 Well, Madam Speaker, as your daughter so eloquently put it, you are LBJ's soulmate as the master of the house, and we are honored to have you in Lyndon Johnson's house tonight. Well, thank you very much, Mark. It's my honor to be here. And I thank Deshaun for her lovely introduction and Ben Barnes for being Ben Barnes and bringing us all together. But let me just say this, because I'm a big temple marker person. I founded the lead of Abraham Lincoln, forescored seven years ago. He always started with a temple marker. Today, this very day, as we sit here, a woman is being confirmed to be a justice, a black woman. The first black woman to be justice. It's so remarkable, but why I bring it up right now at the start is because I want to say something about LBJ. Yesterday, when the justice to be was being introduced and she did her opening remarks, she commented that she stood on the shoulders of Constance Baker Motley. They share a birthday, different years, but same day. But what I'm here to tell you tonight, that she stood on her shoulders, but Constance Baker Motley was the first black woman to be a federal judge. Constance Baker Motley was appointed the first African-American woman federal judge by Lyndon Johnson in 1966. He is always a cause for celebration. Well, Madam Speaker, there was a lot going on in the world, including the hearings around Kajanji Brown Jackson. But all eyes of the world, as Governor Barnes indicated, are on Ukraine. President Zelensky gave a very moving address to Congress last week, in which he closed with a video where the words, close the sky over Ukraine, implored the US to impose a no-fly zone. Are we failing Ukraine by not imposing a no-fly zone? Well, first, let me say what an honor it was to have a call from the president of Ukraine with a list of to-do items. And one of them was to make a joint session to Congress. So since we're family here, and to mentally, let me tell you about that call. So he asked for this call, and so I said, whenever you want it, we'll be ready. Now, we've never had a joint session of Congress with a leader of another country transmitted from thousands of miles away. There's neither right there. So we had to have established our venue, our translation, all of this perfection. Practice, practice, practice, so that when the world was watching, it would all work. Right before the speech, the president then suggests that he'd like to have a video on it. Now, any of you know about videos, you know it's not necessarily reliable, especially from thousands of miles away. And, well, we prayed, we worked. But if we had had a few days notice, it would have been better than a few minutes. But nonetheless, it was the most compelling video. But we knew that it would work when it worked, when it worked. And it had such a tremendous impact to see grown men and women crying in that auditorium. It was wonderful. Now, you asked the question about the no fly zone. There's nothing that Putin would like better than for us to engage in establishing a no fly zone, because that would be really the entry into a third world war, sad to say, with a nuclear power, sad to say. So what we want to do, and he said in the speech, he asked for the no fly zone. But if you can't do that, this is what else I want. He segwayed right into other requests, as he has done in our calls, as I have heard from the speaker of their parliament on a regular basis as to what they would like to see. So we want very, very, very strict sanctions, executed and effective. We want to have weapons of severe lethality to be sent and have been sent. And they asked for the weapons. They asked for the sanctions. They asked for reconstruction of the country when this is over. And they asked for humanitarian assistance now and more. And of course, inside of Ukraine, but also for the refugees, 10,000 refugees, some outside the country, some displaced internally, all of it a crime against humanity on the part of Putin. He must be defeated. He must be defeated. And so we passed last week. Well, we didn't pass it last week. The president signed the bill last week for $13.6 billion in humanitarian, economic, and military assistance for Ukraine. But we'll need to do much more. But we cannot engage in the no-fly zone because that is the invitation. That's the bait. That's the taunt of Putin. And it just can't happen. Many people in our country, probably everyone in this room, wants us to do as much as possible. Very little appetite in our country for us to go to war with Russia. But we do want to help Ukraine prevail, and we will. So short of imposing a no-fly zone, are you confident that the Biden administration is doing everything to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, from taking over Ukraine? Well, they've invaded, as we know, but have been taking over. Let me just say, my opinion is one that is shared by the leaders of the free world. I was in Munich a couple of weeks ago for the Munich Security Conference. And whether it was leaders from NATO countries or other countries, whether it was the head of NATO, EU, everybody was very complimentary of President Biden for how he has handled this, how we are working together. He was a person who has a vision of peace. He has experience as the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee for many years. As vice president of the United States, and now as president. And what he has done leading up to this is, for one thing, the intelligence. He made a decision that our intelligence would be declassified. And everybody could see what we knew Putin was up to. And he could see that we knew what he was up to. There were those who were doubters who were saying, maybe he won't, maybe he won't. And really when he went in and the manner in which he has gone in, our allies have thanked us. And some apologize for not accepting that intelligence right from the start. Let me just tell you this kind of connection to the library. I was at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. I was a student. And it was a long time ago. I was a student. And I heard in that speech, some of you have heard me say this, that we all know, does everybody in the world not know what President Kennedy said to Citizens of America, ask not what your content. I won't even finish it because you all could finish it together. Some of you weren't born then. Some of your parents weren't born then. But I was a student then. And so I said to the president on St. Patrick's Day when I introduced him at something, I said what I just said. And then I said, but the very next line, Mr. President, President Kennedy said for you, said to this countries of the world, ask not what America can do for you, but what we can do working together for the freedom of mankind. And that's exactly what Joe Biden did, working together. No condescension. No, here we are, the big guy on the block just working together. And so everything has been in unison with NATO and countries beyond NATO in terms of sanctions and other support. So I think that the president has done a remarkable job. When I was in Munich, and that was