after 2014. the demonstration has not made a decision on it yet. made athing day decision. they're pushing this often a little bit. the afghans are getting look very concerned about this lack of clarity on the future. it is causing them all to head a little bit. ae fear of abandonment is real concern. at some point the administration will have to come up with their plan for post-2014. it is 18 months away. aboutis is still debate the numbers. the size is important. it will tell what they can do. terrorism a counter- force they're able to go after al qaeda targets. >> the presidential campaign

five years ago closing guantanamo, and now is still open. it needs to shut down. >> he is very forceful on this issue. there are a lot of republicans and democrats that say we do not want terrorists living in our prison. ands perfectly acceptable it can be kept there appeared a remains a standoff. >> thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate your perspective and questions. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> i walked in. i said i am here to report. a guard came up. he said i knew one of your campaign managers and ohio. we got down in there. he said you have some e-mail. it was from california.

they gave me the e-mail. you go through the most embarrassing parts of the stripped-down. and then i got into the intake, what in the prison, down to the courtyard. told the man supposed to take me around to get away from him and he can find his own way. i was sitting there not knowing what close to get. another prisoner said where is your escort? suitd a little guy any yelled foul language purity to me in the back way of the laundry room. a man was sitting there. he said are you the congressman? republican, argued? i said, republicans put me in there. of easti was the mayor

cleveland. welcome. i will give you some clothes. >> presidents, the governors and members of congress gathered in dallas thursday for the george w. bush presidential center dedication ceremony. it included brief remarks from george h. w. bush to spoke from a wheelchair. the bush center is located on the campus of southern methodist university. include peopley porn present issues at ground zero after 9/11 and a replica of the oval office. it opens to the public this wednesday. this is one hour and 25 minutes.

>> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. please direct your attention to the main stage as angela turner wilson purchases "god bless america." ♪ god bless america

land that i love stand beside her and guide her thru the night with a light from above from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam god bless america my home sweet home ♪ god bless america my home sweet home ♪ god bless america land that i love stand beside her and guide her thru the night with a light from above

from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam god bless america my home sweet home god bless america my home sweet home ♪

\[cheers and applause] >> please welcome the chairman of the george w. bush foundation board of directors, donald l. evans. \[applause] >> good morning and welcome to the george w. bush presidential center and to the beautiful campus of southern methodist university in dallas, texas.

i'm proud to be here with all of you here today as we dedicate this beautiful building to the american people. two years ago, we broke ground on this site and the hard work of many people is realized in the building behind me today. of course, no one has done more to make this place possible than president george w. bush and mrs. laura bush. \[applause] i've had the honor of calling them my friends for more than 40 years and i've been privileged to witness firsthand the instead resolve and principled leadership of president bush. learnwho come here will about that leadership and about a consequential time in american history.

researchers and scholars will study the presidential records housed in the archives. students and museum visitors will learn about the modern american presidency, first decade of the 21st century, and the story of george and laura bush. on the other side of this building is the george w. bush institute. here, thinkers and doers are working to advance freedom and defend the principles that guided president and mrs. bush throughout their lives and through their service to texas, america and the world. today is the day to celebrate president and mrs. bush for their commitment to this country, to honor the american presidency and to look forward to the impact this most

important civic institution will leave on the lives of people in our country and around the world. we are honored that you have joined us today. welcome. \[applause] ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, the 46th vice president of the united states, richard b. cheney. \[applause] mrs. lucy b. johnson. mrs. linda j. robb. mrs. tricia nixon cox. susan ford-bales. mr. michael reagan. ♪

ladies and gentlemen, first lady of the united states, mrs. michelle obama, mrs. laura bush, mrs. hillary rodham clinton, mrs. barbara bush, mrs. rosalynn carter.

♪

ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, barack obama, president george w. bush, president bill president george h.w. bush, president jimmy carter. ♪ ♪

\[cheers and applause] please remain standing for the invocation by the reverend mark craig followed by the presentation of colors. >> let us pray.

we have gathered here today, oh, god, to offer thanks for the life and the legacy of president and mrs. george w. bush. we thank you for their distinguished leadership to our nation. moreover, we are grateful for their moral courage and commitment to public service. oh, god, our lord, creator and sustainer, today we honor a man who genuinely believes in your quest of freedom for all. we ask that president bush and his family continue to feel the prayers and support of people all over the world who recognize his past and continued work for the expansion of freedom. we ask your blessings upon the george w. bush presidential center and all who will walk

through these doors. we pray that it will serve as a beacon of hope and freedom throughout the world. we pray that it will remind each and every one of us of our nation's heroic past and generate noble insights for future leaders of our country. grant that each of us today will rededicate our lives to the values of this great institution. as we continue to learn the lessons of history, help us to live out the words of the prophet micah, "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our god," we pray all these things in thy name, amen. >> amen. thank you, mark. >> thank you. ♪

♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the pledge of allegiance led by first lieutenant melissa stockwell, united states army. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of united states of america and to the republic for stands, one nation,

under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> please be seated. ladies and gentlemen, the chair of the george w. bush institute advisory board, dr. condoleeza rice. \[applause] >> good morning. mr. president and mrs. obama, president and mrs. carter, president and mrs. george h.w.

bush, president and mrs. clinton and president and mrs. bush, i have the honor of introducing a number of global leaders, national leaders and texas state leaders who have come to join us on this momentous occasion. as your name is called, may i ask you to stand and may i ask the audience to hold your applause so we can acknowledge our global leaders together. ofsident of the republic georgia, former president of spain, president aknar, the former president of ghana, john kufor, the former president of south korea, le man bok, and mrs. kim. former president of el former prime minister

silvio berlusconi of italy. former prime minister tony blair and mrs. sharee blair of the united kingdom. former prime minister and mrs. john howard of australia, former prime minister and mrs. ehud olmert of israel, former secretary general -- current secretary general of nato, mr. fogg rasmussen. his royal highness of saudi arabia, abdul al-khalifa of bahrain, former ambassador to the united states, ambassador

sen of india. current ambassador to the states, ambassador of kuwait, ambassador of indonesia, ambassador amid, hakemi and mrs. hakemi of afghanistan, ambassador of botswana, the german chief admission, mr. hannafeld, please join me in acknowledging and welcoming our global leaders. \[applause] i would now like to acknowledge the governor of texas, rick perry. \[applause] the governor of arizona, jan brewer. \[applause] the governor of new jersey, chris christie and mrs. mary christie. the former governor of alabama,

bob riley, and the former governor of michigan, john anglers and his wife, michelle. i want to greet the following members of congress -- senator ted cruz and his wife, heidi, of texas, senator john cornyn of texas, former senator bill frist, former senator kay bailey hutchinson, the speaker of the house, congressman john boehner and his wife, debby. congressman jeff kinsarling. congresswoman kay granger, congressman michael burgess, congressman pete sessions,

congressman mike conaway, congressman kenny martin, congressman john mica, and now, of the texas elected representative lieutenant governor david duhearst, speaker of the texas house of representatives, joe strauss, the mayor of dallas, michael rawlings, the mayor of highland park, joel williams, the mayor of university park, richard davis, and the former mayor of dallas, tom lepperd. i want to thank you for being here for this wonderful occasion and i would like those in the audience to once again acknowledge the presence of our global, national and local leaders. thank you very much.

\[applause] ♪ ♪

♪ \[applause] >> please welcome the chairman of the george w. bush foundation board of directors, donald l. evans accompanied by the archivist of the united david fairio. byi'm pleased to be joined the honorable david fairio, archivist of the united states. on behalf of the george w. bush foundation, it is my honor to present to you and to the american people the key to the george w. bush presidential library and museum. \[applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, mrs. laura bush. \[cheers and applause] >> welcome, everyone. welcome to all of our friends and family who've joined us today. be seated. welcome to all of our friends and family who've joined us today from around the country and around the world. thank you all for coming. and a special welcome to president obama and michelle, to president clinton and secretary clinton, to president carter and rosalynn and finally, we're thrilled to have our father and mother, president george h.w. bush and barbara bush. [cheers and applause] i know for the presidential families that nothing says an

exciting get-together more than an invitation to come and see millions of documents from someone else's time in office so thank you all very much for coming. a warm welcome to the former heads of state who have joined us, the diplomatic corps, the members of the united states congress and our armed forces, and we're especially happy to see the familiar faces of so many of the bush-cheney administration. in the united states, the presidency is not just about one person. the presidency is about all of the people that join with that president in years of service to our remarkable nation. they're the people who never fly on air force one but who put in countless late nights and earlier mornings, who spend less time with their family and friends and more time hard at work caring for our country.

the presidency is about the men and women of our military who serve every president and who make the ultimate sacrifice to protect us and keep us safe. the stones in the walls behind us represent your years of service. this building is here because of your service and for that, george and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. [applause] a presidential library is not just about one president. each library is about our nation and the world during that time. the george w. bush presidential center reflects george's role as the first president of the 21st century. like our new era, the building and its grounds are designed to be forward-looking and they're green and sustainable.

they celebrate the native environment of our home state of texas. the archives housed here are completely digital and the entire bush center is designed to present the past and engage the future. we welcome scholars and students and the community at large to gather here for generations to come. the center is designed to be human in scale because, like the white house, presidential libraries belong to all americans. the people across our nation were the ones who inspired us every day. here we remember the heartbreak and the heroism of september 11 and the bravery of those who answered the call to defend our country. remember who came to the gulf coast following hurricane katrina.

