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Our Guest today is Dana Perino and she is the former White House Press Secretary for George Bush and she now
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serves as the co-host of the Fox News TV show the five welcome and thanks for coming to I'm hon to be here thank you
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um you are a frequent speaker on political Trends obviously and you're active in global maternal health and
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Child Development and a couple of other Charities I just wanted to mention that one thought was interesting was the
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American veterans uh companions for Heroes which is matching rescue animals with f suffering from uh PTSD so that's
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an interesting one yeah that actually came through um as with a lot of PE Charities that people end up working for
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there's some sort of a personal connection or a reason something that grabbed your heart and the maternal
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health and Global um childhood development work was really something I learned from George W bush and Laura
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Bush and with their efforts in Africa and I got to travel with them there and so that stuck with me and then after I
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left the White House I met well I'm a big dog person anyway always have been
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and then I met a young man who um had served in our Armed Forces uh in on the Intel side though and he had been
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deployed right after 911 and had a pretty um traumatic experience happened to him where he wasn't injured but
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psychologically was put into a lot of fear and so he suffered from post-traumatic stress and when he came
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back to America he uh was fairly unpredictable in his moods this is this is one of the symptoms and his friends
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got to the point where they didn't want to be with him at the bars they thought
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he was almost to the point of violent uh and one of them suggested you should get
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a rescue dog and he said that's ridiculous why I don't need a dog but they took him anyway and it got a little
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dog named Cheyenne and I watched this young man's life absolutely be transformed and then he subsequently
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started companions for Heroes so they match up rescue dogs with people that have post-traumatic stress not just from
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the wars but also um and something new to me I didn't realize that firemen also
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uh go through things uh those similar feelings after traumatic experiences that they witness so they help everybody
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and I think it's a really good way to bring those two forces together what a
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great group uh getting to your book now uh so it's a personal account I think
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it's a personal account of your life in your private life a little bit your professional life and it's also kind of
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advice and Lessons Learned kind a book what are some of the key themes well I never thought I would write a memoir at
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age 40 when it came out or when I was writing it um but I did have this unique place in history I was the first
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Republican woman to be a White House Press Secretary I served during those turbulent years uh with George W bush I
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was in the White House well in the administration for over seven years so I saw a lot a lot of it was behind the
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scenes and there were two things that I wanted to do with this book first was to
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try to close fill in a gap that I thought existed in the coverage of the Bush presidency because there were many
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historians or columnists journalists that had rehashed the policies and the politics of the administration but there
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was no one really that had tapped into the personal what was he like behind the scenes you know when the cameras weren't
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on and I got to witness so much of that and there were very few people who could
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have written those stories so what I tried to do was to peel back the curtain of what it was like to be there um and
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tell just real firsthand accounts the other thing I did is because I'd had these great opportunities as a young
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woman I would be asked all the time how did you get to be White House Press Secretary and young people really want
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you to give them a road map and they will follow it to the tea if you tell them these are the eight steps you have
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to take to be successful they will do all eight very earnestly but it's kind
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of hard for you right because a lot of the opportunities came very unexpected yes almost all of them and I I I called
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the book and the good news is partly because I'm a planner and a firstborn daughter so I always wanted to have
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everything planned out and I worry a lot and the truth is I if if I look back all
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the good things that happened in my life happened at times that I wasn't expecting it and that I didn't have it
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planned so that's a hard plan to say don't worry about it things will come to
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you but I'm sure you're not saying that you need to be prepared you need to
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recognize the opportunities but why don't you talk a little bit about that um in chapter five uh of the book I
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spend I I break out all of the best advice I have into three basic categories things you can do at the
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school or the office today to make your likelihood of success more um more promising the second thing is over a
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career and the third thing is over a lifetime um one of the things I do always ask young women and men too I try
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to strip out the gender specific advice from this book but I I've noticed that
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mostly it's young women it is appeal to it um and it's that don't don't worry
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your Young Life Away you're going to work for the rest of your life um Millennials are a very interesting
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generation for a lot of reasons they're deal I think they're absolutely adorable
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but they have some some significant challenges and their life and their careers are kind of delayed by about 10
