the third battalion regiment, second armored brigade combat team of the calvary division. these american soldiers are volunteers swore to protect the united states. >> across the top, we had a link that says all our video or clips. you can find all the clips that people make available for other people to look for. >> who leaves first, obama or assad >> there's anothe another that s vengeance or quotes that are valuable. >> what a bizarre decision by the president of mexico to invite donald trump down there. >> and then on the far left side, there are breakdowns much like you'd find o you would finr shopping website. you can say i want to see a particular person's name, i want to see a particular senate committee.

or a tag for a policy. so, the left side is a very valuable tool for narrowing down. >> search, click and play on c-span.org. next come incoming white house press secretary sean spicer on future relations between the president elect and the press. former senior obama adviser david axelrod and white house press secretary robert gibbs took part in this event in chicago. it's just over an hour.veryone. >> good evening, everyone. happy new year. my name is steve edwards. i'm the director of politics at the university of chicago and it is my pleasure to welcome you ts tonight's event featuring incoming white house press secretary sean spicer and obama white house press secretary robert gibbs in conversation

with our very own david axelrod. now, we know many of you on the campus much like the rest of america have a strong feeling on the outcome of the november presidential election. whether you support president-elect trump or oppose him, how we approach the presidency and the many policy areas and key areas affecting the nation over the next for years despite tonight here on campus we are beginning the first in a series of conversations that aimed to examine america in the trump era. our series will look at a wide array of forces and policies shaping the new administration. next tuesday, journalists will be in conversation with the author of the acclaimed bestseller. for a detailed look at the white rural voters in america. next thursday at noon "the new york times" columnist thomas friedman will survey the global landscape in the trump presidency and beyond.

that's my next thursday a week from tomorrow we will preview the many cabinet nominees and appointments that have been made the last few weeks since the end of the winter quarter with a panel of top washington journalists. you can find out more about those events and many others in thithe series by going to oure s website athis is politics.uchicago.edu. this is the first event for the iop on the presidential horizon. as we've done over the course of the past four years we want to remind everyone we don't endorse points of view that we are v dedicated to having events with different points of view can be tested. in the spirit of that and open discourse here at the university, we invite you to do your best conversation. so, we will also open up the floor to questions tonight from students and a microphone in the middle of the aisle and invite

you to come forward with your questions. when we do, you ask that you make your question a question and keeyou'd keep it short and e point so we can get as many of you tonight as possible.u, without further ado, please join me in welcoming josh parks to formally introduce the guest tonight. josh i is a second-year economis major at the university of chicago. he hails from mason michigan and is a member of the baseball team and college republicans. please put your hands together. [applause] >> thank you. it's my honor tonight to introducto might introducea cous who've devoted their lives to promoting a better future for you and me. sean spicer and is a native of the country. during his time as a communications director for the republican national committee he played an essential role in securing landmark majorities in the house and senate during the 2014 midterm elections. after becoming the chief strategist in the following

year, his strategy came to fruition november 8 with republicans maintaining the majority in both the house and the senate, and of coursepr capturing the presidency for the first time in eight years.io in addition to his time at the rnc, he served as the commander in the u.s. navy reserves. we are deeply grateful for his service to the nation. on january 20, he will assume his role as white house press secretary and director of communications under president elect donald trump. robert gibbs, the native of all the alabama served as the 27thes white house press secretary during president barack obama's first term in office. robert also served as the press secretary of john kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and played a key role in both president obama successful runs for the white house. he serves as the executive vice president and global chief of communications. he sits on the board ofoard of advisors. tonight conversation will be led by the iop director, david axelrod.

and on behalf of the institute of politics, it is with great respect and enthusiasm that we welcome tonight's guests. [applause] >> [inaudible] >> with all due respect, there's an opportunity for questions later on. i'm going to ask that you give the guests an opportunity to engage in conversation. >> [inaudible] >> sir, we ask you respectfully to what the conversation continued. it hasn't even started yet, sirn