we remember all of the people who step forward to help others, whether to teach a child to read or to feed a hungry family. throughout the center, i'm reminded of my husband. i remember him standing near the rubble of the world trade center. his arm around the shoulders of a retired firefighter who grabbed his old gear to go search for the missing. i remember george standing alone on the pitchers's mound at yankee stadium, repairing to throw out the first pitch in new york at the 2001 world series. during that long season of heartbreak and healing. i remember his quiet visits with the families of the fallen, sharing their stories and their tears. i remember how steadfast and steady he was for eight years. since we have been home, i have

added new memories. i have seen george lifting up a brush to refurbish a health clinic. i have seen him on a bike ride with a veteran. he helped push an army major who was peddling only on one leg. my george is a man who when someone needs a hand offers them arms. this spirit and hope is forever captured in this beautiful building. this will always be a place that welcomes each visitor with open arms. thank you all and welcome. [applause] ♪

♪ [playing "america the beautiful"]

♪ ♪ america, america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ america, america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood

from sea to shining sea ♪ ♪ america, america ♪ america [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, president jimmy carter. [applause] >> it is a great honor for me to be here today.

it reminds me of my favorite cartoon in a new yorker magazine. this old boy is looking up at his father. he says, daddy, when i go up, i want to be a former president. [laughter] four of us have made that goal and one is still working on it. i will be very brief and i will be limiting my comments just to the things that i know personally. in 2000 there was a disputed election for several weeks. finally, when president bush became president, they had the inauguration in washington on schedule. i was one of the two democrats volunteering on the platform. he said, if there is anything i can do for you, let me know.

which was a mistake he made. [laughter] the worst problem now is the war going on between north and south sudan. millions of people are being killed. i would like you to help us get a peace agreement. in a weak moment, he said, i will do it. i said you would have to talk to the security advisor. he said, he give me a few weeks. president bush kept his promise. january 2005, there was a peace treaty between north and south sudan that ended a war that has been going on for 21 years. george w. bush is responsible for that. [applause]

that was the first of his great contributions to the countries in africa. it has been mentioned briefly here. from the time he went to office until the time he left, he helped with development assistance. he established a program. i will let you figure out the percentage on that. he has a program that can help women with cervical and breast cancer in africa. that is something that is dear to my heart. it means a lot to millions of people in africa.

mr. president, i have admiration and gratitude for you on the great contributions you have made to people on earth. thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, president george h. w. bush. [applause] >> thank you. what a beautiful day in dallas. a great pleasure to be here. to honor our oldest son, it is very special for barbara and me. thank you all for coming and

those who have made this marvelous museum possible. we are glad to be here. god bless america and thank you very much. [applause] too long? [laughter] [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, president bill clinton.

[applause] >> thank you, president bush and mrs. bush, president obama and mrs. obama, president carter and mrs. carter. all of the representatives here and the other previous presidents. i told president obama that this was the latest example of the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history. [laughter] i want to take my hat off to president bush for the beautiful library. the exhibits are great. it is

inspiring. i congratulate him on the platinum leads writing for the library. i want to say, mr. president, once again you have got the better of me twice in the last few weeks. my library has a platinum rating, but it was open for a few years before we could afford to achieve it. you have also beaten me to be a grandfather. [laughter] i congratulate you and laura for it. [applause] starting with my work with president george h. w. bush on the tsunami and the aftermath of katrina, people began to joke that i was becoming close with the bush family.

i was becoming the black sheep son. my mother told me not to talk for too long. barbara, i will not let you down. [laughter] there is one other connection that i have is largely unknown. a couple of times a year in his second term, george bush would call me just to talk politics. a chill went up and down my spine when laura said, all of the records were digitized. [laughter] dear god, i hope there is no records of those conversations in this vast and beautiful building. i want to say as president carter did, i was impressed with president bush inviting us to

make different decisions on the decisions he was facing. i want to talk about a couple of other things that are beyond controversy. i want to thank president bush for passing pepfar. i worked all over africa. many are alive because of it. i want to thank president obama for continuing it and increasing it.

thank you and laura for your work in global health. thank you for your efforts to reform our immigration system and keep our nation a nation of immigrants. i hope congress will follow president obama's efforts to follow the example you set. thank you for that. i want to thank you for the work we did together in the aftermath of haiti. we have closed our fund. we helped a lot to people start businesses that are now thriving. we gave the country the first home mortgage system it ever had. thank you for that, mr. president. [applause] i probably shouldn't say this, but i will anyway. your mother showed me some of your landscapes. i thought they were great.

really great. i seriously considered calling you and asking if you could do a portrait of me. those sketches are wonderful, but -- [laughter] i like president bush. i like it when we have disagreements. he is disarmingly direct. i went on about the german healthcare system. he said, i don't know a thing about the german healthcare system. i think he probably won the argument. [laughter] we are here to celebrate a country that we all love. debate and difference is an

important part of every free society. he invites us to make different ones if we choose. he has honored that deep american tradition. for all of these things as an american citizen, i'm very grateful. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. please be seated. mr. president and mrs. bush, president clinton, and now former secretary clinton,

president george h. w. bush and mrs. bush, president carter, and and all distinguished guest, michelle and i are honored to be here on this historic occasion. this is a texas-sized party. that is worthy of what we are here to do today, to honor the life and legacy of the 43rd president of the united states, george w. bush. when all of the living former presidents are together, it is also a special day for our democracy. we have been called the world's most exclusive club. we do have a pretty nice clubhouse. the truth is, it is more like a support group. the last time we all got together was before i took office. i needed that.

as each of these leaders will tell you, no matter how much you think you're ready to assume the office of president, it is impossible to truly understand until it is yours. until you're sitting at that desk. that is why every president gains better appreciation for all those who served before him, from leaders from both parties were taken on the momentous challenge to solve the enormous weight of the nation on their shoulders. that appreciation extends to president bush. the first thing i found in that desk the day i took office was a letter from george, it demonstrated his compassion and his generosity. he knew i would come to learn what he had learned, that being president was a humbling job. there were moments where you make mistakes.

there are times in which you wish you could turn back the clock. i know that we love this country. we do our best. in the past, president bush has said it is impossible to pass judgment on his presidency while he is still alive. maybe this is premature, but even now there are certain things we know for sure. we know he was brought up by two loving parents. as he said, my daddy's eyes and my mother's mouth. the young boy who came home and proudly presented his mother with a dinosaur tailbone he had smuggled in his pocket. [laughter]

we know about the young man who met the love of his life at a dinner party ditching his plans to go to bed early and instead talking with the brilliant and charming woman late into the night. we know about the father who raised two remarkable and caring and beautiful daughters, even after they try to discourage him from running for president. they said, dad, you are not as cool as you think you are. mr. president, i can relate. [laughter] now we see president bush the grandfather beginning to spoil his brand-new granddaughter. we know president bush the man. what president clinton said is true. to know the man is to like the man. he is comfortable in his own skin. he knows who he is. he takes his job seriously, but

he does not take himself too seriously. we also know something about george bush the leader. as we walk through this library, we are reminded of incredible strength and resolve that came through that bullhorn as he stood amid the ruins at ground zero. promising to deliver justice to those who sought to destroy our way of life. we remember the compassion he showed by leading the global fight against hiv/aids and malaria. helping to save millions of lives and reminding people in the poorest corners of the globe that america cares. we are here to help. we remember his commitment to reaching across the aisle to unlikely allies like ted kennedy.

we should help every child and not just some. we need to repair our broken immigration system. we should do this together. speaking of our history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. immigration reform has taken a bit longer than we expected. i'm hopeful that this year with the help of speaker boehner and some of the senators and members of congress who are here today that we bring it home for families and the economy in our security and for this incredible country that we love. if we do that, it will be in large part thanks to the hard work of george w. bush. [applause]

finally, the president there is no greater burden than serving as commander in chief. as president bush himself has said, america must and will keep its word to the men and women who have given us so much. even as we may disagree on some matters of form policy, we share a profound respect and reverence with the men and women of our military and their families. we are united in our determination to comfort the families of the fallen and to care for those who wear the uniform of the united states. [applause] on the flight back from russia after negotiating at the height of the cold war, president kennedy's secretary had a small slip of paper in which it said

i know there is a god. i see a storm coming. if he has a play for me, i believe i am ready. no one can be completely ready for this office, but america needs a leader to take on problems head on so they can do what they believe is right. that is what leaders with whom i have shared this title have all done. that is what george w. bush chose to do. mr. president, for your service and courage and sense of humor and most of all for your love of country, thank you. from all the citizens of the u.s., god bless you and god bless the united states. [applause]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah

♪ ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah

♪ glory, glory, hallelujah christ was born. with our glory in his glory.

as he died who made man holy let us die to make man great. our god is marching on. glory, glory, hallelujah. glory, glory, hallelujah. glory, glory, hallelujah. our god is marching on. glory, glory, hallelujah. glory, glory, hallelujah. glory, glory, hallelujah.

our god is marching on. ♪ ♪ [applause] >> i believe one develops a set of principles through faith. how you were raised. i had a sent of principles. by the time i became president, i was willing to defend those principles. i wanted to make sure the economy was strong.

we needed to bolster our military in order to maintain the peace. it was important to promote a culture in which each individual is responsible for his or her decisions. we could improve our public school system so people had a chance at the american dream. the free enterprise system needed to be protected. i never wanted to be a wartime president. but war came to our shores on 9/11. i had a lot of emotions. mostly i was determined. i was determined to protect america. any commander and chief ought to create a bond with the military. the toughest decision a president makes is to send men and women into harm's way. >> of course one of the things

i'm interested in and one of the things i'm interested in is literacy. one of them was women's rights. when i made the presidential radio address talking about the brutal treatment of women by the taliban, i started getting responses from women everywhere across our country. >> our guiding principles was to whom much is given, what much is required. i believe we have an obligation to help human suffering where we possibly can. life is service until the end. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, president george w. bush. [applause]

