Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough: All Things at Once

And now it's my pleasure to introduce Mika Brzezinski. Mika Brzezinski is a journalist and co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC after graduating from Williams College. She began her career in journalism as a reporter and later morning news anchor in Hartford Connecticut. In 1907 she joined CBS News where over time she served as anchor of CBS News up to the minute and CBS News Weekend Edition. She was their principal Ground Zero reporter after the 9/11 attacks and was a frequent contributor to CBS Morning News and 60 Minutes. Her relationship with MSNBC began during a hiatus from CBS when she co-hosted the afternoon program home page and she joined the team for good in 2007. She's currently co-host of Morning Joe as well as reporter for NBC Nightly News and an alternating anchor of Weekend Today. In a moment I'll hand the mike over to Joe Scarborough who will be speaking with Mr. Brzezinski this evening. Joe Scarborough is a former politician and current political commentator and host on MSNBC when he ran for Congress in the end one in

1904 he became the first Republican to represent his district in northwest Florida since the 1870s after leaving Congress in 2001. He went on to become editor and publisher of the award winning newspaper the Florida sun. Before joining MSNBC in 2003 at MSNBC he has served as host of the primetime show Scarborough Country and is currently host with Mika Brzezinski of Morning Joe. Mr. Scarborough has also written two books. Rome wasn't burnt in a day and last summer's The Last Best Hope Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise. And now please join me in welcoming Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Right on the air. Thank you so much ivory body. This is great. And a little bit you said stand we can do but it's great to be here.

It was great when I heard somebody introduce me and said I was the first Republican elected since 1872 I heard some hisses over here. Wondering where the people of North. Did you hear that idea which was right there. Yeah. Oh well they broke a hundred fifty year streak with that loser. Was there bacon. She didn't tell you the other part of it is that I was the first Republican elected in northwest Florida the Redneck Riviera since 1872. And they hung the last one they sent to watch it in D.C.. So it's great to be here Mika Why don't you stand up and talk you're going to the place that we at the University of Alabama affectionately call them the University of Alabama of New England Hardware. Exactly. Be here so glad to hear. You must feel very welcome. I do I feel I feel at home. Mika Let's start by talking about this book you've got a great review from The New York Times. Which absolutely

savaged my book. That's another story. It's a good so sad that if you read The Last Best Hope you could actually you would be dumb or you could actually catch a communicable disease. But with your book they absolutely love it but you've also written posts on the Huffington Post and you you've been savaged by half the people have loved you half the people have savaged you. A very controversial book. Why do you think that is. Well I think I go into some areas that are very personal and very honest and I kind of put it out there some of the choices that I've made in life and for better or for worse it involves because I'm a wife and mother as well as a career person. It involves choices that involve your children. And parenting is so personal. So I think there's a lot of judgment out there for the decisions that I've made. Some people I don't think completely understand them but others think they're downright wrong.

And let's talk about one of those choices. OK. You you were working overnight you were exhausted you were trying to do everything at one time trying to be superwoman and you were getting two three hours of sleep a night and one day. And you talk about this in the beginning the book you missed a step and you fell down a flight of stairs with your 4 year old or a month old 4 month old and. You thought that you would paralyzed or in fact the doctors said that you may have paralyzed her and you chose to go back to work and that enraged a lot of people. It is how the book opens talks about kind of I call it rock bottom the darkest moment in my life where I was in the hospital and waiting for an MRI result not knowing exactly what had happened tell the whole the story though. How did how did you get there. Well I was working the overnight shift and I had been brought up to always have

goals in a family a very goal oriented people I have two brothers that are both extremely brilliant a father who is a brilliant man in the foreign policy world and a mother who's a brilliant artist. And it was just set in stone that I too would find something that I love to do and I did. But the big opportunity to work at CBS came with some costs number one it was the overnight shift and it was freelance. They were doing me a favor and a freelance job in television means when you take maternity leave you don't get paid. So there was the added stress of OK how do we balance all of our bills and the new baby in the new house and the move to New York for the big job and the fact that we're going to go without pay for a few months and obviously that should have been top priority but it was one of many frustrations and concerns. And the truth is that I went back to work too early. I didn't listen to my body. I didn't listen to my baby and I was too busy trying to plug all the holes and make everybody happy including my

husband. And I had this accident. It was horrific. The moment in the hospital that I describe in the book is where they couldn't get any response from her and they were talking about spinal cord damage. And I find myself questioning everything. Why how could I let myself get into such an exhausted situation that I would do something this unbelievably stupid and destructive. And I after weeks of having a baby in a body cast and walking through town Yes I did it. Yes you know it was me her Christmas card by the way when you buy the book they have Christmas cards did you say and that's when we learned get the baby and the body cast I was part of a month of therapy after a month of using body cast and is described on the Christmas card as mother of the year. I was sitting by the baby in the body cast but you know make it talk about though how unfair it is. We both work really long stupid hours.

