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[DOUGLAS BRINKLEY] Anybody 
have any questions?

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[EVAN SMITH] Yes, Steve 
will get the microphone set.

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Okay, so if you have questions,

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you're welcome to come down

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and we'll take as many 
as time permits. Dan.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] 
Before to go on,

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Molly Ivins would 
also be a great,

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along with Hunter.

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There's a great documentary

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on her at South By.

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[SMITH] Yes. [AUDIENCE 
MEMBER] Anyway, what about

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the Democratic 
field. Your thoughts?

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[SMITH] Do you have a view 
on the Democrats' prospects

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in the next election? 
[BRINKLEY] I do,

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I think it's all

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about whether Joe 
Biden runs or not.

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And it looks like--

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[SMITH] Looks like 
he's going to, right?

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[BRINKLEY] And if Biden runs,

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I think he'll be a front runner

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for almost the whole time

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and it would really 
take somebody

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to turn the apple cart over

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in Iowa or New Hampshire.

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Beto O'Rourke from 
Texas has a shot at it

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if he could win Iowa.

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That's a demographic that 
should be good for him.

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And if he could be 
the darling of Iowa

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and suddenly wins there,

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he could be on a 
great trajectory.

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But it he loses Iowa,

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Biden's gonna do well 
in New Hampshire.

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[SMITH] And especially 
South Carolina.

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He'll do very well 
in South Carolina.

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[BRINKLEY] --South Carolina.

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And then he gets to California

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and you have Kamala Harris there

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and she's gonna grab 
a bunch of delegates.

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Where would a Beto 
O'Rourke start gathering

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all those delegates?

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But the Bernie Sanders vote

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has been deeply 
underappreciated.

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I don't think Bernie's going

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to shrink in appeal.

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He is proven

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to have a lot of loyalty.

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So you're looking 
at Biden and Bernie.

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And then there's oxygen for

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a third major player,

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maybe four.

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Cory Booker still has a chance.

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I thought Senator Klobuchar,

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Amy Klobuchar in 
Minnesota is terrific

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but her fundraising is anemic.

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So she would have 
to find a way to

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get a little more zip in her.

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But the bottom line is,

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as a historian speaking,

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2020 is a hundred years

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of women getting 
the right to vote.

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And the Democratic party 
cannot have a non-woman,

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there has to be a woman

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on the ticket.

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[SMITH] I agree with you.

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The rocket booster 
of that last election

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for the Democrats 
in which they were,

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they had pretty 
good election cycle,

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were young people,

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women and people of color.

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To not acknowledge 
that in some way

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is really to snatch 
potential victory from

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or defeat rather from the 
jaws of potential victory.

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[BRINKLEY] I agree completely,

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I mean, what I'm suggesting 
if Bernie or Biden

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or O'Rourke happen to get

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the nomination they 
would have to pick

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a person of color or a woman.

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Kamala Harris would be very 
good choice at that point.

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You couldn't do 
Biden-Klobuchar in my view.

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Maybe but I think you have to 
show diversity as a Democrat.

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[SMITH] You would 
agree Doug, also,

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in view of the resolution

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of the Mueller investigation

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the President may very 
well get re-elected.

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[BRINKLEY] Yes.

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[SMITH] Right? Don't 
you think you have

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to go into it assuming.

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[BRINKLEY] There is no question,

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Donald Trump is a lot stronger

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than the Democratic 
Party likes to admit.

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I mean if we,

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we're divided.

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People watch Fox News,

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people watch CNN, MSNBC.

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You know, people pull 
off in different areas.

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But Donald Trump now has some,

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has some wind in 
his sail even with

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all the scandals and it's

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the most scandal 
plagued president.

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There are more ugly 
scandals surrounding him

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than Warren Harding in 
the Teapot Dome era.

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I mean, this is a 
scandal plagued president

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but nevertheless when you 
don't see Republicans breaking

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from him.

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I mean, when Nixon

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went down it's when Barry 
Goldwater and Howard Baker

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and leading lights 
said you lied,

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you're toast.

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You don't see Lindsey 
Graham doing that.

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You know, we're not seeing 
the Republicans showing that

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'cause they're very 
afraid to be nuked

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by the Trump machine.

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To be ridiculed on Sean 
Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

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To be, you know,

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people were primaried 
from the right

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and so they're being very mute.

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[SMITH] Ma'am?

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Thank 
you for being here.