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years partly because of the recession also because of technology and also just because of the way that they approach
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things so um I talk a lot about voice I would say that's my most important piece
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of advice in the book about finding your strong voice yes you've probably heard
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it around campus or in your own life if you have daughters or nieces this tendency to speak at the end of the
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sentence Valley Girl speak kind of like valley girl but yes it's um it's called
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upt talking now and it's a popular thing to do because if your friends are talking like that you sound like that I
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think there's another reason that they do it it's because if you are giving
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your opinion in the form of a question you don't have to take owner ownership
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of it you're just raising questions and I am convinced that a lot of young people and this includes men who are
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starting to talk like this as well that you are uh Limited in your advancement in your career you are not put forward
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for promotion you are not taken on the trip to meet the client because your boss doesn't feel like you're mature
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enough to be able to do that and it is an easy fix for young people it really is you can break them out the Habit in a
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day well it was interesting because you had a lot of uh broad strr ideas but then you had some very specific things
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like that like don't wear UGG boots I think to the office but but another one
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was take take the blame for your team absolutely tell me about that one well I'd give one of these examples about um
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you know everybody at some point you're going to have to be willing to take a punch for
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your team um and if your employees or your teammates will see that you're willing to do that they're more likely
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to be loyal to you and your team is more likely to function better uh one example
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is from uh in 2000 when George W Bush was running for a president he's in the
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primary process he gets to New Hampshire one Iowa easily guess in New Hampshire and his team they were pretty confident
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and he lost big time to John McCain and it was embarrassing and it meant that they had to have a scramble to South
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Carolina to try to win South Carolina and instead of being mad um George Bush gathered his whole team around looked
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everybody in the eye and he said this was my fault no one to hear should feel like they
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have to take the blame and what he said that he wanted to do in that moment is to say I understand that I've got a role
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to play in this problem but if I take all the responsibility that means that you all won't have to have any sort of
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sniping against each other as we try to go forward and win the next contest and it worked and It ultimately ended up
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being successful well now that you've brought up the primaries I want to ask you a
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little bit about uh your sixth chapter is called civility lost and found and of course the book was written before the
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current primary season um and um if anything there's even less civility in fact is there any civility I might ask
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you but what do you think about what you see in this Republican primary because I
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think the Democratic primary this time around is is not anything to compare to that not yet um and it probably won't be
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yes I think there's no doubt that um there is civil in civility has existed in politics for a long time um I used to
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get criticized when I was press secretary for not being Tough Enough against the media that was harsh on
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President Bush but I also was following his lead and also being true to myself it's one of the reasons I could never
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run for office like if it's going to if running for office means that you have
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to treat people the way that these candidates have been treating each other then I'll will never run uh and be
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successful I don't have desire to run anyway but one of the things I conclude
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in my book was that having worked in politics and then now in cable news that I don't have to own anybody's comments
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but my own so every time I open my mouth I have a choice to make and believe me I
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can be snarky and sarcastic and I can deliver a line that is like the atomic elbow but I don't do it in public for a
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reason because one I couldn't live with myself if I did I tell one story in the
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book about how in the White House Press briefing room one time there was a reporter from The New York Times and she
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wasn't paying attention to the rest of the briefing and the questions she asked
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had already been asked and answered several times and I was irritable because I hardly ate anything during the
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whole white house and I was frustrated and I took a shot at her on International live television and I have
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felt bad about it ever since and I called her right away and apologized and she was very gracious and said oh I
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didn't even notice um but I know how I feel when I say something that is with a
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with a sharp tongue against someone else that bothers me the other thing I did in
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the book was to show that I had this great experience in Washington DC and I don't think I'm alone in having good
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experiences and my experien weren't only good because I knew Republicans I had a
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lot of friends from both sides of the aisle Donna Brazil was the campaign manager for Al Gore she's one of my best
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friends and we get along great so I tell stories about how I met President Obama
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when he was Senator from uh Illinois in February of 2005 I was the new Deputy press secretary and we ended up at a
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dinner together across the table from each other and we laughed our butts off for hours and 3 years later I didn't
