what the egyptian people want supporting the egyptian people? and we believe as i said, the president said, secretary kerry said, pastor patterson, deputy secretary state burns, that should come as an inclusive, open, democratic process allowing all people to have a role in the future of their country. thank you. . . .

host: serving as first lady from 1869 to 1877, julia grant relished the role. she once commented that life inside the white house was a garden spot of orchids. growing up in a slaveholding family, she ended up as wife of the commanding u.s. general during the civil war. she and ulysses s. grant shared 37 years together that included the hardships of war, the challenges of politics, and eight years in the white house. welcome to our program, "first ladies: influence and image." tonight, julia grant. let me introduce you to our guests. bill seale is a member of our series. he is a longtime white house historian and the author of "the president's house." pam sanfilippo is a historian at the ulysses s. grant national historic site. she is also working on a biography of julia grant. i want to start with you. we last left the series with the johnsons after impeachment and the politics with the radical

republicans in reconstruction in the south. set the stage for us as the grants come into the white house. guest: well, grant's election started off with the campaign -- "let us have peace." people were really looking to grant to kind of bring some peace and quiet to the white house and to the nation after the war and the years of the johnson administration. so, those were grant's initial efforts as he took office. host: those were the themes -- we were looking at his first inaugural address -- these were the themes he struck when he spoke to the nation for the first time? guest: yes, and he had the added advantage of being a hero, famous even in the south, if he wasn't beloved, but everywhere else, one million young men tried to imitate this particular stance he had.

he was wildly popular and clean. there was nothing dirty attached to him. i think he was a natural. host: the country was ready for him. so, talk about the first lady herself. she had been the wife of the general. that brings a certain skill set along with it. what did she bring to the role in the white house? guest: she brought an incredibly strong supporting role to the president. their lives had been that way. she ultimately was very supportive of him. she would argue and all, but she was supportive to him. they wanted to represent in the white house the ideal american family. they were not there for a few days when this huge portrait was brought in on an oxcart and hung in the red room -- the white house had been open to the public since jefferson's time -- they put this in the red room, a huge picture of the grant family

so the public could see it on the tours and see that this was their home, this was where they lived. this whole symbolic home julia grant developed. host: since you are working on a biography, tell us about her personality and what kind of woman she was. guest: she was very outgoing. in some ways, they were opposites. yet they had similarities as well. they both had a fondness of riding horses and reading. she was a very likable person. you get that not only from contemporaries of hers, but from her own memoirs as well. host: would it be fair to say she was the better politician of the two? guest: she could be very politically astute in some of her dealings with cabinet members and their wives and the public, but she would most often defer to her husband first.

host: do you have any thoughts on her and her personality? guest: she seems to have been very protective of her husband. she was not hesitant to give her opinion on things. she seems to be a woman who cut her cloth, as they used to say, exactly where she wanted it. she knew what she wanted to do, what she wanted to accomplish, and the rest of the stuff could be arranged. host: she was unusual in the fact that she had been educated. she completed something like 15- 16 years of school. guest: yes, she had gone to a neighborhood school as a young child with her siblings, and then to a female academy in the city of st. louis, a boarding school that she attended until about age 18. host: the grant administration is a two-termer. it was full of so many stories, it was hard for us to find a few to put on the screen to give you a sense of what it was like. in 1870, president grant was successful in having the 15th

amendment to the constitution ratified, giving people the right to vote regardless of race. of course, still not women. in 1871, the force acts were passed -- that was anti-kkk legislation. that was something president grant was much involved in. that was to protect voters in the south against the rising work of the kkk. 1873 -- we will talk more about this later -- the panic of 1873, a big downturn that resulted from some of the policies of the administration. in 1876, the battle little big horn was fought. that is some of the important points during the administration. as he brings on his cabinet, the story of the grant administration is that they were no strangers to political patronage. what kind of advisers did he surround himself with, and how involved was julia in the process? guest: most of the people that

grant appointed, at least to his cabinet, he either knew of or knew personally. for example, elihu washburn secretary of state washburn. it was kind of a thank you for having supported, for washburn having supported him through the war. others were business people that he thought would do the best job. some of them turned out to be not so press-worthy, as deserving of it. host: tone is often set at the top. what kind of tone do the grants set for his cabinet and administration? guest: first of all, grant made decisions himself, which caused friction with congress,

especially those in congress who thought he should consult with them. guest: the whole theme of the era was great success. it was before the national panic of 1873. whether it was in business or military or what, he was attracted to those kind of people. they entertained them, they associated with them, and it was certainly a more loose supervision by the government than today over what politicians did. the idea was that grant would be the chief executive over a great company. the white house was called the executive mansion. the executive mansion, this is where the executive of the great nation lives, and the congress

was the board that ran the country. that is oversimplifying, but that was the idea. grant did not always stick with it. host: you know the insides of the white house like nobody else. we have some video of the white house treaty room. we will show that to people right now. that was the room that grant used for his cabinet. we are looking at the pictures right now. can you tell us about the table in the room? guest: they purchased the table. the grants purchased the table in 1871 in philadelphia. it has been in the white house ever since. it was brought back to use in the kennedy administration, but it was used through the beginning of theodore roosevelt administration. a very elaborate carved table, supposedly made for the same purpose. that room was a sitting room always. lincoln made it into a reception room where you took reports,

clerks took reports to register them. andrew johnson took it in as a cabinet room. grant refurbished it as a cabinet room. other things you see here, the sofa in the back, and different things, those were in the house at that time. it was a grubbier room than it was today, spittoons, political memorobilia. host: president grant used to smoke cigars each day? guest: yes, he picked up that habit in the civil war. he was sent cigars in appreciation. he had so many, he began smoking them on a very regular basis. host: we invite your participation in our program. that is what makes it work for us this week. you can do it in a number of ways. you can call us. here are the phone lines --

you can also send us a message on facebook. we already have interesting questions coming in. find c-span's facebook page. you can tweet us. use #firstladies. julia grant, by all accounts, loved life in the white house. here is one quote similar to the one we used at the outset -- guest: she considered herself hostess to the nation. she was going to do her best to ensure that she acted in that manner that the public would have received very well. she did compare her time there to her life, her early life at white haven.

i think that was more a reflection of the fact that it was the first time in many years that the family spent eight years together without separation. host: because of his war duties? guest: correct. guest: part of her job as she envisioned it was to make this a model house for the nation. other first ladies felt that as well. it was part of grant's program. they entertained very lavishly, and not in a fancy, but an elegant sense. she handled that very well herself. grant brought his own cronies in as much as he could. he brought a cook in from the army as chef at the white house. he would serve big roast beef slices, apple pie with cheese on it, and diplomats were horrified. julia let him go. she hired another chef, a well- known chef in new york.

he came there and turned it into a very cosmopolitan table. flowers, costumes, she was very stringent about rules. all the white house staff had worn business suits. they were half guard, half staff. they had to be well-dressed. there is a story she tells herself -- women would come to noon receptions, and if you did not wear a hat, you were part of the house party. if you did, you were an outside guest. women from time to time would go into the coat room to take their hats off and come out, and mrs. grant said they never repeated that a second time. host: how was this received by the nation? one other thing happening was there was a burgeoning press corps and lots of coverage of the couple in the white house. guest: people were so interested in him and all the details of what he did.

he would appear in public. he and his friends would get in races down pennsylvania avenue with their horses. as you know, grant was absolutely a horseman to his soul. his father dealt in horses. he was raised that way. grant knew horses. he had quite a stable. he brought his own coachman to the white house, albert hawkins. hawkins stayed there, until the automobile took over, as head of the stables. he was a black man and wore a special uniform and managed the stables with his staff. grant would spend time in the stables. the public liked it because it looked good, successful, peaceful, and of course, the accumulation of successful friends -- which was one of the sad things, he trusted people that he should not have trusted.

guest: while there was this opulence on one level, he was very down-to-earth and the fact that there were four children at home. julia grant closed off the backyard so the children could play. host: how people understand the economy of the united states at this point -- was the south still reeling after the events of the war? guest: it depends on where you were. louisiana sugarcane back on its feet, until the hurricane of 1883. you go into mississippi, it was pretty horrible. it was not all blamed on sherman. it was the collapse of the cotton market. the english went to india, egypt for cotton the last few years of the blockade, it broke them. 6000 union soldiers elected to settle in new orleans.

it was not all like "gone with the wind." it was coming back, but it was a different culture. it would not be agricultural. it would not have that until later in the 19th century. host: the north was in the midst of a great big industrial revolution. the days of the big financiers on wall street. tell us about what was happening there. guest: thanks in part to the machinery of war. guest: it was a continuation of the war and an expansion, and they were getting ready for the centennial of the nation and showing off the advances that had been made in the past 100 years. most of those were technological advances, the old farming equipment to the new modern technology, transcontinental railroad, transportation was bringing people closer together, making it much easier to get cross-country. host: here are a few of the big things that happened in the

grant presidency. as pam mentioned, the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 as the grants were coming into the white house. 1870, the establishment of the national weather service and the issuance of the first forecast. 1871, the great chicago fire happened. in 1872, the first national park was established in yellowstone. as we just heard, the philadelphia centennial exhibition. how big a deal was it for the nation to celebrate its anniversary? guest: absolutely huge. it was almost like a world fair. people from all over the world attended it. it was really a time for america to shine and to show that it was coming into its own as a world power. guest: mrs. grant loved it. she bought two things for the white house from there -- one was a shield that showed characters from milton's "paradise lost." then she bought a more endearing

piece -- she hated the old james monroe centerpiece with mirrors on it -- she bought a hiawatha centerpiece, which was about this big, and it shows a canoe in the middle and hiawatha lounging on a bearskin rug. that was the new centerpiece for the white house. she bought it there on exhibit. it is still in the silver closet at the white house. host: on twitter -- who were the first lady's staff at this point in the process? guest: there was no social secretary then. usually the ladies got together and filled out the blanks for invitations. it was president and mrs. grant and the honorable blank and blank. their friends would come over for tea party and they would fill out the blanks. she had mary mueller as the housekeeper.

is that the one who traveled to europe with her? guest: i think so. guest: they were very close. she called her "most excellent woman." i daresay she helped with some of that. most of the social duties, there might be a clerk from the office who would help, but there was no social secretary until theodore roosevelt. host: here is a question about their days preceding the white house -- guest: i would say yes. guest: yes, actually, because grant was still head of the army after the war and for a short while interim secretary of war. she talks about the reception that she held, they held in their home in dc and that it was a natural progression into the white house. guest: don't you think she was one of those women that attracted people too?

she was a personable woman and she cared about people. when somebody had a hard time, she went to them. she was a nice person. people were attracted to her. host: one of the interesting stories, it alludes to tensions between mary lincoln and julia grant. julia grant would come during the war years, certainly sometimes with the general, but it seemed as though there were some bit of competition that mary lincoln might have felt. let me read you this little paragraph from a book called "rating the first ladies" by john roberts. he writes, "on another occasion, julia was in a military camp when mary lincoln visited. she imperiously commanded julia to leave the room as is done in royal courts. mary ordered julia to back away from her, so julia would never turn her back on the first lady, as if the first lady were a queen and julia a mere commoner. if the humiliating treatment was intended to provoke an outburst, mary lincoln failed. julia later denied she had any ill feeling about her treatment at the hands of the first lady."

guest: i'm not familiar with that particular story. guest: i could've happened during the steamboat days when richmond was being defeated. there were problems there with ms. lincoln. she is very kind in her recollections of ms. lincoln, but when those recollections were dictated, it was years later. ms. lincoln's tragedy had happened, her insanity and all of that. there were problems with mrs. lincoln. mrs. lincoln was very jealous of women and lincoln. i can't think -- there is absolutely no reason for that -- but she was. [laughter] she would be very ugly to people. general love made a remark once there was a feisty horse, and he said, you need a feisty horse like that to keep up with her husband, words to that effect. mrs. lincoln said, what do you mean by that, sir? host: we are going to see videos of a few of the grants preserved sites. how many are there altogether?

guest: there are several homes that are owned and operated by the national park service or the various states they are located in. then grant's tomb, and each of the battlefields at connecting sites, and then there are some that are no longer there. host: the first one is in galena, illinois. this sounds fairly shocking, but because of his great achievement in the war, when he came home, people built for him a fully furnished house, more than one of them. how was that viewed in the day? was that considered ethically appropriate to do? guest: apparently so. it was welcoming a hero. guest: look at the british at wellington. it was done. houses were given to people in various places. it is unusual to see in american

history, but it was certainly done with him. he had to sell most of them. they were fully furnished. host: we will visit the galena, illinois house. this was where the grants lived in the years after the war and before coming to the white house. let's take a look. it sets the stage for their presidency. [video clip] >> this home was a gift that 13 businessmen from galena purchased to give to the grant family, in appreciation for his service during the war. julia mentions in her memoirs coming up the hill and being presented this lovely villa that she said was furnished with "everything good taste could offer." this is the parlor which was the entertainment part of the home. of course, we know julia was an avid entertainer. she loved it. the family spent quite a bit of time here in the parlor. we know mrs. grant and their daughter nellie played the piano. you can imagine the family sitting here, the general inhis favorite chair, the other boys listening to their sister and mother play songs for them.

