with a wreath-laying ceremony and remarks. live at 11 a.m. on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, and>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funde by these television companies and more. including buckey♪ ♪ c>> the great undertaking to history

of an institution so unique, so rich with signifi events, so influential in the landscape of our nat years, betty has done that with theprofessionalism, devotion and a bit of a flare. every week she gives as a little history lesson at our lunches with leader mcconnell and all other 98 senators commemorating ally designating her congratulations, emerita of the u.s. senate. >> in my time in the fierce application for the preservation of senate records. her colleagues described her as a ment, considerate, and persistent. it would be no exaggeratio koed, senate, a historic milestone in its own right. host: betty koed. senate leaders were talking about you. they were. [laughs] host: why were they talking about you? betty: that was the service. host: at the end of your

retirement you put out this "scenes, people, places united states senate." how long have you been working on years. i started workin when i started to the tuesday caucus luncheons tolled historical minute, essentially a five minute history talk to senators at the colleagues dick baker and don and i took over inn doing it in recent years. wend republican party caucuses covered on tuesdays. host: so, weekly, you go to the senate lunches and deliver the same speech to both republicans and democrats? betty: depends on which caucus you are going to, but both us, don ritchie and i did it together for a while a years, but we would each write our own stories and it was a topic of our. . they sometimes requested stories, "tell us about such or ey never dictated what it should be. i began with the republican caucus i 2009 at the invitation

of senator mcconnell. at that point the first historian, dick baker, had been doing this atcaucus every week for years, but republicans hadn't caught mcconnell, who is a great lover of history, came and asked me to start doing it on their republican caucus lunci did that. i did it almost until the day i left the office. ov years, produced hundreds of these short stories usually, you know anywhere from 500 1long. they had to be short, succinct and to tonly had five minutes to tell the story. but also tell a complete story. it was an interesting task and a cllenge and probably one of the best learning had as a senate historian. senators kept coming and asking me to produce a put them into the book because they wanted to share the stories with other call "scenes." host: what was the interest level from the senators?tty: very high. senators as a rule love history. are institution that is

very tradition-bound so they are surrounded by day. and it is not unusual for a sena requests from a senator,, or their office asking for historical or background material. that would often call and say i hay or friday and i want to know more about this topic, can you tell me what to read? so it was an ongoing sort of edna process to bring history to the senators and help t their role in the broader history of the u.s. and it -- do you remember the topic of yr 2009? betty: i do, because at that in the minority so their tuesday lunche the lbj room, the smaller of the two rooms. so the majority caucus always met in the mansfield room, and the mino caucus in the lbj room. i began by telling them the history of that room and how it do they ever choose the topic>>betty: sometimes they do. they will come to me and s lt said, goldwater.

because so many people in the senate today don't remember barry goldwater. . or they would come in and say, i would really lik tns of the filibuster. can you tell us about the origins of the consent agreement? it's a challenge to come up with a new idea every single weeas came from senators themselves, they would come to me or my colleagues un this particular person or event or this part of the institution that is so important now, but we don't know why it got to the place it is. host: so whatgoewater as the 1964 presidential candidate, when he lost the election to lyndon johnson that yr.e, he was sort of the atnd he was portrayed as a radical conservative, which he was ways, but he alsotatesman. he was a senator at heartafter his election, he returned to the senate and lived most of the rest of his life as senator he died not that long after he left office. the senate he was a different kind of character t candidate,

very down-to-earth, much beloved senate. in became rather an elder statements and 1980's -- elder statesman. he was held in high esteem. but he had quirky part of personig independent amateurm radio . everywhere he went he w w him, he actually built a radio studio in office building so that he could go down to that studio and play on his hand radio into the wee hours of the morning. senator me he wo armed services committee -- they search together that committee and goldwater would come in yawning and sleepy eyed and they knew he would have been all night more than anything is what he is remembered for in the senate. host: so, betty koed, exactly is the role of the historian besides these weekly lunches we just talked the historian serves as the institutional memory for the . in the senate historical office, we have two principal parts of