Awful hour when I work when I work really long long hours because we have TV radio we do a lot of different stuff. It's like man shows it Killary right. He's all there. But when you do it you know and while Mines does it bitch you're too ambitious. Why. There has right something wrong with you the man you don't want him in the corner office. Talk about the massage any not only networks where it's the worse. The worst bud just in Mobile the workmen rajin the networks in just a minute and we can and because that's all I want is you know work executives and we're going to take your Origin's we're going to go on then but but but let's just talk about you know the first part of what you were saying because the criticism I'm getting on the internet for going back to work and actually making the decision to nurture my career more and try and do everything in a more practical fashion which involved less time with the children. The people who are the loudest and the most vitriolic and the most critical are women.

And to me that's exactly why I wrote this book. I will put myself in the middle of this conversation because I think it's worth having We have so many young women coming into the career world. It is a given that women will work. It's not an opportunity. And they're not just secretaries anymore. Women have careers. We all do and in this economy most families need two careers. So what I'm trying to offer there is a lot of different messages about family priorities and also the truth about trying to balance things and that does mean at times in your career choosing against your children in order to maybe have something that you can give them later and no I don't mean money but I mean a part of your identity that you love very much that cultivates you and helps you cultivate them. That's the conversation that's generating a little heat. But there's another part of it it's interesting you get you get attacked by I guess more conservative stay at homes for going back to work on one side on the other side

though you get attacked by more progressive females who are very angry at your suggestion in this book that young women should be fruitful and multiply. Their. Wives their husbands make babies and work you say. Don't wade in. You know this whole book the idea of it came when we were talking summer in turns at the end of last year and Willie and I were sitting there and of course we were being men of the Mickey got up and I actually told them something that was valuable. But she told these young women some things and it was Make it was as if they had never heard this before because you said don't wait til you're 30. Don't wait til you're 35 Don't wait til you're 40 if you want a husband. If you want children don't wait. No. And I think that the message is to wait put it off. And I noticed this because to when I speak to young women their eyes pop out of their head when I say this like I'm speaking a different language. And to me the concept is listen I've made some mistakes

along the way trying to scramble doing everything so you have to have a certain amount of self-confidence and self alue to balance these things and I look back and I wish I could rewind on a few things. Having said that I do not want to rewind on having children and I wouldn't want this career if I didn't have the children to share it with. It doesn't make any sense to me and I can't even imagine having a baby now trying to do. Radio and Television and all these other things it would be impossible. So to me putting it off has a lot of physical risks and also if you claim that parenting and marriage is so important to you why would you put it off why would you put off looking for a partner why would you put off looking for a family and within which you could grow to gether. But make it the biggest criticism just seems more selfish. Work work work work work and oh yeah the biggest criticism of you is there's the assumption and it's one it's a false assumption but one that I try to stir up as much as possible on Morning Joe thanks so that your family because

everybody knows who your parents are or wealthy that you say that you somewhere in the south and sayings that might be the faith that I'm going to tell sad truth are going to Newark and try to find a good motel with my family. That has an above ground swimming pool. But. But the fact is it's not a lot of women will say well you know Mika Brzezinski is rich and she's famous and her dad was powerful so she can make these choices she's got the luxury because she's got a fleet of nannies. That's not true is it. You know and also the upbringing there are some that think that and I sort of love the opportunity to debunk the images of what growing up in Washington was really like so I peppered it with stories about road kill and eating roadkill for dinner and eating our pets which we did. My parents were not like the normal Washington White House Husbands and wives they were like the Polish hillbillies came to town

and it was so unusual and it was relatively so quiet on a budget. You get it you got to tell because nothing just I think illustrates how crazy your parents are. And I say that with a lot of love in my heart. Despite the fact Dr. Brzezinski told me snow. I'm sorry. That Pamela Harriman story talk about when your mother federal would kill to Pamela Harriman. Well she's an artist she's sort of. Yes she's very unusual and she's also my inspiration and she ended up was that as I wrote this book and I thought I had all these great messages I ended up realizing what her message was to me. And ultimately it was the title of the book came from her words. I was doing a CBS Sunday Morning piece for Mother's Day on her on how she balanced being a wife a mother and an artist. And she I even

asked her in the middle of the interview you know what are you first a wife a mother or a sculptor. And she said I can't answer that because I'm all those things that once and I realize that that's why even today she's working on a beautiful installation of sculptures that will be shown in New York and in Washington and Chicago and she's working in her studio probably right now because she never let go of that very important facet of her identity even when it was taken away from her. And she always paced herself throughout her life and our lives to be able to get to everything. But never let go. All three facets wife mother artist so I have to say she's brilliant. But now to the crazy side. She she she is very practical and comes from Eastern Europe. We grew our own vegetables. She never wasted food and she bought all of our clothes at second hand stores and we are hunters so there are always dead deer hanging off the trees of our house.