like the 24th round then of February, those couple of few days there, Zelensky came and spoke. We listened to heads of state or met with them and all the rest. And all of the other countries were very complementary as to. Now, mind you, mind you, in the previous meeting that I had been to last year was COVID out. We just were doing zooms and stuff. But the year before that, we had a different, shall we say, administration in Washington, D.C. And when I went to Munich, it was a desperation. They were cutting, debunking NATO, disassociating ourselves from our transatlantic allies. So we're back. We're back into the alliance. And the president, Biden, brought us back into the alliance. One of the proudest moments in our nation's history is World War II, when we saved the world from tyranny and totalitarianism and ensured that freedom and democracy could survive in this world. What happens if Vladimir Putin is successful and Russia does indeed take over Ukraine? What are the ramifications of that, Madam Speaker? Well, he's already failed. I mean, by all accounts, it's a stalemate. It may even be better than that for the Ukrainians. But for Putin to be in a stalemate with the Ukraine, he's already failing. And he's going to fail more. If even if he were, and I'm not saying that he will, but even if he were to try to put in a puppet government, he's bitten off more than even he can chew, because that is never going to be a success for him, never going to be a success for him. Of course, the neighboring countries, which are members of NATO, are concerned about how other. Well, he's like Catherine the Great. They said of Catherine the Great, she carried her borders in her suitcase. He thinks that he can just go any place and that's his country. But one of the things that he was successful in doing was totally unifying the world against him in terms of the NATO and democratic countries around the world against him. I just wish one of the problems that is there is that he has a name drop, why don't I? The president of this country or that country or that country would say to me, you have to understand the disinformation that he's putting into my country. I don't name countries, and they are successful. They paint some kind of a picture of the Ukrainians as if they invited this. I mean, this is a very evil person, very, very evil person. And he's telling the same lies to the people of Russia. Poor souls, because they shouldn't make them accomplices in what he is doing there. But in keeping the truth from them, he is curtailing a negative opinion they might have of what he's doing. But see, what he's doing is just as our intelligence said he would do, he's making up stories about a Nazi country. They have a Jewish prime minister, a Jewish president, and he's saying it's a Nazi country. What? This is tragic. So just between us. I asked some of the leaders who had been in the room with him. When I say in the room, I mean, it went under the room with the other. And he, and I said, is he all there? We've had our suspicions of some presidents not being all there. And they said, they were not going to make a diagnosis. But what they did say universally, he's a very evil person. That's what we're dealing with here. So yeah, well, let's always take pride in what happened at World War II and the success of it all. And again, he must fail. And how about the courage of the Ukrainian people? Oh, my God. Would this Russian aggression, if he's successful in taking over the country, would it embolden China and other rogue nations or rogue nations across the world to do something similar? Would China be emboldened to take over Taiwan, for instance? Yes, I don't know how much emboldening they need. But yeah, that's the part of their intention. But I think they are even seeing the pariah that Putin has become to the world. And also our president has said, President Biden has said, I don't know, I haven't had this briefing because I haven't been in DC to have it as to what the conversation was between President Xi and President Biden. But in the public domain, it is clear that he said there will be consequences if you help Russia in all of this. So again, when I go back, I'll get more of a substantial briefing as to what transpired. I mean, I usually would, let's just say. But China should take no heart in the reaction that Putin is getting from the rest of the world. However, they have been, shall we say, preparing for some nastiness for a while. But in the Congress of the United States on a bipartisan basis, House and Senate, there's tremendous support for Taiwan to be able to defend itself in the same manner as we say of Ukraine. But it would be a kind of, because there's no land, it's not a land access. So the ability to defend against it is quite different. But let's hope that that is not the case. But it's something that we all watch very, very carefully. So just as democracy is threatened abroad with Russian aggression, we have our challenges with democracy at home. You've alluded to the former president a time or two. I wonder if President Trump continues to perpetuate the notion that the 2020 election was stolen. How much damage do you think Donald Trump continues to do to our democracy as a former president? Do we have to talk about him? I'd rather talk about Lyndon B. Johnson myself. But let me just say that as brief as I can, the January 6th was an assault on the Capitol. It was assault on the Constitution. And it was assault on our Congress, yes. So what you know that on January 6th, that is the day, that Wednesday is the day where the Congress of the United States certifies the election of the president. It's called the peaceful transfer of power. There was an instigation, an incitement by the, what's his name, to, and believe me, I respect the office of president. In fact, I respect the office of president more than some person who might have occupied that. But, and I meant, so that happened. They came with guns. They came where they were going to hang the vice president or shoot me in the head. All that. I wasn't afraid for myself because I have a lot of security as second in line to the president of the United States. That's something that will never happen. But that's what the Constitution says. So I have a lot of security. But I was concerned for my members on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Capitol, but also the staff, the custodial staff, the people work there, all threatened by these people. Okay, so that happened that day. What was sad about that day was that that night, when we said, we're going back to the Capitol, because they said, maybe you could do the work of Congress in an undisclosed location, you know what? We're gonna be on the floor of the house. And everybody agree, Chuck Schumer, even Mitch, agree we would go to the Congress to open up and certify the president of the United States. But even when we were there at four o'clock in the morning, overwhelmingly the other party voted not to certify the election of Joe Biden as president. That was hard, that wasn't even more heartbreaking than the blood and