our mission in office. one is to preserve theenate. it means to preserve all the artifacts, all the all the records, and toderstand the history. the first historian when they created the office back in 1975 was to go out to the nation and let p what the senate is and why it is so important andthat is why we do interviews like this, why we produce and go to scholarly conferences and book, to help people understand why the senate is there and what it is so important to our constitutional system of government. but also the other part is to make sure we preserve the records of so in the historical office we also have the senate archival led by karen paul who has been the archivist for 4 almost 43 years. they are in charge to make sure thatgl record of the official record is housed in the national archives. they work closely with each

senator to ensure his or her records are saved in the home-state repository. that is the broad mission of the office of the promote the history of the senate. in addition to that, that mission has grown throughout the years so that we provide programs that happen on capitol hill including the executive exhibits. ge photo collection would collected and compiled over the years and also works with authors and television producers and podcast producers and things like images to them when they need it.an team of historians, three historians on staff archivists on staff, years, as well as an editorphoto historian. we have a really good team inside the historical office working collaboratively on projects that reallyion. probably the we estimate about 15,000 pagese a s click on the "about the senate"

button, that is where you find it includes institutional material, biographical information about information on parties and how they developed everything you can imagine that is related to senatee to help senators with their historical ne speech, and they want to provide history in it, they will come ask -- comeus and ask for information. throughout the year we will dotalks and presentations, particularly to senators and staff but also to the public as well. all of that, a multipurpose of preserving and promoting the senate. host: i don't know if it made it easier for you after about "scenes." [video clip] "scenes," >> but our friends and people across the country today as ages, we create another historical in the relationship between -- and technological advancements

in communiio and television. as time has ofte reminded us, -- week work this has rightly been, not, mr. president president that i delude myself that the we practice here in the senate floor constitutes a great character the ratings of "dynasty," or "dallas." at we have advice on how to do this and how to make certain that we cut that shine on the head. [laughter] >> imagine the capitol hill area sailed with has three grecian f mascara has host: betty koed t.v. team to the senate on that day. betty: indeed, in 1986. it was a long time coming. howard baker of tennessee was the man who really worked hard to promotecameras into the senate chamber. it took 1970's until 1986 to make that happen. betty: well, the senate is a

very traditional institution. there were lots of concerns about how well it would look on tv. on any given day, the often empty because things are happening elsewhere and not in the chamber, but even in the chamber, it tended to be an institution where people giveacquired, seriousg speeches that didn't necessarily mean good television for a 1980's people were concerned people would be turned off about it or they would just not interested in what they had to see. what they saw on also, there were concerns about members that it would change the culture of the se that people would start to grandstand for the talking to the cameras rather than their colleagues or the people in the galries. and all of that is true of truth to that, it has changed the culture of the senate. robert byrne, the democratic leader, was very skeptical about bringing television to the senate chamber. as howard baker was pushing for it, he started in preparing for what might have

been a impeachment trial of nixon. nixon resigned and that didn't happen. they left the cameras in place long enough to telev in of vice president nelson rockefeller then they pulled the camass, howard baker was talkingmeras in to fill in the debate over the panama canal , tedious and difficult debates, that was a different process for them to go through. the robert byrd -- he had no interest in that whatsoever, he t would change the culture of a senate that he loved to its core. but as the years went by, the house adopted c-span in 1979 and the house started to get a lot more on the precedent and in the evening news had lots of video to provide. then the leaders, including robertthink the process and, robert burch told the story that he was at a west virginia event and he wasmistakenly introduced as the speaker of the house. he said at that moment, hew the senate had to go on tv because he was losing ground to the speaker of the in your book "scenes, people, places and events that shaped the u senate," you llove the senate, it