>> [inaudible] [inaudible] >> let me just say as i said at the outset, we know that there are very strong feelings. what we are hoping to engender tonight some opportunity for people to ask questions, but also to come and understand to be in dialogue about the many critical issues including some he raised tonight. i will ask that all of us sort oof overrated enough to us would've operate in a tone of respect, respecting each other and the multiple points of view. david? >> i think he follows me on twitter by the way. [laughter] >> first of all, thank you for being here. he was scheduled to be here in

november on a panel with jolt from the clinton campaign, and you had a serious illness and in your family, lost your dad, for which we offer our condolences. i appreciate you coming back. you have acquired a few titles since then, and we'll get to that. but i do want to ask you to reflect back on the campaign. you were the chief strategistand spokesman for the republican party in 2016. you were the communicationss director in 2012 i noticed. he didn't mention that when he went through 2014.uess my i guess my question to you is at the beginning of that process, how much was donald trump on the radar screen as a likely candidate for the party?. >> that's a great question.

honestly, the way that we look at the cycle when we wrote a whole report, one of the recommendations no one wanted to talk about is the party needed to get out of the way of the voters and to be honest withwe you, we woke up every day knowing when we had a nominee to worry about who one of the 17 or 87 or however many ran was going to be the nominee. it was a waste of time because regardless of who you wanted in the day, our job was to be ready for the nominee. clearly there was a lot of doubt in the media with the pundits about how serious it would be to file the paperwork and financial disclosure form.e there were a lot of people attracted to this and the

infancy of a real movement going on. i don't think whether it was him or jeb bush or marco rubio or kasich because there's very little you can do. when the primary is over, what a is it, 1276 delegates, you try to think who you wanted -- >> one of the things you do did after 2012 has commissioned a report on the opportunity project and it was known as the autopsy of the 2010 election. but a major point was to do better at reaching out to hispanics, young people and minorities generally.

when trump came down the escalator making the comments he made about immigrants and so on, were you concerned this wasn't s wasn't exactly the fate of? >> the recommendations in that report on every single one of them i think some of them were the parties specifically. they needed to do investing in the data into digital operations and put more of a presence in the minority communities where we haven't been campaigning in the past. we hadn't been there. and so, i think what we were looking for in the candidates is to see whether or not there was a philosophical buy-in on the growing the party. when you lose the white house in the way that we had, it was sort of barely and i think we saw the emergence of the key communities growing at a pace in a lot of states that have been traditional republican

strongholds. we recognize the need to tell our message more. so sure there was a concern. but i think there's no question you can argue about the tactics that donald trump philosophically believes in growing the party and reaching out to people. there's a difference between whether or not he may do it anyway that'in away that myselfr candidate preferred to be done or thought it was smart that he >>but hedid it his way and he w. >> you can look at the minority community in particular. especially if you look at the black vote he increased over romney. do i think we have more work to do, absolutely. do i think it is good enough, absolutely not. we went to places -- if you loo at where he went in baton philadelphia, detroit, he went to a lot of cities. if you look at the totality of

where he went it is probably more of the last two nominees combined.out to t >> reaching out to those communities do you think that is a fair characterization? it seems like he maximized the vote in other place and other pt those communities. >> there is no question that the there is a commitment to it. he went to places, he went to churches and businesses and places that republican nominees had undergone in the past.ave ao we have a lot more to do. when you get 8% of the black vote, that's not good. you need to do better, not just politically to win but i believe philosophically we have awe message that should be much more appealing to a lot of the minority communities and we need to do a better job of getting the message out. >> in terms of the campaignit itself i know you were pretty strong the other day saying that

you didn't feel the whole wikileaks was a determinant inht any way. you asked professional political folks do with pretty outspoken on some of the content of the wikileaks during the campaign. so, you obviously thought it had some effect or you wouldn't bebe wasting your time talking about it. >> there is a difference whether i think that it's appropriate and frankly the proposed answer as well. but whether or not that swayedtc the election, at the end of the day if the actions in those e-mails. we talk about it, but podesta said some pretty nasty things about hillary clinton and i think to some degree, we have overlooked what was in those e-mails into the action they took. you guy >> you didn't overlook them, you