But she would gut and I would gut. And when we had chickens and ducks and if she would like get fed up with them she'd chop off their heads and we'd eat them for dinner and the roadkill story just blends into her life seamlessly. For me it's a story that I tell. But for her she still to this day does not understand what the big deal is. She was driving to pick me up from school and by the way she Joe up at school like in her jumpsuit from the car from the studio. And sometimes I'd be covered with blood. You know just because she was hacking up something and you know got busy and I'm telling you it's not what do you use that. And she was covered with a lot of splatter. And so I knew something had died. But what I didn't know and there was something in the back of the car I looked I saw something dead. The truth was that she had seen a deer get hit by a car on the way to school and thought My

God I can't waste that. That's a good young buck. And pulled over and started to chop it up. And actually a farmer pulled over and they shared it. And so she put it in the freezer and thought Thursday night when I cook for Pamela Harriman and Senator so-and-so and the administration officials like come for dinner I won't have to go buy a piece of meat. I've got one. And she served it. And everyone you know was fabulous she had these fabulous dinners with the beautiful china from my grandmother's uncle who was the president of Czechoslovakia. We have this beautiful table where beautiful tablecloths from Europe and she does it all herself. And she served this venison and everybody of course was lapping it up saying oh how divide and almost God how did you do this. Oh my goodness it's fabulous who's your caterer. And that was a very bad question. I just I remember thinking I have chills this is bad because we served we have to work the difference. There were no people helping.

And my mom as if she was saying I got these shoes at Bloomingdale's for 50 percent off can you believe it. She said Oh my gosh I got this on the side of the road. And. Everybody froze. I mean it was literally like a movie and Pamela Armin spit it out and that she and she was throwing fits she had no idea no idea. It even ended up in the style section of The Washington Post. It was something about Bambi being served for dinner. But that was my family. And she to this day if you think about it it really would have been wasted venison. And there really was nothing wrong with it. But she doesn't no filter. I wonder does that remind me of someone I know. They always come by and I always comes back to me. I'm so. How hard was it growing up in your family. It's your household. You tell stories about being savaged around the dinner table

it's pretty tough. It was and and and it still is talk about how some Thanksgiving recent Thanksgiving dinners have been ruined because of the Iraq war. Well you know what and maybe we'll end on this we can open it up to questions. OK maybe a lot more questions. But you know my family brought up a very diverse group of kids were three of them. My brother even worked in the Bush administration for six years. Pretty high up under Rumsfeld. And my brother Mark worked in the Clinton administration on the National Security Council and worked for the Obama campaign is still working with them now. And we got a Democrat a Republican and a journalist little baby sister. And that's a perfect example of exactly the product of especially my father but the team the team between my father my mother my father's staff at the White House came to his 80th surprise birthday party. And I looked at them and I felt like I was looking at our family. Bob Gates.

Condoleezza Rice Madeleine Albright I mean you name it al on the line every every party was covered every school of thought every concept was provoked to make him sharper and to make his strategic thinking challenged. And he did that with us he created a diverse group of very challenging individuals and at times that ruined Christmas dinner. Like during the Iraq war and the you know it just it was really there was one dinner that was ruined but we try. We try not to do that. But it does sometimes get really a lot of friction because we believe strongly in our conviction so by the time you got out of your household you were pretty tough. Did that help you through some of the low points and you can I think about your thirty ninth birthday. CBS News decided to give you a special birthday present on your thirty ninth birthday what was it. They fired me. Thank you CBS News.

And they fired you and also and this is where we get into the massage and hard and it's all networks but you had a top executive filter down word that he just he didn't get your looks. He thought you looked weird. Can you talk about how tough it is being a woman in this business and how women are treated as so much more poorly than than our men. Yeah I think I will. I also though in this book try really hard not to. I really hope that there isn't any I am a victim because what I do look at in this book is what I could have done differently to perhaps transcend that moment or maybe even stay at CBS or maybe even understand why that was the best thing that ever happened to me and why that ultimately made me better. Having said that you know as a woman in this business the truth is

you can be a journalist you can be a producer you can be an anchor. But there is a potential that you're also equally as so a commodity a piece of meat and one that depends on looks and depends on a subjective view of a lot of men. And there are I've been on it you know. The good end of that and the bad end of that. But it is definitely there and there are a lot of things that go on that you just wouldn't believe in terms of how people get ahead in this business and how choices are made. And I mean you know the one thing I've been able to do and I've been so lucky through the show that Joe created and that we develop together is transcend that a little bit I'm 42 years old and I have the best job in television so it's not that it's not impossible but it's definitely there. What you talk about the massage the sexism but also sort of this.