is populated by some of the choicest characters in the whole political specttv was not for -- far into the senate, especially when it came to hearings. [video clip] >> costello, did you hear the about mr. francis maclachlanespect to the senate, which i have a lot of respect for, i am not going to answer another question. i am not under arrest. i'm going to walk out. >> i should explain to you, that is what a legal situation as, you are under and if, assume, the chairman instructs you to remain in answeryou will thereby become guilty of contempt of the senate committee. >> just a mr. costello. >> you don't mean tha our command to see that he is brought to contempt and arrested. narrator: frank stella, the. it? of press for it, he was convinced he was t

infiltration of organized crime inay he could really educate the public wasthe hearings to television and have were almost in full content. th became a bit of a television sensation. the newspaper headlines were aming things like, this major event has come toleas a big success really in that way. it didn't do any harm to the his status rose and he became a household name and a contendeection succumb, but it also showed an that people prior toat was its investigatory role. it was a well handled, well investigation. it had some intere in crime bosses and great figures from the world of organizeome of them didn't. one of be shown on television, they only showed his hands fidgetingd that

in and of itself became a televisual moment of organized crime. but end, it showed that television had a role to playate. host: betty allowed to edit anything that they say on the floor so of historical record? betty: they are. every day they produce a congressional record which is today soakedr verbatim account of what happened the day beforeand senators there is an initial congressional verbatim account, but senators then can go back and l or their speeches and edit them if necessary.atim. in earlier days, back in the early 20th century and certainly early 19th -- -- late 19th century, they would edit them. you let at the daily congressional record as well as the formal congressionalion in their daily running will in the formalot -- they still have the ability to do that -- butreporters of the debate tell me

it is pretty much verbatim at t what time named es farmer and haberdashery turned spotlight." what was this about? betty: harry truman was in his second term in the senate in 1941 a a special senate committee to the national defense program. at that time we had entered the war, this was pre-pearl harbor, but we were starting to gear up for wartime activities, including, congress had funds to preparations for war and lined up and find all the time and truman became very about how that public moneygram. . that proposal was accepted, they created thenamed harry truman as chair of the committee, give him a meager $50,000 budget to start the process. he started to look into defense contracts and how the money was he traveled all around the country, visited production sites andople on the streets. public to serve as watchdogs and

as to the publ wistfulnment spending in defense issues. and he got thousands and thousands of letters from the public. some of them lead to real investigatory moment. so it proved to be an in committee. and the investigatuncover massive amounts of government waste andit is estimated he probably billion in government process of having that investigation. harm to harry truman. when he began that process in he was a relatively unknown figure just starting his second term. he had been a senator from the pendergast machine in missouri, had a somewhat tainted beginning and had a hard time getting past. is time psaki was ready to be more independent and stick out his own and that is what he did with his committee. over the next three or haveyears, he led to this investigation got a lot of attention, was widely praised for its effecti. by 1944 he had risen running mate for president fdr

for his final el bid. he became vice president in 1945, 83 days later became president when fdr died. . it really was made harry truman international figure and what with himresident of the united states. host: harry truman was one17 senators. that became president of the united states. james monroe, john quincy adams andrewilliam henry harrison, john tyler, franklin johnson benjamin harri truman,, jfk, lyndon johnson, richard nixon barack obama, joe biden. host: only two of v -- thinking this through to be sure -- so, lyndon johnson and barack obama went directly from the senate to the vice presidencym barack obama was never vice president. betty:. presidency. host: lbj was vice president

jfk went straight from the senate. itfk obama are the two that went directly from the senate to the most had other service in between. host: and other senators have run for president, john kerry and bob dole. is it intimidating at times working with 1y: [laughs] it can be. with 100 senators period because when you work in theateposition like my position was bosses. because we worked directly for the secretary senate, so that the senate, but we also work for the 100 senators. we do is screw tonight by 100 one people so there can be intimid-- it's scrutinized by 101 times. most of them are appreciative of the work we do so i am happy to say we haven't had many difficult moments through the years. always thought oh i wish i hador her? betty: [laughs] them. many of them i wish i could have met at some point.