talked about it. >> we tried to as democrats if they got copies of the memo, no one had a problem legally publishing.'t i didn't hear anyone come to his defense and say the idea that they are publishing personal information that isn't supposed to be published, we should stop them from doing that. the folks from the dnc didn't get u up and do it politically. we have a job to do and that's when we did everything we could to maximize the information that we had. >> how surprised were you on november 8? >> very. you solve the 200 counties that obama carried flip. wisconsin had been carried since 1984, michigan since 88. pennsylvania -- you know, and again when you look at all of them, we were hoping for one. trump did the best of anyone in

rhode island. i think when you saw the breadth and depth of that, -- those of us that have been in politics, it is easier to understand butth it's like if your sports team is playing the undefeated team and you beat them, that when it's so much different than the fair w fight you were supposed to win. so it's always good but there is no question that i think the clinton team thought they were going to win. a good chunk of republicans thought they were going to win.. >> and you thought they were going to win? g >> there is a difference between day and i think we were going to win or to the magnitude that wew did.o-tenths we have michigan by two decimal points but that is nothing worth putting in the bank.

so i thought the momentum was there but also, i had been through 12 and i remember on election day the romney people convinced we were going to pull- this out.gh that. >> i think when you've been through that, it is a lot harder. i lost an election in 2004, but until i see that raw data i don't put the way into the wind. you saw last cycle the other incumbents who were told by the pollsters you've got this. and now they are a former member of congress. so, i think that you can feel good and the data feels good and the investment that we made inn the data was unequivocally worth it because one of the things we knew is exactly where the undecideds were and what was going to move them and we knew

how to go after them whether it would be a door knock, phone call followed up by this and that. but there is no question that i think the magnitude of the wind considering what the conventional wisdom was was enormous. >> you mentioned twitter, can we talk about the? >> sure. >> do you know what the president elect is going to tweet or do you get it on your phone like everybody else?nce in >> every once in a while he says i'm going to tweet something. >> i know everyone says who is

doing this one because it is ios, he has multiple devices. >> its follow-up, when you wake up in the morning -- if you sleep -- do you book with a certain sense of dread? [laughter] >> no, but i do look first. that's what's going to drive the news. whatever he tweets is going to drive the news. news. use all the other day he sends out a single one and the idea that houses an it focused on tax reform and health care and instead focused on the office of government ethics immediately it was on.

>> [inaudible] >> you into the white house yesterday and got a sense of th> apparatus that is the building. you've obviously worked there before.be how much different do you think your job will be because the president elect a. >> in the 2008-foot early on the last day that you were walking in, there was no handle. we had a single standalone computer in a room on the first floor that you could check if you dare had a facebook page. you came in and brought social o media. compared to the tools you started with, there is an

evolution of social media that has occurred in the last eight years and i look at it now going okay but is the next thing around the corner. but twitter is going to be a major piece of that. but also, our instrument in case the page as well.ssec and there >> there is no doubt that makes your job a bit easier in this way but how do you think building off of what david said if something comes up three in the morning. so if you don't know what he is going to set the day with. >> part of it is he does suggest

things and this is the stuff that we want to get ahead of. a lot of it he says i'm going to tweet about this but at the end of the day he is the president com,he's going to set the tone. our job is to march forward and implement the agenda or get it out. and i do kno know that for a lof folks, i don't know if it is frustrating for the folks in the mainstream media, but i do looki at it as an exciting piece of the job. >> there is no doubt that it's exciting. [laughter] >> and it adds an element where you know he can drive something, drive a message and influencee people in a way that hasn't done before. and obama did some unique things with social media and his ability to speak directly to the american people. each president finds their voi

voice. excitin this is going to be an exciting time. >> why don't we follow up on that. the one thing you learn when h you're in the white house for someone that speaks as president, some of the thingst, you say consent of the armies marching and tumbling. so, the notion that he would tweet something has exponentially more impact now than it did three months ago. europe as was mentioned in the r commander reserve, when you see a tweet at the north koreans on their nuclear program knowing that kim jong un is in the most favorable of leaders does that give you a bit of heartburn? >> when people tal