they entertained in here. julia and maybe nellie played a song for their guests. grant launched his presidential campaign from galena, and his headquarters were located at the desoto hotel in downtown galena. the day after his election, grant and julia opened up their home and the parlor for people, townsfolk, to file through and congratulate both of them on his election and the next step of their lives. this is the general and mrs. grant's bedroom. the bed is the oldest piece we have in the house, probably the most personal. this is the original bed they brought to galena from white haven, putting down roots in galena. they left it here even throughout all their travels this was always here for them when they came back. this has mrs. u.s. grant on it. she probably kept papers, pens, her correspondence in here for when she was either writing letters or receiving them.

religion was important for mrs. grant. her grandfather was a methodist minister. growing up, it was very important for them. the pew they used at the church is still marked. we have a bible given to mrs. grant by the methodist episcopal church in 1888. this is the dressing room, the most personal space in the house relating to julia grant. this was the room she would come in to get ready in the morning, get ready in the evening, ready for bed, and to come in, maybe to get a little solitude from everybody in the house. we have a lot of personal things that belonged to mrs. grant. we have her sewing kit that she probably would have used to mend socks for the kids or the general, sew a button on. we have pairs of her size-4 shoes that she wore and some purses she would've used as they were going out on the town,

visiting on a sunday afternoon. a majority of the furnishings we still have in the house belonged to the grant family when they were here. if they walked through the door, they would recognize this house and probably feel at home. this was where he came back after he was a military hero. he started his political career here. this is where he was living when he was elected, when she became first lady, and this was home to them right before then. host: a question on twitter -- guest: they visited there for a while as they did at white haven, but settled in new york in part to be closer to three of the children. their boys were living in new york city, and their daughter was in europe. part of it, we think, was the social life in new york was a little bit more enjoyable for

julia than galena or st. louis. host: the grants had five children, four who lived to maturity. guest: four. host: one child died -- guest: no. host: that is just bad information? oh my goodness. guest: they only had four children. host: you do find things from book to book that are contradictory. [laughter] guest: then, nellie renounced her citizenship and was english. we haven't talked about nellie's wedding. host: and we shall talk about nellie's wedding. we just saw the family life that they created in galena, illinois. talk about the life they created in the white house. guest: one thing i would like to tell about the family life, that makes me want to have been a fly on the wall, general grant -- as you face the white house from pennsylvania avenue, on your right, there were greenhouses built on the top of the wing, the west wing, not the offices, but just a straight wing -- general grant built between that and a house a billiard, which had stained-glass in it and a billiard table, and he would

invite his civil war cronies to play billiards and smoke cigars and maybe drink a little, and they would end up going into the red room and reliving the battles, taking an object off the table and putting it on the floor, this is memphis, vicksburg. imagine being able to see that. that is the informality they lived in with their friends. the hayeses were very moralistic. they tore the billiard room down immediately. host: we also had some video from the white house family dining room. it was told that the grants would gather there for breakfast everyday. what is that room like today? guest: it is very dressy today. it doesn't look anything like it did. it reflects more theodore roosevelt, what theodore roosevelt did during 1902.

there was always a clock on the table. you served through a pantry through those doors on the side. dishes were washed there. the family gathered there at this great big table. not every family did. through the door was then a hall and staircase and a big dining room where state occasions were held. in 1902, this room was turned around and incorporated into a dining room. it is the state dining room of today. host: the grant family had four children. were all of them living at the white house? guest: the oldest son received an appointment to west point under the johnson administration. he was coming and going. the younger children were still there. julia talks about the dining room table, how ulysses sometimes with the kids would play around, play games, and

take pieces of bread and roll it into a ball of dough and throw it at the kids, the boys. guest: she disapproved. guest: she also recalled upstairs in the private family area, the children and ulysses coming into her room about a half an hour before dinner, and they would all just sit and talk and visit and share their day's comings and goings. she would recall that fondly. guest: they were very lenient parents. i think fred was the most disciplined. then buck, the second one, ulysses, a little less, and jesse, he actually talked back. he could checkmate a lot of the things his father said. they thought it was funny. i don't think it hurt any of them in later life. host: here is our first caller. caller: hi, how are you?

i would like to know more about julia dent grant. i understand that her family is the dent family. can you talk more about her family, the dent family? host: very briefly, because we will spend more time on that later. give us a quick synopsis. guest: julia's parents came to st. louis in 1816. they established their family in the city of st. louis and then a country home out at white haven where she grew up spending most of her summers and year-round. she had four older brothers and two younger sisters. it was a fairly large family. the consider themselves southerners, her father did. they were a slaveholding family. there were as many as 30 slaves that colonel dent utilized the labor of. host: that created tension between the two families?

guest: when ulysses and julia were married in the city of st. louis, none of the grants attended the wedding reportedly because they did not approve of ulysses marrying into a slaveholding family. host: did dent live in the white house at some time? how was that received? guest: colonel dent was a jolly old man. he was very heavy, white-headed, and funny. he was very witty. that is probably where she got it. grant's father jesse would come in, who was a horse trader and entrepreneur, and he would go around the departments to try to make them buy horses and hides or whatever from him. the two of them would -- their rapport was unbelievable. the colonel called jesse grant "that old gentleman over there." they teased each other a lot.

it was good-natured. it would've been stopped if it had not been. host: very different views about the world. guest: the old colonel was very lovable. jesse grant was never around enough. he was always wheeling and dealing. host: on facebook -- guest: i think that is quite fair, a good remark. she brought a real order and organization. she had to manage the money, the people, the servants, and all the payrolls, and she very much interacted with them. there was one named henry harris who had a lot of children. she suggested that he start

buying washington real estate. he died a wealthy man. she forced him to put part of his salary into that. jerry smith was another favorite of hers, of the members of the staff. she ran the whole thing with the help of the doormen. i think that is a likely remark, the way the military was organized. host: she found the white house in a state of disrepair. bill, who studies the white house, has a bit of a different view, but you and i read about the fact that there were infrastructure problems, and she tackled this and did great refurbishments of this. what do you know if it? guest: i think a lot of it was the perception she wanted to present to the public. this was the nation's home, as well as their home. they were only temporary residents. she was concerned in some ways,

the fact that she was from the west, as she called it, which missouri was at the time -- that she did not have the social acumen that many of the eastern families would've expected. she wanted to ensure that what she did would meet with the approval of the nation and those social elites. she immediately talks about not even moving into the white house right away, because she is going through and cleaning things up and getting things organized. host: the money for that came from congress, congress appropriated the money? guest: through andrew johnson initially. his daughter, mrs. patterson, she had completely redone the white house inside and repainted and decorated. julia grant says in her memoir that she went in and changed the furniture around. it was very stylish in the 1860s not to have sets. people were reacting to mass production.

mrs. patterson had everything mixed up and all the rooms so it would look artistic. mrs. grant went in and pulled everything together in sets again. she put tidy bows on the back of the furniture. she did that, and of course, they later redecorated the east room and did some work in 1874 on the house. host: the style was what? guest: they call it neo-greco. sometimes they call it steamboat gothic. host: i cannot get that in my mind. [laughter] were the children educated at home or in school? guest: they did attend school even during the war. the boys were sent to various schools. once the grants moved east, once his responsibilities called him east, the boys went to school in burlington, new jersey. jesse and nellie would have been schooled in washington, d.c.

host: we didn't really establish this, but it was implied or inferred -- michael asks on twitter -- was this something she supported? guest: she did, but she was initially hesitant. she said she always wanted to marry a dashing lieutenant and always thought of herself as the wife of the general. initially, this change into the presidency was a little -- she wasn't sure about it. she wasn't sure if ulysses really wanted it either. she asked him, and he said, no. he really wasn't interested in it, but felt he was the one that the nation could best use at the time. guest: she was happy as an army wife. she loved the army and army people. he was still a famous general. she relished that. however, eight years later, she was not so happy about leaving the presidency. host: we should say that in

those years in between -- this is the story of their life, so many ups and downs economically, great success and then ruin -- after he left the army, he struggled. he struggled to find something he could do well. guest: he resigned from the military in 1854. he was stationed on the west coast. julia was living at white haven in st. louis. she had made the journey with him two years earlier because she was pregnant with her second child. grant resigns from the military in 1864 to come back to st. louis. rather ironically, he supposedly told somebody, "if anybody hears from me in 10 years, they will know of me as an old missouri farmer." of course, 1864, he was general of all the armies during the war. host: what a turn. guest: he came back to st. louis to farm, just getting started, and those years, it was rather difficult. throughout the country there was

economic panic. bad weather. he held a couple of different jobs in the city of st. louis and then moved to galena. host: we will show more of that later. i do not want to leave the section of the life and the white house. a lot of people are asking about the daughter, nellie, being married in the white house. guest: it was a sweeping, romantic, dramatic event that happened in the white house. nellie was 17. she met alernon sartoris, an englishman, on a ship and they were engaged to be married. the parents disapproved because she was going to england. she was so young. mrs. grant said, "oh, so young." the wedding took place may the 21st, 1874. they redecorated the east room for it, leaving the basic woodwork and adding a lot more,

mirrors, all sorts of things, and the nation went wild. there weren't a lot of invitations, 200, i think. the streets were mobbed. you could not get near the place. walt whitman -- i brought this walt whitman was there, and wrote, "o bonnie bride! yield thy red cheeks today unto a nation's loving kiss." it was carried in all the papers. it was the most wonderful thing. she married beneath two huge wedding bells. stewart would have a table with his name on it. there was a wedding breakfast, and then they left on their honeymoon. they lived in england where she renounced her citizenship, which she later very much regretted. she partitioned congress to get back and did get it back. guest: i think she had to renounce her citizenship by

marrying somebody from england and moving over there. guest: not very happily. guest: reportedly after the wedding was over, grant went upstairs, fell on the bed, and wept, he was so upset his daughter was leaving. guest: the guy was a womanizer and drank a lot and spent a lot of money. it was not happy. they had four children? guest: one died in infancy. guest: he died in 1890- something. host: we've shown so many photographs of julia grant, and they are often from the side. one of our viewers is asking on twitterbook -- excuse me, facebook -- [laughter] i read that mrs. grant was injured as a child and never saw straight again. was this true and how did she stay so active and involved in the war? guest: i have read one instance

where it was supposedly caused by an injury. but my understanding is that she was born with what today we would call a lazy eye. one eye turned in. she was very self-conscious about that. she felt she needed to do something about it. on two separate occasions, she attempted to have the surgeon work on her eye to fix it. grant found out about it and told her that he had fallen in love with her the way she was, and he might not like her half as much if she had her eyes surgically corrected. host: marty is watching this in lancaster, ohio. you are on. caller: i have a question. it has been rumored that president grant liked to drink a lot. how did julia handle the situations where he was getting drunk? guest: well, there is not a whole lot of proof that grant was a drunk. he drank. a lot of people drank.

there are stories about him being drunk, secondhand stories and things like that, but when you lay it all on the table, it doesn't go very far. he wasn't a binge drinker type of person that anybody has been able to prove. he went through a lot of trouble in the years before the civil war. he had hard times in business and half the people in the united states had a hard time in business. it was a national depression of the worst kind. it was only ended by production in the civil war. he was trying to do business in those terrible years. there really isn't much documentation for him being drunk all the time. guest: rumors are greatly exaggerated. some of the things i've looked at have indicated that perhaps on the west coast after being separated from his family for two years, he was definitely depressed and missing them.

there is no evidence that he was forced to resign from the military at that time. later, at times during the civil war when some of these rumors came up again, it seems to have often been when other generals were jealous of grant's success. this was one way to possibly bring him down a step or two. it was not successful. of course, lincoln is rumored to have said -- although it is not a proven story -- that when congressmen came to him saying, remove grant, he is a drunk, he cannot be running the army, he reportedly asked of them, find out what type of alcohol grant was drinking, and he would order barrels for all of his generals. host: because of his success. [laughter] we have so much to cover in so

little time. often when you see historians' analysis of the grant administration, it ranks very close to the bottom for the many scandals that encompassed the administration. what were the most important ones, and what were the effects on the presidency? guest: historians have been reassessing grant's presidency. i think c-span's own 10-year survey has moved him from 33, 13 years ago, to 23. he is improving in perspective. a lot of that has to do with his actions regarding civil rights for the newly freed african- americans in the country. host: he did do that, but it doesn't take away from the domestic scandals and the corruption and those sort of things. we need to talk about it. guest: they were peripheral to him.

