USC Student Interview with Political Icons James Carville & Reince Priebus

[Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] welcome folks welcome speakers we are here at the University of Southern California today for an informal q a session with two iconic political strategists one Mr James Carville from my home state of Louisiana the other Mr reince priebus from the great state of Wisconsin yeah and so we're gonna you will all have an opportunity to ask questions throughout our session today I will exercise a little bit of privilege and ask the first question as well as the last question so that said I want to make sure we have time for all of your questions so let me get right to it my first question for you gentlemen is this what was your first job in public service and Do You Think Public Service should be a part of growing up in America well I don't know if it counts as public service but in the sense of what we're doing here today with some of the kids from USC which number one I'm proud to be on this campus at love USC I hope you all win on Saturday against the Bruins so I'll be pulling for you uh that's number one but number two I think it's important to know that you can get to if you love politics or you enjoy this kind of conversation there's a lot of avenues to take some people go they want to run for things they want to get elected there are other people who go into business and they make a lot of money and then they run but there's other people like me who when I was a teenager I was in my high school I was involved with this thing called the student GOP I got involved in the college Republicans I was the guy who after I became a lawyer and was at a very good law firm in Milwaukee I was the guy making sure we had enough pizza for the phone bank for all the volunteers I never got paid I never got paid a nickel for any of this stuff um and then I just moved up through the ranks my point is is that so my very first job in politics was I was a Executive Board member of the Kenosha County Republican party and I moved up and moved up and became chair of the rpw general counsel of the RNC then chairman of the RNC and then I've suddenly became uh Chief of Staff of the white house so my point to you is there's a lot of avenues but you if you find what you love in politics and you pursue it and you do it you I mean the sky is the limit but you have to do what you love and if you love it it'll pay off in the end well I I guess I'm a little bit like where's the Public Service I started when I was 13 I was tearing telephone pole signs down just like racing Louisiana you can honestly call that public service maybe the Marine Corps I guess you would call that public service and some at some level uh I you know I grew up in south Louisiana in the 50s and uh and I just would kind of motivated me I thought that black people were getting a bad deal with the only people that I saw that were kind of willing to give them a fair Shake and uh I I when I was at LSU we went and we organized the first College Democrats at Southern she said historically black University in North Baton Rouge and people like cheese you know what I'm saying what was it like I mean yeah yeah but um and then uh in that was a I went to law school I was terrible at it and was cut off around in 1979 a guy named El Barbara Henry this is actually ran for governor Louisiana we hired a two legendary posts about our neighbor Peter Hart and I'll consultant just died was a legend around Washington a guy named Mark Shields and we got 9.6 percent of the vote and Peter Mark says you know I think he got a a touch for this and they started recommending me for jobs well you shouldn't have better people if it'd understand I was 37 38 years old I mean it wasn't like I had a big resume going then I got a did a campaign in Virginia in 1982 but lost close but lost and then I did it race in Texas in 1984 got slaughtered but I learned a lot that every time it defeat is a great teacher understand that the view from the canvas is the best education in the world or or as Mitch McConnell said one of our favorite fans uh is the best education is the second kick of a mule or Bill Clinton said my dad had never had to whip me for the same thing twice in other words don't be afraid to make a mistake and uh I was uh and I couldn't find work and I got a call a guy named Bob Casey was running for the fourth time for governor of Pennsylvania and they couldn't find anybody that wanted to run this campaign and I couldn't find anybody that would let me run that campaign like the ugliest guy this girl it was a night before the prom it was there you go that was the deal and uh he had a winning I you know had a hot hand for a while and then you know obviously when President Clinton got elected and uh I'm gonna switch my focus of farm campaigns I I think I was counted 22 or 23 different countries I've worked in and uh then I'm gonna I became I did whatever washed up person does I became a college professor I don't know I guess that's Public Service too but anyway the point about your rent is exact right find something that she really like it but don't get deterred by defeat there are two kinds of people in politics those that say I've been in politics and I've lost an election semicolas political professionals if I've been in politics and I never lost we call these people Liars okay it's just the way the world is the thing is great too I think I