>> when people talk about bitter and president elect -- scenic he's going to keep doing it. >> of course. he is a very strategic thinker about this is where i want this to end up and he thinks back roots. if you look at what he's done with her is kerry or the gm from an emotion to that in congress yesterday come if you actually sit back and objectively look at it, he has been extremely successful with this use of twitter into getting the results achieved. >> but as much as he has had success, what is his background on the nuclear proliferation -- >> i think there is this misconception or implication that he's just randomly tweeting tweeting. he makes suggestions, but he knows exactly where he wants to end up on a particular subject or outcome, whether it is a foreign-policy issue andne sometimes it's a phone call,

sometimes it is a tweet or a meeting.dersta but he understands the strategic value and actions.ew >> you mentioned in an interview a week or so ago, business as usual for the national press corps. >> .. know that it's -- you're the press secretary oelectricity, -- press secretary elect. guess. give us a sense how you see businesses as usual for the washington press corps changing? just seating assignments -- >> i think it's a great question. don't think -- i think the answer in washington -- you heard this during your time in the white house -- you ask a question. we have always done it this way. not just the press corps but you ask someone in an agency, there is a reason we do this?

we've always done it this way. one thing the president-elect protect is figure ought if theirs a better outcome -- there's a better outcome and one thing i wand -- i asked josh i have talked to j. carney and ari flasher and perino and said in an interview one thing i wish to change moore's relationship with the press. i think the point she was makina than an obviously i interview is that i think we have to look at certain things and say can we do them better, and it's not pro or con the press. their reporters that say you know would really help relationships or give us more access and my point is instead

of just saying josh ernst had a briefing every day at 12:30 and i'm going to have a briefing every day at 12:30 and josh is the last procedure for whatever to work in a certain way and ipr asked him yesterday privately what are his suggestions and what would he do better and part of it is bringing in the american people. we need to use our time very effectively during the campaign. if there thinks that maybe you know papers in chicago don't get a seat right now or certain papers due and certain don't is their way way to bring in more regional broadcast networks, more blogs? >> -year-old buset nubus reince priebus has suggested maybe the daily briefing is outmoded.

>> but you know mike mccurdy has been a big advocate of taking it off camera and i've talked to some of them about that. once we televised it it has become more of a show than aho substantive discourse and i think there's some value. subst the pentagon has a gaggle every day. that's something that i continue to ask not just press secretaries but journalists. do you think it's morere substandard if we do this maybe a couple of times a week and do it on camera or one idea that has been batted around as we embargo the release of it so you can have a substantive discussion in the room not thinking in its immediate tweet fests. >> so this is the intriguing ths thing or i guess the important thing.en the president-elect and soon-to-be president come he tweet quite a bit and he twitted a couple of things today, one of

them on obamacare where he seems to be sort of ambiguous about whether the congress should move forward on the track they are on or not move forward on the trac they are on. isn't necessary since there is not a lot of nuance in these tweets to have someone to be able to stand up and say what they mean? >> sure and just to be clear there will be a daily stumping with the press corps every single day whether it's a gaggle or non-camera thing but i think the point that i'm trying to make is to say that i'm going to ask robert gibson asked josh ernst and jay carney and dana perino and i'm going to ask bloggers and the white house correspondents association and say is there something that could be more valuable but i'mng also going to focus and say you want a small log in illinois is there way you think your voice could be included, maybe send him some questions and we starta off a reefing three times a week

they sing these questions came in from daily newspapers but i think that every new iteration in the administration there's an opportunity to say can we do things better and again i think one of the things the president-elect would really like to see is how can we involve more people in this process in this democracy? >> he's been. critical of the press corps thac has followed him calling themd and he's been. tough at times on many of the major news outlets. what is your view of the major news outlets in the country in the major networks? are they not doing their job? >> i don't want to be stereotypical and say this out dish -- this out later that outlook but i think they are a good group orders that work atgo

various outlets and good reporters the work of various outlets. i think too often it's become ai test of time to put up a headline that is in competition with "the national inquirer" to get more readers and more shares than they lack substance break can tell you i get more calls than say hey more calls in say hey, and deadlines i've got 40 minutes can you tell us what your position is going to be vis-à-vis iran's recent thing in the i ran violence? you want in 40 minutes hey we just found out the other day for example i got a call from a reporter that said i need a comment. we are going on the nightly news because russia has had a power station in vermont. it was wrong so they wanted me to comment on something and i said to them my response back was do you have any one for me commend to you on the record and they said no a hour and sources are impeccable though. top-notch reporting, guys.