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Well, with Trump,

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he doesn't read,

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he doesn't read 
any of the reports

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that are given to him

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and he just tweets.

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And I got to recently 
at South By they had,

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they had a fake,

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faux presidential 
library of tweets

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of his and to go back and read

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what these real things are,

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I was wondering how 
do things really work

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in the White House so quickly

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and all the things that 
he's changed and he's packed

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the court system.

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Who is the,

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does he have a Carl Rove 
type person behind him doing

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these things and 
making it all happen

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because he just doesn't 
seem capable of it.

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And I remember what about 
a year and a half ago

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something came out 
in the New York Times

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and it was this group 
of people that kept,

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they said we're here 
in the White House

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and we're really 
saving the America,

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we're keeping his 
finger off the button.

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[SMITH] That was the 
opinion piece, right?

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[BRINKLEY] Right.

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[SMITH] There was 
the opinion piece

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that was signed anonymous.

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So what about that? How do you--

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] 
How is it working?

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[BRINKLEY] Well, I think 
different presidents use media

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in different ways.

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FDR with radio, John F. Kennedy,

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the press conference.

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You know, Obama was like the 
first Blackberry president.

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Twitter and Donald Trump,

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the marriage of them has been,

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is grotesque in my 
mind, quite disastrous.

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Instead of having 
thoughtful policy,

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the president jumps 
over everybody

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and puts out inflammatory things

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to be talked about.

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He is of the school that it's 
better to be talked about

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than not and be in 
the front and center

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of every news cycle 
no matter what it is.

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And I thought the 
recklessness of his Twitter,

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I knew it was great 
for the campaign,

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it didn't surprise me 
that that would track

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but I thought that as 
president you would have

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to tone it down and he hasn't.

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And I still think if 
he's ever indicted

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for something there may be a 
Twitter that's going to get him

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into trouble but alas 
people now find it just

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part of the new normal.

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Ah, Trump did a 
crazy Tweet today

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and he's down some 
just crazy wacko things

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and it creates a 
sense of instability

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but it makes him talked about.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Thank you.

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[SMITH] Miss Lava.

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[AUDIENCE MEMBER] 
Good afternoon.

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I'm interested from your point

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of view as a historian and a 
writer who looks at history,

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how future historians are going

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to deal with technology

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and deal with people 
erasing things.

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And just having the 
record that you rely on

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these last decades 
and centuries.

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How are people in 
the future going

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to keep an accurate or 
try to keep an accurate

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evaluation of what's going on?

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[SMITH] Do you have confidence

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in the archiving of 
electronic documents

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and communications?

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[BRINKLEY] Excellent question.

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And I think about it a lot.

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I'm afraid it's not gonna 
be very satisfactory

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I do think there are gonna be

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a lot of deletes.

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Everything's gonna 
be digitalization.

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There are,

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we're not,

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what historians 
traditionally do is read

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other people's 
mail for a living.

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The leavings of the past

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but now the deletions are 
going to be just gigantic.

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Where we pick up some capitol 
is in the visual world.

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You know how many speeches,

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you know we don't have taped 
speeches of Abraham Lincoln,

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but anybody who's 
not just president,

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but senators being on C-SPAN.

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Or they're people taping 
every campaign stop.

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There's film footage 
of everywhere,

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all the Democrats running,

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every day every speech 
is being filmed.

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So in some ways the 
visual components

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and the transcripts 
that are emanated

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from those are gonna go up.

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But the real inside 
baseball kind

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of personal and professional 
documentation I think

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is going to get sanitized

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or deleted or hidden.

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[SMITH] Don't you think 
also the campaigns

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and candidates and 
people in public life,

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are on to all of us now?

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[BRINKLEY] Yes.

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[SMITH] In a way that 
they weren't before

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so they're much more 
conscious of the fact

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that anything that they say--

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[BRINKLEY] Yes.

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[SMITH] --may be 
saved for posterity.

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That the E in email 
stands for everybody.

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[BRINKLEY] Exactly. 
[SMITH] Right, and so they

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no longer will say things 
that may have value

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to future historians for 
fear that what will happen

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to them is what happened 
to people previously.

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[BRINKLEY] Completely. 
That's exactly what it is.

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And yeah, I tell my students

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at Rice University where I teach

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you know email is permanent.

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This idea, yes it's a good idea

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to delete it if 
you put something

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that you don't like so you 
don't have to remind yourself

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that you wrote it.

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But try not to be reckless

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on using something like email.