i would say all of them had been going on before his time, some as far back as lincoln. host: some suggest that julia grant was in the middle of this. do you contest that? guest: yes. she talks about the black friday incident where fisk and gould try to capture the gold market, corner the gold market. julia talks in her memoirs, that the only she knew about was when grant had her write a letter to her sister-in-law who was actually grant's sister virginia who was married to abel corbin, who was reportedly involved in this, trying to persuade grant, and grant has her write to virginia saying, be careful. then he turns around and sells off government gold to bring that to a stop.

host: martha is watching us in charleston, south carolina. caller: hi, susan. thanks again for another terrific show. you alluded to my question earlier in the show about the possible tension between julia grant and mary lincoln. then you visited the beautiful galena home that was given to the grants. i'm not sure, was it during the same time period that mary lincoln was try to get a pension out of the government, and here grant has a home given to him -- mary lincoln was in germany trying to educate her son tad, and i believe the grants later visited mary lincoln in france. guest: no, they crossed paths, but julia said she did not find out about mary lincoln being in the same town they were in until they were on their way out and

could not change their plans. host: do you agree with the irony that mary lincoln was struggling and looking for a pension after her husband was chief executive during the war and the grants were just given these homes? guest: it seems extremely unfair to mrs. lincoln. guest: she was seeking pension from the government, and the houses were given by private people. there is a difference. if the congress did not approve of pensions -- and congress -- they are remembered as thugs in a popular way -- they were vigilant. it was not all that bad a congress. they were vigilant. they exposed these three major scandals, the one closest to the white house being orville babcock, and he's almost part of the family. he got involved -- host: through congressional oversight -- guest: yes, he was tried. general grant testified.

guest: he submitted testimony. he didn't actually come to st. louis. guest: the first time a president had ever done that in a criminal trial. host: next to sherry in independence, missouri. caller: you answered my question about her eyesight. i have another question, being so well educated for the time, did julia speak other languages? i also understand that after the grants left the white house, that they were really party animals. i'll hang up. thank you. guest: she may have learned some french while she was in school, but not on a real conversational basis that i know of. during the world tour, which may be what the caller is referring to, they took a two and a half year world tour and were welcomed by the public and by royalty throughout the world. most of the time, they had to

have an interpreter while they were there. host: we learned that at least mary lincoln thought washington looked down upon her as a westerner. the question from dave on twitter -- guest: i never found that at all. she was more sure of herself and not insecure like mary lincoln. she went after it. she was one of those people that jumped in the middle. she considered herself the head of woman society in the capital. she was accepted. she was friends with all those kind of people in washington, all the embassies and everywhere. she was a go-getter. mary lincoln sat back and waited for people to come to her. host: we are going to visit another one of the sites associated with the grants. we will learn more about the influence of her early childhood at white haven farm outside of st. louis. [video clip] >> this is the front porch of the historic home known as white haven where julia dent grant

spent many of her childhood years. she was born in the city of st. louis. she spent all of her summers initially and year-long out here as she grew up, watching boys play out in the yard or her sister playing the guitar and singing on the front porch. it is where she has her earliest memories of father lifting her up in the air, telling her that the trees were waiting and welcoming her back to her childhood home. that was when she was about two years old. a very early memory. they would have ventured through the front door into the foyer. from here, they would've gone up frequently into the former parlor where they would've been welcomed by colonel and mrs. dent, julia at her mother's knee, learning how to be a lady and welcome guests and company to the home.

some of julia's fondest memories from the dining room here at white haven include the meals that were served here. meals were always served by the dents' enslaved housekeepers. they talked about white china with gold trim. she talks about the slave cook making maryland biscuits and the games that would be played over the dinner table with the children, as well, talking and laughing about the days activities. from here, after dinner, the guests would've -- family and friends would've come into the sitting room, which is really where the family would've spent more of their personal time in the evening, playing games on the game table, checkers or chess, things like that. julia would've played with some dolls. lots of reading taking place. on the second floor of white haven were two rooms that served

as bedrooms for the family. her parents typically would've had one bedroom. julia and her sisters would've shared most likely this bedroom. in the 19th century, frequently, when you had a nice upstairs porch area, the boys would've slept out there in the summertime. we know much about white haven from her, those memoirs. she is the first first lady to ever write her memoirs. she spent a lot of time talking about her life here at white haven. host: there we saw our guest pam sanfilippo in her day job. [laughter] guest: the grants had the house painted after he had purchased the property from julia's family in 1874. during the civil war they purchased it. host: reed williams asks --

guest: he was about 5'8". she was around 5'2". they met at white haven. he had been a roommate of julia's brother fred dent at west point, and after graduation from west point, he was stationed at jefferson barracks, which is five miles south of the city of st. louis. fred invited ulysses to visit his family out at white haven. grant did that in september of 1843. in february of 1844, julia returned home from the boarding school she was attending in the city, and julia says that initially his visits had been about once a week to white haven, but once she returned home, his visits were daily. he proposed to her within three months. host: we learn from you they were slaveholding family. a number of questions about their families and personal

attitudes towards slavery. here is one -- guest: initially she did. she had been born and raised at white haven with the enslaved individuals providing everything that she needed. in fact, at one point, she says, she thought the house kept itself with all the work that was being done by those individuals. there were as many as 30 slaves, according to the census record. once she met, fell in love with, and married ulysses, it kind of put her in the middle between these two opposing viewpoints. she talks about growing up, some of those enslaved individuals were her playmates, playing in the yard with her, carrying her

to school, things like that. these are the same individuals who would provide the work on the farm. the older individuals she considered part of the family, aunt, uncle, a typical southern way of addressing these individuals. she would consider them part of the family. >> wereviously did not. they at slaveholding family in the white house? one slave that he mr. jonesnd he freed before the civil war started. julia, although she talked about having forced slaves having to her, she did not own any and her father never made a little transfer.

i inc. that -- think that counting william jones -- >> they all left. >> before the illegal he freed .y missouri >> is an untrue that she brought a slave to visit grant? >> that is a true story. as a nurse for her children and they would travel as well. >> was the irony not lost on her? >> it does not seem to have been. help and she even talks about how black julia as she was called was a was captured at holly springs and did free herself on one of the trips.

>> maybe this will be your thoughts. thoughts on any equality of freed slaves which got to the white house? >> i only know when asked if colored people as they said in the request were to be admitted, she said yes. she said she never remembered any attendant but i think it was stopped at the gate. i am not sure. in her treatment of the staff at the white house, it was a personal one on one angle with her -- thing with her. i would imagine that is how she saw african-americans as a personal relationship as apart from his bigger issue. >> jim is in arizona. you are on the air. of -- did grant received after he was out of the presidency and out of the war?

>> retirement free -- the from the government? president orr the his military service it was not until shortly before his death that congress rewarded him a pension right before he died. >> will talk about how he found a way to make money later on. our 90 minute portion of julia grant. >> do have a minute for a story? mr. williamson was talking about grant and he was small. you think of him with a big scruffy beard and a cigar. when he was a young lieutenant, he was very small for a military man and they were down in mexico and in mexico warm the soldiers were being entertained. they did production. great was elected to play

desdemona which he did to great success and later with a famous actress came to entertain the troops and took apart some of the audience booed and put grant back on the stage to play desdemona. >> following up on the question about her views about women, gary robson is asking suzanne b anthony >> don't know if she had influence on that decision. she did become friends with susan b. anthony and although she wasn't working for sufferage for women, she did efuse to sign an anti-sufferage petition that was going around. she had certainly noted during the war years when she was kind of forced to take on roles that typically the subbed would have assumed, she had learned how to become independent and felt

that women should have some role in decision making. >> we're going to visit another of the grant sites and ask you to set the stage for this one. what is it and where is it? >> when grant resigned from the army and came back to st. louis, they lived for a short time at the main house, white haven but living under his father-in-law's roof was not what he wanted for his father-in-law's family so he julia and cabin for their children as family grew. and so we are going to see that log cabin. >> we recall that julia dent was from a very wealthy family. we will see what kind of house that ulysses s. grant built for them is their first mary home together. let's take a look. >> we are standing inside hard scrabble, a two story log cabin that grant for his family in 1856. >> julia did not like it one bit. she found it crude and

homely. but true to her nature, she will make the best of it. farming, having his own home on his land, having their own place to begin their life again, to renew their marriage, is what inspires grant. julia is comfortable with that. she wants her own home, too. s a young woman she would want to be mistress of her own home. she thought that he could have built something as nice as

white haven. the cabin itself may be rustic -- whitewash would have been typical not only to help with bugs but white reflects light so the rooms would have been open and a little more cheery but so rustic. ulia would have brought with her things, because as a privileged child she would have had fine china and fine furniture that would have been comfortable chairs and a broad table, because you have at this point, she had five people eating in this dining room. these are not set up for cooking. the kitchen at the back with servants. enslaved people coming and serving julia and ulysses and their children. it is important for them. even though they do not live in that very long, this represents heir very first home together. julia will gain a great deal of confidence as a wife and other. it starts here at hard crabble.

>> a question from sheldon ooper, "as an army wife, did julia find any location more her home than any other? >> she considered white haven her home. in her memoirs, she again compared the white house to whitehaven because of the home that represented. they traveled so much and had so many different headquarters or homes are around the country that it would have been next to impossible, but she created home wherever she was for her family. >> it is the purview of army spouses over the years. we have one more video of white haven, the beautiful green tructure we showed you earlier, but you have to go to our web site.

each week we are putting a feature on c-span.org/firstladies. we have a video that will show you the grants' life together. boy, does it look green. next is john watching us in washington state. you are on the air. caller: my name is john grant, no relation, but my great granduncle was on general grant's staff. i have a copy of his diary and in it it mentions a number of imes when he was in washington that he would have lunch with general grant's wife. and i was wondering if anybody could elaborate on that. mostly hear about general grant and his war escapades, but afterwards, and has anybody ever heard of that? cyrus married elizabeth blair, which was her grandfather was the secretary or postmaster general under lincoln. >> they were very close to the grants, the blairs. guest: julia entertained so

much that quite possible and i recognize the name comstock from the civil war years. and julia's memoirs in the white house. and frequently, congressman or people who were looking to get into see grant would try and do that through julia or to gain favor from grant, they would free the we go through julia because she was accessible to them. host: our next is a call from judy in brooklyn. caller: since general grant smoked so many cigars, i was wondering if julia or the children had any respiratory problems. and my other question was, since england had leaned so

heavily towards the confederacy, what were the relations during the grant administration with england? guest: good questions. neither julia nor the children ended up with respiratory problems. of course, grant ended up with throat cancer from smoking cigars. so it did eventually kill him. s far as england was concerned, one of the first issues that grant had to deal with as president was the

claims against england for their support of the confederacy. he sets up the first ever international arbitration. and is credited with peacefully to solving the dispute with england. host: this is larry in pennsylvania. caller: hello. i have been watching your series and enjoyed them. i have recently read "the general's wife" by isabel ross. and one of the comments she makes in her book is that julia's father did not care for ulysses. i was wondering if you could comment on that. guest: he did say that he told grant that she would not like the military life. he was very dubious. she had been raised with everything. and would definitely have to do without. guest: and they also had a disagreement over slavery. guest: i think he thought that grant was not going to amount to much financially and would not be able to give her what she took for granted. yes, ms. ross was absolutely right about that. guest: julia was the first daughter born after four sons. and according to julia, colonel dent offered, he told ulysses hat the life of the army was

not what julia was fit for. he offered her sister nelle to grant, which grant obviously turned down. and continue to try to convince colonel dent that he would be the one to make julia happy. host: some of his concerns may have been valid because ulysses s. grant was a great general, but most of the venture's he got involved with, he had a difficult time. guest: in 1844, nobody knew that grant would become a success -- he was in the army. he actually did not intend to tay in the army. e wanted to get out and be a ath professor.

host: but let's look look at his post white house years. even after he has all of his experience, he then goes on to a career and wall street and loses lots of money. guest: his son. guest: fred. guest: who is the joint -- guest: i thought it was fred. didn't fred lose the first? guest: it affected all the family fortunes. ward had everybody fooled. he was making everybody mining hand over fist. and that should have rungs some bells, like today it doesn't. guest: he made off. guest: grant lost just about everything. host: how was it that grant lost all his money or states? was it due to his drinking? was he a gambler? financially irresponsible? uest: he was not a man who concentrated on finance.

