the marches in charlottesville that he commemorates are also a few days out from murder sprees in america it is sobering to think we hit rock bottom and now we are bottoming out again so now congratulations talking about your book. >> it's great to be here today. >> so let's start with the question that covers your first chapter that covers so much of the debate we are having right now in america and it is a question of place it's not an accident you start the book saying that when you

wanted to run for office in virginia people said you are from new york and florida you are not from here. i have heard that a lot but there is the echo in the things that are said when people protest immigrants you are not from here. so for you to establish i'm from here i live and work here why are we having this conversation at all quick. >> i been going to the same safeway 25 years. but virginia is very proud of their heritage forgot was the first new yorker to be common the common wealth of virginia i would say they have evolved northern virginia has really changed i think now the majority the great state of

eight.5 million people but i thought it was important in that context in the history of virginia and those challenges that i face as a new yorker running for office because a lot of the issues we had a horrible racist past, it was different for me i grew up state new york what i had uncovered i never thought of one of my first events and virginia the body man was waiting for me to finish and a woman said be careful young man he said there is a kkk rally going on to be honest i didn't know they were having rallies. after that i was out campaigning with my wife she went up to a man and gave him

a brochure he said i would never vote to your husband. and as i say to those white supremacist and neo-nazis do virginia that weekend we are still a nation of millions of people but we do have these laws and donald trump has driven out those haters with his lies. >> it is so interesting because one of the things we are seeing even with the wake of the el paso shooting is this theory replacement that white supremacist or natural law - - nationalist the anxiety for them as they are replaced with that crazy paradox they are flying in from ohio and california to

say this is our place it is so bizarre with an african-american women who have a moment apart who say the alt right they are yelling at the african-american woman to put her on a vote - - about that they are not from they are but where we go to places and we claim they are places and people push us out? >> and it did come from 35 states one reason i decided to write the book i couldn't do it when i was governor because i was busy but i traveled to 25 states and no matter where i went people asked me and it was seared into their lives and these were citizens of the great city of charlottesville

doing the protesting. no. they came from 35 states. charlottesville is a beautiful community for liberal bastion and it is a great community and the idea that somehow they could be part of these is nonsense but you are right because the whole idea. be clear the president would foster this that we would ban muslims from coming into this country. talk about the mexicans being rapist in criminals it is his language and nationalism so unless you are native american you came to this country from somewhere else the first three ships came from jamestown virginia. and now celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first legislative chamber in virginia 400 years ago this month the first slaves are

brought to virginia this is a long evolution and my point is the president fumbled the ball and i had to go out that day and say go home get out of our country and they were paraded around like they were a big patriots. they were cowards carrying shields with swastikas. adolf hitler t-shirts. really? then friday night hundreds came off the mound by the university of virginia coming down hundreds of them carrying torches and you could hear as they came down screaming jews you will not replace us the chance from nazi germany. >> i want to know if you can answer another framing question for me and i know

there are several purposes to write the book but i think a big part of the purpose of healing and reconciliation in the introduction talking about we are all in the same fight but then there is finger-pointing that the police did not do a good job and i think some of the blowback you are hearing the last couple of days is don't lay blame but i thank you are trying to do two things with intention and one is to bring us together but also wet went wrong and that comes through when you were writing. >> the main point is to do with racism as horrible as charlottesville was, the one benefit is that ripped the scab off of racism. for far too long people thought we dealt with racism

that did not exist anymore it's a hard topic. people don't sit around talk about racism. they talk about the reconciliation commissions which are a waste of time but they exist in the country today and so to collaborate on the later part of the book which is how we go forward but the main thrust of this book is that racism is alive and well and a sad part of our history but it exists today and we need to do something to stop it. i talk in the book at length about education we can't have a system where there are two different education systems a young african-american child you are going to scott will - - a school that is inferior

because it may rain and the heating or cooling doesn't work or the same quality of teacher you will blame that young african-american child for the rest of their lives because they don't get the same quality education. with housing and healthcare also with the criminal justice system i spend a lot of time i reform the system i reduce the juvenile population by two thirds while i was governor and gave the most pardons in history of virginia but those who i talk about in the book a young man who was a drug addict and had a problem. committed five robberies and in total the soul london she stole was $535 and nobody was injured. he was given two life sentences plus 130 years. really? my point is we have to reform the criminal justice system so the main thrust of the book