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But here we have the president

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of the United States 
recklessly using Twitter.

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If Donald Trump 
had been an emailer

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I think he'd be in deep,

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criminal problems for the way

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that he's dealt with monies.

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But he's never done an 
email in his entire life.

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And that's one of the problems,

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Mueller doesn't have 
an email record of him.

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[SMITH] Right.

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[BRINKLEY] And he's learned 
to be as well he's reckless

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of being a fake person 
representing himself

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on a phone call,

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he's careful on his business 
transactions not to put it

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in writing and to 
be dodgy about it.

260
00:09:05,866 --> 00:09:08,233
So it's hard to get that they--

261
00:09:08,233 --> 00:09:09,933
Everybody says how can 
he be president with

262
00:09:09,933 --> 00:09:11,200
all the things he did?

263
00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:12,366
But nobody's been 
able to bust him,

264
00:09:12,366 --> 00:09:14,033
a whole career of this.

265
00:09:14,033 --> 00:09:15,866
Building buildings 
that he didn't build

266
00:09:15,866 --> 00:09:17,133
and putting his name on 'em

267
00:09:17,133 --> 00:09:19,766
and he's not done jail time.

268
00:09:19,766 --> 00:09:22,300
Jared Kushner is the maestro

269
00:09:22,300 --> 00:09:24,133
of the internet.

270
00:09:24,133 --> 00:09:28,833
He is deeply facile at 
bank wires and monies.

271
00:09:28,833 --> 00:09:32,233
[SMITH] Secure apps. [BRINKLEY] 
Secure apps and all of that.

272
00:09:32,233 --> 00:09:33,166
And I think

273
00:09:33,166 --> 00:09:34,400
to answer an earlier question,

274
00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:36,433
he's probably will be,

275
00:09:36,433 --> 00:09:39,533
end up to have been more 
seminal keeping an eye

276
00:09:39,533 --> 00:09:41,866
on President Trump 
than we think.

277
00:09:41,866 --> 00:09:43,066
[SMITH] How's our time?

278
00:09:43,066 --> 00:09:44,266
Take these last 
two? Very good. Sir.

279
00:09:44,266 --> 00:09:45,700
We'll do these 
quickly. Yes, sir.

280
00:09:45,700 --> 00:09:46,733
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] I've 
never read any of your books

281
00:09:46,733 --> 00:09:48,866
but now I'm a fan of yours.

282
00:09:48,866 --> 00:09:50,933
I'm a big space junkie,

283
00:09:50,933 --> 00:09:53,633
and also Hunter S. 
Thompson fellow alumnae

284
00:09:53,633 --> 00:09:56,033
of the Air Force 
public affairs field.

285
00:09:56,033 --> 00:09:57,533
[BRINKLEY] Oh my goodness!

286
00:09:57,533 --> 00:09:58,500
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Yeah, 
you ever read his articles

287
00:09:58,500 --> 00:09:59,700
when he was--

288
00:09:59,700 --> 00:10:01,100
[BRINKLEY] Oh, I've 
read everything Hunter,

289
00:10:01,100 --> 00:10:03,166
I mean, I became 
quite friends with him

290
00:10:03,166 --> 00:10:04,933
and that's why I'm 
Literary Executor

291
00:10:04,933 --> 00:10:06,633
but he was in the Air Force

292
00:10:06,633 --> 00:10:08,533
for a while and would 
write incredible articles,

293
00:10:08,533 --> 00:10:10,900
the Bart Star ones and 
all. It's amazing stuff.

294
00:10:10,900 --> 00:10:12,166
[SMITH] Question?

295
00:10:12,166 --> 00:10:13,100
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] My 
question, I'm sorry,

296
00:10:13,100 --> 00:10:13,900
it's gonna be about space.

297
00:10:13,900 --> 00:10:15,166
[SMITH] Sure, of course.

298
00:10:15,166 --> 00:10:15,966
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] 
Is that all right?

299
00:10:15,966 --> 00:10:17,100
It's a little off topic.

300
00:10:17,100 --> 00:10:18,433
[SMITH] Please, please.

301
00:10:18,433 --> 00:10:19,633
It's on topic. 
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] But um,

302
00:10:19,633 --> 00:10:21,866
about 2009 we sort of,

303
00:10:21,866 --> 00:10:23,833
NASA had to come away from

304
00:10:23,833 --> 00:10:26,800
the whole space exploration 
program, sort of.