i do not think that was the first thing in his life. he would have liked to have had a lot of money, but i think a lot of other things interested him. host: was he a bad judge of character? guest: he talks about when this financial failure happens with ward where word comes to ulysses jr and to grant himself and says that they are in financial straits and the bank. can you borrow some money? and we need to get through the next few days. and grant except that, borrowers $150,000 from william vanderbilt. and ward ensconced with the money to canada. and the fortune is lost -- ward absconds with the with the money -- with the money. host: we have not talked about them leaving the white house. there were no restrictions on

running for a third term. did the grants which to seek a third term? guest: he didn't. she did. when he declined, he did not tell her. he gave the letter to them without telling her, and she began to be suspicious. they are in the upstairs and the hall of the white house and she says, you cannot do this. you can't do this to me. host: wanted to continue being first lady? guest: and he said, it is done. she seems to have held up fine until inaugural day when they got into the the train car. and then she said she went to the bedroom and fell on the bed and sobbed and cried. she hated to leave the place. guest: she said she felt like a

waif with no home, because she was not sure what was going to happen. uest: surely, she had felt that before. host: she was loathe to leave. did they plot a comeback? guest: when they returned from the world tour, there are those who felt like he should run for office again. especially with all of this foreign relations experience. and he was interested at that point, feeling again that he could be of service to the country. julia says they were in chicago when the convention met, and she tried to encourage him to go downstairs and meet at the convention, knowing that would put him over the top with the votes needed, but he refused to do that and lost the nomination.

host: some of the properties we are looking at are near the anheuser busch family property. michael reagan wants to know, were the grants tied to anyone in the anheuser-busch family? host: no. the busch family purchased 280 acres of the whitehaven estate in 1903. the only connection is that in he early years of the war, adolphus busche served for a short time in the civil war. host: mark in cincinnati. caller: i had heard the story and you alluded to about the enmity that mrs. lincoln and mrs. grant had between each other. they were cordially the first couple that was offered an invitation to ford's theatre the night of the assassination and that mrs. grant politely told mr. grant not to accept and that was the only reason they were not in the box that night. is that true?

guest: that is true, but there were going to philadelphia. they had a house there. there were going to see the children. hat is where the were when they heard the president had been shot. guest: she talks about it in her memoirs. even earlier during that day when she was at lunch, that here had been a suspicious group at the other -- guest: and then when they're driving to the train, a man came riding a horse by the carriage on the way to the station, which was on the mall in those days and looked in the window at grant and grant remarked that he was sinister puree he did it twice. it may be just coincidence. who knows? she was scared to death. host: they believed he was targeted as part of the assassination plot? we learned that julia grant was much, very unhappy to leave the white house. and general grant assuaged that

grief by taking her on a two-year world tour. what should we know about that our? guest: it was actually his idea, that he felt like a boy out of school, and he had always loved travelling. and so they embarked on this tour that was just origingally supposed to be europe. and then extended all the way around the world. she enjoyed every minute of it, mostly because of the praise and a claim that she saw her husband receiving. and the shopping that she did as well of things that she wanted to bring back home that she just had a wonderful time on the world tour. guest: we are going to return to the gallina home and look at some of the items on display there.

>> the grants came back here for a couple of months. and then they decided to go on a world tour. they were gone for over two years, visited 40 countries. the grants were so popular at he time. there were like american celebrities. and they were treated like royalty. they received a lot of gifts on the tour. there were fortunate enough to have some of those still in the house. two of them are on the mantel. these red vases were a gift from the king of bulgaria. after the world tour, they came

back here for another couple of months and they went to mexico and cuba. the paintings on each side of the fireplace were given to the grants on that trip by the government of mexico. jose velasco did these landscapes paintings for the grants. this is the dining room. this is where the family would have their meals. julia would have done a little light entertaining here. this is not anything to elaborate. we have some other gifts that were given to the grants on that world tour. this piece was actually given to julia. this is a bronze urn given to her by the citizens of yokohama, japan. the vase was given to the grants by the emperor of japan. on the mantel is one of the most personal pieces that julia liked the best. she framed the leaves. the leaves were given to her by general grant, they were leaves that he picked up from the holy city. she had it framed and wrote the whole story on there. julia probably have the time of her life on this world tour. she devoted 1/3 of her memoirs talking about it. she developed friendships with queen victoria and a very good friendship with the emperor of japan. ended up staying in japan lower-than-expected because they developed such a nice, lose relationship with

him. after president grant passed away, julia was living in york and the emperor of japan came to visit julia while she was there. they kept that friendship and headed for the rest of her life. this was a place that the family could come back to, and this was considered home and was welcoming for them. not just this house but gallina. she always refers to it as her dear, dear gallina. host: we have a short while left and we have to talk about their years after the tour. they come back to the united states and they have lost lots of money in this event that we talked about, the investments in new york city. what was their financial situation and what is the role of the memoirs in assuaging that? guest: when word gets out that they have lost this money, there are veterans from the wardress cent grant money to help him -- from the war that lent grant money. he was offered to write rticles in the magazine. he was encouraged to write his memoirs. e had never been interested in

oing that. it is mark twain's publishing company. and he ended up publishing the memoirs for grant. although he completes them just a few short days before he passed away, he knows that they will bring financial comfort to julia. guest: the first royalty was $200,000. a mention in that day, the book made $1 million. t is a great book. i recommend it to anyone.

host: still readable? guest: absolutely. ost: were mark twain and the grants friends, since he offered to publish his memoirs? uest: yes, they did become ood friends. and it was through twain's efforts that grant began

village of arriving the memoirs. and there were some claims that twain had ghost written but twain was adamant that it was granted that had written it. host: how close was mark twain to the grants? i know that twain played for -- paid for a sculptor? was mark twain or regular at the white house? guest: not at the white house. it was afterwards that they developed a close elationship. apparently twain had years earlier suggested to grant about writing his memoirs but almost as an offhand remark. so when grant says that century magazine is going to publish his memoirs, because there were the first to make the offer, mark twain reminded him that, no, he had made the offer much earlier. host: i will ask if we can

bring the photograph up again of the president in his final days. it is such a poignant picture. wrapped in his blanket on the porch of the cabin in new york. guest: in horrible pain. host: it was throat cancer. how was he able to get these memoirs done? guest: sheer determination. guest: he became impassioned. it was so important to secure a comfort for his wife. guest: he died so shortly after that it seemed as though adrenaline was keeping him going. julia talks about that and grant does, too, that that was keeping him going to finish those. host: i would like to take a call, but then a with like to hear about her memoirs. she was the first first lady to write her memoirs. kathleen in san francisco. caller: thank you very uch. i had a quick question, julia had four brothers. and i think i remember during the civil war, they fought for the south. is that true? and did they finally reconciled? guest: it was her brother fred who had been at west point with ulysses and stayed in the union army and ends up serving on grant's staff. her brother john, none of them actually joined the confederate army, but they certainly did go south and support the confederacy during the war. at one point, her brother john is captured and put in prison and seeks grant's assistance in

getting an exchange -- a prisoner exchange and grant refuses basically to teach john a lesson. but when they're in the white house, the family is always there. host: another question on twitter. with all of these complexities during the civil war, were the grants friends with robert e. lee or jefferson davis? guest: not friends. certainly grant respected robert e. lee during the war, and he had known him and the mexican war. guest: afterward. guest: but julia does become fter jefferson davis and ulysses grant passed away, julia does become friends with irina davis. host: here is the memoirs. this is julia dent grant's memoirs. this edition was edited by the great john simon, now deceased, a great lincoln historian.

what is the story about how hese became -- the grant papers? and the editor of the grant papers, his life work. how did these memoirs, to be published, and why so long between her death and their writing? guest: she says it was her children who after grant's death and courage to to begin writing her memoirs of her wonderful life with her husband. and she says she just started it to satisfy their request, but then she realized that recalling all of these wonderful times kind of brought new life to her. and she did look at them, i think she was ambivalent about having them published initially. she thought it was something to record for her children. but then she did try to pursue

getting them published several different times. and one publisher told her that they were so private that the people that were alive at that time, it was too much personal information. another time, it was, she was told that they would be sold through subscription and she was looking for a lump-sum deal. so they remained in the family hands and unpublished until john simon convinced the family that they should become public. host: she lived a good number of years after him. was she an active first lady, she did it -- dishy advise other first ladies or become a private citizen again? guest: she did a lot of entertaining. her son was appointed ambassador to austria. she joins him over there. and comes back to the united states. she wrote several articles for different magazines, harper's bizarre, after the spanish-american war. she writes an article that

talks about the government's and the nation's responsibility to the widows and orphans of the war. host: norma in new castle, in. your question. caller: i was wondering about whether or not there was a relationship between julia and ulysses and there was a confederate general longstreet. guest: longstreet was a distant cousin of julia's. and so when grant was first court and julia, would have a long strait was stationed at jefferson barracks. there is a possibility, although the record is not clear, that longstreet served s one is -- of grant's groomsmen. host: how long after president grants death was the famous grants to build in new york city? guest: april 27, 1897. host: how to the country mourned him? guest: was the largest funeral

held in the country? host: larger than lincoln? guest: yes. he passed away in new york city. nd they buried his body in a temporary tomb in riverside park in new york city and began the fund raising effort to build this. host: julia was alive for the dedication? what was her role in all of that? guest: proud widow of and leased to see the nation recognizing her husband. host: as we close, we have looked at a long and distinguished military career, a life of ups and downs for the grants over time. 8 years in the white house, a successful world tour. what is the legacy of julia dent grant, and how does she fit into the pantheon of first ladies were learning about this year? guest: well, as they are all women who basically support with their husband is trying to achieve.

she did it with certain plendor and a very difficult ime in american history. and turned the nob on a dark eriod, early reconstruction, nd brighten things for the rest of the century. i think her image in the white house, her public popularity, her featuring of the general the way she did things, the purse the way she was -- the personal wish you was, she was a public first lady. host: after coming from the victorian first lady, is she as a harbinger of the modern first lady in any way? guest: that is very difficult to answer. i think there were all opinionated, strong women. ut perhaps in the way, she had public interest.

the next people, it would be more so with mrs. hayes. julia grant attracted a lot of attention and public opinion to the family that lived in the white house. host: you are working on a book, to establish the series, what is your answer? guest: i think she would have said that her legacy was that she was a devoted and loving wife and mother to their hildren, but i think more than that, she tried to represent what her husband was trying to achieve -- peace and reconciliation in the nation. and in her role as first lady, she was able to accomplish that. host: many thanks to all the folks at the grant sites or run country that brought you that here tonight and to the good people at the white house historical associations. and that concludes our discussion of julia dent grant. our thanks to our two guests for being with us. guest: thank you, susan. national captioning institute] national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> tomorrow night on c-span one of our more controversial collection is the white house china and it was vontsersle at the time and remains controversial to this day because of the pattern of the china. people did not feel like this

was appropriate formal china. even some of the journalists of the time wrote scathing articles about this china. people at the time just thought that this was not appropriate china to have at a presidential dinner but louisy felt this was a way to educate visiting dignitaries who weren't familiar with the united states. >> first ladies continues tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern on c-span. nd during the program on uisy hays at facebook.com/c-span. >> next defense secretary chuck hagel joins a news conference with the chinese defense

minister. then ted cruz of texas speak. >> good afternoon. today, i am pleased to welcome the defense general to the entagon.

>language] >> we just finished a productive meeting where i restated the united states is committed to building a positive and constructive relationship with china. >language] >> the china-u.s. relationship is important for stability and security in the asia-pacific and achieving security and prosperity for our nations in the 21st century. >language] >> one of the things we

mphasized today was that a sustained military to military relationship is an important pillar of this strong bilateral relationship. >language] > the united states welcomes and supports the rise of a prosperous and responsible china that helps regional and global progress. [speaking another language]

>> our goal is to build trust between our militaries through cooperation. the united states has invited for the first time the p.l.a. navy to join our multilateral naval exercises that will take place next year. >> [speaking another language] >> this morning, we have affirmed we will continue expanding our defense exchanges and joint exercises. earlier this summer for the first time, chinese midshipmen joined in a multinational exchange program at the u.s. aval academy in annapolis. >> [speaking another language]

>> today, our military working group is meeting in hawaii to discuss humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. >language] speaking another language] >> this weekend, our navies will conduct another counter-piracy exercise of building on the first ever joint counter-piracy exercise eld last year. speaking another language]

>> the general brought up two of the initiatives proposed to resident obama at the summit in june. one is a way to notify each other of major military activities. he second is rules of behavior for military air and naval activities. language] >> i welcomed this discussion and noticed the transparency we

have had is important to reducing the risk of iscalculation and avoiding and unintended tension and conflict. our staff are exploring those and will continue to discuss hem. speaking another language] >> general chang and i have both welcomed the recent establishment of the new cyber orking group as a venue of addressing issues of mutual concern in the area of cyber.

speaking another language] >> we discussed a number of regional security issues as well, including north korea, the east china sea, the south china sea. i reaffirmed longstanding u.s. olicies on these issues. speaking another language] >> with respect to competing maritime claims, i noted while the united states does not take a position on sovereignty in these cases, we do have an

interest in the claims being resolved peacefully without coercion. speaking another language] >> the general and i affirmed he importance of maintaining open channels of communication and we agreed it is important to continue high-level visits such as general dempsey's visit o china earlier this year. speaking another language]

>> general odierno and general welch will visit china later this year and p.l.a. commander wu will visit the united states. general dempsey offered to host his counterpart for a visit to the united states next ear. speaking another language]