>> thank you, please be seated. oh, happy days. i want to thank you all for coming. laura and i are thrilled to have so many friends. a lot of friends. there was a time in my life when i -- it wasn't likely to be found at a library, much less found one. the beautiful building has my name above the door, but it belongs to you. it honors a cause we serve and the country we share. for eight years, you gave me the honor of serving as your president. today i am proud to dedicate to this center to the american people. [applause] i am very grateful to president

obama and michelle for making this trip. [applause] unlike the other presidents, he has actually got a job. president, thank you for your kind words and for leading the nation we all love. [applause] i appreciate my fellow members of the former presidents club. 42, 41, and 39. i want to thank you for your kind words and the example you set. alexander hamilton once worried about ex-presidents wondering among the people like discontented ghosts. i think we seem pretty happy. one reason is that we have wonderful first ladies at our side.

mother and laura, you know how i feel. condi introduced the world leaders with whom i've had the pleasure to serve, you are good friends and i am honored to have you here in the promised land. i want to welcome the members of congress. i know you all will be happy to hear that this speech is a lot shorter than the state of the union. i think the governors, and state and local officials who have joined us. i welcome members of my cabinet, especially vice president dick cheney. [applause] from the day i asked him to run with me, he served with loyalty, principal, and strength. i'm proud to call you friend. [applause]

history is going to show that i served with great people. a talented, dedicated, intelligent team of men and women who love our nation as much as i do. i want to thank the people who have made this project a success. president gerald turner runs a fantastic university. [applause] a university with active trustees, dedicated faculty, and a student body that is awesome. [laughter] i want to thank the professionals at the national archives and records administration who have taken on a major task. i am confident you will all handle it.

i appreciate the architects, landscapers, and the designers especially. as well of all the workers who built a feinman facility that will stand the test of time. i thank the fantastic team at the george w. bush a center. much to the delight of the folks who work on this project, we have raised enough money to pay our bills. [applause] we have over 300,000 contributors from all 50 states, and laura and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. [applause]

this is the first time in the american history that parents have seen their son's presidential library. mother, i promise to keep mine clean. dad taught me how to be a president. he show me how to be a man. 41, it is awesome you are here today. [applause] i welcome my dear brothers and sister, as well as in-laws, cousins, nieces, all of you for joining us. our family has meant more to me than anything. i thank you for making it so. not so long ago, this campus was

home to the beautiful west texan named laura welch. when she earned her degree in library science, i'm not sure this day is exactly what she had in mind. she has been a source of strength and support ever since we met in the backyard in midland, texas. one of the joys of the presidency was watching laura serve as first lady. the american people rightly love her. so do i. she will be an excellent grandmother. it was a joy. i am really happy that mila's mother and father, jenna and henry, could make it here today. thank you all for coming.

jen is a correspondent on the "today show." thereby continuing the warm relations the bush family has with the press. [applause] today marks a major milestone in a journey that began 20 years ago when i announced my campaign for governor of texas. some of you were there that day. a lot of you were there that day. i picture you looking a little younger. you probably picture me as a little less gray hair. in politics, you learn who your real friends are. our friends have stood with us every step of the way. today is the day to give you a proper thanks.

democracy, the purpose of public office, is not to the fill personal ambition. guiding principle of the administration, is that the united states of america must strive to expand the reach of freedom. [applause] giftieve that freedom is a from god. the hope of everyone. freedom secured the promise of civil rights. freedom sustained dissonance bound by chains.

voters who risk their lives to cast their ballots. creativity,ashes rewards innovation, and replaces poverty with prosperity. ultimately, freedom lights a path to peace. freedom brings responsibility. independent from the state does not mean isolation from each other. a free society thrives when neighbors help neighbors, and the strong protect the weak, and public policy promotes private compassion. i try to act on these principles every day. it was not always easy, and it was not always popular.

freedomhe benefits of is that people can disagree. i created plenty of opportunities to exercise that right. when future generations come to this library and study this administration, they're going to find out that we stay true to our convictions. the we expanded freedom at home by raising standards in schools and lowering taxes for everybody. [applause] that we liberated nations from dictatorship and free people from aids. when our freedom came under attack, we made the tough decisions required to keep the american people safe.

the same principles define the mission of the presidential center. i am are tired -- i am retired from politics, happily so. not from public service. we will use our influence to help more children start life with the quality education, to the americans find jobs, but more countries overcome poverty and disease, to appeal -- to help people live in freedom. we will work to empower women around the world to transfer him the countries -- to transform their country. to stimulate find the women and men who defend our flag him and our freedoms here at home. ultimately the success of a nation depends on the character of its citizens. as president, i had the privilege to see that up) i saw in the first responders who charge up the stairs into the flames to save peoples's lives from burning towers. i saw it in the virginia tech professor who barricaded his classroom with his body until the students escape to safety. i saw it in the people in new orleans who may boast to rescue their neighbors from floods. servicemembers who keep our nation safe.

franklin roosevelt described dedication of a library as an act of faith. i dedicate this as an unshakable faith in our country. as brave and is no was the united states. what ever challenges come us, i will always believe our nation is best -- our nations best days lie ahead. [applause] god bless. [applause]

>> please stand for the national anthem. [no audio] ♪ oh say can you see, by the dawns early light

whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous night for the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

♪ [applause] >> united states navy will deliver the benediction. >> may we pray together. gracious god, today we acknowledge you worked in the affairs of humankind and nations. our prayer is that we as a people will listen carefully,

respond appropriately, and live each day acutely aware of the need for your guidance. you grace us with men and women who lead, prompted by the power of personal conviction, to help shape our national conscience, and provide examples of extraordinary leadership. today we gather to celebrate a marvelous occasion, establishing in this physical place a living reflection on our national history. president bush and his presidential library establish his legacy, not only of stone and mortar, but apart and soul. and servers are minors that there are words that resonate in our national consciousness. words like justice, freedom, liberty, opportunity, sacrifice. ideals not merely of our own making, but of your creation, you implied in each of your

children these intrinsic values. grant this day that the george w. bush residential center will forever help inform our national dialogue for good, and will always remind us that our nation and world's best hope for an incurably optimistic future requires nothing less than our very best human effort, yet ultimately rests in your prominent -- providential care. big knowledge that the spirit of freedom and opportunity we celebrate today is often in need of village want -- vigilant parade we room are those -- the joint care. --vigilant care. we give thanks for all those present today who have in the past provided faithful national said -- stewardship, and grant our leaders today, as ashley present obama, the gift of wisdom and the encouragement of your care.

mrs.ut president bush, bush, and their family with your blessings, and our eternal goodwill, and may you bless our nation and your entire creation. amen. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming today. this concludes our program. [applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> tonight we will have an interview with laura bush. to texas on a tour of the library. >> your husband had a lot of critics. will this change the way people view his presidency? >> it is not meant to do that. it is meant to explain what happened. the top bought all the different things we talked about in decisions that he made. i think people will learn a lot.

this is the generosity that the american people funded. there are a lot of interesting things people will learn about. it's so give them an idea of what it is like to be president. it is just like in anyone's life. we all have that. have the same sort of records. i think people will really find a very interesting. we tried to include everything. you can not include everything. we have not even talked about andsupport for dissidents freedom movement. >> thank you very much.

>> hadn't smith, a ranking member of the armed services committee talks about a defense issues including information and serious use of chemical weapons. here is a portion. >> at this point it is clear that chemical weapons were not news. -- were used. sorted outll being is what exactly is the situation. how did it come to pass and? regime giving a direct order to use these chemical weapons attacks did it happen in some other way it. level seemsce pretty high.

>> "newsmakers" today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> c-span created by americus cable companies by your television provider. >> next comedy series on the first ladies. it looks at the life of mary todd lincoln. then janet napolitano at a senate hearing on immigration legislation. that, in john mccain and senator chuck schumer of new york talk about their immigration bill. sout

>> born in 1818 in lexington, kentucky, mary todd grew up and lived to see her husband issued the emancipation proclamation 45 years later. a mother of four sons, she witnessed the death of three of those sons as well as her husband's assassination. her life was filled with tragedy, but as lincoln's political partner, she relished in his success. a look at the life and times of mary todd lincoln, one of the most complex first lady's. thank you for joining us on "first ladies: influence and image." we invite to of our academic advisers. rosalyn penn is a history professor at meredith and morgan state university. thehe table again is

director of five presidential libraries including the abraham lincoln library in springfield, illinois and a presidential biographer. thank you for being here. we will start with richard. mary todd is often viewed in broad strokes. criticism of her lavish spending and overly indulgent mother. if you look at a more nuanced picture, what do you see? >> that is why we need to get 90 minutes, to begin to get at the nuances. has been called the great american story, an integral part of the great american story. steven spielberg doesn't make movies about julia tyler or

louisa adams. mary todd lincoln remains someone who is symbolically divisive, perhaps. to some, a heroin, others a victim. she is a surprisingly contemporary figure as well. >> i like her because she is so complex. i say i like her. elizabeth was her dressmaker and companion. she did not live at the white house a good deal of time. formerly enslaved, purchased her own freedom and was interviewed along with other women to become the first lady's seamstress. or modess, as they called it. she made the most beautiful dresses. >> what do you learn about mrs. lincoln through elizabeth

keckley's eyes? >> it gives you a very concrete sketch of the relationship she had with her for four years. just reading what elizabeth tells you gives you an idea of how complex and hurt and victimized she was. >> it is the most intimate portrait we have of mary. lost will begin our new image, we call her mary todd. she signed it mary lincoln. where did mary todd come from? >> it was modern. she did not use it as i understand. >> lincoln famously said, mocking the pretensions of his

wife's family, gone are the time when the todd's needed one d. a thousand times she heard that joke. he's 6 foot 4, she's 5 foot 2 if that. he had a habit of introducing themselves as the law and the short of that, another joke she endured more than enjoyed. >> these programs work because they are interactive and we will get to phone calls. you can also go to the facebook page or tweet using #firstladies. let's take a brief look at what the country looked like. 31 million people in 33 states, but 11 were going to break off to form the confederate states of america.