think back on my sort of political life so far is that I was lucky that I found some something I was really passionate about when I was young that I it got me through a lot of things you know there's ups and downs of school and applications and tests and where you're going to go next but when you have a passion that kind of motivates you and drives you to think about what I'm gonna do next and I want to you know I want to run this and maybe if I do a good job on this campaign I can do that it was this hunger and I think I I really I never appreciated the fact that I had a passion as a young person that I loved so much about politics and being involved and it really helped my life out yeah you know some people can do this and some people can't and and you know I don't think it matters a whole lot with school you went to I mean if you look across like high-end political Consulting you know people like Bob Shrum went to Harvard but fight lawyers most most people that do this are kind of it it doesn't hurt you that you have a good education don't get me wrong but that's not gonna that's okay it's going to get you so far if you want to go to dental school yeah you really need to be poly educated it's a very skilled profession this is a as much as of an art than it is anything else it's a field business it's also a timing too yeah oh I mean being in the right place at the right time that's a big part of it it's huge you know I just got I got a hot hand at the same time that the Democrats kind of got started at 86. I I was lucky I was you know God takes care of drunks and fools so I have Double Indemnity I'm golden I'm touching it terrific answers thank you and you talked about a lot about follow your passions all these folks are very passionate about politics know many of them personally so I want to hear from you what questions do you have if you have a question raise your hand make sure you state your name your year and your major and make sure you've got a question not a statement they ask it loud and clear anybody want to go first I see r with his hand raise go ahead R my name is I'm a police line international relations major I'm a senior um you talked about don't let defeat deter you Sonia that sort of scares me is that there's a disincentive from the ugliness when somebody runs do you think that this is heightened has it always been that way is there the ugliness is going to deter good people from running for us there's a book on the election of 1800. all right and just wait till you read that and so what time Foreign Affairs magazine called me to ask me to do a book review of the writings of Cicero's brother and by review said damn we hadn't thought of a single goddamn thing since things are wrong I mean they were filing fake lawsuits all right they would do every talk about how you did negative campaigns I you ought to really read it because everybody thinks that they invented something and the truth about it is that everybody correctly believes that Justin and Adams were great Patriots if only we could have done that again oh no and what the founding fathers were really worried about were factions that the passion of factions and that's that's I I think one of the things that is starting to happen is you see an arise of factions you clearly seeing a rise of like a bag of fat stuff but they are on the left they're like real factors they're like they're people that just want to feel good about themselves they don't really like Democrats all right it's just and factionalism is always an issue and the other point I'd make for a turnover to rent if you are a Democrat if you would like well you're part of a coalition so when you're part of a coalition you have a responsibility to the coalition I mean Joe manchin and AOC ostensibly in the same coalition and so it that but but factions that you can read The Federalist Papers you can read anything you want and I I think that's what's happening and also it's become like I'm not supposed to just disagree with Rich I'm supposed to think that he's evil incarnate all right and when the political system some people in a political system demand that it leads to a not very good result yeah all right so that that's that that's my general Point um so I do think people get deterred by it because I think especially today um keep in mind in the media division is profit the unity is a loser there is no money in unity there is no Book Sales in talking about how great some political leader is unless it's like some you know Wonderful book about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington or Kennedy or something but for the most part if I'm chair of the RNC and a republican writes a book it's not going to be about how good of a job I'm doing it's going to be here are all the 12 things that this guy does that are stupid and here's what we can do to fix the Republican party if you go on cable news then you want to rate and you want to be invited back you're not going to be invited back when you're the one that's just kind of the you know middle ground and he thinks there's some good here and some good days guys not you're not rating so division is profit Unity is a loser now go to social media uh you have an issue that you're concerned about uh maybe you know it's an issue in the kids schools maybe it's about whether the kids should be wearing masks or not you don't want them to wear the mask they're only two years you know second grade