>> in our meeting this morning, general chang invited me to visit china next year. i enthusiastically accepted. i look forward to meeting with him again next week as part of my trip to southeast asia. speaking another language] >> i will also visit malaysia, indonesia, and the philippines on this trip. i will now ask general chang for his comments before we take questions from all of you. thank you. speaking another language]

>> thank you. >> friends in the press, good afternoon. speaking another language] >> at the invitation of ecretary hazel, i am leading the senior military delegation from the people's liberation army to visit the united states bringing friendship from the chinese people and the chinese military. speaking another language]

>> the purpose of my visit is to implement the important consensus reached by our president and president obama of building a new model relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation to better increase mutual understanding to enhance mutual trust, to promote mutual cooperation, and to push forward the sound and stable development of our national and military relations. speaking another language] >> in the past few days, we have visited northcom and norad.

we were well received and received hospitality from the american people and officers and soldiers of the u.s. military. let me say thank you on behalf of all of my colleagues. speaking another language] >> this morning, secretary hagel and i had a candid exchange of views over our national and military relations, international and regional security issues, and other issues of common concern. we reached some agreement. >> [speaking another language]

>> we both agreed our military to military relationship is an important component of our bilateral relations and it is gaining the momentum. we both agreed to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two presidents during their summit, to work together to strengthen our military relationship and attempt to elevate it to new heights. >> [speaking another language]

>> we both agreed to continue to strengthen our high level visits, deep in our consultations and dialogues to increase mutual trust, specifically the u.s. welcomes the visit by the p.l.a. chief of general staff in 2013. china welcomes the visit of the secretary of defense and chief of naval operations in 014. >> [speaking another language] >> secretary hagel and i agreed

to set up an exchange mechanism between the p.l.a. strategic planning department and the u.s. joint chiefs of staff. we also agreed to make use of mechanisms such as defense consultative talks, military and maritime agreements, to actively explore notification for major military activities and continued to study the rules of behavior on military and maritime activities. >> [speaking another language]

>> we both believe the chinese and u.s. militaries have an increasingly important possibility to maintain peace in the asia-pacific region. both sides agree to play a constructive role in regional affairs promoting positive interaction between the two militaries in this region. we also agreed to strengthen coordination and cooperation under the asia-pacific multilateral dialogue and frameworks. china will participate in the ring of pacific exercise in 2014 as invited. >> [speaking another language]

>> we are in agreement that the two militaries share common interests and foundation for cooperation in non-traditional security areas. we both agreed to further enhance exchanges and cooperation in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, diplomacy, and peacekeeping. we both confirmed to conduct the first china-u.s. humanitarian assistance and humanitarian relief exercises with active forces in hawaii this november. we also agreed to have an exploratory discussion on logistics issues in support of non-traditional security missions later this year.

>> [speaking another language] >> we both agreed to further deepen military cooperation setting up an archive mechanism in which both sides can build upon the existing cooperation to search for those missing in action and strengthen a two-way exchange of military-related rchives and materials. >> [speaking another language]

>> at present, the china-u.s. relationship is in a new historical era, building a new model of china-u.s. military relationship can help us to increase strategic trust to reduce strategic risks and maintain world peace and regional stability. china is ready to work with the u.s. to seriously implement our important consensus, to raise our relationship to a new height by strengthening our dialogue, communication, and tactical cooperation, and to properly handle our disputes and differences. thank you. >> we will now move to questions. there will be two per side. we will pause for translation

after each question. >> [speaking another language] >> we will start with the ssociated press. >> [speaking another language] >> the u.s. has spoken recently about pivoting to asia. i wonder if you see the justification for a larger u.s. presence in the asia-pacific. do you see evidence of that yet? do you think it is helpful or harmful that the u.s. is trying to increase its influence in the region? a question on secretary hagel n egypt. given what transpired the last several days, do you feel your message fell on deaf ears? what is the way ahead?

do you need to cut off military to military relations? do you stop arms transfers? are you concerned by the safety of u.s. military personnel in the sinai where there has been a lot of violence lately? thank you. >> [speaking another language]

>> [speaking another language] >> regarding the u.s.-asia-pacific strategy, i would first like to make a point by quoting the chairman

of the people's republic of china. he used to say the pacific was wide enough to accommodate two great countries, china and the united states. >> [speaking another language] >> it is always the chinese position to welcome the u.s. to play a constructive role in the sia-pacific. >> [speaking another language] >> we also noted the u.s. statement many times that the u.s. strategy is a comprehensive one incorporating areas such as economics, social, and also including ilitary.

>> [speaking another language] >> it is also worth noting asia/pacific and asians have no to the military aspect has been highlighted in this omprehensive strategy. >> [speaking another language] >> including to strengthen the military deployment in the egion. >> [speaking another language] enhancing the u.s. alignments >>in this region by conducting military -- joint military exercises. >> [speaking another language]

>> we also noticed the frequency and intensity of the joint military exercises are increasing at the present time. >> [speaking another language] >> from a certain degree, this kind of intensified military activity further complicated the situation in the egion. >> [speaking another language] >> china is a peace-loving ation. >> [speaking another language] we hope this strategy does not >>target a specific country in he region.

>> [speaking another language] >>the development of china is not only conducive to our own country, to the entire region, but also to the united states. [speaking another language] >> being together with all the asia-pacific countries, regional countries, including the united states, it is a common aspiration of all of the countries that we wish to have peace in the region. therefore, it is our hope that

this rebalancing strategy is a constructive one that could help the peace and stability in the region. on the other hand, we would like to have this rebalancing strategy balanced on different countries as well. the essence of rebalancing is to reach balance. it would be a balancing strategy if such factors are taken into consideration. what is the most important is china is ready to work with the united states to maintain regional peace and stability. >> yes, i have had many phone calls with general sisi the last five weeks, but so have all of our national security team been involved in working with the egyptians on dealing with this issue. i say that because we have all consistently framed the same message. >> [speaking another language]

>> as president obama said last week, the violence must end. the national emergency lifted. the interim government of egypt must get back to an inclusive approach to reconciliation in egypt. all of us have consistently said that. >> [speaking another language]

>> the united states has a longstanding relationship with egypt. that is based on our respect for the people of egypt, the country

of egypt. we have interests, clearly, in the middle east. interests that include hopefully development towards a palestinian-israeli settlement. we continue to work with the egyptian interim government as well as the egyptian military. yes, we are concerned about our people, americans, all americans in egypt. >> [speaking another language]

>> protection of americans in egypt, not only of our diplomats but all americans, is of the highest priority. all of the american government officials including the military have been working closely with the egyptian military and police to assure the security and protection of americans in egypt and will continue to do that. >> [speaking another language] >> [indiscernible] peacekeeping force. >> as president obama has said,

we are reviewing every aspect of our relationship with egypt. >> [speaking another language] >> thank you. >> [speaking another language] >> [speaking another language] >> my question goes to general chang. you just mentioned many times about the meeting between the

presidents where the two presidents agreed to build a new model of bilateral relationship. at the same time, the chinese president proposed to build a new model of military relationship in accordance to the bilateral relationship. my question is, what is the concept of this new model of military relationship?

>> thank you for your question. >> [speaking another language] >> we all know the president summarized in three points the new model of this major relationship between china and the united states. no confrontation, and respect each other towards win-win cooperation. >> [speaking another language] >> we believe a new model of military relationship in accordance with the new model of bilateral relationship, some is and is not in this concept. firstly, it is a relationship in which both sides respect the other side. it is not a relationship dominated by either side. both sides respect the other's vital interest and major concerns.

and a andu and is a

you a you anda and youyou and you are you but both sides respect the concerns, paying attention to the comfort level, not imposing one's will on the other or gaining one's own interests atin a half the expense of interest on the other. it is a relationship of cooperation. it is not a relationship of antagonism. work hard to expand our mutual interest and areas of cooperation to take measures to effectively manage our risks to were the ultimate goal of cooperation to avoid the trap. the relationship of mutual trust is not one of mutual suspicion. both sides view each other's

strategic intention in an objective manner to push forward those mechanisms that help mutual trust to refrain from actions that could pose negative affect on mutual trust, not to make unwarranted accusations and to reduce misperceptions and miscalculations. a healthy and mature military to military relationship should be a balanced one. in order to build a new model we need more substantive exchanges in areas and more practical cooperation and more diversified forms. it is a relationship of openness and inclusiveness, not a relationship of exclusiveness or selfishness. while working to ensure the stability of china/u.s. relationships, it is imperative to work with our other international community members to strengthen cooperation to maintain strategic balance and stability of the world and in particular of the asia-pacific region. i am not sure if i made my point clear or not. thank you. >> [speaking another language] [laughter] >> you spoke today of mutual trust. there are persistent reports that the chinese government and

military have launched cyber attacks against u.s. government targets and interests. what is your response to those reports? given the fact that this cyber working group has been put together, what steps are the chinese willing to take to restore the kind of faith and confidence between the chinese and the u.s. on that front and reduce the potential to river in the cyber warfare. and for you mr. secretary, your own personal efforts, the bloodshed today in egypt continues. it appears to be a further blow to democracy.

there are reports the government is prepared to release the convicted warmer president who was hosni mubarak from prison. they have pledged to make up any shortfalls that the egyptians may run into it the u.s. cuts that any further aid. one housekeeping measure. is the u.s. prepared to cancel or at least hope postpone the military helicopters to egypt? >> [speaking another language] >> the are trying to complete our exterior missions regarding questions. as we know, cyber is completely a new domain. cybersecurity has been a worldwide difficulty. it is always the chinese government's position to take peaceful use of cyberspace. we oppose having any kind of arms race in the cyber domain. we oppose taking use of information and technology to conduct any kind of operation and hostility toward another party in the domain.

we oppose taking advantage of the information, technological advantage to weaken other parties or sovereign control in this domain. we are opposed to taking any type of double standard in this domain. china is one of the primary victims from hacker attacks in the world. we are facing severe threats coming from those cyber attacks. the chinese government consistently cracks down on cyber crimes according to our laws.

chinese military has never supported any form of hacker activities. regarding how to solve the

cybersecurity issue, i believe it requires the common cooperation between china and the united states. i believe that secretary hagel touched upon this issue in his remarks that we will work to cooperate to try to solve this issue.

>> i do not know about the mubarak report. i am not aware of it. i cannot help you. saudi arabia, as you know kuwait announced a few weeks ago that they committed to a considerable amount of assistance to egypt. the specifics of your question regarding saudi arabia i do not know.

your question regarding cancellation of apache helicopters or other parks, we are reviewing all aspects of our relationship.

>> is the u.s. powerless to effect any change, to bring an end to the bloodshed in egypt right now? why not answer the calls from capitol hill question mark pull all the eight out. if they are not cooperating at any level?

>> there is not a consistent call from capitol hill one way or another. more to the point, we have serious interest in egypt. this is a very complicated problem. we try to help as much as we can. we help to facilitate a stop the violence. our ability to influence the outcome in egypt is limited. it is up to the egyptian people. and are a large, great, sovereign nation. it will be their responsibility to sort this out. all nations are limited in their influence in another nation's internal issues. i do not think the united states is without his influence. that has to be a collaborative effort focused on what the egyptian people want, supporting the egyptian people. i believe that should come as an inclusive, efforts to have them included.

>> ok. [speaking another language]

[speaking another language] >> you did that exactly right. i didn't realize i spoke that

long. >> [speaking another language] >> i have two questions respectively. general, how do you see the current asia pacific situation and the relationship between the u.s. military in the asia- pacific? secretary hagel, would you like to elaborate a little on what

substantive steps the u.s. should take in building such new model of relationships? >> [speaking another language] >> i understand our press friend concerns. it is also one of our major concerns. the regional security situation is closely linked to the overall keys and stability in the world.

>> i have several points to make.

the situation in asia-pacific is generally stable.

there remains some sensitive issues on how they are heating while some other issues are getting even more sensitive. and proper handling of these issues could lead to a severe impact on the overall security situation in the region. >> [speaking another language] >> secondly, the chinese people have their level of keys. china is a staunch defender of the peace and stability in the asia-pacific. we always insist that disputes

be set or dialogue and negotiation. no one should they decide that china would give away our core interests. no one should underestimate our will and determination and defending our sovereignty and maritime rights. thirdly, the asia-pacific is our common homeland. they should make positive and constructive efforts for promoting regional peace and stability. any action that leads to trouble or provocation, any unwanted action will further complicate or magnified the situation. it will not lead to a favorable result. >> [speaking another language]

>> just as i mentioned that we believe he's is the essence of the pacific, the ocean of these, it it is balance. for any country to make a strategic readjustment it is imperative to take regional peace and security in mind of balance the security concerns of different regional countries.

>> [speaking another language] >> the asia-pacific is a place where it is intertwined the most and were china and the united states interact most frequently. they enjoy huge space and potential for cooperation in this region. the people's liberation army is ready to work with the u.s. military by strengthening our coordination and cooperation to pay more to the prosperity. thank you.