they later and when they came back they said well the sources were. clear at the time. they are like the weatherman half the time.hey say they say it's going to be sunny and it rains they say will talk about tomorrow night think there's a degree of accountability to some thesentra folks because they get to write stuff with impunity. talk about twitter a couple of weeks ago there was a story that came out without asking for comment that said spicer kicks jack morsi ab tech meeting. first of all think about that for a second the idea that who's who you can have in a meeting. >> the ceo of twitter. >> a couple of outlets took it and ran with it without ever asking if you think about it they were never invited. therefore they could never take them out but the outlets took the story and ran with it. the problem with stuff like that

you have to put the genie back in the bottle. to call you don't get to call and say guess what they admitted they were wrong. i once the story is out there you can't undo it and i think what i have seen more and more is that it's become a race to be first. >> some would argue you talky rt about mr. trump this kind of the click base king in his twitter that he is sort of lived off of that. >> it's one thing to make a statement that is a journalist job and they can do what they want but if you are responsible journalist you've got to get it right to understand the facts. >> that's the job of the president of the united states. a positive. >> it is but again he has a right to express himself on twitter and tell you what his opinion is and tell you what needs to be done. he's been very effective at that.

>> we both have had --. >> one more housekeeping question. i've always thought this was a remarkable during the campaign that there really were no goodll pools in terms of having a protected pool.l. will the president-elect. >> just explain what it is. >> whatever the president is moving somewhere they take a a representative sample of the press corps so there are three reporters from the wire services , there is a producer and more than just a reporter basically if for instance barack obama goes out tonight for pizza they would take a motorcade of that protected pool that follows. we had a protective pool during

the presidential campaign. never really got to have full protective pool for you guys. she probably had more of a sense on the plane but not necessarily what i would have thought of of the full protective pool. do you believe that you will have that when you get to the white house?as when you leave the ground you'lg commit? >> i'm not going to say 100%. >> do you think you should? >> i think it depends.de if yes a right to do a personal activity with his family or something like that and it's one thing to notify the president going to be here and you can stand outside and watch and i think generally speaking we been pretty good about improving that relationship. we had one that mar-a-lago and

frankly we have allowed it to expand. it is different when you become president because it does become part of the motorcade is easier to move on air force one.compar >> you will have press on air force one? >> you will use air force one.fo i know it's a lesser plane. >> he does have a nice plane. >> air force one is not bad. what is your definition of fake news? >> i think that which is intentionally false so i don't thank, think their mainstream if you will stories that i would put into them but could as well. i think stories are legitimately have no resemblance to actual facts are no intention of seeking out the truth.

>> some not just something that somebody makes up on the internet that somebody died or some pizza parlor in washingtona is operating a child sex ring. s do you think this happens in the mainstream? >> what i'm saying is you cannot limit it. there are instances where i think reporters have legitimately overlooked facts in an attempt to get a story out quick and right. the twit are story being an example. that is a fake news store. it is not real would never happen. never checked -- >> your goal -- >> in that tick politico posted a story that they did not do due diligence on. it was not true. that was fake news. >> let me did you this. a good disdistinction to draw here. any deal yaw deal with the press you're going find things they get wrong dirk.

>> the different between gifting things wrong and not doing your job. >> sure, sure. but does that -- you think politico thought to make something up? they have a reputation that -- >> i didn't. >> but won't can't to -- >> differs between -- that's intent. and it's like when you talk about the definition of committing a crime. certain things that would you sack did you intend to go out and -- >> one -- let's put a fine out point on this, unput others are that pizza parlor is running a child sex ring and hillary clinton is involved and that was retweeted minimums millions of times. you're not equating -- >> no. no. there's bad news, southeasterlily -- >> that that bad report doing. >> bad reporting do. >> >> i also think that -- >> we're trying to help you here. >> when a story is not at all accurate, that fake. and i think to limit it to and

say only stuff on the internet where shun intentionally did it. i would expand that to where someone didn't do due diligence and not -- it's one thing to be wrong or inaccurate. we misplaced the decimal point, spelled your name wrong, but when you intentionally put out a piece of news for the sake of rushing it out, that's fake. >> when you within to the white house yesterday and got the -- you where are telling us back stage that -- i don't know how long you were suppose today be there but you spent three and a half -- you spent a while there. >> right. >> what was -- give us a since. what did you learn? what was the biggest surprise -- i don't want to divulge action -- every conversation but something that surprisoid or took away, learned, that made you rethink how you're thinking about this president dealing with the protect.