poo that was on the floor of the Capitol, just to be graphic about it. So what has happened since then? Since then, hundreds of bills across the country to undermine the election, to suppress the vote, especially of people of color, to, how about this one? Nullify the elections. We know how many people voted and how they voted, and now we'll decide what that means. That is the undermining of a democracy. Undermining of a democracy. You, what? You're passing bills that says you're gonna point two or three people who will determine what the results are of the election. So this is as tragic as January 6th in certain respects as the assault on democracy that it is. So we have to make the fight. And by the way, that makes this election, I don't know if you're allowed to talk politics here, but just from a civic standpoint, it makes the election in November very important because our democracy is on the ballot. But it isn't our campaign. It is there, the public expects us to save our democracy, but they wanna know what we're doing for their lives. And that's what Joe Biden told them at the State of the Union. We've done good things. Our rescue package, our bipartisan infrastructure package and all that, we've done good things, but more needs to be done. He had showed progress, gave people hope that more would be happening because he had empathy with their kitchen table concerns about how they're gonna pay the rent, buy food, send their kids to school, whatever decisions they have to make about bills across that table and what keeps them up at night. So the way to save our democracy is to win on the economic front in terms of meeting the needs of the American people. But we should not be in this situation. I mean, really nullifying elections. I wanna talk about voting rights in a moment, Madam Speaker, but before we go on from the subject of the former president, are you confident that the Justice Department is doing everything it can do to ensure that Donald Trump is brought to justice for any crimes he may have committed as president? I haven't, nor should I, have the faintest idea. I mean, the Justice Department is the Justice Department. What I do know is that our January 6th committee, bipartisan January 6th committee, is seeking and finding the truth, which becomes a matter of public record. And hopefully, we'll see what the Justice Department does, but I would have no idea. But let me say on that score, because this, again, remember I said, overwhelmingly the Republicans voted against certifying Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president of the United States. Soon as this was followed, we had a movement to have a bipartisan outside commission. We passed it in the House in a bipartisan way, not overwhelmingly bipartisan, but bipartisan way. And the Senate wanted to do that as well. The Senators, Senator Collins and others said they thought they might have, well, the report I got was that they would have 13 Republican votes. You need 10 to get 60, right? 13 Republican votes, that's what they thought they had. Until Mitch McConnell went around and said to the Senate, Republican Senators, do me a personal favor and vote against this bipartisan commission. What? How could that be? You don't want to seek the truth in a bipartisan outside commission. No members of Congress, people had to meet a standard of expertise, whether it's the Constitution or security of our country, those kinds of standards. But he, according to what the Republican senators have told me, so it didn't pass the Senate. So we proceeded, we were not going to abandon our seeking the truth. So we have a great bipartisan committee in the House very courageous members starting with Liz Cheney who has been an outstanding patriot for our country. And Adam Kinzender has been so great. And we're very proud of our chairman, Benny Thompson of Mississippi and other members as well. But so we will do what we need to do, seek the truth. We have great investigative staff, great prosecutorial staff, but we do not bring charges. That's up to the Justice Department. But we would have no knowledge of what their plans are. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has passed in the House, but not in the Senate. There are many who don't think it's viable. What do we do? What is the quickest path to ensuring that voting rights are upheld in our nation for those who are registered to vote? It's emotional to talk about John Lewis because I served with him for over 30 years and we were in the same class. He was just a remarkable person to serve in Congress with and he was so values-based and purposeful. And actually the first bill that we talked about, the Protect Our Vote Bill, John Lewis wrote the first 300 pages of that bill. And that was about stopping the suppression of the vote or nullification of elections, all of that. It then goes on to do things about redistricting and stopping big, dark money and politics and the rest. But he wrote the first 300. After he went to his heavenly reward, they named the other bill for him. So the John Lewis Bill is, they named the Voting Rights Bill for him. The Voting Rights Bill is, as you all know, Lyndon Johnson got passed and signed the Voting Rights Bill. Lucy Baines Johnson was right there by his side when he signed the bill. What a great transformative occasion for America, the Voting Rights Bill. This has to be reauthorized over time and the Supreme Court in one of its less admirable decisions got it part of the Voting Rights Act. We had just passed it, the reauthorization in a bipartisan way. We had around 400 votes in the house, unanimous in the Senate, signed by President George W. Bush, buried bipartisan in the rest. And a couple years later, the Supreme Court said it was obsolete. It was brand new, but they said it was obsolete for whatever reasons. So now we were trying to restore how they dismantled it. It takes a lot of constitution, you have to, we had hearings all over the country so that it would be ironclad constitutionally when we passed it again in case the court decided they wanted to mess with it again. So that's why they're two different bills because one would be ready right away, John Lewis had already written it long before. This was finished after he left us, but it needed to have the constitutional process of hearings and the rest of that. Then they were put, so we passed them both in the house again and again and again, but in the Senate they put them together. 