quit talking and start doing something. as governor republicans sued me i was sued for contempt of cour court. we won we put a billion dollars into education for i tried to lean and i took the confederate flag off the license plates from executive order. elected officials need to lean in on these issues because until we deal with those issues that is one of the main purposes of this book to have that conversation. but then of course you get into the permit process and it had to be fixed with the commonwealth of virginia. that permit never should have been given it was just too small with 40000 protesters who are armed and probably one of the 2000 group of

protesters when they did not have the ability to keep people safe and the city filed a petition to move it to a much bigger park the key to controlling the protest is to keep them separated but then the aclu sued and the judge ruled in favor of the white supremacist and the rally was still held at a park it was untenable paraguay support the first amendment. and many board members or the jewish members quit in protest but i'm not for protecting neo-nazis. but that day they said we will burn you and burn the city like auschwitz. every other word was the f thing and word or see word. and members of the jewish faith and how do we get to that place in america? that is the place how do we

move america forward. >> i'm sitting here in new york and you are in dc we both know charlottesville very well. can you just described for people who have not been there how truly tiny those parks are? the town itself is just a few miles wide. there is one synagogue with a couple of african-american churches. this is not a town that people recognize if they live in a big city. >> it is small like mayberry. a main street market but it's right by the university of virginia. the bases there. is a college town. people are spectacular. they are fun-loving open and

welcoming to everybody and that's why it was so shattering to have to go through this. but as i say it is a small little park and the ability for anyone to get control it was very hard that day but we knew friday night it would be bad when the torches came out they never should been let out on the university of virginia campus they never should been allowed to bring torches onto the campu campus. but i make the point filing the permit afterwords they take the statue but half of these people who did not even know who robert e-lee was. this is it you could comment steal our hatred and we all come together and what trump

had been talking about the white nationalism in neo-nazis this is the time to all come together and i did the best i could to keep a lid on it i was trying to tell folks do not come we would like to keep it just let them walk down the street and get out of town. the obviously people wanted to come out and they were horrified what they were hearing from these people that day and folks of charlottesville were spectacular and it is sad it sad for virginia but this was a sad day in america and i can remember when i gave my speech i got phone calls and text from those all over the globe because what is going on in america? and then the president said they are good people on both sides and i talked to him that day i had a phone conversation told him what was going on.

>> you thought you persuaded him to say the right thing and that he understood there were no good people on the nazi side. >> foolish me i thought the president of the united states, bill clinton had issues. brock obama had charleston south carolina. george bush 9/11 went up with the bullhorn so looking for the president to be the moral leader or the uniter and i felt he understood what was in front of him. and i tell this in the book i hung up on the phone i thought he would do the right thing mister president you do your press conference first and i thought he would do the right thing then it was delayed half an hour, an hour, two hours

and i am thinking he has got all the information and the world is watching. you know what happened folks inside the white house said no. you will not attack neo-nazis you won't even use that word you will not even use the word white supremacy you will say they are good people on both sides. know there were not. very good people on the protester side you had ministers and conservatives that is the reason they left peacefully protesting. >> i ask because in the weeks leading up and you mentioned in the book that this was not one off.

people think those events augush was the totality of that summer but there were three other marches and the kkk and over the summer governor there was a real erosion in the community and that there is some version mentioning in the bucket was exacerbated when the kkk march and july the crowd was pepper sprayed we saw overreactions we decided to lean back between the public and local police. so i guess i want to say it is challenging we try to do in the book to foster trust in the police and the state police and the courts you want people to believe these institutions will keep them safe but i know you try to thread the needle in the book and you say the local cops

just did not know what they were in for but i do remember that whole summer people would say they will not protect us. so two years later it seems the reason the community is still so embroiled they lost faith in their city government and police and the state. so what do you say of how do we account with these horrifying errors this summer and that folks need to find trust in government again? for my talk about the different issues of what needed to be done and with that finger-pointing there were no restrictions but that is something you should do. and charlottesville admitted they should've put some constraints on the original

permit. all the law enforcement and the share of sand the city and the state their goal was to keep everybody safe let the folks come in and that is the goal. nobody wants anybody to be injured get it in and get them done as soon as you possibly can. 1115 that day that we declared a state of emergency forgot i had seen enough and i declared it so then they moved in and the national guard came in at about 1150 it was 12 / five

protest. to have some skirmishes and fistfights nobody was seriously injured at this point everybody felt things had gone better but then to have the right to say these things within one hour later that james weaponize his car and then injured 35 individuals. that was about one or two hours after that to do surveillance in the air killing two state troopers and the brand-new copilot but they