>> regarding new models for our two countries, specifically military to military relationships, let me begin this way. i believe it is fundamental to the efforts that are underway as we have both noted in president xi and obama have made when it comes to transparency for understanding each other's intentions far better than we have in the past. >> [speaking another language]

>> to carry forward the facilitation of these efforts require institutions. institutions of common interests like what he talked about this morning in his opening statement as well as some of these pacific items that i addressed. working groups for every general area are a challenge.

senior level leadership exchanges, which i noted a number in my remark as did the general, those are the forms that you build in order to address the great challenges and issues and differences between our countries. that is what we are doing. >> [speaking another language]

>> thank you. >> thank you, all. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> coming up here on c-span, ted cruz and political strategist at morris.

-- morris. -- dick morris. on "washington journal," -- tallent, john hofmeister. >> tuesday, the cato institute hosted a discussion. starting at noon eastern here on c-span.

>> c-span, we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at correctional hearings on the white house events, briefings and conferences, and offering complete gavel-to-gavel the u.s. house, as a public service of the private industry. c-span, created by the cable industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. now, you can watch it in hd. thursday, president obama set out in a two-day bus tour from new york to central pennsylvania to make college more educational -- more affordable for the middle class. and scranton pennsylvania, where he will be joined by vice president biden.

>> on monday, josh earnest took questions from reporters on the situation in egypt. here is what he had to say about the president's stance on assistance to egypt. >> what options are on the table? you have bright star. [inaudible] what is next? what other options are on the table? >> there are a couple of things at play. there is some additional assistance in the pipeline. that is the decision to move forward with providing that assistance. it is being evaluated on an ongoing basis. there are ongoing conversations between senior officials in this country and their counterparts in egypt. in the context of the conversations, unambiguous perspectives from the united

states are being shared with the egyptian government, urging them to follow through on their memo to transition back to a democratically elected civilian government. on a regular basis we are urging them to respect the basic human -- epopl --heir will. people. we are urging them to initiate an inclusive political process so we do not have a democratic government in egypt that reflects the will of the people. there are word -- role to be played for those that do have the people of egypt. this is a multidimensional policy challenge. it is something we are evaluating on a daily basis. we will continue to speak out in the days ahead. >> the president laid out the consequences. he used words like condemned. you just have this lingering right now. that is in september. what other tangible options would make them take note? bright star has not done much.

quite it is difficult to draw --at conclusion right now. >> it is difficult to draw that conclusion right now. what i would say is that there is a publicly disclosed menu of assistance that is in the pipeline to be provided to egypt. >> on are in the pipeline.

monday, ted cruz released a copy of his birth certificate. there has been discussion about whether he is a national born american citizen. his certificate shows he was born in canada to an american mother. he spoke, where he called for the abolishment of the irs and the repeal of the federal health care law. his remarks are 30 minutes. ♪ >> thank you so very much. it is terrific to be back with so many friends and so many strong conservatives in the great state of colorado. i want to thank you for your

leadership. i have to start with some somber news. i am sorry to tell you that as a result of your being here, each of you tomorrow morning is going to be audited by the irs. i appreciate the courage of your convictions. i will say that this gathering is inspirational. what a tremendous slate of speakers you have had from scott walker, mike huckabee, allen west. i reminded of the time i was on an airplane. i was paged over the loudspeaker asking for tom cruise. and somewhat sheepishly, i came to the front of the plane, and i said, maybe you might be looking for me.

you have never seen so many disappointed flight attendants. i am humbled to be in the gathering of the terrific leaders here. like my friend jenny beth martin, and i am even more humbled to be in a gathering in this room, via satellite, online, and across the country with people standing up to take this country back. i want to talk briefly about the past, present, and the future. we are seeing a paradigm shift for how we are going to take this country back. i will cut to the quick. the answer is empowering the grassroots. men and women standing up to

bring us back to our founding principles. talking about the past, i will tell you about my campaign for the u.s. senate in texas. it started in january of 2011. i was at 2% in the polls. the margin of error was 3%. those were the real poll numbers. and we were thrilled. we went through a $50 million primary. the most expensive primary in the country. $35 million in nasty attack ads. after watching all of those ads, she turned to me and said, goodness gracious. i did not realize what a rotten guy you were. we saw something incredible happened. we saw thousands of men and women across texas come together. getting on facebook or twitter, enough already. we can't keep painting in pale pastels, we need to stand up and take this country back. what we saw was incredible. starting from 2%, despite being outspent 3 to 1. we won the primary by 14 points

and won the general by 16. [applause] what a tremendous testament to the power of the grassroots. throughout the campaign, the pundits all said in the senate race there was no way i could win. i traveled the state of texas saying they are absolutely right. it is beyond my capacity. but you can.

the only way we will win is if conservatives come together and demand something new. how do we turn things around? that paradigm shift is playing out right now in the u.s. senate and i believe it will play out in the future for how we turn this country around. there are two things that we need to do to restore this nation. stand for principle. champion growth and opportunity. [applause] let's talk about standing for principle. one of the first things i was privileged to do serving in the u.s. senate was stand side-by- side with my friend rand paul participating in a 13-our filibuster on drones. [applause]

when that started, he went to the senate floor. many of my colleagues viewed what he was doing as strange, curious, if not quixotic. the first two to show up to support him were mike lee and i. what happened over the next several hours was incredible. the american people became fixated by c-span. a phrase that does not occur naturally in the english language. my apologies to our friends from c-span who are with us today.

thousands of americans began going online, standing up and saying, we need to protect our liberties. and it was incredible. as the american people got motivated, you saw one senator after another. the staff were running in saying that the tweeting things as you have to go out there. -- things says that you have to go out there.

i did not know they knew where the senate floor was. and because the american people got engaged, we saw something incredible. in 24 hours, public opinion polls on drones moved 15 points. and because the american people stood up and demanded action, president obama was forced to do what he refused to do for three consecutive weeks, to admit that the constitution limits his ability to target u.s. citizens. that was a tremendous victory for the grassroots. and it was a harbinger of things to come. the next big fight in washington was over guns. i am confident no one in here is concerned about the second amendment right to keep and bear arms. on this issue, vice president joe biden -- the nice thing is that you don't need a punchline. [applause] you simply say his name and people naturally laugh. but vice president joe biden had some

advice for all of us. if somebody is attacking your home, just go outside with a double barrel shotgun and fire both arrows into the air. which is very good advice. if it happens you're being attacked by a flock of geese. on guns, following the horrific tragedy in newtown, president obama came out saying, not let's go come down on the violent criminals like a ton of bricks. but instead, the president said, we will use this as an excuse to go after the constitutional rights of law- abiding citizens. in washington, the momentum was entirely with the president on this. conventional wisdom was that this was unstoppable. and i will tell you that three senators signed a very simple and short note to hear he read that said we will -- harry reid that said we will filibuster anything that prohibits our

right to bear arms. [applause] the important thing was not the letter or the filibuster. it was that doing so slowed things down and focused attention on those who were going along with this agenda to strip our constitutional rights herein and what happened in the next several weeks is that the american people engaged. you got on the phone and call

your senators. these guys are fighting for the second amendment, what's wrong with you? it is powerful when an elected representative starts getting thousands of calls from his or her constituents saying to stand up and defend our constitutional rights. the american people lit up the phones, and stood together. one after another came back and when he came to the floor of the senate repaired to gavel in his story gun control legislation, every single proposal that would have undermined the second amendment was voted down on the floor of the senate. [applause] that was your victory. it was the power of the grassroots. it is how we win, i forcing the elected officials to be accountable and do the right thing. going forward in the future, what do we need to do? we need to champion growth and

opportunity. my very top priority is restoring economic growth. it is the foundation of every other challenge we've got. whether it is unemployment, the national debt, maintaining the strongest military in the world. without growth, we can't accomplish anything. and with growth, each of those will be accomplished. the last four years, our economy has grown 0.9% a year. the last time of four consecutive years was 1979 to 1982. coming out of the jimmy carter administration, the same failed economic policy of taxes and regulations that produced the exact same stagnation. in my view, restoring growth should be the top priority for every elected official, republican or democrat. and how do we do that. there are three priorities that are critical to restoring growth. raining in the out-of-control spending and unsustainable debt

in washington. last fall, i had the privilege of speaking at the republican national convention in tampa and i talked about the national debt and i talked about our little girls. i went back to my hotel room that night and pulled out my phone again to look at twitter. it turned out that paula poundstone, the comedian, had been watching the convention that right rejig -- that night. she sent a tweet and said that ted cruz just said when his daughter was born, the national debt was $10 trillion. now it is $16 trillion. what did she do? we laughed so hard, she almost fell out of bed. our daughter is five. in her short life, our national debt has grown over 60%. what we are doing right now i think is fundamentally immoral. [applause]

our parents did not do that to us. their parents did not do that to them. we are giving our kids and grandkids a debt burden that they will work their entire life

not to meet the challenges of the future, but to pay off the debt that the parents and grandparents were too irresponsible to live within our means. that is just wrong. the second critical element is fundamental tax reform. [applause] every year, we spend roughly $500 billion.

all of that is dead weight loss. it does not produce a single truck or tortilla. we need to dramatically simplify the tax code. we have seen in recent months the perils of too much power in washington as the irs has targeted citizens. targeting those perceived to be enemies of the obama administration. when richard nixon tried to use the irs, it was wrong. and it was rightfully decried in a bipartisan manner.

when the obama administration did the same thing, it was every bit as wrong. we have heard reports of the irs asking citizen groups, tell us the content, tell us what books you are reading. another group was asked to tell us the content of your prayers. the u.s. government has no business whatsoever asking any american the content of our prayers. [applause] that was an abuse of power and we need to investigate it and get to the bottom of it. the simplest and best solution to this problem, we need to abolish the irs. [applause] listen, that is not going to be easy. in washington, there have been

an army of that make their living getting exemptions from the irs tax code. there are more words in the tax code than there are in the bible. and not one of them is as good. how many of you all know the shortest scripture in the bible? there has been a whole lot of weeping because of the irs. the only way that we will succeed abolishing the irs is if we follow the same model we were talking about before. if americans come together in overwhelming numbers and demand of our elected officials, enough already. stop listening to the established powers in both parties, start listening to the american people.[applause] the third critical step to restoring economic growth is fundamental regulatory reform. in the last five years, regulators from washington have descended on small businesses and entrepreneurs like locusts. the only problem is, you can't

use pesticide against the regulators. we need to unleash small businesses, entrepreneurs, free americans to achieve the american dream. [applause]

>> we are so happy. we are hoping she can get things done. >> thank you. >> i know you will be down in jeffries city. thank you for that. >> are you going to be here for lunch? >> no, i have to go.

way to do that is then this afternoon. i have to get back to the homefront. thank you for coming. >> thank you very much. comment -- made that >> they had a blast, didn't they? it is just embarrassing we have steve king in iowa as well. you think the kentucky secretary of state is -- >> i think she is a very strong candidate. i think he is going to have a tea party primary and he is going to have to pay attention to the right-wing and not try to dress up as a moderate during the primary. >> i hope he gets defeated.

i really hope he does. >> nice to meet you. >> i hope that hillary wins in this election. [indiscernible] >> good luck to you. >> thank you. i am running in district one as well. >> nice to meet you. relate -- how things

go. everybody was cheering. >> it's all good. >> i'm sorry, i have to steal you away now. >> ok. fan of yours, a following you for quite some time. have a huge population, the largest in the country. met with our president? >> i have. they are great. we are lucky to have them in st. louis. >> they are great democrats. >> good luck to you. hang in there.