Unfair focus or perhaps just what it is reality focus on looks and sexuality and you tell young women coming into the business that if they feed into that they maybe get a quick bump. They may get ahead but in the end it is a dead end street and they will be thrown to the side. Well I mean yes and many of them get their start that way and I you know I have to look at an individual way but overall it is there and I will say that I remember getting some jobs and some opportunities and I write about this in the book that I was completely unprepared for because of my last name. I mean at one point I'm 29 years old. I have I am not a foreign policy expert. OK I'm not the apple fell far from the tree there. And I was put because CBS felt like they had hired my dad for some reason because they hired me in a live show hosting myself with three former CIA directors on the anniversary of the inception of the CIA and I was supposed to grill them for two hours

on you know the history of the agency and the future of it. How did I work out. It was just. It was a disaster. It was a disaster. And I mean I. So I will say that all you know on the level back to young women getting ahead because of their looks that happens all the time and they get filled up with kool aid they get propped up and told they're the greatest thing and they are totally not ready for the job. That too has happened. And I actually was talked to about 60 minutes two years before I went there because I knew I wasn't ready. And I knew I was being filled with Kool-Aid and told things that didn't make sense and I didn't want to put myself in that situation. And there were people at CBS who would freaking kill themselves to get that opportunity and would never understand why I did that. But ultimately I did go there when I was ready and then Dan Rather screwed everything up. So whatever. It's a brutal business.

But you were you decided at thirty nine which let's face it for most women thirty nine in TV is near the end of their career right. You decided to keep fighting. You decided that you were not going to let some man's random opinion of you keep you out of this business. Talk about that process and how you found that as a mother your kids actually preferred you in the work force and thought you were really when you came home from CBS. Perhaps the worst mom in the world got another Christmas card which if you go to the center there holding a sign after she has been out of work that one made it then I make it a vodka bottle with a vodka. She's drinking vodka and the kids the little kids are holding a sign that says Please find Mommy work there have a great sense of humor. Yet the girls were. I love CBS by the way. So I mean I know I I make that very clear in the book but I want

to make it clear for the record it was the best job. I had great friends there we still are your second best job. OK. I do have the best job in television I do but my point is though I had balanced it all so well. I had my if I was doing like the Sunday evening news on CBS which is the job bell to Matley had before I left my kids were under the desk like you know. You know pulling at my ankles or sitting in the makeup room or doing their homework in my office and it was just the perfect balance I thought. And I took them on shoots with me and I worked with great people and I was stunned when I was fired. Really upset. And I I knew my kids loved the place but I didn't want them to feel the way I did. So I when I went home I was still trying to spin it in my own mind and I didn't understand. And I but I wanted to protect them from these feelings so I made the mistake of trying to spin it to them. And I I said Mommy's got great news.

We're going to spend a lot of time together. And they were like Oh there is a way they were all like moving around the room and just froze when I said that. And they were like why. And I said well because I'm going to be leaving CBS where I'm going to be at home. I'm going to be here for you all the time. And Amelia who was 11 beautifully selfish was like you can't do. You can't do that. That is the only reason the library lady likes me. You can't do that. You cannot do that. And Carly was kind of quiet she was eight and I remember things sort of taking note of that but move it keeping trying to keep the night moving and the next day I was trying to think of ways that I could be a super stay at home mom when the school called and said that Carly needs you. And the teacher knew actually to call my husband first because I was a correspondent and usually I'm on a plane or somewhere and it's easier to call him. So the fact that she was calling me meant something and I took the opportunity to dive in and I am available see I'm going to be there in less than 30 seconds. I'm like hyperventilating running into the school. Stay at home mom and. And she's sitting there on the floor and

she's kind of upset and the teacher grouches down to her and I crouched down and I'm like you know ready for action and the teacher goes curly has told me that you know the news that you're going to be eating CBS. And I was like right that's good right Carly. We're going to have more. Mommy's going to have more time for you we're going to be together and the teacher comes with exactly the problem. She is really concerned about that. And I looked at Carly and she looked up and she had to be poorly tearful eyes and she said Mommy I don't want you to leave CBS because you love it so much. And I realized at that point that children want to see their parents happy first of all and they know what makes them happy. And they're not selfish especially if you bring that joy into the house and share it with them. She loved my job for herself because she got to go to Sesame Street when I interviewed Oscar whatever. But she loved it for me too. And actually the first time I cried about losing the job was right there which