were they are the intent was to keep everybody safe barricade should have been put up and then to enter but then guess what? they did not honor that amendment. i don't know why i would believe the word of a neo-nazi. that is the perspective from where i was sitting but the purpose of the goal is the executive order 67 and 68 to redo the permit process because in a situation like this we need a better mechanism of unified command so not just one or the city

police but everybody sits early on to make this situation and now in virginia as we go forward i changed the permit process and they filed right after four another event in richmond at the robert e-lee statue in richmond that the state actually controls so this came to the state issued the executive order and canceled the permit with that roundabout in downtown richmond for 5000 people if she's stacked 50 on top of each other i had control of that one. i got a nasty letter from the aclu but my job is to keep people safe and we redid the permit process then they would

not come to the state because i did not give them a permit. then they said we will have it outside on the sidewalk. and five or six people came by one of the reasons was richmond city police, the mayor and chief of police they banned all polls they limited the time they banned all masks. and one of the benefits that came out of charlottesville was all of the counter protesters had their cell phones taking pictures of the neo-nazis and white supremacist and put them up on social media. and many people lost their jobs like this one man who worked in berkeley at a hotdog stand was fired a member of the united states marine corps was thrown out. he paid a price. virginia will come out stronger and then it really

became diminished. then the names were put up and then to have another event admonish - - washington that's what happens in the movement. but those chilling observations because they all run aground to turn against each other. because that flourishing and

doing that massive study of what went wrong and we can stipulate we survived the one off but you can't not reckon and then there was the garlic festival before that. so we're talking about trying to squash those that they feel the movement has gone from the protest in the marches more insidious. >>. >> the common denominator is donald trump. that he let america down that day when he came out to.

i have the quotations. and the mission to make this white america. they were all documented. and we talk about how this started with obama when he was elected and the concept of a black president in the oval office but they did not act on any of it and then president comes in to say he wasn't born in america white supremacist neo-nazi activities and then trump comes in all the things we have done that the

president says this now i can to. that's why they felt comfortable coming to charlottesville people used to wear hoods and do this at night charlottesville they came out it was the big coming-out party. it ended up badly and they were pushed for going agree with your point. they could not do another one because they were so wounded and charged that it has gone now underground and the killer who wrote the manifesto and talks about this candidate directly quoting one of his tweets to say i wish he had come out and opened the speech

up and said i'm sorry we have created divisions it's time to come together the president trump had done that that would have been a seminal moment but he gave the speech he read off of a teleprompter and didn't even mention he's the number one author of hate speech and then set i'm calling senator mitch mcconnell to come back into session the house voted for a universe all background check i want to voted this week. that's what he could have done. but that sad. >> and he blamed mental illness for the mentally ill.

you are grappling with the same thing which is how much to lay at his feet and how much of this is a pre-existing condition that there are civil war statutes not built during the civil war but in the 19 twenties during jim crow. so this thing that you are trying to do is to understand this predates him. this is in the bones of this country and at what the end of the book when you try to talk about being independent but there is a moment in the book where the mayor of charlottesville comes out right of the shoot may 2017 and says charlottesville is the capital of the resistance we will resist trump and you

say save us. so there is a paradox to say this is what it is and i.c.e. radar racist and he does that with his failure perk i wonder if they tried to play it out play that without calling them out specifically. >> talking about how this got started and to call out trump all the time but so look at charlottesville the center of innovation why did they choose charlottesville? they could go anywhere.

and then they have the vote to take down the statues but that is important to mention the american revolution started with george washington and thomas jefferson ended in virginia the battle of cornwallis that's a pretty big part of our history. world war i world war ii maybe you have a dozen monuments all of those serious events in the nation's history the civil war 350 statues and many were jim crow and call it what it is these are offensive to the african-american community that is an offensive symbol.

worked very hard to make it open and welcoming and the transvaginal bill was passed we passed trap laws to shut down all women's clinics very much anti- gay legislation and i ended all of that. kept the women's clinics opened. but your state has to be open and welcoming because when i came to office i inherited a large deficit of two.$4 billion we were to reliant on defense spending and then to diversify into redo the education system we recruited cyberand four years

later with a surplus. y-letter? we are open and welcoming to everyone. we are open and welcoming and to have the state open and in those symbols and we don't allow local jurisdictions and then to determine in city or county. >> that is worth pointing out. because that the statues are still there.