35.6% growth since 1850, continuing to grow at an enormous pace. 3.9 million slaves, 12.7% of the population. the largest cities were new york, philadelphia, and brooklyn, and baltimore. they arrive at the white house. set the scene for the election and how tumultuous politics were. >> the political process had broken down. there were four parties that ran in 1860. the democratic party that was the one truly national political organization split into northern and southern wings, divided over the issue of slavery. stephen douglass, lincoln's longtime rival and at one point romantic rival for mary's hand is the democratic nominee from the north. vice president breckinridge is

the southern democratic candidate. they disappeared ithe midd dad tell nessomen, middle-of-the-road and support the constitution platform. the republicans were defined as anti-slavery, but not radically anti-slavery. they were all about containing the spread of slavery. lincoln along with 40% of the vote, the news of his election reached the state's almost immediately to secede. >> the white house that the first lady in here it was the domain of.

harriet lane, admired for her social skills even though the country was fracturing. >> historian catherine clinton said that in one of her biographies, she broke the elite virginia scheme of things. many of the congressional wives at some of the women that were very important during the virginian times were resentful. they lampooned them. lincoln and her. the sad thing was, she was a very intelligent and highly educated woman from the family in terms of what you consider wealthy and good families. but they treated her very badly. the other thing that might have hit her is that washington was swamp. >> in many ways.

>> when i came to washington, was mosquito-ridden. that was not 150 years ago. i am sure she had a difficult time dealing with that. she complained about how drab and worn the white house itself was. some of the furniture was back to the days of dolly madison. she had a lot to worry about. >> if you think of the repercussions of this woman arriving from kentucky, referred to as the republican mocked by people that do not know her and willing to assume the worst about these it puts a chip on her

even before she arrives in the capital. it might begin explain some of her shopping, some of her preoccupation with fixing up the white house, for example. >> and we have a quote from her, her rationale for why she spent so much money on her own attire. "i must address myself in this attire because people who scrutinize every article i wear with curiosity. the fact i have grown up in the west subject to more searching observation." when she interviews elizabeth keckley, she asks how much she will charge for her dresses. >> keckley says, i will be reasonable. they came to an agreement. my theory is that she wanted a lot of dresses but could not afford to pay lavishly. on her budget, she was able to get what she wanted because keckley agreed not to overcharge her.

>> paint a portrait of what life was like in the lincoln white house as a family living there and the public using the space. >> it was astonishingly open to the public. in the middle of the great civil war that is raging, twice a week, the president would throw open his office and people could line up as long as they could wait for his public badge. these were mostly job-seekers. childrenoln, the finessed themselves around folks. beginning,s at the of course. willie was 10 years old when they arrived, and his younger

brother. robert have got off to harvard. there was another brother that they lost years earlier in springfield. mrs. lincoln looked upon the white house very much as a symbol of this nation. they took seriously the responsibilities. as the woman responsible for the appearance of the house, remember that this was a time when the country was coming apart at the seams. the symbolic value of america's house is even greater. in some ways, she took the same view of the white house. >> this network produced a documentary on the white house and we visited the lincoln

bedroom. we will show you that next to show you the kind of spending that mary lincoln did on the furniture. >> it dates back to 1861, bought by mary todd lincoln as part of white house refurbishing. 8 feet long, 6 feet wide, made of carved rosewood. >> the lincoln bed with a and gold and lace. victoria and decorating. we have later photographs with the bed still dressed the way that she dressed it. >> it is this bed bought by lincoln that holds the key to understanding the lincoln

family's time here. >> it was one of mary lincoln's many extravagant purchases when she began a campaign to redecorate this entire building. >> she spent so much money, and he flew into a rage and said it was a stink in the nostrils of the american people. she was dying flub-dubs for that damned old house. >> in 1862, lincoln's middle son died after a bout with typhoid fever. mary never went into the room or looked at the bed again. >> willie's death -- lincoln took to the window and let her look across the river at a mental institution. "if you don't get a hold of yourself, you will have to be put there." that was her time to absorb it. >> by contrast, it would hole up the week he died just to grieve. how they handle their grief goes to how we see them today.

in the case of mary, it unhinged her. the final blow. the war melded the disparate elements of lincoln's personality and his grief. his loss of willie morphed into the nation's sense of loss. millions of homes throughout the union. >> it was a different interpretation. congress allotted her $20,000, four years later, they allotted $125,000 for refurbishing.

>> she did not have enough money to spend. >> how could she have spent allocatedif they only $20,000? was it all on that one bad? >> she overspent the $20,000 by about $6,000. >> there was a war going on. it is part of the legend and the myth. the out-of-control shop-a-holic. >> a political aspect of that, too. how did they react when there were so many sons of mother's dying on the battlefield? >> she basically disappeared for over one year.

her social life ended for over a year. she ordered the marine band to stop playing concert on the white house grounds, maybe they could move to lafayette park. her grief was too great. she indulged herself even beyond the standards of the day. her compatriot was queen victoria that would spend the rest of her life grieving over the loss of prince albert. >> what brought her out of her grief? >> she was continuing to be vilified. her son, robert, who was really a disappointment in the long run, had her incarcerated and sent into a mental institution.

she decided, i am going to get out of here. she was able to mobilize to get her out of the mental institution. >> i don't think she ever reall recovered from the loss of willie. >> it was not just willie. at the loss of edward, her husband, tad. >> and the loss of her mother that sent her to springfield in the first place. her life is shattered by loss. >> tell me how she served as the first lady to the president. her intuition about individuals is more accurate than that of her husband. does lincoln listen to her? >> think that she tried to advise him but his advisers did not want her interfering. that was definitely the case

when he was dying and they to occur from the room and would not let her in to mourn, which was a traditional thing in her culture. husband stays with the until he dies. they robbed her of that. >> gary robinson asks, did mary lincoln create enemies out of social rivals? who was our main antagonist? >> she had a number of rivals. the daughter of the secretary the treasury made no secret

about wanting to replace lincoln in the white house. kate was quite the belle of the ball. it is safe to say that mrs. lincoln had no great love lost for kate. part of the legend, and it is accurate, the stories of her accompanying the president to the battlefield near the end of the war. she lost it. the reason the grants did not was because julia grant did not want to risk having another confrontation with this unpleasant woman. >> what did the staffing of her? >> they liked her. remained of the staff when the lincolns came to the white house. they brought in freed blacks.

those that were interviewed talked about her in a very positive way. she got along well with them because they were the ones that helped raise her after her real mother died. >> lincoln's personal secretary did not use the best descriptions of her. >> as a young man, they have their own reasons to resent. they both had nicknames that the secretaries used to refer to them. >> outside of washington, what

was the perception of the first family? >> that is a great question. if you read the press of the day, there was a considerable amount of criticism. if she had been more press- conscious, we know how much time she spent visiting soldiers and hospitals. writing letters to soldiers that were unable to write themselves. taking food and gifts. and she never took reporters along with her. if she had been a little bit more p.r.-conscious, who knows what it might have done? >> the press followed her into every store they went into. that is what they reported, those kinds of things. >> ron, you're on. go ahead, please. >> you have indicated that there continues to be great controversy among historians and biographers over the

marriage. the first school of thought was initially presented in a biography by his law partner based on his post-assassination interviews with the multitude of lincolns, colleagues, neighbors, servants, etc. they reinforced the view that she was a domestic hell on earth with frequent outbursts with multiple instances of thrown objects including a piece of fire would that resulted in her battered husband having a broken nose. the other is presented as an appealing love story that reflects the deep skepticism over the veracity of the informants. about the super abundance of evidence to the contrary for both the pre-presidential and a

presidential periods. scholars have given more credence to her written as the money. this is culminated in the 2008 biography. >> in the st of time, do you want to know which they think is more correct? >> one more thing i want to add. james mcpherson criticized the relentless hostility towards the lincolns which marred the image. my question is, what is your assessment of the depiction of mary lincoln and what is their assessment of the motion picture's portrayal? >> are you familiar? >> michael is hostile to mary, certainly amassed a great deal of evidence to support his view. eleanor and franklin people,

and they are pretty much abraham and married people. there are people that will not set on the same stage at scholarly symposiums. they are so committed to one or the other and how passionate these historians feel. >> abraham seemed committed to marry. >> and that is the ultimate test, in some ways. >> i wonder if he has read catherine clinton's biography mrs. lincoln where she engages him. thehave to really look at

reasons why people write biographies or books. he was angry. and later took it out on mary. from what i have heard, you have to look at the motives behind the books. >> i asked what you thought of the modern portrayal. >> it was wonderful precisely because it transcends all of these camps. >> i agree. from mary lincoln about her own view at the public perception, forem to be the scapegoat both the north and the south. we will show you next, another

video. a woman at her summer cottage not very far from the capital to call the soldiers home. >> president lincoln's cottage was a seasonal home for the lincoln family. mary lincoln really pushed for the move out here to the soldiers home because she thought it was a place for her family to have more privacy than at the white house. we are in the mary lincoln room which is not part of our typical experience of the cottage. we call it the mary lincoln room because when they moved here in the summer of 1863, she is involved in a pretty serious carriage accident. some believe the carriage had been tampered with and this was an early assassination attempt. when she suffered that accident, the driver's seat separate from the carriage and the horses are startled at take off, she had to leap out of the carriage in