is probably the worst parenting. And I realized that I can't lie to them anymore about all of this they've seen the ups they've got to see the downs and they've got to see me get through this. Back to Joe's question. Talking too much but I did look for a long time for a job and no one would hire me. I had really bad job interviews I was really bummed about it and felt guilty that I wanted to work so badly and had to work through that. But. The moment came that I got an offer from a PR company I started looking outside the business for a really good job that made really good money and I realized that it wasn't me and that I really wanted to do what I wanted to do and that I would have to start all over again. And you know to hell with what people think. To hell with what I had before. What can I get now. And it was something fairly small and basic it was freelance day rate job at MSNBC and you know what. I was never more happy to be working than when I walked back in the door and peeped my card and heard that me

and said hi to the security guard and went and did a little work. So I found my way back by taking a huge step back and no one was more happy than my children to see me walk out that door and make a paycheck. You were actually going to call this book something like what was it. Sometimes you have to take an L to take a step forward times you have to take a step back. You all you did that. Yes you said you got ridiculed people in the business were making fun of you. Yang look how the mighty have fallen. You had to know that was going to happen. And yet you chose to do that anyway why. Why was working so important to you. I found it to be a part of who I am and providing actually something that is part of me. Part of. You said you feel guilty about that though. In the process of needing work so badly. Yeah I thought My God why isn't this enough. I had a lot to do my mother in law was dying.

My eldest daughter had an eye issue and I was taking her to therapy and I was very engaged in everyone's lives and using my time wisely. But I also missed I missed television I missed journalism I missed connecting with producers and talking about stories and collaborating and conceptualizing an issue I missed that as a part of who I was and I really it's what I bring to the table in the home and that's sort of hard for some people to understand but a lot of working women they're actually responding quite positively to this and finding it refreshing to hear that. You know you can have a whole other part of yourself besides your husband and your children that you bring back into the home and bring it to the table. But in order to get there you have to make hard choices and sometimes you have to transfer the authority of your children to someone else in order to carry out a certain goal. And it's these are choices that men never get criticized for never. And I've

made some very manly choices. I've traveled for great long periods of time and I've spent a lot of time focused on building this career. And therein lies the debate about whether or not that was selfish or whether it actually cultivates a family and grows it. And any regrets for making those decisions or their rights are in the book about how I paste it all out. It was sort of scrambling to be all things to all people all the time. But you're happy where you are. It's a constant negotiation. If you know other than working with me. Well yeah. You know I love the job but you know what. It's there's no pretty bow at the end of the story. Every day is a constant negotiation with my husband and my kids there's four different people in my house. They're tweens now there's four different agendas and it is not always pretty. It's just not. We're going to take we're going to take some questions for you I get to play you get to play Oprah this past summer in my book tour. I get to do that too. I'm going to bound

out with the microphone and let you ask questions. I may just fall fal I think you have to when you catch me if I jump. But before I do that I just want to say the amazing thing about me as well and you know we always have people ask how did you guys first meet each other and how did the show. How did you guys team up on the show. And it happened that when I had my nighttime show I did it out of Florida and it was just it was the great american scam I would be on my boat most of the day and then go to my studio which is five minutes. From my home and I do Scarborough Country Night yell and wave my arms in my bathing suit and jacket from here up acting acting like I really gave a damn about what I yelled about and then I would toss it to me in New York you would give these 30 second news caught ins. And here's a 60 Minutes correspondent who left CBS and now is at MSNBC

doing 30 second news cut ins for a loser like me. And at the end of it she would go and now back to Scarborough Country. Scarborough Council. And so my friends would say to me on the boat the next day. Who says Mika is I I don't know somebody. They're like Dude she's making fun of your show. So no she's not. They're like Dude listen she's making fun of you. And so the next night I would say oh here's your family to Mika Brzezinski and then Mika would say Now back to Scarborough Country. Yeah. So after about four five days on the boat they'll be like dude I am not just making fun of me. So when when when Don Imus decided to comment on Rutgers basketball it was I was asked to come up to New York and try out

for the morning show. So and they were looking for the sidekick. I go you're going to have Joe and Joe needs a sidekick. And they kept giving me all of these female newsreaders that were I mean anybody in the media here. Now you're there already. OK this is off the record they were taking baths there. They were read teleprompter and I was this was the biggest problem. I was not going to do three hours on foreign policy and politics and have a vibrant debate and bring all these with people they can only read teleprompter so I was looking around. But as I was up there I ran into meek and I had never met even though she had been making fun of me for five months. And so I said to or I said hey Joe Scarborough good to meet you. And I said By the way I know that you're making fun of my show.

