TJ Walker breaks down Claire Underwood's disastrous confirmation hearing from House of Cards Season 3, where she says "the military is not relevant" and tanks her credibility. He walks through how to prepare for high-stakes testimony: rehearse on video, get grilled by someone tough, scrutinize every sentence for how it could be twisted, and stay on message.
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Claire Underwood's political fortunes sinking because of one bad soundbite. Folks, Season 3 of House of Cards is out. It was released Friday. And if you're a real political junkie and media junkie, you probably did what I did, and you watched at least half of the episodes over the weekend. I was struck by episode two, where Claire Underwood is nominated to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. And during her confirmation hearing, she got into a little bit of a tussle with a senator from the opposing party, and she said, the military is not relevant. Once that sound bite came out of her mouth, it was boom in the media. The politicians were all over her, and they were positioning her sentiment as being anti military, attacking the media. She, of course, instantly backtracked, apologized, said, I'm being quoted out of context, but the damage was done. And that was the quote that dominated the headlines. Senators who were previously in favor of her were against her. Her nomination was voted down. Now, how could she have avoided this? I realize it's just a TV show, and they can't show all the behind the scenes effort, but what she should have done is practice her testimony. Had someone practice grilling her with tough questions, videotaping it, and then when you play the video back, you analyze every single sentence, every single phrase to see how it will be taken out of context to make you look bad. If she had done that, she would have never uttered the phrase the military is irrelevant. And that would have completely changed her fortunes, because she would not have been positioned as anti military. Here's the thing about people who are under the scrutiny. A Senate confirmation or a CEO during a crisis. It's not about getting the overall big picture right. You've got to do that. But everything out of your mouth has to be just right. You cannot give your opponents ammunition. You can't complain about after the fact being quoted out of context. If you don't like your quote, then it's your fault. It's Claire Underwood's fault. It's not the reporter's fault. Now, how should she have answered this if she'd practiced with someone like me, how could she have answered that question? She could have simply said something like, the real solution to peace in that region involves greater diplomatic blah, blah, blah. Rather than discounting a premise about a military solution, she should have gone right to her own premise. Folks, that's not dodging questions. That's answering questions in a focused way, getting to the point quicker on what you think is relevant. That would have saved her skin. Now, folks, this is just a fictional character and this is just a drama on TV on the Internet really. But it's 100% relevant to what I see every single day with major politicians and CEOs, the sort of trouble they get into. Not every aspect of House of Cards is completely realistic but this one was perfectly realistic because this is an excellent example of how people don't prepare, they don't rehearse on video and they destroy their careers because of it. Don't let that happen to you. If you have an upcoming Senate testimony or anything high profile practice on video and then scrutinize your answers word for word to make sure you're happy with any way they could be taken apart. And by the way, if you're a producer of House of Cards, I'm available if you're looking for a media training session for the first lady or anyone else on the show. If you need a cameo appearance from a real media trainer, I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for watching.