order to save herself. she suffered a head injury. she is treated at the white house, and she comes out to the soldiers home to make a recovery. not only is it the most isolated of the bedrooms, but it only one with windows for better cross- breezes. in 1862, there is the imperative of having a more private place to mourn and grieve after the death of willie. mary lincoln was going about the traditional cultural and social expectations of a woman morning and felt like she could not do it as effectively

white house. for her, there was a personal imperative to come out to this home to grieve the loss of her son. one of the best documented events that actually took place is a séance hosted here after the death of willie. noah brooks writes about that account. lincoln felt that mary was being taken advantage of and that she might be subject to blackmail. he asked for some of his colleagues and friends to check out the situation and see if they could figure out what the medium is doing and figure out how to make the noises he was

claiming were spirits. here at the soldiers home, he recounts noises they were hearing in when the lights turned on, they were able to prove he was a fraud. it does not seem that she was aware that she was being defrauded. after it was revealed this man was a fake, she was quite embarrassed by that. and there was an attempt to conceal or cover up the incident. whenever she writes about this place, she talks about how much she was looking forward to coming out here. she sought as fulfilling her dream of what her family would experience in washington, d.c. even though death and of the war were surrounding them, it gave them a little bit of respite from the chaos of downtown washington d.c. >> it is available for public tours, put it on your list of out of the way spots, a time capsule for history. you were visibly wanting to react to the spiritualism.

thehis is in some ways lincoln president in miniature. thought a school of that says her condition worsened after that very severe head injury that she experienced. the date is significant, july 2, 1863. the second day of the battle of gettysburg. the president's attention is focused elsewhere. gettysburg and vicksburg, he did not pay as much attention to his wife. >> is there speculation that the carriage accident was an assassination attempt? after the election, there was a document to the assassination attempt the pinkerton service saved them from. there was a constant threat on the lives of these people.

that stress we should take into account. >> she was living through all of that. it was a horrible time to be in the white house, i would think. >> we are in the midst of a five-year marking of the civil war events. we could not capture all of the tumultuous and significant events, but here are a few of them. 1861, the civil war began. 1863, they issued the

emancipation proclamation. and as richard said, the gettysburg address. 1865, the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery is proposed. and april 9, the court house in virginia, the confederate army surrenders. it bookends the lincoln administration. you mentioned her unannounced visits to military hospitals. >> that goes to the controversy. there is a significant body of evidence that calls into question some of her conduct. for example, she was surrounded by people that very clearly there to take advantage of her. she needed money. from forget the fact that the day she arrived there, she needed money. she needed money because she

$27,000 in debt to her makers. the president had to be reelected because if he was, she could keep those bills that day. if he was not, who knew what might happen? she was spending public funds on the white house proper. there were always people around her that were eager to serve their own interests by appearing to serve hers. there was a shady character by the name of henry, a chevalier of the new york herald. he befriended her and the president's annual message to congress in 1861 appeared in the new york herald the same day it went to congress. you get the picture. peopleas no shortage of like the chevalier that were

eager to line their own pockets or serve their own interests. i think the legitimate criticism of mrs. lincoln has nothing to do with her mental condition. you can only feel empathetic for that. but legitimately, there is criticism about how she conducted herself in ways that were always a danger, if exposed, of embarrassing the president. >> it was the gardener that took the letter and gave it to the press. washat was the story that -- >> and then the gardener leaves for scotland. he must have been paid to do this. >> the other side of the argument is that it was the story they created to cover up

what happened. >> candace in fredericksburg, virginia. >> i am enjoying the show very much. theve a question regarding broken first engagement and then they got back together a year- and-a-half later. why do you think they broke up? and did they get back together? did lincoln love her throughout their marriage? >> i will hold the question because as the program progresses, we will go back in time and answer your question, i promise. let's take another from chad. >> my question is about elizabeth keckley.

she served with mary lincoln, i'm not sure? a she made dress as for variety of people including jefferson davis's wife. was very popular. she had her own shop. she did not live in the white house. she had her own residence, a place that she rented. and she was very popular among congressional wives that recommended her to mrs. lincoln. she bought her freedom in st. louis through dress making. >> as the lincolns traveled back and forth, they had contraband camps. >> people escaping from slavery, in particular, with their families. or enslaved people that were

emancipated but had no place to go. there were several contraband associations across the nation. mrs. keckley was one of the founders of the washington of band association. >> we have many people on facebook and twitter asking us questions about her views on slavery. since she was friends with henry clay, did she also prescribe to the gradual emancipation and colonization of the slaves? or did you follow lincoln's change of heart and scrapping the colonization efforts? was she anti-slavery and support the 13th amendment. >> she was anti-slavery and certainly supported the thirteenth amendment.

>> they say she influenced the president into the immediate emancipation, but i think it was a war strategy. >> i think you are right. >> she was encouraging him to go ahead and do it. >> henry clay, in some wasy, what brought them together was to be shared love of politics. again, a lady of the era and in particular, henry clay was a neighbor and good friend, lincoln's political hero. in some ways, he is the political matchmaker behind this unlikely union. >> our next visit is to springfield, illinois. the place where abraham and mary would meet. let's talk about the collections to the lincoln library, the

first lady artifacts. howill learn more about that city preserves our memory. >> here we have some things that mary lincoln had in the white house. she continued to be interested in books. here are two volumes of what we think was a 27-volume set of the works of sir edward bulwer lytton. not a name recognized today, but this novel is remembered. "the last days of pompeii." signed these books 1864. she was a pretty good writer of letters. monogram m.l. on it. notice no "t" in there. she never called herself mary todd lincoln, she never called herself mary t. lincoln.

she was mrs. lincoln, mrs. abraham lincoln, or mrs. president lincoln. mary todd is a 20th-century invention. this is the letter that shows some of her difficulties in the sense that her reputation suffered. she is writing to the assistant secretary of the treasury. asking if he can find a job for her dress maker, elizabeth

keckley because she does no longer need the services and wants to get elizabeth onto the jobs list at the treasury. "i promise i will never ask you for another favor." of course, she did. over and over. personally, it was the death of willie. this was a piece of sheet music that we just acquired, only two copies report it anywhere. outuppose there are a few there. it is hard to imagine how many people would have wanted to buy this outside of the lincoln's immediate circle of friends. a substantial publisher in new york, william hall, printed it. he was the first child to die in the white house and not one of only two presidential children to die in the white house. >> from springfield, illinois. forg back to her need

money, abraham lincoln was a very successful lawyer in springfield. he worked the railroads and made quite a bit of money. what was his income? >> that is a great point. it is interesting. if you go back and look at the accounts, her money seems to be something that started with washington. there are friends and neighbors that talk about how thrifty she was. what a good housekeeper she was during his legal days. we talked about it a little bit already, she was a national figure representing people. people were condescending to her

and her husband. she had a place of status and an appearance to maintain. i think it was as simple as that. i think it got out of hand. $85,000 was in his estate at the time of his death. his widow would inherit 1/3. you would think that she was in debt $27,000. >> she got duplicates, hundreds sometimes, of parasols and things. >> that is true, that is the nature. moretime, it became pronounced that she would go and buy dozens of sets of gloves at

a given time. >> wearing gloves in washington with all of those people coming in, i am sure she was aware of the germs people had. i think that was a significant thing. mrs. keckley kept some gloves of the president that mrs. lincoln took off of his hands and gave to her. whenever there were meetings people coming by, they wore gloves. this was in the movie, this was real. the movie showed his servant saying that mrs. lincoln wants you to wear these gloves. she knew about the disease. >> but she did buy 300 sets of these --

>> one of the touching and counterpoints to this is that lincoln loved to see her in beautiful clothes. it was one of the few extravagances he was with.table >> indulgent on one hand and critical in the other? >> i would say he is more indulgent than critical. >> we can't do justice to the tumultuous years in the white house, but was there a question he was going to seek reelection? >> there was no question he would seek reelection but a profound question of if he would be. it was wholly dependent on the course of the war. atlanta had fallen, it became very clear it was only a question of time that the north would win. lincoln himself believed he would not be reelected. you can imagine the move

upstairs around mrs. lincoln. >> he had bouts of melancholy. a lot of them. she was one of the few people that could bring him out of bed. >> here ishat ma linco to say shortly after the reelection. "our heavenly father sees fit to visit us at such times for our worldliness. how small and insignificant world honors are when we are so surely tried." >> there is still part of the debate about lincoln. clearly, mary was a devout churchgoer. she had some doubts planted by the death of willie. ancoln himself never joined

church, but even as far back as springfield, he spent hours and hours with the minister going over the bible. he knew his king james bible front and back. in some ways, how he taught himself to write. >> 1865, they were pretty avid theatergoers and to make a decision to go to ford's theater where he is assassinated. tell us of his death and mary's role. >> she witnesses it. she cries out, the president has been shot. people assume that it is part of the show.

they take him across the street to a boarding house. he is sick. it was very strange that his cabinet members are all around him while the doctor is there and she is hysterical. i guess that she would be, you know? they get one of her female friends to take her out of the room and a keeper there. it takes him all night to pass away. >> 7:22 in the morning. >> right. the sad thing is they would not let her see him at the end because they did not want to hear her hysteria, from what i gathered. >> the secretary of state took charge of the house that night and said, take the woman out of the room. robert todd lincoln was at his father's bedside, but mary was not there. >> let's hear a call from st. petersburg, florida. you there?