>> i need to steal you away. >> ok. >> coming up on the next washington journal. rebecca talent with immigration policy. then, john hofmeister, the president of shell oil. filmmakersmentary

."scuss their film "detropia >> today, the cato institute hosts a discussion on a cost of social security disability insurance. live coverage starts at noon eastern, here on c-span. in the last few years, the left has decided that the political debate is useless. they are not going to debate policy, they not going to provide evidence. there are going to label us morally insufficient human beings. ben schapiro is september's in depth guest. your calls live,

starting at noon on september 1. on november 3, from jackie o to nancy reagan, your questions for kitty kelly. critic christina hoff sommers on december 1. in depth, live the first sunday every month at noon eastern on book tv on c-span-2. josh earnest took questions on the holding of david miranda. here's what he had to say. >> can you say with authority

that the british authorities did not obtain information from the personal devices that they confiscated. ? >> i am not able to talk to you --ut >> the white house did not condemn this. was the president please that he was detained? >> this is a law enforcement action was taken by the british government. this is something they did independent of our direction. expect, the british government is going to make law enforcement decisions that they determine are in the best interest of their country. >> was the white house consulted in advance? >> there was a heads up that was provided by the british government. this is something we had an indication that was likely to occur, but it to

was not something that we requested. is it at all concerning to the president, the nine hour detention? this is an independent british law enforcement decision that was made. i know the suggestion has been raised by some that this is an effort to intimidate journalists. you, we have been undergoing a rigorous debate on a range of issues related to an independent media, independent journalists covering the application of national security rules. questions about national security leaks and other classified or confidential information and policy.

the president, in the course of that debate, has made clear his support for independent journalists. the important role that independent journalists have to play. he has also talked about the responsibility of the government to protect the rights of the journalists to do their jobs. that is something that the president feels strongly about and has spoken candidly about in the past. if you have specific questions about the law enforcement decision made by the british government, you should direct your questions to my friend over there. fieldsesota senator questions of the 2016 presidential run. klobuchar was the keynote speaker.

this is 45 minutes. >> good evening, that is some big shoes to follow. greats why give me pleasure tonight to honor one of the greatest american female politicians with tonight's award. the award was created in 2008 that was created to give an award to an outstanding democrat who exemplifies the best of the democratic party's ideals and values. edward it was awarded to kennedy, in 2009 it was awarded

to jimmy carter. in 2000 10 the award went to governor and secretary tom bill sack and u.s. senator john colbert, 2011 and went to state senator mike grunts all. award went to tom harkin. i am pleased to announce that this year's award goes to secretary hillary clinton. [applause] i have with me on stage, before i give a little bit about senator and secretary of state hillary clinton's bio, i have someone here who are here to accept the award on her behalf. bit ofgive you a little

bio information about secretary clinton. newcombeill have, joy except the award on secretary clinton's path. hillary rodham clinton was sworn in as the 67th secretary of the united states. she did -- she joined after four decades of service as an advocate, attorney, first lady, and senator. she attended local public wheres before graduating she met bill clinton. in 1974, secretary clinton moved to arkansas and then married bill clinton. she became a successful attorney while raising their daughter chelsea. she was an assistant professor and wassas law school,

appointed by jimmy carter to serve on the board of legal services corporation which you later chaired. during her 12 years, she was -- she cofounded the arkansas advocate for children and families. she served on the board of .rkansas children's hospital in 2000, she made history as the first lady ever elected to the united states senate. if -- and the first woman elected statewide in new york. in the senate, she served on the armed services committee, the environment and public works committee tom a and the committee on aging. as a senator, clinton worked

across party lines to build support for causes important to her constituents in the country, anduding the expansion access to quality healthcare. after the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001, she was a of taking carer of the health responders working at ground zero. she was also the senate member of the transportation advisory group to the department of defense is joint forces command. she won reelection to the senate in 2006 and in 2000 and seven -- and in 2000 seven, began her campaign for president of the united states. in 2008, she campaign for the

election of barack obama and joe biden. nominatedr, she was by president-elect obama to be secretary of state. i don't think any of us have lived to see a woman achieve a .reater set of goals she is a woman who has done more for us -- with that, i give this award to senator and secretary .f state hillary rodham clinton it is going to be excepted by joy newcombe from forrest city. >> in 2007, i was honored to serve as hillary clinton's campaign director. i family met her the first time our have crossed in may of that year.

having only met hillary clinton as portrayed in media reports, i was not prepared to be overwhelmed by her warmth and authenticity. after exchanging greetings, she looked at her -- our oldest son sitting in his wheelchair, and looked back at me to ask, how is your health care? does it cover everything you need? i am not sure that i can adequately explain the warmth --t in that moment, hillary clinton embodied hope. in our priest conversation that followed -- in our brief conversation that followed, she showed me she was the best public servant that our country

has ever known. no matter the topic, healthcare, children's issues, women's issues, same-sex issues, workers rights, and much more -- hillary clinton understands that our country is only as good as the quality of opportunities we provide each citizen. , in 1995, she declared an obvious truth -- women's rights are human rights. she reminded the world that security -- that securing rights for all persons are what makes a country strong. light has shown regardless of the trouble she is held in her long and accomplished career as a public servant. -- any clinton, and in authentic, warm, and intelligent woman lives as a beacon of

light. she always has, and i am confident she always will. north iowa democratic women, are proud that all north iowa democrats are honoring her tonight with this beacon of light award. we thank you for shining the light on this incredible democrat who exemplifies what it means to be a beacon of light in our world. thank you. [applause] >> i would like amanda ragan to join us today as we hand off this award that you are accepting on behalf of hillary rodham clinton. [applause]

>> thank you. [applause] 2006, amy klobuchar became the first

woman elected trepresent the state of minnesota and united states senate. chief prosecutor in the state's largest county, and now a u.s. senator, amy has been guided by the values she learned. she was a leading advocate for successful passage of one of the first laws in the country guaranteeing 48 stays for new mothers and their babies. after serving as a partner in minnesota's dorsey and whitney and gray, amy was elected to serve as a prosecutor for hennepin county, which includes minneapolis and 45 suburbs. in 2006, the people of minnesota elected a me to be there u.s. senator. amy has been a strong advocate for middle-class families and minnesota values on critical issues facing our nation. a senate chair of the joint economic committee and member of the president's export council, as well as u.s. senate committee on commerce, amy has been working to implement a competitive agenda to ensure businesses have the tools they

need. amy chairs the subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy, and consumer rights, which is responsible for the oversight of antitrust enforcement at the department of justice and federal trade commission. amy has continued to work policies that protect consumers from anti-competitive behavior, and make sure businesses are able to compete on a level playing field. please give a warm north iowa wingding welcome to our neighbor, senator amy coverture klobuchar. [applause] >> hello, iowa democrats. thank you. thank you. thank you to those minnesotans who brought my science back there. are you guys ready to send bruce braley to the senate?

are you ready to help these great candidates we heard today, and paint iowa blue in 2014? are you tired of these extremists that keep coming to your state and saying they want to shut the government down? well then i know i'm in the right place today. the right place is the surf ballroom. for our friends watching this that are not from iowa, i think they need to understand that the surf ballroom is called the surf ballroom because it is right near clear lake. this is iowa's idea of surf. [laughter] do you know that minnesota and iowa combined have more lakeshore, with all of our lakes, particularly in minnesota, then more of -- in california, florida, and hawaii's coastline? [applause] it is truly right to be here

today -- great to be here, to honor secretary of state clinton with the beacon award. she embodies the principles and ideals of our party. joy did a wonderful job talking about that. [applause] she talked about the incredible work that hillary clinton has done, promoting economic opportunity for all, making the country a safer place, and the incredible work. i can tell you, seeing someone who has come into the u.s. senate, the incredible work she has done for women in the senate, the country, and all over the world. [applause] i want to thank your great party chair, scott, your county chair, john. all of the iowa party leaders. the one thing i will remember here when i leave is buckler county. two democrats, that is the civil war, but that is going to change. i'm here for three reasons.

the first is to help elect ruth braley. he is one of the best candidates we have in the country running for the u.s. senate. i think you all know better than anyone how he shares tom harkin's values, that passion for hard work, for the people in the state. all we have to know about tom harkin is one thing. and that is, when he was in the senate with paul wellstone, he was paul wellstone's best friend. thank you, iowa, for that. the second reason i'm here, how can you say no to a wingding? [laughter] they were great chicken wings. the third reason, as bruce noted, is that i literally am only two hours from here and i can see i was for my porch. -- iowa from my porch. [laughter]

our states have a lot more in common than a border. you have the iowa state fair going on right now. the most famous thing is your life-sized butter cow, which got a bit of attention this week. but everything is fine now. a cow carved entirely out of butter. in minnesota, we have princess kay, the milky way, and her court all carved entirely out of butter. i guess each of our states have our own idea of royalty. [laughter] that was a little iowa joke. you have the world-famous matchstick museum. we have the world-famous spam museum, or as we like to call it, the guggen-ham. you have the notoriety for

picking presidents, and we have the notoriety with supplying the country with vice presidents. it is a longtime tradition in minnesota that new moms bounce their babies on their knee and say, one day, you can grow up to be vice president. [laughter] finally, the one thing that our states share for sure is a very focused citizenry that cares about elections and has a fierce sense of independence. if you don't believe me about that independent part of minnesota, i have three words for you. governor jesse ventura. you are blessed with a senate candidate in bruce that represents the best of grassroots politics in this state, and in this country.

but i think of bruce, i think of when i came to help him campaign and he always had those work boots that reminded him of how he literally pulled himself up from where he was to get to where he is today. i think of him as a champion for the middle class, a champion for veterans, a guy who knows the value of education. he knows it in his own life, and he knows it from his own mouth. bruce and i have been working on the issue of sexual assault in the military. we have been working on it for a number of years. when we first got involved in this, they were actually destroying the records of sexual assault from anywhere from one year to five years in the military. they would vanish. when i heard about that, i thought, this is probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard. we are convinced that the leaders in the senate and house to include a provision to preserve those records, so they

are no longer destroyed. that is one change -- [applause] there is a lot more work to be done, and that is what we are working on right now. also, what i like working about bruce is that he has never been satisfied with just sitting back in the face of problems. he works tirelessly to give a voice to people that don't have a voice. he also is someone who got into government for all the right reasons. there are a lot of people in politics today. a few of them have visited your state recently, who think a successful career in politics is built on stopping progress. i realized that when they talk about going back to the values of the 1980's, they mean the 1880's. that's not me, that's not bruce,

and that is not anyone in this room. bruce and i got started in grassroots politics. we did not come from families who had money. both our moms were teachers. i did not have a grandfather or dad in the u.s. senate. neither did he. his dad was a world war ii veteran who worked in a grain elevator, who was seriously injured. it's no surprise that both of us got involved in politics, for the simplest of reasons. something was wrong, and it needed to be fixed rate something was not fair, and it needed to be made right. in bruce's case, he dedicated himself to the cause of worker safety. he dedicated himself to helping those who have lost everything, because he knows what that's like. i got involved in politics after my daughter was born, and she could not swallow. we spent the whole night in hospital. they did test after test, and still did not know what was wrong.

back then, they had a rule with the insurance companies that you could only stay in the hospital for 24 hours as a new mom. my daughter was in intensive care. i had not slept for two days, and they kicked me out of that hospital in 24 hours. as my husband wheeled me out of the hospital, i had a moment to look up at him and say, this would not be happening to the head of the insurance company. when my daughter got better -- she was in the hospital for weeks and weeks -- i decided i was not going to sit back and let this happen to another mom. i got involved in politics. i was a new mom, never been elected to anything. i started calling my legislators, going over to the capital and testifying about what happened. because of that, in minnesota, we enacted one of the first laws in the country guaranteeing new moms and their babies 24 hours [applause]l stay.

one of my favorite lessons from that experience was that you can never give up. we passed the bills in both houses. there was a rumor there were going to delay the effective date. i decided to show up with six pregnant friends of mine. they outnumber the insurance lobbyists two to one. the pregnant moms said that it should take effect now. that is what happened. and we won. that is how politics works at its best. [applause] i decided to run for local office. i was the chief prosecutor in hennepin county. i then ran for senate. i was there a short time, by tom harkins standards. i try to live by the same principle that you can make change, but you have to be willing to do it. our country has been through tough times.

it was about two years that i was in the senate that we had the worst recession since the great depression. i still remember that first month of 2009, when we lost more jobs in this country than there were people in the state of vermont. every industry was suffering. we have come a long way since those difficult days. at 7.4%, the national unemployment rate is at its lowest point in more than four years. we still have a tremendous problem with long-term unemployment, people who have been unemployed for more than six months. in minnesota, we are doing two points better than the national average. in iowa, 4.6%. [applause] manufacturing jobs are coming back across the country. home sales are up.