>> we have no authority the state makes the decision that is from the legislature which it won't happen. >> that's a good segue to charlottesville. i went back and had my babies there and i love it and it stands in the shadow of monticello and it is a town that is complicated to slavery so how do you feel pride in the south in a cradle of democracy and that's the same thing we have with the statue or how the south feels about itself so how do you thread

that needle if you are a bunch of racist haters and that's a state that we are in. >> i talk about that at length virginia is a great state of eight.5 million people to have haters and racist and because they came to virginia very unique history in this country i talked about wishing - - washington and jefferson so when you do talk about history

you should talk about all of it. nobody should hide who we are or where we have come from and what our leaders were like. but i wish you are native american you came here from somewhere else. saw this idea was as strong as the people that lived here with the immigrant community only made a stronger coming from united states of america and virginia was a great state

with the issue of the confederate flag through executive order nobody that feels offended. and that is where we are today. i got sued for contempt of court and on the big part of the book you have to start doing something lean in. that is a big part of the end of the book with a bunch of white people feeling good about themselves but racism charlottesville ripped off the scab. >> and then but overwhelmingly

white supremacy and the perpetrators of these domestic hate crimes. and i do know you talk about this so tenderly and the loss of family friends i wonder how gender fits into this conversation talking about southern pride with reconciled ideas and talk about hate and displacement so could you speak to that a little bit?

but 90 percent of the ways of premises were men. and the merchants down the street screaming and it fits with a want to be is a good point to make that the question that i have but how did they get into this position you were not born this way. how did we get to this screaming you want to burn them alive like they did in germany? and then to go back k-6 and start talking about these issues we have the textbooks

but then fitting into the social work of the nation because to me this is as important as the english class but we don't. and of the diversity commission that really that education has to begin earlier and also that happens at home because at some point it devolves. >> i know charlottesville is still in pain and you have

heard some of that around the book so what would be in your review to move forward? you are describing so many programs and policies to be more inclusive. is it just a function at some point to say we need to do the next thing? how do we know what it feels like an angry city two years later? make those citizens of charlottesville this is so outside how they think. what we have to do nobody is exempt from this to take any situation and try to make it

positive and with these issues of education and affordable housing and people taken care of. some of the folks the other day address the issue those that were impacted that the first that i heard that and that is one thing as a community everybody who was physically harmed that day but the big issue is we have to start doing something.

i don't blame him for specific acts but he is culpable. think about this. as i mentioned before obama and bush and clinton addressed the nation in a real crisis. here he is coming out after all of these individuals were killed in el paso he goes out to give a speech and was a player in the sense of what actually happened there was culpability to him. and elijah cummings and with the united states senate and with that common sense gun restrictions because as background checks and high-capacity magazine band every year.

and every year the republican subcommittee at 630 in the morning with no recorded vote 95 percent of americans today are for background check so how hard is this? and to me the real big change is to turn the corner to elect a democratic leader who can bring the nation back together and many of the things we can deal with these issues but more importantly to have a national leader to talk about unity than disunity. >> so to me there is a heartbreaking part of the book when you are talking to the paralegal who was killed

tragically by the car and her mom talks about that urgency in america that people don't have that if you are not mad you're not paying attention sends. and if you start the book with the travel ban people go out to the airports everybody is riled up and fired up that it happens again you cannot be dialed up to 12 all the time and now there is a woman who literally gave her life to protest and her mom says we are falling asleep. so those that just try to live their lives and raise their

kids and are just tired of being angry all the time. >> and to go about your every day life those that are going about their every day life having a beer and having a good time. so i guess what i'm trying to say as long as we have this hatred out there in these divisions that i talk about in the book, everybody has to lean and as long as we have a president who continues to do what he does to bring up his hatred of people, your everyday life will be challenged the next time you go to a grocery store somebody could be out there with the ak-47 and that is sad for the country but we can fix it she

had all the manuscripts she is a really special woman she lost her daughter talks about her the night before she had dinner with her and heather gave her an extra long hug that night never in her wildest dreams at that point they were not going to the protest and then she decided to go with her friends she never thought it would be the last time but then the tragedy and then the memorial service ingested a call out to america birkenau she has a foundation in traveling around the country her death cannot be in vain. it has to be a rally cry. we all need to do what we have to move forward for the sake of our kids.