305
00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:29,233
You know the budget 
was cut drastically.

306
00:10:29,233 --> 00:10:32,033
I'm just wondering how you 
feel where we'd be right now

307
00:10:32,033 --> 00:10:34,366
if we didn't lose all 
that time you know

308
00:10:34,366 --> 00:10:37,133
almost 10 years now 
plus we lost time

309
00:10:37,133 --> 00:10:38,433
with disasters.

310
00:10:38,433 --> 00:10:40,700
Do you think we'd 
be further along?

311
00:10:40,700 --> 00:10:44,566
Do you also believe we'd 
be allowing civilians

312
00:10:44,566 --> 00:10:47,666
to go ahead and start 
working out on the moon.

313
00:10:47,666 --> 00:10:49,900
Or even on the asteroid,

314
00:10:49,900 --> 00:10:51,800
yeah asteroids. 
[SMITH] Where would we be

315
00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:53,100
if we hadn't lost that time?

316
00:10:53,100 --> 00:10:54,800
[BRINKLEY] We would 
have been to Mars.

317
00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,800
We would have been 
aiming to go to Mars,

318
00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,066
we would have been 
back to the moon

319
00:10:58,066 --> 00:11:01,166
and perhaps built some 
sort of facility there.

320
00:11:01,166 --> 00:11:02,100
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] 
A gateway project.

321
00:11:02,100 --> 00:11:03,233
[BRINKLEY] A gateway project.

322
00:11:03,233 --> 00:11:04,200
And, you know,

323
00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,000
NASA still has a relevance

324
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,800
with meteorological 
forecasting when you deal

325
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:09,833
with climate change,

326
00:11:09,833 --> 00:11:11,033
it's a lot of,

327
00:11:11,033 --> 00:11:14,300
the GPS of today grew 
a lot out of NASA

328
00:11:14,300 --> 00:11:16,300
anti-icing devices,

329
00:11:16,300 --> 00:11:18,733
you know, the 
satellites we put up

330
00:11:18,733 --> 00:11:20,066
to look at planet earth

331
00:11:20,066 --> 00:11:22,633
and all of that have 
been incredibly useful

332
00:11:22,633 --> 00:11:23,833
for the modern world

333
00:11:23,833 --> 00:11:26,433
but you can't just 
keep defunding

334
00:11:26,433 --> 00:11:30,533
something like NASA 
and expect the results.

335
00:11:30,533 --> 00:11:31,866
And we just are,

336
00:11:31,866 --> 00:11:33,800
it's become an easy slash item

337
00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:36,500
for people looking to do cuts

338
00:11:36,500 --> 00:11:37,633
in government expenditure.

339
00:11:37,633 --> 00:11:39,233
Which is ironic because it's one

340
00:11:39,233 --> 00:11:42,066
of the government agencies 
most Americans adore.

341
00:11:42,066 --> 00:11:43,333
[SMITH] Love it,

342
00:11:43,333 --> 00:11:44,033
right that's exactly 
right, good question.

343
00:11:44,033 --> 00:11:45,000
Thank you.

344
00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:46,933
Last question here. Ma'am. Hi.

345
00:11:46,933 --> 00:11:49,533
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Hello. 
In your career of research

346
00:11:49,533 --> 00:11:51,866
and writing books have 
you noticed your mode

347
00:11:51,866 --> 00:11:54,766
of research change as 
technology changed?

348
00:11:54,766 --> 00:11:56,733
And then if you could speak on,

349
00:11:56,733 --> 00:11:59,100
what is your favorite 
part of what you do?

350
00:11:59,100 --> 00:12:01,833
[BRINKLEY] My favorite 
part on the first part

351
00:12:01,833 --> 00:12:03,066
is I love traveling

352
00:12:03,066 --> 00:12:04,933
to places in the United States.

353
00:12:04,933 --> 00:12:07,666
So I actually love 
going to unusual places

354
00:12:07,666 --> 00:12:09,033
to do research,

355
00:12:09,033 --> 00:12:10,566
to going to Huntsville, Alabama

356
00:12:10,566 --> 00:12:12,700
to research NASA. To go

357
00:12:12,700 --> 00:12:16,033
to the jet propulsion 
laboratory in Pasadena.

358
00:12:16,033 --> 00:12:18,633
You know, these 
kind of trips to me

359
00:12:18,633 --> 00:12:19,933
are really fun.