>> yes. first, thank you for taking my call. i have enjoyed the entire series and i have followed it margaret truman's biography of the first ladies. devotes quite a bit of time to mary todd lincoln and remarks that she ranks at the very bottom of the list. i don't agree with that, and i wonder how your commentators would also rank her in terms of first ladies. >> oh, boy. put it this way. i certainly would disagree with those that would rank occur at or near the bottom. it is a less than compassionate thing.

i also think her years and her story is really unique in the annals of white house history. i think she is a unique figure. hundreds of years later, we are having this discussion and still debating her motives, it tells you that she is an important first lady. i will leave it at that. >> important because of the man to whom she was married? >> important because of the man, important because of the part she plays in the story that is still being debated after all of these years. we still feel as if we do not know who she was and we are not having this debate over angelica zander and. >> she is one of my favorites.

not my true favorite, but i divide them up into eighteenth, nineteenth, and 20-twenty first century. among the nineteenth century once, she and abigail adams would be my favorite. i rank her quite high. visione to look at her as a partner. there were several first ladies that consider themselves to be partners with their husband. not that they were trying to tell them what to do, but to advise and take care of them, whether mentally, physically, politically. i think she was a very significant influence. >> she is a tragic figure. part of the tragedy is that very partnership that helped

contribute to him becoming president was destroyed by the war and what they hoped to achieve. >> the vilification. >> dublin. >> this is a wonderful program. i watch every night. carl sandberg's lincoln television movie in 1974. today's is good, but people should watch this type of movie. you can also talk about his body almost stolen from his crypt at the time. there is so much information

about the lincolns, it would take a year to earth up. i would rank her with roosevelt and kennedy. >> 100 years later when john f. kennedy was assassinated, jacqueline would look to the plans for the lincoln funeral to guide her through the decisions of the kennedy funeral. >> the lincoln funeral, was nothing like it before or sinc20 ays, they reed the inauguration route from springfield the washington. with a couple of exceptions, they retraced that route. there were 10, in effect, state funerals along the way. 1/3 of every northern american either looked upon the president's face in his casket or saw the train go by.

very victorian.ordinary mrs. lincoln got along for any of it. keeping with tradition, she stayed at the white house grief-stricken. >> elizabeth keckley ascribes her missing the celebrations and wailing with grief repeatedly. >> i can understand it. considering all the things that she had to go through in her early part of the marriage, getting to the white house, the triumph of that. the death of their son, his assassination in front of her. i can understand that.

maybe this blow on the head might have exacerbated her emotional state. she was letting it all come out. it was very sad, but i can understand it. >> kentucky and illinois claimed the lincoln's as they're wrong. mary todd was born in lexington, ky. we will visit. >> we are at the mary todd lincoln house, where she lived from 13-21. this is not where she was born but her birthplace no longer stands. this is the most significant property still standing relating to her childhood. we are in her bedroom, she shared with various sisters and

cousins that live with them. they had a family members that came to live with them and lexington. that was primarily so that family members could attend school. lexington was known for educational and cultural institutions. she had nine years of formal schooling, attended the academy within walking distance of her birthplace. as she went on to attend an academy where she learned everything that was expected of women of her class like needlepoint and dancing. they also learned higher levels of traditionally male subjects like literature and arithmetic. her formal education made her one of the most educated women of her generation. the popular image is often very dark. her childhood, many of the stories associated represent a typical childhood. she had a pony she rode around town. she and her siblings would catch minnows in the creek.

she and her cousin attempted to create their own hoop skirts and wear them to sunday school. mary, parents, and her siblings would spend the evening together. in addition to the family members, there were enslaved african americans that this column. on average, they had five slaves that provided all of the household labor. it included three women and two men. we had a portrait of mary's stepmother's mother. she is said to be a formative influence on mrs. lincoln. she was well-educated, she spoke french fluently. she is also interesting with her views in regard to slavery. in her will, she chose to provide for the gradual freeing of her slaves after her death.

this represents her political position of gradual emancipation this is the dining room of the home. this is where they would have entertained other prominent families of the day, including politicians. one of the greatest politicians and a neighbor of the todds was henry clay. leader of the whig political party. her father was also a member of that political party. politicald some ideas, especially in regard to slavery.

they supported the american colonization society, the movement to re-settle blacks back to liberia. this is what she was exposed to as a child. this was the gentleman's parlor, a formal area of the house. according to one of her she would sit in on some of the political conversations that what happened here when her father was entertaining prominent men of the day. she might have taken an interesting politics to garner the image of her father that was very active in state and local politics. >> our next caller is from lexington. your question or comment. >> thank you for taking my call. i certainly appreciate the empathetic and unique, specific aspects of her time at the white house. of course, in the segment we just watched, they became confederates during the war. i am aware of her sister, who married a man who

eventually became a confederate general. can you talk a bit about mary's preception of her siblings in the white house? was she mourning? did she mourn for her confederates? >> that is an interesting question. >> she was the fourth of seven children. there were at least three or four of the siblings or step- siblings who fought actively -- >> and one of them was the husband of one of her favorite stepsisters, emily. >> exactly. and he was killed. and the lincolns had emily to stay at the white house for some extended period of time.

in fact, there is a scene where i believe there was a general at the dinner table, complaining about sharing the dinner table with a rebel, and "mrs. lincoln and i do not need any help from you in deciding who our guests will be." anyway, mary made it very clear that her siblings had taken up arms, not only against your country but against her husband, and she saw no reason. >> nancy is in indiana. you are on, nancy. >> thank you. a wonderful, unique woman, who is my hero. something that is not brought up often, about her mental condition, but i have never seen anything about what she took. i do not understand why more people do not bring this up,

especially as her mental condition got worse as she got older. >> thank you, nancy. do you know anything about that? >> no, i do not, but what she is saying would make sense, that she suffered from headaches, probably migraine. >> thunderstorms, too. she was terrified of thunderstorms. at the first sign of a thunderstorm, he would leave the office and go home.

>> our conversation about mary todd lincoln continues. >> i am watching every time it appears. i want to know, how did the lincoln's come to know each other? >> thank you very much? may we answer that by video? learne we are going to more about the lincolns' springfield home. >> this is their home in springfield, ill., the only calm that they won't, where she wheree they ever owned, she learned how to be a wife and mother until 1861. over the course of the 17 years, they added on and added on and created a two-story, very comfortable, upper-class home. after living in the house, they were able to add a full second floor as part of the expanding

of not only their family, and his career, he was traveling the circuit, so most of the day- to-day oversight would have been mary lincoln. she was very decisive. she knew exactly what she wanted, so it probably was not too much for her. fivewere able to add bedrooms. there was a guest bedroom, which would have been a luxury. they had their own space, not necessarily to highlight problems in their marriage, but they each had their own space. privacy is not something you get a lot of in the 1850's or the 1860's. he could work on legal papers or political views. get lincoln would have to up early to make breakfast. her two sons slept in trundle beds under her bed, and then

there was robert, the eldest son. he got his own room, but as soon as he went to college, his other brother moved in. and they had to hire girls almost every year they lived here, and that girl had her own space at the end of the hallway right outside of the kitchen. we are in mary's bedroom, and this would have been a sanctuary for her. she is in a household of boys and men, a lot of men coming to visit mr. lincoln, so she would have needed a spot that she could retreat to issue needed to end that would serve as a home office for her. this is morally and figuratively the center of a home. this is a royal oak stove. you can see the acorns on the oven door. it came from buffalo, new york. mary purchased this stowe from a local dealer in springfield.

we think it was somewhere between $20 to $25, and if you think about it, the average person making about $500 a year, this is an expensive purchase. she wanted to pack it up with the other things and take it to washington. reminded her she was not going to be doing a lot of cooking when she was at the white house, so they left it for the renters. they started out a little bit lower middle class, smaller houses, people moving into the neighborhood, and the neighborhood was starting to grow. mary wanted to not only keep up with the joneses, she wanted to be the joneses. >> the that is a glimpse of the lincolns' life together. how did they meet? they were 10 years apart in age.

>> it has been speculated that a relationship with the stepmother may of beactor, but in 1839, she went to springfield. why springfield? a sister was married to a man who was governor of territorial ill., said she was immediately thrown into the social set. town,field was a tiny maybe 2500 people. >> she was wealthy and well educated. >> this is something i think people tend to overlook. why lincoln was attracted to her in the first place. classic opposites. future senators expressed interest in mary. she spoke french fluently. she was by all accounts a winning conversationalist, highly educated. a beautiful woman of her day. a compelling figure, and

lincoln stood off to one side mouth hanging open. the contrast between his own education, his own lack of polish, and one of the things that married did that i do not think she gets a lot of credit for was to add some polish to her unpolished husband. she was his advocate. two races for the united states senate, and his political career. she imagine him in the white house long before, and a parlor on the first floor, just one way in which she conducted a campaign for him. >> he broke off their engagement for 1.5 years, and here is something he had to say breaking off the engagement. "i am now the most miserable man in the world."