>> you say do something but go back to the beginning and you talk about voting and i think about this all the time we are in a moment blessed by the supreme court for gerrymandering with vote suppression and voter id people are frustrated and angry they think government has failed them they would rather tune out. what is your best pitch why your vote still matters? if they feel as though they are disempowered. >> you cannot say your vote doesn't count look at the 2016 presidential election three states pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan hillary clinton lost those combined 77000 votes. people woke up the next day and said how did this happen

to? because 92 million americans did not vote. 77800 had shown up on those three states, hillary would have been president and we would not have donald trump and all the insanity. and look where we are today. spending the last 45 minutes talking about that he comes to office to destroy the affordable care act, the individual mandat mandate, confusion in the insurance market, premiums are going up all over the countr country, he has destroyed alliances around the world with allies like the european union and they look at us like we are crazy. you cannot say our vote does not count was 77000 donald trump never would have been president. but another case 2017 the house elections in virginia for control of the chamber one

election that is a virtual tie. and the winner is pulled out of a bowl. really? i have no sympathy for that men and women are all over the globe to keep the democracy safe and i travel i have been to 150 countries around the world i have done business all over of all the issues that we have it's the greatest nation on earth how do we take it to the next level? i am a glass half full guy but we cannot let him do it to say this should get us more mobilized but i am optimistic

we have the biggest pick up the democrats and 140 years in 2018 the house of representatives net seven new governors and eight new state chambers part of that 92 million realized i made a mistake and i will vote but they are making it harder for you to vote to take a name off of a valid, i started the voting rights institute because the disenfranchisement of african-american voters brick i restored more felon rights than anybody in american history. i was sued for contempt of court. give people the right to vote. this is our democracy and don't let anyone ever undermine it. that's why the senate and the house of representatives will make such a difference for our future but it won't happen if you don't vote. >> that leads to the ultimate

question so what you are trying to say is that words matter and those were not teaching ants after donald trump said they were on both sides and there is a way that we are in a funny moment people are radicalized this isn't even a national problem that words are incredibly powerful so what your book is trying to tell us the president cannot say i was kidding or joking by

assaulting the asylum-seekers and we cannot lose our confidence. >> not only a part of our speech that we need to use our words in a positive way to bring a positive change. that's how i and the book. do something words matter has a hatred we have seen the folks you are watching today you have to do something about it just say we will not tolerate this anymore program optimistic about our future and 2020 you get the country back together and end the racial divide on education and sentencing reform. we have a lot of issues but we

can fix it. don't let donald trump get you down every single day. get out of bed and fight for all of these haters out there we have to do a better job to monitor the web and get the weapons out of the hands of those who should never own weapons. >>host: my very last question. one of the things i noticed post charlottesville was a sense of whose story is this? of this tiny town that felt it was misunderstood what people would say was that like crystal meth? what was that like rex there

is an urgency to tell the story and make sense of the story and not impose meaning and that what trump said is not the same thing and to think about how you navigate the problem and at some point to declare a state of emergency for those it is broken and sad. >> it is hard. so the information that i had in front of me everybody has own perspective i think people would find it fascinating

leading up to charlottesville all the preparations but this is from my perspective on how we go forward. i've been involved in politics for a very long time i had every job you can have in the democratic party i've been a volunteer i love this party. i was just sick and about what i saw and disgusted and heartbroken. but they were really bad people they said they are great people but those that came in and then to get that cleared up and we are angry and we want to take it out.

the mexicans are taking their jobs away. this is not the case but he has everybody riled up. but the important thing is we just had this important discussion so to travel around the country newsweek that the book on its cover simply because of el paso and dayton things have not changed but then to fade into the memory of charlottesville and those 12 people that were killed in virginia beach. so i want to memorialize that that we need to have that conversation and we are having it today we are having a

conversation on race and it is important. we have to defeat it but we have a long way to go. >> that's the perfect place to end of this governor. thank you for your time and for the book and for helping us to remember a day, or two days that was the worst of us but somebody that was there was the best of us as well. >> all the people who were there emf personnel, nurses, c personnel, nurses, clergy, there were a lot of people who stepped up that day you cannot forget those folks. >>host: and there were many mor more. >> that's right. >>host: beyond charlottesville thank you governor.

. . . . what do you mean by the crisis? >> guest: i've been doing research and used to be on the board of directors in new york city and i was speaking around the world on these issues and teachers like in japan come up to me and say we have more problems in the classrooms with the boys then we do the girls and i started seeing in