whatever so you think this is a problem so you're a parent now you're going on Instagram you swipe a few articles about this issue next thing you know two days later you're swiping 50 articles about data now you're thinking oh my these teachers are so out of control that you can see what goes on so so there's division overall there's magnification of the issue on a daily basis and and we're trying to sit here and figure out how we can run political campaigns and motivate people in a way that isn't further divisive it's very very difficult yeah yeah it you know the way that these sites get clicks is they're not going to have our sit here but if I slap rents like you know we'll you know we'll we'll snap I'm not against clinch I promise they'll crack their ass off on that but you know is that what you which you really want and I I can tell you with somebody this is when somebody says this I go this is a fool see you know James I do my own research you're stupid you think you know more about climate than the earth Sciences department at USC no you don't so before we go because I'm gonna talk about this at the larger thing I think the biggest thing that happened last Tuesday not close I think this is an earthquake it's something called proposition 211 in Arizona and if you don't do anything else read Jane Mayer's piece in a New York so proposition 211 was citizens ballot initiative that said that any money political money that comes in to Arizona greater than five thousand dollars has to be publicly disclosed don't I'll talk about this somewhat later it's just just you know what percentage of voted got 73 you want something that we can agree on is that this money is corroding and corrupting this democracy in a way that you it and let me tell you when you actually go and you know you hear people say it's all rig dealing it's all corrupt and the money controls everything you have no idea it's it's so much worse imagine this so if you're running a political party you're all undecided voters and you're actually done it you're in Ohio and so um there's only about five percent of you that are in play we don't just General message oh crime inflation gas groceries uh parental rights okay that's what you hear about every day and then the Democrats are talking about abortion January 6th and we're debating which one's going to move you guys we're not even we're not bothering with that I'm I'm targeting every one of you I know what beer you drink what car you drive how many kids you have how much money you make when you vote when you don't vote and and taking all that data I'm figuring out what motivates you and I know how to motivate you and if you're both you both like your guns used to be would just say well he's going to take your gun away so you gotta vote for me now I know that you've got your gun because you live in a part of town that you want to protect your two kids you're a single mom at home so you've got a gun because you're fear you live you know it's more of a fear issue you have your gun because you love James Madison and the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and you're going to have 80 of them because that's your right well that's a constitution issue for you hey he's going to take away your gun he's going to put you in danger for you it's he doesn't respect the Constitution and if he wins he could care less about the Second Amendment and that's the kind of guy he is but I'm the type of guy so you have to understand when you're spending 250 million dollars trying to influence just 60 000 people in a state it's not just this General stuff you know hokey pokey stuff it's targeted directed turnout and that's that's really what really happened the 250 million is the operative figure that that came from somewhere it they didn't give that to the market arms they gave it for a reason and it that I'm not saying it it is but if you are if you think that you know again let's go to I call it Southern Cal I don't know they don't want to get it confused with Berkeley but if you call it USC you're going to get it confused with South Carolina so take you back there's only one USC that's right here what somebody says they went to Southern Cal I know exactly I don't think you went to Berkeley I know exactly your brand name is big enough that the people that do the marketing for this University ought to stick with that's just my free advice all right and if somebody asked you where you went to college tell me about the southern cow don't know you know you know you know they don't they won't take you if they're too stupid that I would act then you don't care but I I'm a I'm a communicator and I'm a brand guy and I'm always fascinated the way if I was reading the thing and that that took the Border I don't know whoever makes decisions around here decided they wanted to be the University of Southern California USC and I I I just think this when I grow up you know John McKay and you know Ron Van Der Keller and all of the you know Rose votes whatever could figure out why would they still like that it's dark in Louisiana but I finally figured it out but um now what would I lost my screen well so we're going with this body shouldn't run for re-election yeah so you'd asked a question about incentives and and the headwinds to to get into politics and you were saying that uh that those headwinds have always been there uh Cicero's brother example then we got into money in politics and then