50 members of Congress, plus the Vice President passed the bill. But it didn't have 60 votes and we couldn't get 60 votes to make it the law of the land. But we are not giving up. We will never give up because that is the essence of our democracy. The essence of our democracy. President Lincoln said public sentiment is everything. With it you can accomplish almost anything without it practically nothing. And so we want public sentiment to weigh in. Do you want the court or the law to interfere with your right to vote? Most people don't. We talk about the voting that they are suppressing, but in suppressing their votes, they're suppressing everyone else's as well. And in terms of voting rights, shame on the court for what it did to begin. And we couldn't get one Republican vote in the Senate for the voting rights act. The bill that George W. Bush signed came to the 50th anniversary of the March on the Selma crossing the bridge. You were there, Lucy was there, and Linda were both Linda Byrd and Lucy Baines, Johnson's both, Johnson were both there. And you saw the President take President, well President Obama spoke, but President Bush spoke and took great pride in the fact that he had signed that legislation. There's something wrong with this picture. There's something, but we will not give up. We will not give up that fight. So the Supreme Court decision that you're alluding to was Shelby County versus Holder, which happened last decade. It gutted pre-clearance by the Justice Department. So states can pretty much do what they want in terms of imposing voting restrictions. There are many lawmakers in a number of states who have done just that, including in this state with Senate bill one. What do you say to those lawmakers who have imposed voting restrictions like Senate bill one here in Texas? Well, I think most lawmakers and many of us in jobs that are not even lawmakers, but are civic, take a note to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So what I would say to them, honor your oath of office. This is what this legislation is about just because the court decided to say we were obsolete in our criteria doesn't mean that we are not owed that respect for the Constitution of the United States. Let me just say this one, Linda Johnson and Eric Holder, since you mentioned Eric. Eric was the Attorney General as you know in the Obama administration when the Shelby versus Holder decision came down which did what it did to pre-clearance which was very damaging. There's a couple other things too, but any of that very important. So Eric Holder has been the head of something called it and it's not really political, it may sound the National Democratic Redistricting Committee which is to try to get redistricting to be apolitical. It's just apolitical and to do it by commission, to do it to meet certain standards of the Voting Rights Act that we hope to have and the Constitution of the United States honoring those things. So one day I said to his wife, Sharon, I said, Sharon, I wanna thank you for all the work that Eric is doing, Attorney General, Eric Holder is doing for Voting Rights in our country. He helped us pass HR1, HR4, those two bills, helped us craft them in a way that was ironclad constitutionally and the rest. He's been such a hero to us. And she said to me, you don't have to thank me, that's our life, that's what we believe. In fact, if you go into the library and you see when you go into the library and you see President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act with Lucy Baines Johnson standing right behind her father when he signs the bill and gives the first pen to Evert Dirksen across the aisle and beautifully executed. In that picture is this young woman dressed with a hat and gloves and a personal, probably about 20 years old, who was Eric Holder's wife's sister and one of the first students to defy George Wallace to go to the University of Alabama. Imagine, so she said, this is who we are. This will always be our fight. And so this is about our country. It involves so much about liberty and justice for all. Which is, when you saw that film, that I got the liberty and justice for all of that. But I never saw that film until tonight, so thank you for affording me that opportunity. Liberty and justice for all. I have this pen that I brought this to John Lewis when I went to see him right before he passed. I brought him this pen. On it it says, one country, one destiny. One country, one destiny. That was what was embroidered into Abraham Lincoln's coat that he had on the night. He probably wore it every night. But it was the coat he had on that night. One country, one destiny. So I brought that to John because that's what John had always been about. When he was doing these bills, it wasn't about partisanship or Democrats versus Republicans. It was about one country, one destiny, liberty and justice for all. We just have to take our thrust, our who we are as a country, our national debate back to a place, one country, one destiny. Now we're going to ask. I wonder, Madam Speaker, since you mentioned John Lewis and you clearly were so close, what is your most indelible memory of Congressman Lewis? Oh my goodness. So many, but I was telling you earlier that at 50th anniversary, Lucy was there and Linda, we went to, after so many stuff, we went to Montgomery. We were going to hear John Lewis speak from the steps of the capital of Alabama. But in preparation for that, he was saying, in the day, back then, he wasn't even allowed to be on the steps. Or two people, he and one other person. Could not even be on the steps of the capital. And now the whole world was watching as John Lewis spoke from the steps of the capital. It was very, very emotional for all of us. Another time, little bit different from, in the same, shall we say, value system but different from voting rights, we were very close friends, all of that. But I was speaker and he wanted to cause good trouble. So he didn't tell me because he would, maybe I might say, well, that's not allowed or something like that. So he planned a sitting on the floor of the house to end gun violence in our country. 24 hours, 24 hours sitting on the floor of the house. People gathered, they came from all over, they drew a crowd and this or that. Well, it was quite remarkable, but he, again, did not want, oh no, I wasn't speaker yet. I was leader, but the speaker turned out the lights and made sure nobody could see what we were doing so that it wasn't, but even as leader, he didn't want me to say that's against the rules. Why would I say that? But anyway, just in case, he didn't want to put me on the spot but it was remarkable, just his presence to speak out against the fact that we couldn't get past the bill for background checks, drew people from all over to the capital. So everything he did was to the nth degree, to the nth degree and he knew the power of public opinion as Lincoln had guided us. There's so many stories about John Lewis that there isn't a day that goes by. An issue that comes up, whether we're talking about LGBTQ, whether it's talking about a woman's right to choose, whether it's talking about access to quality, affordable healthcare, we're talking about gun violence, prevention, we're talking about peace on earth, any subject, protecting the environment, it was always a justice issue for him about equity and justice and making sure people's rights were protected even when we were talking about infrastructure and that's something that Joe Biden has done in infrastructure to make sure it was about justice and that environmental justice and economic justice and everything that we did. So it would be really hard to find one moment but any of us who ever went locked