the auto industry is back. this is most exciting, when i crossed over the border. with the help of our farmers in iowa and minnesota, we have increased the supply of renewable fuels, doubled our production of clean energy, and since 2005, our dependence on foreign oil has gone down from 60% to 40%, since 2005. [applause] you really cannot drive down here without seeing all those wind turbines. you get 25% of your energy from wind, and it provides 7000 jobs in the state of iowa. [applause] i see us right now as a stable economy, but on the cusp of great economic gains. there's something holding us back. to me, it is the group in congress. obstructionism and extremism that is holding us back and

preventing too many americans from realizing the promise of america. look at the crew who has graced your state in the past few months, talking about shutting our government down again. their goal, they want to cause one big government traffic jam. the only problem, they won't pay for the roads and bridges to get us out of it. there are two things that really bug me about this obstructionism. they seem to forget that these are real people that will be affected by these moves. even in the midst of this recovery, we all know people. the kid in cedar rapids who wants to become a teacher, but can't afford college. the dad who lost his job at the kraft foods in mason city, and wants to get retrained, but cannot get the right program so he gets the skills again. or the family in waterloo that

is working harder and harder to pay that mortgage. i don't have to tell you that too many americans are still falling behind, unable to get education, to match the skills to the jobs that are open, or find a good paying job or pay for their security. the other thing that bothers me about some of the things these people are saying -- i'm telling you what they are coming in and saying in your state, more than a lot of other states right now there is a whole bunch of things we could be doing right now to help people get jobs, to stabilize the economy even more, to grow the economy, to strengthen the middle class. there are things that everybody could agree on. we could come together on an innovation agenda. one of your governor candidates mentioned that. the simple idea that we no longer can afford to be a country that just turns money around on wall street. we have to be a country that makes stuff again, that invents thing, that exports to the

world. this means making sure we are embracing the president's idea that we double exports. exports in iowa are about agriculture. they're also about manufacturing, farming equipment. farm equipment is going all over the world. there is a guy north of here in minnesota named maynard ackerman. he has a company where he does trench less digging. he puts these huge pipes underneath the ground, then pushes another pipe so he can make space for that, especially in countries like china and india that are finally building infrastructure, but they can't uproot all their neighborhoods. he has 77 employees in a cornfield, all because of exports. it is not just about big businesses. it is about small and medium- sized businesses as well. one of my favorite things about this guy, he was named

international trench less digger of the year a few years back. [laughter] this agenda is also about making sure we have a skills match. we have way too many job openings in our state in the high-tech area. we have to make sure that these kids are able to get degrees while they're in high school, and be able to work with our community colleges. an innovation agenda is about making sure we bring down our debt in a reasonable way, and a balanced way, and a long-term way, but not on the backs of our seniors and students and the middle class. that is not how we reduce the debt in this country. [applause] this innovation agenda is about comprehensive tax reform.

we don't have to hear again that buffett pays lower rate than his secretary. instead, we should be looking at fair tax reform. that is something we can accomplish. it is something senator baucus wants to get done in the senate. when we think about how america can be the strongest, most innovative it has been for so many decades in the past, the place that brought the world everything, from the pacemaker to the post-it note, from ford motor company to facebook. it is clear we are the country we are today because we were able to invest in those opportunities, invest in scientific research, invest in innovation, investing entrepreneurship. i truly believe that the things that democrats and republicans can agree on, simple ideas of workforce training, comprehensive tax reform, bringing debt down in a balanced

way, comprehensive tax reform, bringing the debt down in a balanced way. so what is the problem? we do know republicans that are willing to work on these issues. there are republicans in iowa who want to move our country forward. unfortunately, a group of ideologues in the house of representatives right now is holding the country back. you all know that we passed a farm bill in the u.s. senate. it has the support of our secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack. [applause] it is a bill that has the support of representative braley. we were able to get support across the aisle for a bill. the bill strengthens our safety net for our farmers. it reduces the debt by $24 billion over the last farm bill. why would republicans in the house be against this?

it makes sure we have our conservation programs in place. i am proud to have been appointed to be on the senate side of the conference committee to get that farm bill done. i keep asking our staff everyday, have the republicans in the house called to set up that conference committee? no, they haven't. you know what that bill is not going anywhere? because the bill is on the cutting room floor in the house. a group of tea partiers decided to shredded to pieces because they wanted to eliminate nutrition programs that for decades have helped millions of kids and seniors and working people from hunger. i want to leave you with one quote, from the fargo forum. this is not a bastion of liberalism. it is a conservative paper based in fargo that has a bunch of newspapers in minnesota. they ran an editorial last week. it said, quote, make no mistake about it.

house republicans are to blame for the farm bill stall. this is not a political conclusion. it is a statement of fact. i'm a former prosecutor. i like facts. i like evidence. the house has to bring this bill to to a conference committee so we can get it done. [applause] now how about our infrastructure? no one knows better than iowa how important infrastructure is. this is how we will get these goods to market. i know a little bit about transportation policy in this country. we will never forget what happened in minnesota in august of 2007, when in the middle of a summer's day, that bridge collapsed in the middle of the mississippi river. as they said that day, a bridge should not just fall down in the middle of america.

not an eight lane bridge in the middle of rush hour, and not a bridge that is six blocks from my house. 13 people were killed. hundreds of people injured. do you know what we do when it does break down, when something like that happens in america? we rebuild. we rebuilt that bridge in less than 13 months. we rebuild just like they are rebuilding in new jersey after hurricane sandy. we rebuild just like you did in iowa after the iowa floods. we rebuild, because that is what a good government does. it funds public safety and infrastructure. it doesn't shortchange our roads and our bridges and our dams. [applause] so where do you think the senate passed the bipartisan water bill, water development act?

kids have served in our military, denied citizenship. engineers and doctors and scientists denied entry. the senate finally passed a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill with 68 votes in the u.s. senate. [applause] it is a bill that will bolster our economy. it brings the debt down by $200 billion in 10 years. it secures our borders, and unleashes potential. the head of the united farmworkers and grover norquist support this bill. despite what you might be hearing from the congressman in this district, 65% of the people in this district, according to a

recent poll, and 51% of republicans, want to see a path to citizenship. [applause] those are the facts. those are the facts. that is the evidence. or as bill clinton likes to say, that is the arithmetic. so why haven't we said that immigration bill to the president's desk? it is stuck in the house. it is in someone's desk drawer, between the post-it notes and the stapler. in the same place where they are hiding the farm bill, the infrastructure bill, and the senate passed budget. it's time to tell the republicans in the house of the people of this country want the keys to that desk drawer. [applause]

they want representatives coming to the negotiating table to hammer out a compromise the works for the american people. they want representatives that are there for them, not ones who have taken a pledge to uphold a rigid ideology. they want to send people to congress, people like bruce braley, that have taken one pledge and one pledge only. and that is to represent the people of the u.s. that is what we need to do. [applause] i think you guys know that these guys can be difficult. you also know, because you are from iowa, and this is the most listening crowd i've ever spoken to in my life, except for the distracted driving conference -- it's a good group to talk to. they don't want to be distracted. you guys are incredible. i think you know that it is not enough to just complain. you have to do something about it. hubert humphrey once said,

while it is good to know history, it is better to make it. if we are unwilling to make history, then others will write it for us. given what i have seen in this room and across the country, you are not willing to let other people write your own history. let me give you some examples. when they sought to divide minnesota last year by putting an amendment on the ballot to ban marriage between same-sex couples, you know what the people of minnesota did? we fought back. we defeated that divisive amendment. we were the first state in the country to defeat an amendment like that. [applause] this year, we joined iowa, our friendly neighbor to the south, to become one of the first 12 states to legalize gay marriage. [applause] we wrote our own history.

last year. when we heard candidates talking about legitimate rape, and relitigating issues without were solved, did we let those guys win those elections? no. we sent a record 20 women to the u.s. senate. we wrote our own history. [applause] if you wonder if women make a difference when they are in congress, this is my favorite story. during the healthcare debates in the finance committee, debbie stabenow was sitting there. she's looking across from the republican senator from arizona. he says, i don't understand why you keep talking about putting maternity benefits in the package. i never used them. she looked across the table from him and said, i bet your mother did. they got included in that group of benefits. [applause]

speaking of writing history, when the pundits said barack obama and joe biden could not win in iowa, you remember that. they could not win in the first place, and then they could not win reelection. you did not let karl rove write the book about iowa politics. you wrote your own chapter. while we are on the topic of election, i did want to say one thing. i know what bruce is going to be facing, and what you will be seeing on tv. we can't continue with a system where one billionaire can write a $10 million check and change the course of an election. as bruce knows better than anyone in this room, that should not happen in the united states of america. it should not happen in a democracy. citizens united was wrong. how do we fix it? [applause] we need to pass the disclose act, so we at least know who the

donors are, and who is writing the checks. i think you all know that that is not enough. the only way we really reverse citizens united is by passing a constitutional amendment to overturn that case. [applause] that is how we send a real message to everyone in this country that our democracy, our state, and our country is not for sale. [applause] despite all these super pac's, you will see them in the next year -- despite the extremism, the 24-hour tv, i believe we can come together for this country. how do we do it? we elect people like bruce, who are willing to get things done.

we call out the extremists every step of the way. we do it by seeking out and working with the more reasonable people across the aisle. i truly believe that courage in the next few years will not be standing alone by yourself, giving a speech. courage will be whether or not you are willing to stand next to someone you don't always agree with for the betterment of this country. that will be courage in the next few years. [applause] from passing the civil rights act creating medicare, democrats and republicans have had the courage to put partisan aside to do grand things for this country. we saw this happen in the u.s. senate with the farm bill. we saw it happen with immigration reform.

together, democrats and republicans came together for those brief but incredibly important moments to do what was best for this country. that was when we saw, to quote former congresswoman barbara jordan, and america as good as promised. our country has always been a place of promise. my slovenian grandfather worked 1500 feet underground in a mine in minnesota. he never graduated from high school. he saved money in a coffee can so he could send my dad to college. my dad got a degree from the community college up in northern minnesota and went to the university of minnesota and got his journalism degree. he went from that mining town to interview everyone from ronald reagan to ginger rogers. my mom taught second grade until she was 70-years-old.

today, i stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner and the daughter of a newspaperman and a teacher, and the first woman elected to the u.s. senate from the state of minnesota. [applause] that is america, and that is promise. my parents and my grandparents instilled in me those midwestern values, the same values that you pass on to your children. family, faith, humility, hard work. they taught me to live with honor and courage, and to never stop fighting for what i believe in. everyone of you in this room, when you think of courage and have to take that one big step or do something you are afraid to do, you always think of something or someone in your family. for me, i always think of my grandpa. back then, it was so dangerous. they would hear the whistle, and everyone would run to the mine.

they did not know who was killed or hurt that day. my grandpa worked in those mines a longtime. i met a guy at a little restaurant. he came running up to me and said that his dad had worked with my grandpa. he explained that after many years, my grandpa got promoted to foreman. he said that all of the foremen would radio down when the guys had to go into a new and dangerous part of the mine. he said, everyone except your grandpa -- when you're grandpa was foreman, he would never stand on top and radio down. he would also go down with the guys, and he would always go first. he said, you're grandpa was fearless. you are the hawkeye state, right? for generations, you have never

backed down from a challenge. your ancestors settled a windblown prairie and turned it into a place that feeds the world. you have given the country pioneers and leaders in political courage, people like tom vilsack, tom harkin, bruce braley. people who take risks and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people they serve. [applause] this is what i'm asking you to do. just like my grandpa would do everyday, just like bruce did when he worked at that job way back, i'm asking you to put those boots on again. put those hardhats on. square your shoulders, and get ready for this next election, including those people in butler county. [applause] i believe you can do it. you know how great bruce is.

i heard your governor candidates. jim auer has the same name as our famous baseball player in minnesota. [laughter] make those calls, knock on those doors. never stop fighting. let's move forward together. thank you, northern iowa. keep up the great work. [applause] >> in a discussion on intelligence and counterterrorism with directors of the national counterterrorism center. that is followed by "washington journal" with a look at immigration reform.

a documentary looking at light in detroit. at noon eastern, the cato and is -- the cato institute examines the social security disability insurance program. >> in the last few years, the left has decided that they are not going to debate policy, they are not owing to develop -- and debate the best way to solve the nation's problems. they are going to label us morally deficient. >> the editor at large, ben commentswill take your starting at noon, sunday the first. in the months ahead, october 6, yourlewis, november 3, questions for biographer kitty kelley. december 1, christina hoff sommers. 5, mark levin.

in-depth, book tv on c-span 2. next, a discussion about intelligence and counterterrorism with the current and former directors of the national counterterrorism center. this is one hour. >> we are probably at that point in the day where everything has been said but not everybody has said it. hopefully we will try and move over for two topics we have not covered and mix it up a bit. very excited to moderate this with two of the best in the business here. matt olsen is the current director of the nctc he has the full gamut. he has been counsel to nsa and acting assistant director for national security and special

counsel to the fbi director. his predecessor's michael leiter. he was the second director of the counterterrorism center until 2011. he is now senior counsel to the ceo of a data analytics company. he is also a national security analyst for nbc news. why don't we begin with a very broad question and that is, what is the current state of the threat from terrorism? where does it emulate from and how serious is it? why don't we start with you? >> it is great to be here. it is daunting to talk about it. we have talked about a lot of subjects today. i will give it a shot.

i would say right off of the top the threat is very different now for what it was 10 years ago and even 4 years ago. thinking at a couple of different levels. as have been noted, the threat from al qaeda and afghanistan is really significantly degrading. we do not face the same threat as the same attack as 9/11. the group is really struggling to survive to recruit and train and operate. it still is -- it remains at the vanguard of the movement. they have tried three times to

take out airlines over the last few years. beyond that, beyond the affiliated groups, we talked about this, the whole expense of unrest and turmoil in north africa and parts of the middle east have led to the rise of the loose network and temporary groups like benghazi to carry out -- the group that carried out the attack against our facility in benghazi last year. those types of groups deftly pose a threat was in the region. they are less a threat here at home. the final group to mention it is very quick answer is the threat from homegrown extremists. the attack on boston is the more clear example. the challenge for us as