And Mika Brzezinski daughter of the big Brzezinski without skipping a beat said how can I make fun of a show I've never even seen. It's a practical question. The next question out of my mouth was would you like to be my co-host because the amazing thing about me as unlike most of the people that I've come across in the media or in politics she knows who she is and she's not going to play a role. The first thing we said to each other we we didn't plan anything out on the show we said we're not going to play TV. We're just going to go on and we're going to talk. And it's worked well and this this book is written by somebody who knows herself as well there is no neat pretty bow at the end. There is no formula for a wonderful life. And she says some things in there that are real. She talks about even a sexual assault that was

committed against her when she was 13 years old was really really tough stuff but she does everything for a reason. But most of this stuff most most people the media would not write. So she's a remarkable woman. She knows who she is. I've had a back injury before I was so careful I mean if I just so I could have another no. OK they are here for you Joe. Alabama. Your number one no I want to play you. Like I want. I'm joking. Yeah I am glad I'm hurt. I sell you crap and. This is a rough crowd. OK I'm going to play opera First of all look under your seats you know I'm going to use your brand new chevy. Our refrigerator raise your hands if you have questions for me. Here's one right here. Or for Joe. First of all anybody who hasn't seen Morning Joe in the morning you should it's the best show on TV.

And Mike question is Sarah Pailin just finished second by 1 percent to Hillary Clinton in most admired woman in America. And my question is from a politician political point of view in a woman point of view. Your opinion of the Sarah Palin phenomenon in your opinion on what our preoccupation and enthusiasm for Sarah Palin as a national leader says about us as voters. Mike Mika the bomb and. The bomb has been set under your chair. Detonate it. First why do you want. You want to talk about the Sarah Palin phenomenon that we find. Yeah that when we even mention her. Yeah you know sometimes we're critical of or sometimes for support of sometimes we say she's getting a raw deal sometimes we say she's getting it out getting too easy. Does not matter what we say.

I now we get savaged why should we do perhaps the most to vista of figure polarizing polarizing figure in American politics today. We had to I can't think of anybody even Gingrich back in the 90s I was there when he was running around saying stupid things. He wasn't his divison his pail and by the way U.S. News and World Report's top 10 Republican to watch on the list right there. Whatever say it whatever it was. So my answer is you know what that's kind of like being the tallest building in Schenectady. It's not. Who nods. This is not a dying Republican Party it's a dead Republican Party. Are there even. The Republicans left on Americans and here anybody want oh oh my gosh yes well they're independents. I'm curious how many independents is so great I love this Democrats. All right look at this. I love this yeah it's great. OK so talk about Sarah Palin. Share with me because we were together for it because the law she obviously burst on the scene when we were covering the

conventions right. And you know the interesting takeaway from that is actually turning the camera on the media because I worked at every network I've worked at ABC. I've worked at CBS and I've worked at NBC and I know a lot of network correspondents and producers. And when Sarah Palin came on the scene I will tell you I adored the concept of her stay with me stay with me. She only needs 15 second swear to god. Don't throw anything at her yet go mid-forties attractive working mom five kids supportive husband wants to run the country. Kind of cool. And I also thought in terms of some of the social issues where she had a position on I thought maybe maybe maybe this is someone who can really heat up the conversation who has a lot of credibility behind some of them from her own life experience that was the raw concept of her 10 minutes after she burst onto the scene. And I was just reading her bio. I knew nothing about what was about to come out of her mouth when she talked to Katie Couric. So

the concept of her I was excited about I thought my gosh what a look at the celeb. You know I mean between Hillary Clinton and and ultimately you know the first African-American candidate for president and now potential female vice president with five kids and and driven to work in a way that OK you get enough nice things about it are going to drag you out. So get to the end of that. Well so we got oh no you are we just want to tell the media can I tell them about the New Yorker. Just stop it right there. Here's the deal. We went to a New York Times party and there were a god you're going there I'm going there. We went to New York Times party and there were by the way reporters from every newspaper there. So this is not just a New York Times story. And there were TV correspondents there and we were there and all of our colleagues were talking about the rumors about her and they were so excited rabid that maybe she had a love child that her daughter I don't even remember what the rumor was was it was something on

Daily Kos and everybody picked it up and make or receive phone calls throughout the day from people at the networks. And then we went to the New York Times and again this before we knew whether she could complete a sentence or not. But nobody else knew whether she could or not they just knew she was a first term governor from Alaska. And they were savaging her and they were saying to make him my god I hope these rumors are true we hope she goes down and what I saw there was shocking to me. That was within my own sort of world of media that I had grown up in for 20 years and really hoped for a sense of objectivity but felt there was a liberal worldview a very one dimensional world view. What I saw was a real kind of example of that in bad form. And that was network producers and correspondents and high level very well respected newspaper reporters trying to figure out a way to bring this woman down before she even opened her mouth.