arm with him across the Selma Bridge knew that we were in the presence of enormous greatness and also very privileged to serve with him. So just as the Texas legislature has passed a very restrictive voting bill, they've also passed a law that restricts abortions and rolls back Roe v. Wade. It's been upheld in the Supreme Court despite its constitutional ambiguity. What is the future of Roe v. Wade and what does more restrictive abortion mean to the future of our country? Well, let me just say we passed in the House the Roe v. Wade, the codification of Roe v. Wade. That was very important for us to do. Of course, we haven't passed it in the Senate but we never, as I say, we never give up in that regard because we do think that the codification of Roe v. Wade would be really important protection against the court. Of course, we disagree with that opinion. The court didn't even make sense. Well, I guess for that court it does but in any event, the public sentiment is every how many times have I said that the American people, this isn't... I'm devout Catholic as is Lucy. Mother of five children in six years and one week. Six years and one week. I keep saying to those on the other side, when you have five children in six years and one week then we'll talk about this, okay. In the meantime, that was right for me. It's not up to me to say what's right for somebody else. Nor is it right for you, nor is it right for the Supreme Court. This has been a precedent of the court. It should be upheld by the court. So I think... And by the way, I respect people's opinions about how they see the law and their own personal lives. But I don't see how they decide that they... These are people who don't believe in governance. They don't believe in government protecting the environment. They don't believe in government protecting people's rights or voting rights or anything like that. But they really are big time government in your bedroom. Whether it's a woman's right to choose, LGBTQ, whatever it is. All of a sudden, there they are. And so you American people are just going... It isn't, again, it isn't about what is your religious belief. It's what is the right of people to make their own decisions about the sizing and time or if they're going to have a family. This really gets me burned up in case you didn't notice. Because, again, I'm very Catholic without practicing all of that. They would like to throw me out, but I'm not going. Because I don't want to make their day. But this is fundamental to respect. Respect for women and their judgment about their lives, their timing and size of the family. But not just women, families, families. And why would it be that somebody in Washington D.C. should be deciding the size and timing of your family and the rest? So this is, we have to make this fight. This is fundamental. But elections have consequences. And I would wish the election would not be about a woman's right to choose because that shouldn't be a public matter. But there are those who will be making decisions about your personal life. So you probably want to make decisions about who you vote for in the elections when it comes to this very sad situation. We have several questions from LBJ students, which I'll get to in one moment, Madam Speaker. But before I do it, when you were talking to the LBJ school students earlier today, you said with challenge comes opportunity. We face enormous challenges in the world today. I wonder, is the world that you're looking at today stronger and healthier than that that you saw when you took your position in Congress in 1987 at the end of the Reagan administration? Well, it has to be. I mean, we just always have to be on a path of hope, opportunity, inclusion. So I do think that we are stronger now than then, was that there's a realization that we can do much better and we do much better the more inclusive we are. You have to remember when I went to Congress then, we were under a severe assault of HIV and AIDS. Horrible, horrible situation where not only were we having to face the science of it and how can we cure it, but we had to face the stigma that some people attached to it. What was interesting to me when I went to Congress is that I went there to fight against HIV and AIDS in 1987. And people were saying, you don't want people to know that about you. I said, no, why are you telling? See, when I was sworn in, it was a special election. I never intended to run for office by a special election. So people said to me, when you get sworn in, nobody wants to hear from a new member of Congress. Nobody. So don't say anything. Okay, is that the way it is? Okay, so because it's not the whole Congress being sworn in, it's just you. So I get sworn in by the very distinguished speaker of the House, Jim Wright of Texas. And that's an applause line. And he says, would the gentle lady from California wish to address the House? So I look at all these members who had said to me, they were saying, short, short, short. So I get up and thank my parents. My father was there who was a member of Congress. So therefore, he could be on the floor of the, had been, you know, 50 years before, a member of Congress so he could be on the floor of the House. Actually, he served with Lyndon Johnson. And I thanked my parents, my constituents, who sent me there. And I said, like, briefer than I'm saying it now, when I come to Congress, I will say that I've come to fight against HIV and AIDS. So then I go sit down and I look at these people thinking that was really short, right? Oh, no. I'm like, what's the matter with you? Why did you say you came here to fight HIV and AIDS? I said, because I did. I did come here to fight HIV and AIDS. But I realized that they had that discrimination, but that it was still, it was out there 1987, discrimination. We're trying to find prevention, cure care, research for cure care and that, and to do so in a community-based way, coming from where I came from, San Francisco. And what they were saying is, why would you want the first thing anybody knows about you and this Congress to be, HIV and AIDS? Isn't that sad? The President of the United States at that time, Ronald Reagan had not even mentioned the word AIDS. So nonetheless, you ask about then and you ask about now. Now, with this President, Joe Biden is a great President. He is a gift, as I've said to him. Don't say I told you this, but what I've said to him sometimes, I'm glad you didn't win before because we really needed you to win now. He's perfect. He's perfect for now. I mean, it would have been perfect then, but perfect. We need him now because he, as I said before, showed progress, shows, gives hope, shows empathy for the needs that people have. But in everything that he does, he is so inclusive by making sure that everything is about justice, whether we're talking about lowering the cost of health care, lowering the cost of childcare, universal pre-K, home health care, all the things that are transformative as we try to help people not only survive, but to succeed. But it takes some transformative actions that inject inclusion and justice into