charles sumner of massachusetts amazing person -- difficult arrogant eccentric, but absolutely brilliant and far ahead of his time. thf mae is one of my heroes. when she came into the senate senator. for 15 over 24 years in the senate she was tabout what a process, what an experience thatems to have been fearless from everything i can find out about her. everett dirksen with such a character, would have loved to have metro of mine, someone who has been largely their history. one of the purposes behind behind the stories i created for caucuses through the years was to bring to life, the figures that had been forgotten and henry them. a major figure of the civil war era the leading civil-rights crusaders point.levate him and get him more attention for

people like that. there's lots of them i wis years. host: back to "scenes, peoplear evil smelling cigar protruding from the corner of his mouth. he had a ver who are we talking about? betty: samuel clemens, better known to us as mark twain. host: and former senators employee! betty: he was a former senate employee briefly in the 1960's. . he actually went into the office that day looking for a job. he was not yet a famoushe was a promising rising working on his first book and he was looking for a job that woulds to essentially promote his writing career. stewart, despite his sinister appearance, did give him a job and he became a clerk. at the time it was not unusual because the senate only met a few months out of the year, they often hired reporters and correspondents as clerks for mutually beneficial experience for both of them, but id good senate employee. he did things, forging the

senators' signature on personal letters so he wouldn't have to pay postage. egregious out of his service was answering constituent mail. he answered their mail with great openlume, in a mark twain style. host: here is that style as quoted in the book. hha letters came there, you couldn't read them. don't bother about a post office, what you want is a nice jail." [laughter] did senator stewart get reelected after having mark twain in his office? in the 14th amendment. mark twain didn't lasttually they had to part ways. interestingly they kind of yed friends through the years. but it was in particularly happy experience folks for mark host: you mentioned charles sumner permit here is video we wanted to show you. >> there are a num there was a lot of violence which, i read about in this book, deliberate attacks like re supposed to take place in the street. violence erupts all the time, particularly in the house, but

if you're going to stage an attack in that way, it is supposed to happen in the st catch sumner outside in the capitol grounds because that's the proper way to beat a congressman. why?e chamber. is senator confronting in northern or, an abolitionist, in the senate chamber and beating him to thet becomes the south beating the north into submission and a deeply symbolic -- in a deeply symbolic kindrepercussions in a way that -- there would have been repercoutside, by the symbolism of that, the power of that ppine charts. host: betty koed, my guess is you have worked with joann freeman. betty: i know joann. that is a good description of the caning of ch it was a nation-changing event in some ways, i wouldaywhen preston brooks, a south carolinian, came in -- i should set the stage. in 1856, charles sumner had delivered a speech he called

"the crime against kansas." speech, he denounced the senators representatives particularly senators who had supported passage of the kansas nebraska earlier. the reason he did mounts to him was d opened up the possibility for slavery to move into territories. charles sumner of massachusetts st hoping to abolish the institution ofry. he saw passage of the kansas nebraska act as another great crimes in our national history. in may 19 1856, he comes to the senate chamber and over the course of two days delivers a six hours. it is a really radical language. it has lots of sexual innuendo in it. he declared slavery as the t, and accuses andrew butler somehow courting with this harl such a shocking speech that even people who had teale.

interestingly, one of the people he targeted in the speech was stephen douglas of illinois, who had been one of the principal architects of the kansas nebraska act. douglas came in when he was given the speech, heard the speech and at the end of the speech he said, that is going to get himself killed by someafter the speech sumner's friends, including henry wilson, offerede because they feared for his safety and sumner said no, i'll be fine. couple of days later on may on his desk in the senate chamber signing speech to mail out to people when preston butler'amber, as joanne talks about that, raises his heavy cane and like, "sumner i find your speech a label against my state." over the course of a minute, he inflicted 40 ones on the headd left sumner unconscious and bleeding on the senate floor. was, as joann says, a really moment, because really showed two major things.