we talked about micro targeting uh for to really press people's buttons so good question it sparked a lot of conversation any anyone else with a good question yeah go ahead uh I'm Eli Scott I'm a junior I'm majoring in philosophy politics and economics um and I run the political union with Derek right here he's gonna ask a question next um this is a question for you Mr priebus where are you from I'm from McKinney Texas McKinney Texas so just north of Dallas oh yeah yeah okay um so my question uh for you Mr priebus is uh touching on on Mr Cabo's Carlos um factualism Point uh when you ran the RNC um you were really a moderator between the Tea Party Wing um more the moderate sect of the Republican party and obviously it's evolved so much past that point um what do you see as your legacy your impact on the Republican party at least centrally and where do you see it going forward and Mr Carvel I'd like to hear his perspective too yeah well I guess it's I'm not the kind of I'm not a big bragger about things I've done I'm not really comfortable with it but I do think if objectively if you look back on the party when I walked in the door we were 26 million dollars in debt um we had a political party it was a total joke um being chair of the party is being in charge of a lot of boring things it's not necessarily what you think of it as doing on Meet the Press and doing great events like this it's trying to figure out how you're going to capture data how you're going to use it how you're going to put together an absentee ballot program how you're going to have a ground operation that gets the right people to vote and then gets on their door with an absentee ballot make sure you're tracking it and turning out knowing how many people are left in the early vote bucket to figure out whether you have enough in the election day bucket to win so what's my legacy I think I saved the Republican National Committee from from the brink I modeled it after really what some of the things James started and what Barack Obama did in 2008 um I put together I thought a growth and opportunity report that was accurate which is basically if you think about it gets kind of mischaracterized the truth of it was eighty percent of it was all about mechanics about having a real engagement program in black Hispanic Asian communities not showing up on Election Day or the week before the month before but being in communities all year round to tell people what you believe in as a party what the real with the real communication is um and and it and it works because the reality is if you don't represent minority communities in Congress I mean we're that's another topic about the division in this country where you know we could be neighbors and your District was that way and it's 80 percent Hispanic and Democrat and my district goes that way and it's 80 Republican and white we're neighbors we're best friends but and we're saying the same thing in the same media Market he's talking about what about the kids that are here through no fault of their own I'm talking about an 80-foot fence on the border and we've got a better chance of getting reelected than waking up tomorrow and that's the reality so what are we so the legacy of the party is the modernization of the Republican party it's also conducting I think a very fair process in 2015 when we had a 15-person circus debating each other getting pounded by candidates every day both Trump and Cruz and and Kasich coming after you as chairman of the party and you're just kind of going steady as best as you can and and it worked out and it turned out that although the the stint in the White House was short it turned out that the the the president saw that in spite of the person that wasn't exactly the person you would think of initially in Trump World being asked to lead the White House that it was from I think being fair and I think competent and precise is why that ultimately happened I know it's kind of a long answer but I appreciate the question so what we call a little bit off topic we talked about faculty laughs you know what is a word that'll stop using and not the woke and let me let me explain why because I was known as an anti-woke guy you know stop knocking his word the the term woke was first coined by jazz Black jazz musician who was born in Caddo Paris Louisiana mooringsport died in Houston maybe in jail and someone he talked about the need to be woke that black people should be aware of their interactions with police which seemed like a pretty good idea in the 1920s Louisiana in Texas all right and then of course with like everything else overeducated white people appropriated to work all right so I just in out of respect to Leadbelly who was talking about a a very serious and very real problem that people encounter every day to confuse that with latinx or some of the other they think of that no one else even has any idea what they're talking about I think dishonor has led to his memory but that's just me I mean I think it's necessity an offensive word but I think it ought to be accorded more respect than the humanities Department gives it Eli your question elicited some good reaction as well so thank you for that anybody else with a question Derek why don't you go ahead hi um dark young um I am a junior studying philosophy politics and economics gotta speak up Madam 78 wife have to get up and my question is um a lot of people in this room myself included want to