can either of you tell us how they finally got back together? >> yes, there was a man named francis. his wife, in effect, stepped in and said, "look. this is ridiculous. you care for each other." they reignited a friendship. they announced that very day, mary let it be known to the family that they were married in that night. edwards and his wife insisted that they have to do it at house, etc., etc., and a

great tragic irony of all of this is that it was in that same house 40 years later that his life came to end. >> our next caller in west fargo, north dakota. >> thank you for having me. i am calling today because i wanted to know your feelings about what mary would have bought when it was time for the slaves to become free. and in minnesota, the largest mass hanging in our united states history, and being a native american from north dakota, i was just wondering. did mary know about this? and if she did, what were her feelings on this at the time? >> i have not seen anything about her response to the hangings. excitedhe was very

about the emancipation proclamation. i suspect from what i have gleaned from her caring about people who were disadvantaged and outside, so to speak, that she may not have liked the idea, but i do not know. >> i know lincoln tried to reduce that number. muchriginal was much, larger than that, and he reduced its significantly. he went along with the whole thing somewhat reluctantly. >> cindy in denver. >> hi. thank you for taking my call. i have a question. first, i wanted to thank you for this series. it is great. and i wanted to ask if either of your guests have heard of mary lincoln suffering from

mental illnesses that we would today equate with being bipolar or manic depressive. >> we have many people even on twitter try to put a name to mary lincoln's anguish, and how impossible is that to do, when you are looking back 150 years? >> that is what i thought. that is what i was thinking. they used to call it manic depressive before bipolar, but it seemed as though sometimes she was very excited and very outgoing. she wasn't depressed as much as hysterical with grief. >> how possible is it for us to know this. >> the symptoms give you hints. >> pointing out the obvious. neither one of us is professionally trained to

diagnose any condition, but it is no doubt that there is this continuing fascination and a desire on the part of people to put a name to her condition. >> from what i understood, none of the positions could figure it out. they could not come up with anything conclusive in diagnosis. >> as a girl, and there were names, and later, mercurial. >> georgia, good evening. >> hi. thank you for the program. husbandention that my and i and three other couples have read patricia brady's biography of washington. two months ago, we read "the first family," about john and abigail adams, so that has added more to my knowledge of those two, and another book that we read, which is fictionalize, a biography of mary, so i do not know how you feel about that, but nothing in it was new

to me or contradicted any thing of other sources, historical sources, except that there was mention of what appeared to be an affair with some government employee. it has been several years, and i am sorry that i do not remember the author, but i was very skeptical about it except for the fact that existing newspapers were quoted with dates and headlines, and i thought it this author has made this up, she really has been bold in doing so. it seems the employee may have been somebody in charge of housing or government buildings in d.c., and i wondered if you had any comments on that or knew anything about it. >> only that one of the criticisms that have been made,

and i alluded to it earlier, gossip. that is how i would it.acterize gossip, suggesting that mrs. lincoln in her desperation -- inappropriate individuals, and how far it went. i would be very skeptical, to be honest with you. thisd we should say that is the first time in history that newspapers were having columnists, opinion writers. the opinion of her was spread in the newspapers around the country. this is really a change in the way first ladies were treated by the press.

>> sure, sure. >> a scapegoat. >> and how incredibly intense the popular emotions were. the civil war. that carries over to coverage of the president and his family. >> another video at the springfield home, and this one helps us understand more about the political partnerships that were referred to between the two winds. [video clip] >> this is where she helped build his political career. mary and abraham would invite friends and family over to talk politics. this is where he became the president. mr. lincoln was a very ambitious person. he had a lot of goals in life. those were enhanced when he met

and married mary todd. she was ambitious, saying she wanted to marry a man with a good mind, someone who wanted to be president, and there was something about lincoln that she saw the potential and it and helped nurture it. in the dining room, helping to polish them up for society, the political parties that they have, where they invited a lot of important people. she wielded a lot of power, both of mr. lincoln and where he was going. this is the dining room. when they moved in, it was a kitchen, and that is not something that a college, high- society, upper-class woman would do. mary had grown up with a formal dining room, and she felt she needed to have one because she

did not want her children growing up without proper manners, and in a lot of cases, mr. lincoln needed that polishing, as well. so she created this dining room to have that form, where she and her family and also when they had guests over, so a lot of different people that came to visit mr. lincoln during the 1860's campaign and then after he was elected president. there were four months between the election and the inauguration, so many were coming to springfield, and one ended up being mr. lincoln's secretary of state. mary, being a host, she would have had to raise of cakes or a macaroon. from downtown springfield. we knew that they bought a lot of those macaroon pyramids. this is the double parlor, and these are the two nicest rooms of the house. there are marble top tables, the windows, gilded candlesticks. there is a what not shelf with

a bust of mr. lee again on it. not everybody in the neighborhood could say that they had a bust of their husband in the living room. so this is a fancy place. this is where she wanted to show off. partyould have held her is in here. she would have been discussing mr. lincoln's political aspirations. at the front door, meeting mr. linking here, probably in the archway between the two rooms, may be picking up some refreshments, and then in the sitting room before going out again. but this was the seat of power in the house. mary was showcasing what her husband had done, how far he

had come from that one-room log cabin in the middle of nowhere kentucky to this beautiful house, a very comfortable house, and kind of hinted at where they were headed, stating to the world that abraham lincoln had made it and that he was ready to move on. >> next, a caller from wisconsin, his name is tim. go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. i have read several biographies about mary lincoln, and i have never seen anything in there as to how influential, some of the policies that abraham inactive while he was president, and i am just wondering if either of your guests could elaborate further as to the extent of the political decisions that were made in the white house during his time in office. >> she was interested in personalities. it she used to refer to one as that abolitionist sneak.

we talked earlier. ironically, obtaining their goal. once they moved into the white house. as we would move that today, it diminished. i think the partnership was in some ways broken. i think it was a source of frustration. the relationship that they had had before the presidency was in some way greatly diminished. i do not think that she was significantly influential in terms of shaping public policy or the conduct of the war or even who he voted as cabinet. >> we have only eight minutes left and still a lot of stories to tell.

she lived years after the assassination. what were those years like a >> part of the time, she was in a mental institution because her son robert put her there, and i have been debating about him very much about the way she felt he had been disloyal to her and how he was able to control her money and become, i guess, the executor of it. she had to struggle, but she managed -- people who could help her, and i thought that was admirable, even with your problems, that she was able to do that. >> she did something. she was obsessed with money, and at one point, she moved to sell off a lot of her white house dresses. the public impression.

>> she was in debt. >> she was in debt. $27,000. she needed the cash, no doubt about it. she petitioned congress for a pension, which finally was granted, $3,000. >> a month? >> a year. subsequently raised to $5,000. >> but only after she found out that another first lady, and i cannot remember which one, was getting $5,000, and she said, "if you are giving her $5,000, you should give me $5,000." she went to live in europe because it was cheaper. in 1871 when tad died of tuberculosis. >> how old was he? >> he would have been 16. of the children, only one lifted to adulthood. one she thought was

dislyal. >> he diedcoming back from europe. >> from baltimore, your question. >> yes. a great program. what was mary lincoln's relationship? from the movie, tad and his father had a strong relationship. did he have a strong relationship with her? >> i think it carried over. he had a sensitivity. hisowing the death of father, he realized how vulnerable his mother was, and, in fact, he appointed himself to try to take care of her. >> i think his personality was also similar to hers, and i think they were simpatico in that. i think she recognized that and he recognized that, so i'd think that would be another

reason why they were close. >> in chicago, and then she went to europe. >> she went to europe. she came back. herthen robert had incarcerated for several months. there was a second trial, however, in which she managed to convince a jury that she was perfectly sane. she and robert never really reconciled. she went back to europe for four years, lived in france for years, and then in 1880 returned to springfield. she was almost blind. she had severe cataracts, and she went to her sister's house, the house where she had met mr.

lincoln. >> from benson, illinois, you are on. >> i think you answered my question. i wanted to know if robert and his mother ever got to be friends again. did he offer to take her to his home? >> what you might call a formal reconciliation. >> i do not think she trusted him. and related to this, from twitter, asking, are there any living relatives? >> there are no living relatives. >> so robert had no children? >> one dies. the last direct descendants died in the 1970's. >> a great question to wrap up the show from facebook. "when you are alone with your friends, what is your favorite story to tell about mary lincoln?"

do you want to go first? >> that she and was about had a great relationship. they were the same age. they both lost sons. her son was lost in the army in the civil war, and then mary supported the causes that elizabeth supported. >> and what does that tell you about mary lincoln? >> that she is a very sensitive person, that she could empathize. >> and how controversial would that be that she was a friend with an african-american? >> to some extent, even the people kept calling elizabeth her servant, but i do not think mary looked at her as a servant. i think mary looked at her to be a companion. >> in the case of what might have been, lincoln served only one term in congress. he would not be reelected, and so it was mary who managed to

campaign to get him the job as commissioner of the office at $2,000 per year. it was mary who wrote the letter. and there was the governorship of the oregon territories. it was mary who told him that organ was not friendly, likely to be democratic and that it was not in their long-term interest to be the governor of that territory. >> from denver, colorado. >> hi. i would just like to know a couple of things. what would she have wanted her legacy to be today, and also, would she have been more or against the women's movement in the 1960's, if there were a time machine? >> thank you very much. the women and the legacy. >> the legacy. that she loved her husband and her family. in that order.

>> do you want to add to that? >> she wanted people to get along. i really think she did, and that is something she tried to do early in the white house years, to be fair and encourage people regardless of the party they were in, but with regard to women, i think she might have been persuaded to be a feminist, but it is kind of hard to tell. >> well, we are out of time. providing a more nuanced picture of mary todd lincoln, the wife of the president, and i want to say a special thank you to the white house historical association. 35 installments altogether. thank you for your contributions tonight.

>> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> first ladies and the islands and image featuring a leisure and johnson, wife of andrew

johnson, first lady of the reconstruction, married at 16, considered a great orator. by the time she reached the white house, tuberculosis surrendered her week, but she remained one of her husband's important to divisors especially during his impeachment. live at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c- span, c-span3, c-span radio, and on c-span.org. >> the web site has more about the first lady's including a special section, welcome to the white house, produced by the white house historical association. it with the association, we're offering our special book, " first ladies of the united states of america," comments from noted historians and

thoughts from michelle obama on the role of first ladies in history. the discountedor price of $12.95 available at c- span.org/products. by america'sated cable companies in 1979 and brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> i went in. i walked in the kiosk. i said i was bob ney here to report. they said they knew one of my campaign managers in ohio. mail from california and massachusetts waiting on me. the go through the most embarrassing part of the stripped-down. , and thethe intake

warden told the man to get away saying i could find my own way. clothes.the newbie another prisoner said, who is your escort? i said, a little guy in a suit yelled at me. he took me in the back way to the laundry room. the man is sitting there and he said, are you the congressman? i said, used to be. he said, republicans aren't you? i said, republicans put me in here, you know. he said, i was the mayor of east cleveland. welcome. i'll get you some clothes. >> more with bob ney tonight on c-span's "q&a."

tuesday, homeland security secretary janet napolitano says she supports the bipartisan immigration bill. she says it's time to modernize the system and she is ready to work with congress. she testified to the senate judiciary committee for two hours, 20 minutes. >> good morning, everybody. i know we're on a tight schedule. testifyetary has to later today for appropriations. i want to commend you for

working so hard on the coordinated national security effort in boston. the middle of the night, early morning briefings on what has happened and the way your department, local and state police, the fbi work together is a model for the rest of the world and how quickly everybody was able to move. the patriot day bombing and the successful capture of the

remaining suspect is why you were not here that day. yourl understood what schedule look like and it was time for you to be in the command post. a number of concerns were not part of the effort for comprehensive immigration reform. we return to testify about the ability of this. you had been here in february testify about this effort.

you said you were willing to come back. it is a testament to reforming immigration that you were willing to return just two months after last appearance here. the some sleepless nights in what has happened in the last few days. so, it would be easy to talk about last week. this is the opportunity to ask you about economic opportunity, immigration modernization act, which is why you are here. this is a member of the cabinet that will be involved in implementing this legislation. and i repeat that you and president obama have done more in the first four years to enforce immigration laws and strengthen border security than in years leading up to this administration. you have more than 21,000

agents on the border patrol. new technologies have been deployed to the borders. according to the report by the migration policy institute, the united states now spends more than it does on all the other major federal law enforcement put together. so, i think it is time to start talking about reforming the immigration system. we're doing more enforcement than ever before. that should not be a bar to having good immigration reform. it is long past time that we reformed our immigration system. we need an immigration system

that lives up to american values. one that treats americans with humanity. one that shields the most vulnerable among us. one that helps to enrich our committees. i commend several senators for their extraordinary work here. i am concerned that some are -- what some are calling it triggers for getting green cards -- i do not want people to move out of the shadows to the stuck in some kind of underclass. we should not make people's future status depended over a situation in which they have no control. i believe we have to end the discrimination of gay and

lesbian families. i am concerned about changes of the visa system for families. i have to question whether to spend billions on defense is the best use of taxpayer dollars in a country that we are furloughing air traffic controllers because we cannot pay for them. people have been brought to this country by other loving parents. we're creating businesses of their own like google and intel and yahoo!, companies that then hire hundreds of thousands of americans. our nation continues to benefit

from immigrants. inues my parents inculcated their children. the function of our immigration system affects all of us. senator grassley. >> thank you for the work you were involved with in boston as well. we welcome you, madam secretary. herepreciate you being today to discuss the immigration bill. the bill before us is a starting point. the bill is not perfect. one encouraged to see that co-sponsor of the bill is taking suggestions on how to

improve the legislation. we hope to have the opportunity to do just that. there are 92 other senators that must have their chance to improve the bill. we have a duty to protect the borders. i'm concerned the bill will not secure the border and stop the flow of illegal migration. yesterday i brought up the language in the bill. legalization begins with the southern border security and fencing. the undocumented become legal. once the secretary certifies that the fencing plans are deployed and completed, green cards are allocated to those here illegally.

agricultural workers are put on a different path. if enacted today, the bill would put no pressure on this secretary to secure the borders. you have stated the border is stronger than ever before. you have indicated that congress should not hold up legalization by holding up border security measures. every senator on the subject has said borders must be secured. short of that, this bill makes the same mistake that we made in 1986. i'm interested in hearing about what problems the build fixes in our current immigration

system. whatlearing of backlogs, does the bill do to fix the system? i'm concerned the bill provides authority to you and your department and your successors on almost. is language to waive certain provisions of the law. that could add up to 400. the secretary may define terms as she seems fit. there is no accountability for the money to congress. she can determine what evidence

is successful. it reminds me of the 1693 delegations of authority that makes it almost impossible how to predict the law would work. we have a situation that congress should legislate more and delegate less. i have not advocated that we quit talking about immigration reform. we should carefully review the immigration laws to insure we are addressing critical security issues. the potential terrorist attacks of the u.s.-canadian north are reminders that our immigration system is related to our national security matters. we know the 9/11 hijackers

overstayed their student visas. people stayed below the radar. it has been reported the older boston bomber travel to russia. the bill weakens the entry exit system. it does not deploy a biometric system to land ports. we will continue to rely on airline personnel to properly type a name into a computer. if the background checks or anything like they were in the boston bomber, we are in serious trouble. if the background checks on the 12 million people who are here

illegally are riddled with problems, it raises serious questions about the ability to investigate such individuals. billard the immigration would weaken asylum law. courts are clogged with asylum cases. it is no secret that terrorists are trying to exploit the system. it allows any individual whose case was denied based on the one-year bar to get their case reopened. they can still apply despite the current provisions that bars any relief under the law.ration the bill provides exemptions

for certain criminals, making eligible under the bill. they may still apply for the provisional status. we heard about the system -- the situation -- we heard testimony about the immigration and customs enforcement agent about the inability of our agents to do their jobs. the group refused to hear from enforcement agencies. it seems unthinkable that law enforcement would be left out of the room when the bill was put together. nothing in the bill deals with student visas. a terrorism case has come to

light that may involve an individual that overstayed their student visa. i look forward to the testimony today. >> thank you. madam secretary, it is over to you. >> i appreciate the opportunity to discuss the need for common sense immigration reform. let me say a few words about the attack in boston. our thoughts and prayers remain with the city of boston. i know all of us here are committed to finding out why this happened, what more we can do to prevent attacks like this

in the future, and making sure that those responsible face justice. we will learn lessons from this attack. we will apply those and we will emerge even stronger. law enforcement joined together and shared resources. iny had been trained improvised explosive threats and many had exercise for this scenario. the response was swift and effective. i think the people of boston showed tremendous resilience over the past week, and so did america. after 10 years of training and equipment and improved information sharing, our cities

and nation are stronger, more prepared and better equipped to face a range of threats. ons legislation will build these gains. the draft bill captures the principles enunciated by president obama in las vegas and reflects the spirit necessary to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. the bipartisan work will strengthen security at our borders by funding the continued deployment of manpower and proven effective surveillance technologies along traffic areas of the southwest border. these efforts have already

reduced illegal immigration. they must be strengthened and sustained. the bill helps eliminate the jobs magnet that fuels illegal immigration. it holds employers accountable and requires the monetary use of employment verification. employment verification supports strong border security. it provides businesses with a clear free and emission means to determine whether their employees are eligible to work here. we promote fairness, prevent illegal hiring, and we protect workers from exploitation. the bill also provides a pathway to earn citizenship for the millions of individuals currently in our country illegally. many have been here for years and contributing to our economy. knowing who they are is critical to public safety.

it must be evidence from the outset there is a pathway to citizenship that will be fair and attainable. dreamers and immigrant farm workers will also be included. those who complete the requirements will be able to achieve lawful status more quickly. the bill will improve our legal immigration system. it raises the cap on visas. it continues to protect

vulnerable immigrants. it creates new temporary worker programs while protecting american workers. toinesses must be able maintain a stable legal workforce if our economy is to continue to grow. this will pressure on the border and reduce illegal flows. americansty of support these common sense steps. we are ready to implement them. we can and we will achieve the

core provisions of the bill. we stand ready to work with the congress to achieve this important goal. the introduction of this legislation is indeed a milestone. i look forward to continue to working with you and to answering your questions today. >> thank you. thank you for a busy time being here. an additional one-half billion dollars to build a fence along the southern border. we have built 650 miles of fence along the border. show me a 50 foot wall and i will show you a 51-foot ladder.

more fencing would not have ine anything about the case boston. we have limited resources. significant gains have been made in the last four years. is half a billion dollars the most effective way to spend limited resources? >> if the congress decides that is where they want to put some money, we will comply. we would prefer having money not so designated so that we can look at technologies, they can be ground-based, air based, that may be more fitting to prevent illegal flows across the southwest border.

we would not so designate a defense fund per se. we would like flexibility. >> i assume there is an annual maintenance cost. >> operation and maintenance costs. there are holes put in it. we're very good at building the infrastructure. we know what works better. it is not just building but maintaining. >> questions about people's life along the border. >> the last remaining mile of the fence has not been completed because it is tied up in property litigation. >> there was historic preservation for purposes of the defense construction.

this bill also provides waiver authority. what goes into your thinking if you wave that authority? >> it is a careful process. we now have mou's the department of interior concerning the federal lands that are along the border that buildus access to infrastructure and those sorts of things. area, there are lots of values to be considered. couple you were here a

of months ago, i explained my concern about proposals where citizenship is always over the next mountain. i want the pathway to be clear. i want citizenship to be attainable. this legislation has several triggers that have to be met before people can get their green cards. then they go in a state of limbo. trulye triggers attainable? >> one is the submission of the plans. one is the implementation of a national employer verification