>> you dealing with the press? >> frankly a whole host -- logistically, briefing, wise, talking to josh -- what do you do to get ready every day. things that favoringly dana talked to me about -- briefing books and the stuff she did to prep, and then one of josh's assistant showed us the procedures they do in terms of the information they have access to. and how they go about getting that information synthesize iing it. some is not for the public domain. i thought, wow -- you realize the volume of stuff you must consume to be ready to face the questions. and then there's things that -- eight years ago i walked out. and you forget the size and scope -- you walk into lower press, there's the press briefing room on tv and the thing called lower press. the press can open this door and a bun of them -- the assistants

there and they interface with the press guys and then the press secretary's office is up a little hall wear and -- hallway and you forget the size and scope. we're like, wow, that's a lot smaller than i remember. you were squeezing 12 people into a room the size of this -- >> that's a door that will remain unlocked during the -- >> we'll see. the door to lower press i imagine, but -- >> there's -- >> go ahead. >> but you -- >> i think what i -- again, part of what i don't want to do now is say, this is what's going to happen. the conversation that i'm having, i asked josh these questions -- would you continue to do this? what are the pro and cons of x and y and would you allow this policy, increase it, decrease it and why? i asked him about the briefing times. why do you brief at this time? gut then at the idea is to challenge myself and my team to say, is there some way that can

could be more informative, something better? should we -- what do we need to prepare. >> we should -- we got a line of questioners here. identify yourself and just -- >> josh -- >> the only thing we ask is that you end it with a question mark. >> try to get to as many as we can. >> i promise there's a question mark here. my name is jason woods; thank you for'ing here. didn't see but i like your socks. my question does. >> buy them at g.o.p..com. >> my question could potentially be classified as a hard question. the president-elect and his surrogates are committed to misinformation and sometimes lies. whether it's the president-elect claiming he saw thousands during the collapse of the twin towers, or he and son his pushing fake news. which was fake news that led to

a gunman entering a pizza parlor in d.c. do you see defer or to -- desere our -- >> he's actually could be an aspiring reporter there were three questions tucked into one. >> die what i can -- i do what i can. >> i have spent 17-1/2 years the navy as a public affairs office, three years in the -- bush administration and served member of congress. i believe that you -- the one that that whether you're a republican, democrat, independent, you have your integrity. i may tell a reporter i can't discuss something but never lie. anybody that is an aspiring commune tater adheres to that. you've lose your -- the respect and trust of the press corps, you got nothing.

one thing that allows us to sometimes promote a story or kill a story is that reporters trust is. they know you'll wave them off of bad things things and for thn into this. so, all i can tell you is that i intend to have hopefully a very prosperous life after that's, if robert is looking for anyone at mcdonald's. >> you can wear jeans when you grow up. >> so, i need to talk away with this -- i also believe -- >> would you quit? would you quit if you were asked to -- >> it's not a question -- i can't -- i don't think any community indicator worth their salt can go out and tell a lie. you just can't do it. one thing for a surrogate to say something or -- again, i'm not by any means advocating that. you have to -- you can spin the way you want, but i think go out and tell alice something that

is -- tell a lie is not acceptable. beyond that, i think the permanent american people deserve public servants -- while you may not agree with the agenda, i don't agree with a lot of the policies that barack obama but he is the commander in chief, our president, and he deserves the respect of the office. >> thank you. >> next question. >> hi. aim young itch have one question. >> are you'll never be report use. >> president-elect trump uses social media as a way of shape his foreign policy message. he his won't tweet on china's perceived pasivity0. north korea's nuclear program. but unfortunately for a now not only did beijing authority shrug it off and report the tweeds as -- not the responsible style but also the many average -- on