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expect him to remember me but he's at the White House now I'm the press secretary he's the candidate and I went
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to introduce myself and he says Dana Perino that was my favorite night in all of
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Washington so I tell that story because I want people to know that just because you might disagree with somebody on a
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policy position doesn't mean you can't enjoy their company and enjoy each other
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as Americans and human beings but now we have not just the Republicans and Democrats in armed camps but we have the
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Republicans in armed camps against each other what do you think about this splintering of the Republican party
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that's going on in real time in these debates um and uh for a party that has
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always valued loyalty so much I mean the Democrats always had I I think a little
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bit more arguing going on publicly U than the Republicans did maybe they did it more in private but what do you think
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about what you see today with all of all the all of the uh I mean back and forth
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I mean we're we're down to just a three candidates now but it's been it's it's
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not been comfortable brutal and I've covered it every single day um because of of the show and also because I'm
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interested um I I believe this from a broad brush standpoint that parties evolve uh and if they fail to evolve and
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adapt they can Splinter and parties don't last forever and we might be witnessing the destruction of the
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Republican part party at least as I have always known the Republican party I'm 40
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I'll be 44 in a month my grandfather was the county commissioner in Western County Newcastle Wyoming I mean I've
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been a republican All My Life um but am I I'm not devastated that the Republican
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Party might disappear as the as I knew it because I believe that conservative principles just like Progressive
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principles or liberal principles they will exist whether the parties are intact um I do think that there is quite
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a bit of fighting within the Democratic party as well but the Republicans one it's so grossly
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entertaining I might I think if that's the way to put it that you can't tear
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your eyes away uh from it I think that we could be seeing the wholesale destruction of the Republican
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party as I've always known it that's not entirely a terrible thing I think there
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are changes especially with another person you're going to be talking to you
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know Alec Ross with his book the industries of the future you know policies and politics has to keep up
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with the techn technological innovations of our time uh or else it's not just a
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few people that will feel left behind it will be entire classes of people and so
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we have a lot of work to do in in dealing with our debt and our government our tax system our regulatory structure
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the education system immigration trade international pressures that we feel from threats from people who want to
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harm us there's a lot more important to deal with than the latest of who said
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what on the campaign Trail but the who said what on the campaign Trail is so entertaining that that's what people
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have focused on so what's likely to happen with this election is there going
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to be a contested convention will there be a third- Party candidate if they push
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Trump out there's it it seems he's more or less hinted if not come out directly
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to say that he would run as a third party candidate if he gets the nomination there's a lot of talk behind
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the scenes that someone else might run be another third party another lots of names are surfaced Paul Ryan being one
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there's others I don't think that's real I don't think that rumors about Paul
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Ryan running for president are real at all um the likelihood of a contested convention is probably I'd say 60%
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likely at this point just because the rules being what they are that you have to get a majority before the convention
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to be assured the nomination and if you don't it goes to a vote and everyone's
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getting a real education now what that means when delegates are chosen in different Ways by different states
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they're bound or Unbound um we have a situation now in Louisiana where Donald
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Trump handily won the popular vote in Louisiana but he lost the delegate count and now he wants to sue Louisiana for
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that but the rules were the rules so it's true the rules are the rules but um
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I often read that that those that have been voting for Trump will feel th thed if they will if he has almost all the
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delegates and uh I think it would be very hard I think that he I think if he has almost all the delegates and he goes
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to the convention even in that first or second round I still think that he could
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become the nominee I don't think that um there will be that many Unbound delegates that decide to not vote for
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him unless things continue um he's doing very poorly with certain segments of
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Republican voters very conservative voters and Republican women and he could make up some of that in a general
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election by bringing Democrats over to vote for him but if you're losing conservatives and women on the other
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side you got to make that up someplace else and I don't know where he does that
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if the Republican party is splintering breaking up as you suggest it might be similar to maybe what happened to the
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Democrats 50 years ago back in the mid-60s or so um how long will it take them I don't know to put Humpty Dumpty
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back together and can they win a a national elections very well uh in that state of disunity I think it's very hard