the system to do that, and that is what he is about. So I'm optimistic because we have a great President who cares, who knows who cares. And we just, now, I would say I'm optimistic, except we have Ukraine. And it's all-consuming to see Catherine the Great, well, maybe she was a better person than he is because he's an evil person, bombing children, killing children, maternity hospitals and stuff like that. It's a values discussion and the rest, and we have to make sure that we have the resources and the will, and we do have the will and we do have the resources to make sure. And that is, you can't ignore Ukraine. Having said that, in our country, we have to make the fight. We're having fights, no question. They don't want voting rights and nullification of elections and stuff like that. But we cannot be fear mongers and just talk about that. My motto is, we don't agonize, we organize. And when we organize, we do so in a way that hopefully brings people together, whatever the results of the election are, that people are brought together. And what gives me hope, and we're going to hear from some of them now, are the young people. Young people care about the planet and how we preserve it. They care about respecting everybody in our society, whatever their personal, whatever their nationality, whatever their gender, whatever. Young people give me so much hope, and that's why visiting this library is so exciting, because it really tells the story of the past with the eye to the future as it educates these young people to be themselves, just be themselves as they go forward. So I can't wait to hear their questions. Well, let's bring on the hope, starting with Jeffrey Carlisle from Happy Valley, Oregon. Good evening, Madam Speaker. My name is Jeffrey Carlisle. I'm an eighth grade science teacher here in Austin, as well as a student at the LBJ School. As you've mentioned, you've been a long champion of LGBTQ rights. I have transgender students in my class right now who have been under attack by their government, both in the legislature and the governor's house, and I want to know what I can tell them tomorrow, what the U.S. House of Representatives can do to protect their rights here in Texas. Thank you for your question, Jeffrey. Good, Jeffrey. Good question. Thank you, Jeffrey, and thank you for being an educator. Nothing more important than that to prepare our children for the future. With stiff competition, mind you, this is one of the most heinous of proposals that I have heard. I mean, really, families with their children and the government wants to intervene and to say, we don't like the way you are meeting the needs of your children. I would say, and many of us have in our families, and take pride in the fact that we have trans members. God bless you, one of God's children, and we need to do all we can, though, to support those families. I see in San Francisco, on the streets, young people whose families enter trans, whose families have just turned their backs on them. It's so shameful, it's so sad, and I've seen across the country, they're not some, you know, they've come from other places, but I've seen across the country families embrace their child. And what is the right of the governor of this state, or whatever it is, the legislature of this state, to intervene in that? Just say, I mean, I think what you just have to say is, you are loved, we will protect you. And it is a blessing that you have made your own judgment about yourself, and we respect that. So sad, though, that they would intervene with a family and say, characterize how families care for their children. Thank you for your sensitivity on that, Jeff. Our next student is Samuel Hirschman, who is from Sharon, Massachusetts. That's correct. Hi, Madam Speaker. Thank you for being with us here tonight. In your career, you have gone from being Speaker to the House Minority Leader and back to Speaker of the House. Can you tell us about the paradigm shift that you have had to take as a leader and governing from the majority and the minority party? Well, there's nothing like the majority. However, however, different leverage, who has the leverage? If you're the speaker, you have a lot of leverage. If you're the minority, but you have the president and the White House, you have a lot of leverage. If you're in the minority and you don't have the White House, that's a little more problematic. But it is, again, you're always trying to find the path. Now, in the House, it's different because the majority are not. The Senate, it's 60 votes, and all that. 99 senators are not enough. One senator can hold up the whole work. That's a different world, which I won't go into one way or another. But in terms of the House, when I first was in Congress, we had common goals. I mean, we never thought that an election was the beginning or the end of our democracy. Not so much now, but that never was the case. And when you go there, just as a member, and then, of course, as part of a majority or minority, you go with confidence in what you believe in, humility in respecting other people's opinions, and knowledge that whether you're in the majority or the minority, you're going to have to come up with a compromise. So you can have sustainability that it will prevail, and the next election, it isn't undone. So you have to have good faith and see, again, everything as an opportunity. But in the House of Representatives, I highly recommend being in the majority. Stacey Hernandez from Grand Prairie, Texas. Hello, Madam Speaker. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. First, I'd like to say happy birthday, happy early birthday. I know it's coming in a couple of days. Yeah, yeah. Today is my granddaughter's birthday, Bella. She's 13. She's become a teenager. So we're not standing in the way of any celebration of that. I can put mine off until later. Happy birthday to her. So my question is in regard to leadership, because I know you've spent so much of your time in the position of leadership. So what are some lessons in leadership that you've carried with you throughout your time in office? What is? I'm sorry. Mr. Yan, would you repeat the question? What are some lessons in leadership you've carried with you throughout your time in office? So this is what I say to you, Stacey, because when I see all these young people and hope that they're interested in public, gratified by their interest in public service, but hope that it might carry them to a participation themselves in running for office, not and never intended to. But then I was ready when the opportunity presented itself to be ready. But here's the thing about service in any way. Like, I'm very honored to be the speaker of the house, or have been the majority leader of the whip or all that, a minority leader of the whip. But nothing is a bigger honor than to go on the floor of the house as the representative of your district. They have chosen you, among all those other people, to speak for them. And it's quite a big honor. So I always say to people about this, know your why. What is your vision? Why would you be interested