violence of the issue of slavery was now visited in the senate chamber itssecondly, that allative compromises and efforts to somehow settle the issue of slaveryid disunion were breaking down. that to somehow -- it would take more than that to save the union and end the institution ofsenate to as draped in black and it itself became a symbol of the abolitionist cause. i should say sumner left the senate and he was away for most of the next three years recovering from injuries, but he senate in in fact, the most important part of his senate career came after he, returned from 1860-1874 when he died in office, he not only continued the cause ofprincipal architect of the civil rights actessence put in place the language for what became act of 1964. , so you have a phd from uc santa barbara, undergrad degree from there as well.

colorado, mason city, iowa, all your past. to know that story when you are attending uc santa senate? betty: actually, i did not know the line in high school history class or something that that about, when i came to the senate i knew nothing of the can sumner. had read about him in graduate school. but i was mostly a 20th-century historian in school so and there are so many things about the senate i knew nothing about. i sometimes knew the i vaguely had heard something event, but hadn't studied them in any detail. sometimes as a senate historian and i will give you a good example of this, when i delivered a story in the republican caucus about the achievement of charlesstory, i went into that luncheon story because they work in and around the capitol, and it is told all the time on tours. any time someone visits the old senate chamber, they will hear theook the story right up to the moment when preston brooks walks into the sumner, and

at that point i lef up. and i said, "and i started to leave and as i left, i heard one senaanother, "did he hit him?" [laughter] i realized at that point, even they didn't necessstory. so the next week i came back and told the rest of the story. t for granted that people are going to hear senate histo schools but they get very little about the senate. so anything we approach as senate with the expectation that we are going to ve re we tell the rest of the story. host: you became sena 2015, but you joined the senate office 1998. did both senators trent lott and tom daschle, as leaders otime have to sign off on your hiring? betty: no. it's up to the secretary of the leadership, and i don't think there's any to leadership and say, this is the person we have hired. when you become senate

historian,ultation with the leadership, but as the assistant t of the apprentice coming in, it doesn't get to that level. it goes to level. when they deci 2015, at that point, the secretary will say, we would like to promote this person to senaten y2015? betty: we would have had -- it wouln mitch mcconnell and harry reid. host: 1990 eight. quite a momentous year in the senate. betty: i fact, i joined in june of 1998. my colleagues, dick baker and don ritchie said to it's going to be a nice, quiet year because it's an election year so you will have lots of to read and get used to your new position. t a few months, when the house decided to impeach president cit was just chaos. crazy time. probably the busiest houall three of us just spent all day on calls, answering questions from information, studying peachment. fortunately when i came in june,

baker had in mind that he would like to put more information on our about senate impeachment trials. so he assigned me the task studying senate impeachment trials as one of my firsthe person who at that time, which was brand-new. i had spent the last three or four months deeply in the study of senate impeachment history so that help for us as well as the nation. host: because of the nature of the senate work closely with the house historian and the supreme court historian? betty:historian, although there se, they have a historical society. we worked with the chief justice because he was preserving over the trial -- presiding over the trial. we worked a lot with the houseby time the house historian's office was going through its own transition as well in and we were doing ort of projects, impeachment trials, anything that involved state of

the union addresses, anything involving both houses of congress, we work very carefully with the house history: betty koed has been a friend of c-span over thelped us with this. >> asked several times today will version of the senator from oklahoma's amendment? no. >> thomas jefferson questioned the senate. >> framers believed. >> that one of the constitution. >> sometimes it seems nothing is happening on the senate floor.the action is going on elsewhere. runs,, in the offices of the senate leaders. s all preliminary. sooner or later, everything has to come here. say the final act, ta made. ♪ host: once aga thatank p u tha how much effort was it to get our cameras where we got our cameras? betty: we had to get resolution passed to allow happen. the senate chamber, other than