get involved in politics of course so what is the most valuable skill that could help you you know rise up the ranks in politics to think or to parents I'd say like let's just talks about processing they have to build things they have to have structure you got to do this it there are a lot of different skills in politics all right there's this there's not one thing I'm almost exclusively a Communications idea guy it was actually helped me is I have profound learning issues but I've been diagnosed with pretty serious ADHD and I mean I went to my wife maybe go to like a pione psychiatrist it took I took a half a day's worth of tests and the guy said yeah man you definitely got it we got some tools we got some medications that we can give you and I said you know I I just like who I am I really I don't want it I mean I understand that but as long as my wife understands it we'll be talking I'll change starts in the middle of a sentence but being unable to concentrate for a longer period of time gives you real skills that you can concentrate in a short period of time so I can't tell you enough times I'll be at Costco and somebody will touch me on the back it'll startle the hell out of me you know then you go oh I'm sorry James what I do I said that's not you I just I'm just looking I was thinking of something and what I'm thinking of something I I'm just go in a tunnel and I think part of that is is because I I'm unable to think for something for a very long time and in in political Communications and if you're going in on the communication side and this is what a pound is in your head right political Communications is one of the only Endeavors in life that you multiply by subtracting it the less you say the more you heard and people say well that's as easy as falling off the law good stand on the log and try to fall off it you can't falling off a log is a hard thing to do and stand focused and stand you know understanding that you don't get to say everything and trying to convince your candidate that don't don't give your opinion on the Academy Awards or who's going to win the World Series they don't give a of course you're very unsuccessful at that kind of thing about Korea but that that is the one advice that I would give to you and also to the extent where you can use emotion it you know liberals I guess people believe we believe that the highest thing that we have is our reason and reason is great I love reason are you kidding me why are you wearing those colors why why do you have Tommy the Trojan or travel the horse or the alma mater or flat FC flag and why does every other school have the same thing because people understood that it's not just having a great physics department that you have to have some emotional connection and I will go a little bit long here but I'm very passionate about this so it's excuse me I I am just mortified by climate I mean I live in Louisiana I know what's going on I've experienced it six times a year we also have it I was trying to teach these kids and what they do is they try to figure out what I wanted them to say and then spit it back on the exam look it was just looking for a grade and get the hell out of here and get into law school whatever else I have of my life and I I beat my head I called Sean Willette who is the former chairman of the Pittsburgh department at Princeton he's a friend about it I said Sean what is a time in history where people have acted against their perceived short-term or immediate term interests and he said try a book called buried a chain by Adam hoshio Who's Back David at Berkeley and I couldn't recommend this book boy and it is just a tutorial on full communication and it's about the British anti-slave trade movement so I read the book I think and I was exactly in my pickup truck and I was driving a place in Mississippi you know how you have this moment where you it all of a sudden I figured it out I just stopped I started shaking there is no goddamn song the British anti-slave trade movement had a a minor song that you might have heard of called Amazing Grace they used art on Wedgewood China so let's assume that you and I share a common panic I don't have a lapel pit I don't have a bumper sticker If if I see the rainbow flag you I know exactly what you're saying to me if I see a Confederate flag and a pickup truck you don't have to tell me anymore I immediately got it if I see a Hamilton sickle if I see a cross a star David or a Christian or what every in everything in the world uses emotion but climate because you will read these title tables and these temperature charts God damn it and you will know it and you're not gonna put his volcanoes say give me a lever and I'll move the world you know you don't need a lover that's that's that that's cheap that's a prop it it just as a communicator it drives me crazy yeah you know I don't know if I get but you should read the book if you want to it's actually a decent movie the movie is nowhere near as good as the actual book but think about how they used art research they would go to the slave docks and it was a actually a two that they would use to pry a slave's mouth open because it was they were starving themselves to death because they weren't very happy with their plight in life I can't imagine why but they weren't very crazy but they also had to postcards on these slave ships to keep tracing jumping off the ship in the Middle Atlantic Ocean but anyway and then they