internet. is this a direct pipeline to the american people derail or debase debates about some pressing foreign policy issues? >> the president-elect has opinion to 75 different foreign leaders and he understands the role that both china and russia play in the globe right now and committed to make sure we have a both in terms of contacting american jobs and the political nature and the threat it may potentially face. to have a relationship with president yi and president hooton and hopefully will be to the benefit of the american people. >> hello. my date -- my name is david abraham and i have not just him being a reporter. my question is related but i kind of want to take a step

back. the oxford dictionary's word of the year for 2016 was -- hyphenated. i want to know as someone who serves at the pleasure of the president what you believe is his relationship to the truth and what do you believe is your relationship as his representative to the press?tr >> so i believe that, he fundamentally believes what he says. he believes in the country so to question somebody's desire to be truthful in a briefing is insulting. i think there a lot of people who have come to the conclusionc that i have and you have to

wonder how they came to that but i don't question necessarily that they don't believe more conclusions are true. my job is to represent his beliefs and articulate them toto the press, plain and simple. >> shone when he says berg sample millions of people voted illegally at believe you are telling me he believes it but that doesn't make it true. [applause] >> but david's question was does he believe what he is saying is truthful and the answer is yes. >> i'm kyle bartman. you talked earlier about trumpmp being a strategic thinker with regard to proliferation however he was elected on the basis of the strategic thinking in is business and also worth bearing

that his business has gone bankrupt several times.d to g why should we trust trump saying that he's a strategic thinker il this area when he has no expertise in their other people with expertise and the surrounding himself with individuals such as tillerson who has similar experience but not in the geopolitical round? >> a couple of things there.e one is trust is earned that hopefully over the next four years potentially next eight years that he earns trust and respect but part of it like everybody else actions that have taken place and that's with any politician frank danny job. when you walk in the classroom the first day the professor knows what they are talking about. some point you probably look up and you say i really learned a lot and i like the way they presented it and they have earned your respect. i think that's how you perform any job whether it's president

or professor or whatever. hopefully his actionsot domestically and in foreign policy feared your trust. with rex tillerson i have to be honest i have spent time with him. he is an unbelievably press and candidate for secretary of state and i think what people need to understand anything about robert's job they have how many locations throughout the world? 36,000 so you are dealing with countries and employees and laws , something goes wrong in a country they have to be able to m acuate. rex tillerson's experience over the last 30 years at that exxon has allowed him to develop a relationship in 50 plus countries. someone who is a minister of finance at one point the prime minister to the president. he is a personal relationship with him.he he understands some of the decisions that go on but at the end of the day his job was to

make sure that exxon got the best deal. he would work with countries to make sure -- this is a guy who is willing to put all that aside to do the same thing for the country and i think hopefully through his confirmation hearing , hearings you start toe realize this is an unbelievably gifted individual who cares deeply about this country and is willing to put a lot of aside to help this country in a better way. >> hi thank you so much for being here to talk with us today. i think a lot of us are curious about the presents currenten skeptical role about the intelligence community in our country but i was wondering what your role would be, sorry what your role would be when a person takes a adversarial role with this intelligence agencies and what is the message he is trying to relay and how does he get back to the message? >> thank you i'm glad you

brought this up. there's an interesting dynamic with intelligence and this is where i think there is intelligence to to the president-elect and other key members of our government.t- it's raw information. raw i that's with the security team and other advisers analyze thata data and suggest recommendationd on policies that the president present election take. there's a difference between believing the data and the outcome. i'm going to use an analogy and i know someone will try to mock this but if you watch to weather stations at night one station can say we don't believe it's going to rain and one does.to that doesn't mean that data wasd wrong. when meteorologists look at it and believed, i look at the state and i believe this outcome is going to occur another looks at it and says i believe it's another outcome and is, that's a simple analogy but it's in a

situation. you can look at a situation or a set of facts and come to one conclusion and what i think the president elect skepticism right now is whether or not some of this raw data is being interpreted in a way or he wonders why it's beingwh interpreted that way. this friday he's going to sit down with the director of the fbi comey director of national intelligence clapper and the director of the cia brennan and ask them how they took the data that was presented and came to the conclusions that they did. i think that part of this is understanding to the all hear the same conclusions? what are their concerns but a lot of this, a lot of theu read reports you see talk about how there's a high degree of confidence. we believe the following and i think what he wants to know if you think about it and i'm not o trying to -- you that benghaziti blamed on the video. what he wants is an opportunity