as you know, the usual c-span cameras are there in certain spaces and certain anglesm senate c c-span feed, in order to get a you have to get a resolution passed in the net to do that, so it host: and that entire documentary is available on our website,rg -- c-span.org. betty: that was a fun project. work, a lot of late nights. we appreciate that. back to your book "scenes, , people, places and events that shaped the united stat i want to ask abohistory, rebecca felton and gladys file. betty: oh, yes, early female senators the first female senator. s appointed to fill a vacant seat in the senate and became the first woman to from 1789-1822, that is a long time to get a female senator. shfluke in some ways, it was a

case where there was a vacancy in the andhe governor of her state moved to gainn to that seat himself, he had lost his own reelection bid forthought the best way he election was to assuage the women senators of his sta him give him that spot. the women's su just passed a couple of years before that, he ha vehemently opposed it, alienated a lot of women in his state so he thought if he could gain those women's votes, he would have a good chance winning the election. so with that goal in mind, he appointed rebecca felton, who was at the time, 87 years old to serve as a placeholder for that seat work out that way. he left the election to walter in 1922 and went on to serve a long senate term. but walter george stepidto allow rebecca felton to be sworn into she served for another 24 senate. so it was a short-lived

milestone. host:irst woman. tty: a broken barrier that had been in place since 1989. now, gladys. file is an interesti case. rebecca felton was a democrat from georgia. file was the first republican -- pyle was the first republican woman to serve. sh serve either. this was it is -- this is 193 the 1938 midterm election. at that time franklin roosevelt was in his second term as president, they were expecting lose a number of democratic seats and he was hoping get a few pieces of legislationin that postelection lame-duck session where he still had could keep in that spot. even though year and was not expected to come back unt hoping that he would call congress back into session for a lame-duck session and take advantt democratic majority he had at the time. gladys pyle was there because there was a vacant seat

office, and there was a seat that was going to be empty when the election came, from november until january. republans wanted to be sure they had as many as possible so they could oppose franklin roosevelt in those legislative efforts, so they turned to gladys pyle who was a well-known figure in south she had been in the state legislature and been secretary of state, a pioneering time. they brought her into feel that november-j period there just to hold a seat in case and it turned out they did not need her vote because roosevelt them back into session. nevertheless, and this is part of that era that doesn't happen much anymore, she did t in open just an oath given by a judge or some other official that allowed her to do some senate business and served as senator for about 6, 7 weeks during noveer december of that today, that doesn't happen very often because it is partly due to the factar-round now, we don't

have have. senators get sworn session very quickly now so they don't have to do that. in those days they would often sworn in after appointment in their home state so they can start business as quickly possible. so gladys pyle is a path-breaker of her own right. she was not only a south dakota politics but also in,woman senator. host: for me, learning about women, they were accomplished in your own right before they even came to the senate. betty: absolutely. rebecca felton was known as." the tics in georgia." partly because her husband had beenator, and she ran for office, but she had been very active in the women'svement so she was very well-known. unfortunately she had been very active in anti-civil-rights efforts, that is t but well-known in georgia. same with gladys pyle as mentioned, she had been in state government, she ran for governor and won the popular vote, but she didn't have the necessarymajority

so it went to a convention and the all-male commission gave the seat to one of her male competitors. must have , i would think. but she came intono hunt entered the senate office ols many victimmccarthy's baseless charges. one of them was lester hunt." betty: that is a sad story. ster hunt had been a popular senator. popular democratic senator from the state of wyoming, which was in itself a feat, because wyoming was mostly a republican senator that -- republican state at that point and still is crusade, but there was another side ocarthyism, and that was the persecution of gays and lesbians in the u.s. lester son was been arrested park in washington, d.c. for soliciting an undercover of and was let out incident would not gain but lester hunt had been a