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for Republicans no matter what to win nationally anyway um if you looked at so Hillary Clinton in
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2012 the the night that Barack Obama won she looked at that electoral map and said that's my starting point okay so
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Republicans have to try to figure out a way to change that map Donald Trump could absolutely change the electoral
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map I don't believe that Ted Cruz could flip any states that Romney didn't win I
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actually don't believe that right he I'm sure he would argue and tell me that I'm
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wrong but I really I don't see how that is possible now with Donald Trump could
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you see uh Massachusetts being in play yeah for him but Hillary Clinton could put Arizona in play for the Democrats
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same is true for Utah because Utah gave Trump some of his worst marks ever if the Republican party in Utah is not
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going to be excited and enthusiastic to come out and vote for Trump in Utah but the Democrats they might actually have a
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chance to win Utah so then the map that we've known ever since about the year
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2000 will look totally different so nobody really knows what's going to happen so will you be supporting the
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Republican nominee whoever it is uh I would love to be able to do that but I don't know and I have a different job
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now too um I am not one of these news analysts or pundits that feels like I need to advertise who I am for I am not
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campaing for anyone if you ask me who I think should be president I'll go to my
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my chapter three George W bush so um well uh you worked he was your boss you worked with him in the white house uh
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obviously very loyal to him it comes through loud and clear in the book um his brother was running in this past
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election and Donald Trump was very disparaging put mildly completely um even you know spoke of um uh lying us
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into the war spoke of knowing about 911 knowing about well I don't did he actually say that I know I know he felt
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that he didn't keep it safe talked about he said he said that I mean it's it's
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beyond uh birtherism into truism at this point uh impeachment and so forth so I'm
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guessing it would be very hard for you to support someone like that there are other reasons that it would be hard as
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well um for me the um making fun of a disabled reporter and then lying about it that
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bothered me very much also um I assume that you're still on great terms with
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the Bush family Jeb was running and he has said that he finds Donald Trump's
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views on foreign policy quote unquote scary so um I mean there these are that's not I mean that's not a that's
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not a Jeb Bush only phenomenon if you look at the kipc poll the most recent one where they did the word cloud word
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association with Trump or Hillary scary was the most the the most uh often repeated word in that poll that's not a
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Jeb Bush position that was a majority of the people from the kipc poll so if there's a splintering and if there's a
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third party run um none of these things are outrageous to talk about um how will
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the party or how will the conservatives let's say develop a new party what I
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don't know how what groups would be included what would be left out I don't
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know would they draw the newest you're asking me things that we don't we just
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don't know there's there's so many hypotheticals and we could play this
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game and trying to figure it out but it's impossible to say you don't know
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what sort of leaders would emerge what sort of ideas will emerge it's um I I
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just think at this point anybody who says they know what's going to happen is
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wrong I also think that a third party run is highly unlikely it's almost impossible to get on the ballots at this
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point I see just practically that doesn't seem like it would work besides uh a third party run on a republican
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leaning side would guarantee Hillary Clinton the win anyway yes so I don't know what the point would be right okay
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um maybe we can end on a bit more of a an uplifting note um you mentioned in the book there was uh one of the hotels
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you were in someone left a card on your pillow with a Zen quot oh yeah can you tell us about that right it was um it
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was after I left the White House and I I think a lot of people believe that my transition from press secretary into the
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pr world into um co-host of one of the most popular shows on cable news that it looks very smooth from the outside but
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internally it was really I think it was a lot for me to handle I had worked in government for so long um I'd worked in
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the private sector before as well my business when I left the White House was going great but I was overwhelmed and
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also I was exhausted from that experience and even though I was White House Press Secretary I'm a pretty
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non-confrontational person so um fighting on cable news was something new to me um and especially because when I
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was the press secretary it did not phase me to talk about George W bush and his positions um but when I had to give my
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own opinions it was different and there was this little uh pillow card and I can't remember which hotel it was but it
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said something like um uh I have to be to be tranquil um what's the first word
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say little but when you speak um speak gently from the heart abstain from vanity be truthful
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that is the way yeah and I thought that captured what I needed to be doing in my life after I left the White House
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and so I took that card and I've had it with me ever since almost 10 years so
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helped helped get you through yeah I read it every morning thanks for joining us thank you
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