to talk and say the data suggest this and this is what i hear in the different briefings that i get. how did you come to this conclusion and to what degree of certainty had become to? and having a healthy degree of skepticism in the analysis is not, is a good thing. the data is not in question perr se.at it's how did you take that data which is classified and come up with this conclusion? >> this must be a three-part question.ou have >> renan is here tomorrow. i have a high degree ofer confidence he is going to be here tomorrow. [laughter] >> do you think though, do you think much of the data you are talking about is unknown to most of the american people. you'd think having this debate

over that data and analysis in the way that it's being done right now is helpful to the intelligence community or to the president-elect? >> we have all seen evidence and we have gone to war over things that weren't right. is that a debate though that he has had before he is president? >> again look at the position that he has put in.same o just for the sake of this understand something. the reports that we are talking about, the president of the united states barack obama has not been briefed on this. my understanding is he will be briefed later this week that the intelligence community has not issued a final report. the idea that we are all being asked what her opinion is on something that isn't fine i think is frankly responsible.

>> the president-elect has offered his opinion. o freely on it. >> i understand that but he ishh asking for the intelligence heads to come and, three of the 17 and give -- why they came to the conclusions they did. frankly i think that's the logical way he should come to a decision to ask people to come in and explain how they came to the conclusion and either agree or disagree. we have an opportunity toey question them and how they camet to the those conclusions and what degree of certainty they have but i think the idea the president-elect are frankly anybody should be judging something before it's final is not a smart idea. >> we are going to try to squeeze in two last questionsns very quickly. we will have you and then. >> my name is tristan and thank you for coming to speak with us.

you have been outspoken in talking about the liberal biasdi of the mainstream media and i'm wondering if you are also just as concerned about vias from right-wing sources such as "fox news" or write part or whether talking about bias is more of an political point than worrying about bias itself?as. >> i think there's a difference. i think breitbart is unapologetic coming from a conservative standpoint. the same with his "huffington post" were think progress is liberal. frankly i don't have a problem with it but i believe it's healthy in a democracy to have our foundation of people coming out with papers and flyers and pamphlets back in the day. i think that's healthy. i've no problem with it. what i have a problem with quote unquote people who believe mainstream pretending to be

neutral when they are not.come we have done a ton of campaignss and i can type in every single v campaign when the league of conservation voters came out with their scorecard notably republican gets an f. when the chamber of commerce comes up with their scorecard, we don't care about that. that's a bias in choosing an issue to cover verses not to cover. as someone who is spent 25 yeari pitching reporters there stories that literally a porter will say we don't care about that. paint again i'm not painting a broadbrush with every reporter but i do think after 25 years i can tell you in studies that are done and this isn't just me most stories point to the fact that the majority of reporters have s liberal bent to them. i think it's important to make sure that when you are leader or

consumer of a story or an outlet you view it sometimes with a healthy skepticism that you wear that words coming from. >> earlier when you are talkingr about what constitutes these views he talked about how reporter use intelligence even if they believe something is not true but at the same time he defended the president-elect and his relationship to the truth when he was offended by statements and if people believe they are true that's morally good. >> you are allowed to have an opinion that i can believe something or care about something i can believe that an outcome but if you are a reporter her job is to get it right and get the facts right. >> isn't that also your job if you are the president of the united states? >> if he believes that true, my point is he is allowed, every

president is allowed to draw a conclusion or opinion based on the fact that they have. it's apples and oranges. senate say mr. you would extend that to a reporter who didn't believe it was true? >> than they are an opinion writer. express opinions, god bless you. put it up however often you want, get a column somewhere, i think it's a very healthy part of our democracy but i think there's a big difference in saying this is news and we are going to put it on the news section of "the new york times" and the news section of "cnn." if you are going to express your opinion or your bias then you should move over to the other side of the house and call

yourself an opinion writer. >> thank you. >> i just want to say first of all thank you to all of you for being here today and for asking excellent questions and four giving sean a respectful hearing could i want to thank you for coming. i'm thinking a buddy in