difficult for him
because he told us that it was difficult for him.
[ Laughter ]
He told us that he wanted credit for behaving.
And I think, you know, we just have --
I think in the press, we have to be so careful
not to lower the bar.
Can you imagine President Obama
patting himself on the back for behaving?
I mean, I have a 6-year-old
who no longer gets treats for behaving.
I mean, this is conduct so unprecedented
for someone in charge of the nuclear codes.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah.
You were a White House communications director
under President Bush so you were in a situation
where you were by his side
when terror moments would happen, as well.
What were those moments like when something, you know,
horrible would happen in this country,
and the president was looked upon to set the tone?
-You know a lot about a leader
when you see them react to a crisis.
When you think about President Obama after Newtown.
They're often the most difficult moments we face as a country.
I traveled with President Bush to Scotland
and it was on the day of London's --
one of their worst terror attacks.
There were subway bombings and bus bombings.
And George W. Bush was in Tony Blair's suite.
And the bombing happened. And it was morning there.
So Tony Blair had to address the world,
but more importantly to him, the British public.
And George Bush ultimately a few hours later
would have to address the U.S. public.
So they called in their communications staff.
And there, the most eloquent leader on the world stage,
Tony Blair was, you know, with his pencil.
And George Bush, who I revere,
but was not thought of as the world's fanciest communicator...
[ Laughter ] ...said to Tony Blair,
"Hey, here are my communications folks."
I was like, "Oh, God, I'm sure he doesn't need us."
We're going to watch his remarks and steal some lines from him.
[ Laughter ]
They were close enough that Tony Blair sort of
laughed it off and said,
[ British accent ] "Oh, thank you, George.
You know, I've got this."
[ Normal voice ] But the idea was, you know, that terror
united the world's leaders, and it was important to them.
This was a summit where Bono was there trying to
draw attention to global poverty.
And it was important to Tony Blair and George W. Bush
to speak out at this moment of terror.
You look at what happened yesterday.
The American President
on the day of an attempted domestic terror attack
against his political opponents and enemies
patted himself on the back for behaving
and not screaming about socialists,
but saying it in a soft voice. -Yeah.
And you -- I want to point out that you obviously had to be
with the president in difficult times.
There were other crises that were, is it safe to say,
a little bit more comic?
You were working with the president when he choked
on a pretzel and fell down.
-Yeah. Well, so I --
[ Laughter ]
Yeah. He did. He did.
So this was the story. -Okay.
-And I never sussed this out for myself
because the times were different.
I wasn't a reporter then. -Right.
-So he was so fit from all his running
that his blood pressure was so low
that choking for a minute on a pretzel laid him out.
-Uh-huh. -But even in all moments
like that, we never talked about the 25th Amendment.
And I first read about the 25th amendment
when the book "Fire and Fury" came out and Steve Bannon said,
"Oh, you know, we had to protect him from the 25th --"
I Googled it. I didn't know what the 25th Amendment was.
So you have a White House now
where all the people around him talk about the 25th Amendment.
It's a remarkable commentary
on what the people closest to him actually see.
'Cause if something looks chaotic on the outside,
it's a million times worse on the inside.
-You have referred to yourself as a non-practicing Republican
right now because the Republican --
[ Laughter ]
Because the Republican Party has drifted away
from what I believe were the values that drew you to it.
And these were the "-isms" such as nationalism.
-Yeah. -Is this something
that you saw coming at any point?
I mean, is this something that happened with Donald Trump,
or is it something that was trending this way
and he took advantage of?
-You know, it was something that the people I worked for
tried to push against.
It was something that Sarah Palin dabbled in.
She talked about President Obama palling around with terrorists.
I mean, she started the grievance --
-And you were working with John McCain at the time,
so you're very close to that. -And I saw it.
And I saw that her crowds were bigger and louder
and more animated by her speaking to their grievances,
speaking to their nativism,
speaking to their feeling of being angry
about immigration and other issues,
but John McCain didn't embrace any of those.
And that's probably why ultimately the two of them
ended up not on the same page.
-Due to this non-practicing and the current state
of the Republican Party, do you feel as though
a time will come again where you will practice Republicanism?
-No. -Do you hope that --
[ Laughter ]
-No. Look, I think that the time
when Republicans and Democrats went on TV
and fought about taxes is dead.
I don't think that will happen again.
And I think more often than not,
people that have seen American presidents up close
and know what the conduct is supposed to be like
will ultimately decide that a check
on this administration is urgent.
I think it's really important that Democrats take over
the House and/or the Senate.
I think that any White House is improved
by having a check and a balance,
this White House more than any other.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Well,
thank you so much for being here.
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