vocal, outspoken critic of joe mccarthy in the early 1950's, and hunt out of office. this incident with his son became the happen. mccarthy and his allies in the senate began to put a lot of pressure on lester hunt to resign from office and thereby seat for some who would be more prone mccarthy. lester hunt refused to do so. but as time went by carrying the secret of his son's problngn by mccarthy and his allies, the burden just grew until that date in 1954 when he committed suicide in the russell senate office building. host: do youe that space is that he committed suicide, and what is it used for today? betty: it is in a office. offices have changed a the years in the russell senate building. . they have been room's in lester hunt the time. now it is just part of a larger suite on t floor. host: you also write in "scenes,"

about senate hideaway? betty: a hideaway is a private office in the capitol building that a senator can use as an escape from turmoil and the chaos in the c than the senate office building? betty: yes. the 19th century senat somewhere that they took over and made their own and created their own personal office. really until the russell building opened inot have personal offices, the only space they had n office. so they look for any space they could. at one point in 1890's, the senate was ren apartment building nearby to provide extra office space for senators, so premium at the time. they began to give committee spaces to each senator who chaired a committee. and through the years, the number of committees grew and grew and the 1920's we had something like 70 committees and every senator needed to have an office.

most of these co ossell b 1 "a spaces in the spaces were turned into what we call hideaway hideaway offices. it goes byior senator would get the best one, all the way down. they would have space somewhere in the capitol building, as close to the senate chambers as they could get it, where they could have quietith staff and constituents whatever the case may be. hideaways grew as opportunities en the other buildings opened. a lot of s i in 2009, enough staff got shifted to that space that all senators were able to have hideaway spaces. someiful hideaway spaces with the grandview of the national mall the more junior senators tend to have a small little room in the basement, often with no windows at all. host: israel hideaway. betty: yes -- new, state real hideaway. betty: i have been in the things they hope to get as they gain

seniority. host: senate pro tem patty murray should have the grander av surpassas majority along with a grand leadership he had so many rooms, in fact, that they collectively became known as the johnson east ranch." betty: yeah. lyndon johnson was the master of real estate on capitol became majority leader in gained every space he could get. he had his personalis leadership office, his hideaway office then it just kept growing and growing. in fact to the point where as majority leader, he gained what we now call the lyndon johnson room on the second floor, one of the prettiest rooms in the capitol. . he took that space over and that became his leadershipe other . when he became vice president in 1961, he also got the vice president's's office in the capitol, but he didn't relinquish the lbj room. so with each step he moved up the ladore space. he finally got to give some of it but he became president.

what is your job as now? betty: i am here to consult whenever necessary.ng comes up in the office and my successors have questions, i am t. you? betty: kate scott is the new senate historian, she joined the office in 2010 after dick baker and she is a wonderful skilled speaker so she has over all the tests iid, doing presentations and stuff like that. but i am here as a consultant if i suspect she will not leave me very often because she is very good at her job and has a very wonderful assistantues, the associate historian holt there in the process of looking for a new assistant so they will have three in-place again soon. the senate has events or they want to have something ready be k talk and i am available for that. so it is more just sort of as an advisory consultant role at this po so in your semi retirement, what are you doing?

betty: well, i am spending time doing a lot of things i didn't get enough time to do overhe last quarter-century, including -- i am a drummer, so i spend a lot of time drumming. i am in a drum group and that is a lot of fun and we enjoyed that a lot. i do martial arts so i get spend a lot of time doing that. doing some other writing, other writing projects. i put history off. i have banned history from the [laughter] i can't read or write any history for at least six month break. host: have you been faithful to that so far? be far. other types doing and traveling and visiting my family, just doing things i sort of lost track of over the years. historian betty koed worked on this book, "scenes, people, places and events that shaped the u your spending one hour with us here on c-span. e happy to be here. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [capin national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] ♪ all q&a programs are available

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