would actually draw the designs and they would take them to Parliament right it it it was kind of started by a a bunch of Quakers but the story is great but there's real contemporary lessons in this book There's real things for you to learn and apply it to Modern Communications I apologize for taking a liberty a time but I'm enormously passionate about this issue as you can tell um but I would say there's a lot of I mean I could think about this question and have a different answer tomorrow because it's such a good one um not complicated but what is the best quality even to this day if I'm overseeing a senate race I'll never forget the young staffer that works like a dog that that reputation will stay with you forever I even did it like you know the kid oh yeah I remember that kid he was that guy worked so hard like that right there I mean it's oldest time but don't ever forget working like a dog and working hard you'll never it's a label that will live with you forever number one number two uh I learned the hard way don't take a job that has a title that you're not actually entitled to actually do so if you're going to be the campaign manager be the campaign manager don't be the campaign manager that has three other people above you that actually are either telling you what you can and can't do what you can spend or not spend like you need to be don't be the chief of staff if you're just the chief of stuff right we all learned that lesson we watched it okay when I was in the white house um so though in the last advice I have I learned this later in life in politics because I was a reactor I like to react we got to do something we got to say something we're not going to let I've now been I now know that most of the time you'd have to respond to things you can't let things sit and get clobbered that's a different issue but most of the time I remember telling us several times what are we gonna do we gotta say no we're going to sit here we're going to shut our mouth and we're going to think let's just sit here and think and that sometimes you know even to this day in other parts of my life where you want to react say no I'm just gonna I'm just gonna shut up and think that to me is important I know it's basic but it's something that I think we can all use a little bit more of in life that's right it just got me a second or something I look at all y'all in jail so interested politics you will educate everything if any of you like you know I'd like to just try my hand at this I'd just like to see what it would be like to be in a big time political campaign I'm going to give you some advice on how to do it so do some research I'm going to soon be a Democrat because that's what I know but thank you for your apartment might be a couple or Republican and it could be put it I'm just so look at your braces and go big think of a senate race all right and maybe Jackie Rose in the Nevada maybe forever get out of get get away from salt water fast as you can and you can look unfortunately there's opportunities everywhere and find out who the campaign manager is do a little research who are they where they came from somebody then get in touch email find out and say I would I am sorry I just five minutes of your time I promise you won't bother you anymore three months you let me do this I'll do anything you want a laundry I'll put the kids up I'll babysit I'll run errands I'll pick you up at the airport I'll do research project and the only thing is if you can find me a place to live great after three months I just want you to look me in the eye and say you know what there's a place for you here or you don't have it because you're not gonna break through you know if you want to be the deputy research or whatever okay you want to be the adventure that's going to be that campaign manager is going to have donors calling and my niece wants this and yeah the only way you're going to break through is the prince said you say I'll work three times as hard as in these other baskets all right that's that's your ticket if not I have a 3.8 in philosophy history Humanities from Southern Cal that Daddy great that that four dollars to get you a cup of coffee believe it or not our time has already run out that's how quickly this goes uh but appreciate all of your questions all your insights of course are grateful to our speakers here we have about 30 seconds left I wonder if you got any parting words of wisdom in our last remaining seconds before we call it a wrap okay real quick so we all get caught up in the daily politics of vitriol the ups and downs who's in charge my last day in the White House I remember looking back at the White House it was glowing at night I've been back since but at that time it's like your first time out as Chief of Staff I look back and stands for freedom and democracy and all the great things that we love about our country there's nothing on the outside that tells you what party or what presidents on the inside it's that same awesome place and it endures everything and and I think that democracy is strong and I think it's going to remain strong you know what uh Dale bump Us in the central Arkansas told Bill Clinton when they moved into the White House he said you just moved into the Crown Jewel or the federal penal system so we'll say well thank you very much gentlemen appreciate you very much all right appreciate it fight on [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]