360
00:12:19,933 --> 00:12:22,000
The research part 
I love the most.

361
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,600
The part I don't like is having

362
00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:27,366
to whittle down all your 
research into something

363
00:12:27,366 --> 00:12:28,633
that's not too fat.

364
00:12:28,633 --> 00:12:29,900
Contrary--

365
00:12:29,900 --> 00:12:30,866
[SMITH] So this is the 
whittled down version?

366
00:12:30,866 --> 00:12:32,033
[BRINKLEY] That is whittled.

367
00:12:32,033 --> 00:12:34,133
That's as whittled 
down as I can do, guys,

368
00:12:34,133 --> 00:12:37,366
without because there's 
such large topics.

369
00:12:37,366 --> 00:12:38,866
And that's why Robert Caro

370
00:12:38,866 --> 00:12:41,233
of Lyndon Johnson has it right

371
00:12:41,233 --> 00:12:43,033
doing LBJ in a lot of volumes.

372
00:12:43,033 --> 00:12:43,833
You can really do it,

373
00:12:43,833 --> 00:12:45,633
but it's hard to do FDR

374
00:12:45,633 --> 00:12:47,600
in 300 pages. 
[SMITH] Yeah, right.

375
00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,466
[BRINKLEY] And so lately I've 
been trying to do aspects,

376
00:12:50,466 --> 00:12:51,700
Kennedy and the moon,

377
00:12:51,700 --> 00:12:55,466
or Theodore Roosevelt 
and conservation.

378
00:12:55,466 --> 00:12:56,933
Because then you can do a part

379
00:12:56,933 --> 00:12:58,933
of their legacy but doing it all

380
00:12:58,933 --> 00:13:02,133
in one volume is a 
little bit tricky.

381
00:13:02,866 --> 00:13:04,233
But I'm old fashioned.

382
00:13:04,233 --> 00:13:07,500
Well, let me just 
say it's I came out

383
00:13:07,500 --> 00:13:08,733
of the book culture.

384
00:13:08,733 --> 00:13:10,866
I still read my 
books in this form.

385
00:13:10,866 --> 00:13:12,300
I don't read Kindle.

386
00:13:12,300 --> 00:13:15,766
Nothing against Kindle. 
Please use Kindle for my book.

387
00:13:15,766 --> 00:13:19,366
But I went to graduate school

388
00:13:19,366 --> 00:13:21,366
and worked my way 
through working

389
00:13:21,366 --> 00:13:24,166
the used book business, 
antiquarian books.

390
00:13:24,166 --> 00:13:26,533
I was the night manager 
in Washington, D.C.

391
00:13:26,533 --> 00:13:28,533
at Second Story Books,

392
00:13:28,533 --> 00:13:29,800
at Dupont Circle.

393
00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:31,700
And then I managed Idle Times

394
00:13:31,700 --> 00:13:33,066
in Adams Morgan.

395
00:13:33,066 --> 00:13:36,733
I then got sent buying 
rare antiquarian books.

396
00:13:36,733 --> 00:13:38,633
I used to see Larry McMurtry

397
00:13:38,633 --> 00:13:42,066
all the time up in DC constantly

398
00:13:42,066 --> 00:13:44,333
because he was in the 
same book world up there--

399
00:13:44,333 --> 00:13:45,633
[SMITH] Yep. 
[BRINKLEY] --when I was young.

400
00:13:45,633 --> 00:13:47,166
And so I'm a book collector,

401
00:13:47,166 --> 00:13:48,466
I like signed books.

402
00:13:48,466 --> 00:13:50,133
I liked first editions,

403
00:13:50,133 --> 00:13:51,566
I like the dust jackets,

404
00:13:51,566 --> 00:13:54,333
I'm a book person.

405
00:13:54,333 --> 00:13:55,266
[SMITH] It's not gonna change.

406
00:13:55,266 --> 00:13:56,766
[BRINKLEY] And that's,

407
00:13:56,766 --> 00:13:59,733
I will continue to like books 
more than anything online.

408
00:13:59,733 --> 00:14:02,266
[SMITH] Good. Give Doug 
Brinkley a big hand.

409
00:14:02,266 --> 00:14:04,366
Thank you so much 
for being with us.

410
00:14:04,366 --> 00:14:05,600
[BRINKLEY] Thank you.

411
00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:06,566
[SMITH] Thank you all. 
We'll see you again.

412
00:14:06,566 --> 00:14:10,866
(audience applauding)