in this? And I say this to a lot of young women because nothing is more wholesome than having a bigger participation of women in government and politics. In fact, in everything. But nonetheless, I'm talking government and politics, right? And again, I say that in terms of increased participation of people of color, minorities in all of this because we need that diversity. And that's why I'm so excited about the Supreme Court. But know your vision. And I say this about Lyndon Johnson. And I say this about Joe Biden. And I say it about any one of you. Know your why. What drew you to it? When I hear Lyndon Johnson in his speeches talk about those children, those poor children, the Spanish children that he taught in grade school and how that motivated him. It's a carry that memory with me. Knew his why. He had other than their education, other things he wanted for the country that they would be succeeding in. Know your why. Know what it is that you're talking about. In other words, if you're interested in saving the planet or educating the public or having a fair economy or whatever it is, know your subject. So that's when you're being leader or something, you have to know what you're talking about so people respect your judgment. But it applies when you're just starting out in all of this. Your vision, your knowledge, and therefore the respect people have of your judgment. Your strategic thinking. How are you going to get your idea across? What is your plan? A vision, knowledge, and a plan. A vision with a plan, that success. A vision without a plan, that's a fantasy. You have to have a plan. How are you gonna get this done? And when you have, you show your vision, your knowledge, your strategy to get it done, you will attract support. You will be a leader, considered a leader. And the authenticity of it all, that you truly believe in what you care, you know what your vision is and you know about it. You don't have to know everything about it. Nobody does. But you know enough about it to take you to the next step. With all of that, the fourth piece of it, all of that is up here, vision, knowledge, plan, authenticity down here, the emotional connection that you make with people about the sincerity of it all. You can get, you will accomplish whatever you've set out to do. And that is what a leader does. Lyndon Johnson, Joe Biden. So many of my colleagues in Congress. One other ingredient that is very important and I accept every compliment I ever received for me that I get on behalf of my House Democratic colleagues for all that I just said, but also for their courage. You can have all the commitment in the world. You can have all the conviction about what you believe in, but you have to have the courage. You have to have the courage to get the job done. And it's pretty exciting. Again, an opportunity. And I hope that all of you know your power in all of this, the difference that you will make. Elijah Cummings, another wonderful colleague who people used to mistake for John Lewis and John Lewis, Mr. He said, children are messengers to a future we will never see. And we wanna make sure that we prepare our children for the future, but we also wanna make sure that we prepare a future for them. But none of it can be done without the involvement of young people. It's their future. It's your future. So how do we embrace what you said? I was telling some of the students earlier that I've just heard at a funeral of Paul Farmer, this beautiful man, partnerships in health for helping poor people around the world have justice in their healthcare. But anyway, they quoted another person who said, our children are our harvest and we are their harvest. So what we try to do is sow the seeds for the children to have all the opportunity. And then we learn from them about how their future should be. That's why I have hope because so many young people are dissatisfied, relentless, and that's a good thing. Take responsibility for the future. Our last questioner comes from your home state and the floor now goes to Zoe Parker from Stockbridge, California. Oh, might make that Georgia. I'm sorry, Stockbridge, Georgia. Yes, it keeps getting Georgia and California mixes. Apparently I did. Hi, I'm Zoe. I'm also a first year student in public affairs here at the LBJ school. So as we all know, you have been a trailblazer in Congress and a model to me and so many other people. So I have to ask, who are your role models and how have they inspired you? Who are my role models? Yes. Well, my mother was my main role model because she was a very, we were in our family, we were raised in a very Catholic family. So it was very Catholic, devoutly Catholic, proud of our Italian-American heritage. Fiercely patriotic, staunchly democratic. But the first three, we had a lot in common with many people and then sometimes there'd be that division there. And my mother was, she had seven children but she was in the community. My father was the elective. He was from, I think it was the first time he could vote, he voted for himself for state legitimacy. The legislature and then city council, which was bigger than Congress and then the mayor of Baltimore. And I was, when I was born, he was in Congress, but when I was in first grade, he became mayor of Baltimore. And when I went away to college, he was still mayor of Baltimore. So it was the only life, you saw that in the film if you noticed. But she really cared about people and our religious faith, our Catholic faith was really, we believed in separation of church and state, of course, but our religious faith was what motivated us to care about people. Public service was a noble calling. We had a responsibility to each other and especially people in need. So she was my mother and also a role model. But in the Congress, one of my role models was Lindy Boggs. We talked about her earlier and she was a friend of a lady bird. They were friends and Lindy as a consultant with Lady Bird when she was going to be running for office herself. So she was great in the Congress and she would say things to me like this. When I'd be on the floor, she'd say, darling, darling, come here. You know, Hale, that was her husband who died in a plane crash, but Hale used to always say, don't fight every fight as if it's your last fight. How about that? Is that good? Don't fight like it's your last fight. And then she'd have things like that. See, we were on the opposite side of the choice issue. She was a staunch Democrat, but Louisiana and she was like my family. I came from a pro-life family myself. They wish I would temper my remark sometimes, but that's not gonna be happening. So I think they gave up on that a long time ago. But so she would always be saying, you know, gentle, gentle with some of the discussions we would have. So from the standpoint of the Congress of the United States, she was. But let me end by telling you this story because it's not quite an answer to your question, but it's a response. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. When I was first elected to the leadership of the Congress, Ben Barnes has heard this a million times, Ben. I know, forgive me. You know, Ben Barnes, he's so wonderful. He's like family to me, Ben Barnes. Anyway, when I was first elected leadership, what happens is you go to the White House in your first meeting with the President of the United States. And it's just a small meeting. Maybe eight people around the table. It was George W. Bush, who was so lovely and so how gracious he was in the Congress. But anyway, go to the meeting, President Bush, and then House and Senate, Democratic and Republican and maybe like a few more people. But it's just the leadership and the President, sometimes the Vice President. So we go to the meeting. I wasn't too worried about the meeting or how's it gonna be because I had been to the White House for many meetings. I'm an appropriator, I'm an intelligence leader in the intelligence committee and all that. I was the top Democrat in the intelligence committee, all that. So I didn't even give it a thought. I just thought I'm going to the White House for a meeting. So I go to the White House and I go to this room and the minute the door closes behind me, I realize that I'm in a meeting that I had never been to in the White House before nor had any woman been to before. It wasn't like a cabinet meeting where there are some women and that's a really good thing. But they're appointed by the President. Here you're going in your own right as the representatives of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. So anyway, that was supposed to be an applause line, but okay, we'll get past that. We'll get past that. So we go and I sit down and President Bush, I love the Bushes, so. He could not have been, and that's an applause line too. He could not have been more gracious welcoming a first woman to ever be at one of these meetings and the rest of it. As he's being these lovely words of welcome, I'm feeling really squeezed in in my chair. I mean, it was like I couldn't understand it. I was really squeezed in in my chair. I'm thinking, I know he's saying, I'm trying to listen to him, but I'm very distracted. And I realized that I had Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Kree Shumat, Alice Paul, to turn the truth, they were all sitting on that chair. They were all sitting on that chair. And I could hear them say, at last we have a seat at the table. And then they were gone. And all I could think is we want more. We want more. But I realized of course, and I had known, but fully realized all the shoulders that I was standing on, the women who made something like that possible that a woman could be at the table. And then how many women were standing on my shoulders as well and what responsibility that was. So I, there are many women that I admire and learn from, but what I want you to know is while you may admire and learn from, be yourself. You're authentic you. That's the best advice I ever got when I was running for office was I had never run. I didn't even tend to run. Be yourself. And that is, again, with every role models wherever you live, of course, one of my role models was always Ann Richards. Ann Richards, she was always included, giving me advice including getting my hair done, get your hair done. But in any of that, now we're talking into the personal arena here, but I always tell her daughters to seal, you know, your mom, she would always be very succinct in her advice and guidance and she was wonderful. But the point is, is that while I had many people that I respected and admired and watched and all the rest, it's nice. But it's you, the authentic you. Nobody like you. And I say that to everybody, young men and women who want to run. Just remember that the authenticity that is you is like nothing else. And that's the value that you bring to the table. So while you have role models, and while you may respect or admire or laugh at or want to not ever be like somebody, just always be true to you. Thank you. Madam Speaker, you talked about the importance of finding your why. And it is so clear in hearing you tonight and looking at your career, that so much of your why is fighting for liberty and justice for all. So we thank you not only for being here tonight, but for making us a freer, more just nation. Does everybody know, does everybody know that Lucy Baines Johnson is here? Did you know that? Yeah, let me go. Larry Temple, the Chief of the LBJ Foundation and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes and JR Disharzo, Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. There you are. And Mark Lawrence, of course, developed the director of the LBJ Library and David Ferrero, the Archivist of the United States. He's in charge of all of this, David. And let us thank Mark for all of this. Wasn't he wonderful? I have to say, before we depart, the speaker mentioned David Ferrero. David Ferrero is the outgoing Archivist of the United States who has served 13 honorable years in that position. So we're honored to have him here tonight. And again, speaker, thank you so much for honoring us with your presence today. Well, I'm honored to be here. I mean, I just have to tell you one last story because I just have to tell you this story. My father served with LBJ and Congress, the House. My father served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. But this story I told when I got the award. My brother was the mayor of Baltimore, too, a couple of times after my father. But when he was president of the city council in Baltimore, it was the year that LBJ was running for election, well, re-election from VP to say 1964 election. And the, my brother was invited with the governor of the state, Miller Thomas, to go to see the president to talk about the election in Maryland. Again, as a matter of history, George Wallace was running at that time and was drawing a large number of votes. So my brother, who's a kid, I mean, he was in his, like, early 30s, that's a kid, right? Not to you maybe, but to me, it was a kid. He goes in with the governor, who's like in his 70s, he wasn't a kid. So they go into the Oval Office and my brother said it was not like the Oval Office now when you go in there, it's sort of quiet. It was all kinds of things going on. These people in this corner were doing this. These people in this corner were doing that. This is my contribution to the LBJ Library, okay? And so we go and the governor says to president, Mr. President, everything's great. We have everything under control. You're gonna win big. In Maryland, it's not gonna be any problem. So we've just come here to tell you that. My brother says, well, with all respect to the governor, I just don't think we can take that for granted. George Wallace is massing some support in the community. I think that, I think it's gonna be harder than you think and that we have to do all these other things in order to, the LBJ, the president says to my brother, tell me, we don't want any cry babies around here. Just tell me what you think we should do. He gave them a list. He did them all and he won Maryland. He did them all. Thank you to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you.