You know there are video of Republican your friends and also my friends. Yes it was. Did you watch you watch the election last year. They were on it on Morning Joe. How long you been watching the show. Yeah. You have forever. Yeah you're Remember when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and we were there right. The Watergate hearings when our word for it was not in Burbank OK. But anyway so we spent the first couple of months reflexively defending Sarah Pailin because what we saw behind the scenes because the press reflectively was piling up on her even through the Katie Couric interview and the Charlie Gibson interview. We we thought the press handled things badly very badly but of course the more she spoke. Yeah having said that my short answer to what I think is that she's inflammatory she's polarizing and I don't really like what she represents really down well and

we just don't know. Even though we come from. From the situation from different ideologies and some issues. Yeah I'm just not prepared. And that's that's the thing she is ill prepared. And I just so I can throw my corpse on the center of all you can savage me. Just like George W. Bush wasn't prepared and just like we still have to find out whether President Obama was prepared. You know we were fortunate enough to go to Colin Powell had his portrait unveiled at the State Department and we sat and listened to Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton speak. I don't know if you all saw Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press about a month or two ago. We just sat there watching it it was like wow a grown up somebody who's been thinking about policy for reasons other than I want to be president

the United States. And Mika and I just don't think there are enough grown ups in Washington D.C. right now that have that type of experience. You know every Republican still savaged me for saying I love Hillary Clinton. I love her because she was such a grown up during the campaign she was such a fighter. And I like President Obama. I really do I like him personally I like people in the White House. But we're still asking the question is he prepared. And I know you were asking that question of President Obama. We're not asking that question of Sarah Pailin we know that answer. Yeah I just wondered if you knew you were in a very convoluted world this is the People's Republic. And it's by country too. They don't go well together. Yes I've been told that as goes Cambridge so goes France. It's an honor to be here and have such a big fan of you both of you and the whole crew.

My question is I loved it when you refused to read the Paris Hilton used Press. Whatever. And my question is is how much pressure do you have that you have to read something like that because of sponsors or commercials or management. That's the beauty of Morning Joe. Yeah. We found our own voice right Joe. You go ahead. No no no I was just because this is his I'm just going to say this is his this show. He came up with out of nowhere and because of the on this thing and they were so distracted by Lee you know whatever the court ruling is and stop with Don Imus and try to fire him that we had three hours to fill and he came up with the concept of a no B.S. format where we actually talk. Well you know the thing is though at the time she did that. She caught a lot of flack. I did a lot of people at NBC News and she and she makes fun of the Today show repeatedly and I keep saying Mika. I mean that you're biting the hand that feeds

you. So anyway I make again a lot of trouble believe it or not. And this is the bazars thing where the some executives almost at NBC News. Which you would think would be the more conservative more centered news organization. But they get really angry with their because they felt like she was making fun and make them look bad when they reported Paris Hilton for three hours straight on The Today Show. Well Paris Hilton was getting out of jail and refused to read it and so will and I had fun. So she ended up shredding it. But no when it when we're told that barnacle will tell you that when we're now told what to do we tell we tell executives what they can do with themselves. So just leave it there. I'll just leave it there. I've already said that word on TV. I know. Oh thank you. Steve Kappas he doesn't talk to me present NBC News maybe I'll talk to you here OK.

And now my kid out there their youth there's stairs over there I thought he's going he's like mommy look at that. OK. More questions now Mike Barnicle is here you can ask a I'll share the mike with him. Thank you Joe. Thank you Monica. Can you please tell me about some of your experiences being a reporter on September 11th. And I've also got a paper here that I'd love you to take a look at. It's they've analyzed the dust samples from the debris of the buildings on 9/11. All right the next explosive residue in the dust samples. Since you too don't have anybody to report to when you're making your shows it would be fantastic if you could talk about that. And let me thank you because you have just leveled the playing field because the further You're very polite by the way. Yes. When I wrote my book the first book tour I went to where were way Union Square where unions were everywhere and so Mika the first question she actually asked somebody for any

questions and a guy stood up started screaming and attacking me and throwing things at me but so me I have an entire chapter on covering that. Yeah. And you know you don't like you. Let's be honest you don't like talking about 9/11 because you were there. It was extraordinarily personal to you and explain to everybody you still tear up. I never see you tear up on set. But every September 11th you still tear up so much so that sometimes you have to walk off the set. Well you know I mean I. I do have a hard time talking about it just because we we my husband and I both covered it we both were down there and it was the one time where I ran into a story knowing my husband was running into it too. And knowing that we both are by putting ourselves in pretty big danger you know sort of a hard thing to do

as a mother. But with all the people that lost so much more and we were impacted as a family and we had some struggles after. But. It's just sort of pales in comparison to the so the so many victims that have family members and wives and sisters and daughters and brothers that I met. It sort of feels wrong to talk about it having just gotten to CBS tell them you were just like on CBS your first week you saw the news. You ran to the assignment desk and they said can I go. They didn't even know you said Go took a camera crew and you were I guess it's Fifty seventh Street. You took off your shoes because everything was stopped and you ran from 57 straight out about 80 blocks down to Ground Zero and started covering it. Yeah I did and ended up down there with Byron Pitts from CBS News and we both then ran away from the falling building and stayed in a

school. You said you were fellows walk away. Byron actually not yeah dramatic but may have saved your life because it was the first tower started to fall. Well we were look at it now what was that was that we could the building did look like that to the top of the building and it seemed to teeter and then it began to come down and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It just seems so unreal. And he said we've got to get the hell out of here we tried to run and everybody started to methodically run. It was the most polite you know group of hundreds of people all running in the same direction away. But we stayed down there for several weeks. And I talk more about sort of how that was to transition back into the real world after covering that story and how I'd always hoped that was the biggest story I've ever covered and would never cover a bigger one. But again it's it's just difficult because there were a lot of things that sort of come back later that I remember seeing and there was so much loss that I

we were surrounded with both my husband and I. That I almost felt guilty going home because my children got me again. And I spend so much time with people who would never see their daughter again or their husband again. And it was really a very defining experience as a journalist and as a human being living there. And we've talked about Alice have talked about the danger where we are right now in this country where people can wake up in the morning and they can turn on the Cable News Network and have all of their preexisting prejudices re-inforced specially in the evening and especially into the evening and then they can go on a talk radio station of their choice and have their preexisting prejudices reinforced and they can go to the website of their choice. And by the end of the day whether you're on the far left or the far right you don't think a person that disagrees with you is wrong. You think they're evil. And I've got a saying David Ignatius wrote a column about it this week we had him on the show to talk about it. I think that's one of the

great threats facing this country. I think it's a greater threat than terrorism. The fact that Washington can't function together because you've got people in Washington D.C. who are listening to the extremes and their base telling them that they are evil if you're a Republican you are evil and wrong for working with Democrats and if you're a Democrat you're evil and wrong for working with the Republicans we've got to get past that. Thank you. One more question. Hi. So many questions on the book to finish. So I think one thing that came across in the book is that not only do you have this great career in this kind of great ambition but you also had a great relationship. Yeah and I guess just you know for. For people who are about to embark on that path are kind of young woman. How do you kind of make that relationship work and how or how do you suggest people when they kind of make you know is it

kind of how did you make that work and kind of kind of how do you. What advice you have any of like how do you make that balance right. Well I think the first thing is there's there's no actual How. I mean there's no like point that you get to where it's easy. And if you can debunk yourself of that you'll do yourself a big favor because every relationship is very difficult and has its pitfalls and its consequences as well as its highs and extreme joys. And for me my advice is not how to hate. Believe me and I will say that you know what my household just like my household growing up. When my dad was trying to get to the White House my mother was trying to hold on to her identity as a sculptor. They were trying to raise a family on a budget in a very very wealthy town in a very tough town that it was not pretty. It was not pretty there was one story I tell in there about trying to go to dinner with the pope and everyone was fighting and things were being thrown in the dog pooped on the floor and

I mean it was just really not pretty but you always talk about negotiations you talk about negotiations you have with your own husband. Yes. You talk about negotiations that your parents always had with each other that always a negotiation your mother saying yes I will stand by your side for four years when you're in the White House. But after that it's my turn and you also talk about how your father was asked after Poland was liberated to be president of Poland. You go back and run he was ahead in the polls and your mother said. Now my guests are Mike Dunn and instead he did a couple of speeches and built her a beautiful studio in the back of our property that she walks out of the kitchen across a bridge into this mess studio as big as this room. Seriously it's McLean is pretty upset with us because it's hideous. But the bottom line is it's a constant negotiation. The only advice I give is if it's something you want in your life and have children it's something you want in your life. I feel like women

your age. Young women are being given this message to put it off. And I will tell you that careers don't love you back. OK. They're bad boyfriends. Very bad. And we all know what that is. But I was I will tell you that I was never more happy about the decision I made to have children and to make sure I did that at a good time in my life. Early was when I got fired from CBS and I thought to myself My God I've got these great people to go home to thank God I didn't put that off for these people because they don't love you back. You can love it. And I did. But they don't love you back. It's a business it's a business so there's business and there's family. I just I just don't put it off. And and also follow my barnacles example you know he actually has a wife that has a great job puts him on an allowance so he gets to go to Fenway Park and watch baseball games while the

rest of us were kids. Everybody thank you thank you so much bigger Brezinski.