>> coco we didn't do this together. -- i hope that we can do this together.

the speaker has a continuing resolution that he could pass and create a heart eat that would extend the government. the medical research would be back to work. all of the agencies of government would be functioning for the good of people in america and that is what we're sent to do. there are no excuses and i yield the floor. >> on the next washington journal, and look at the rollout of the health insurance marketplaces. we will talk with the head of the white house health reform office. we will learn more about the president's health care law with mike leavitt. secretary ofthe health and human services under george bush. we look at the closure of national parks because of the government shutdown. head of the the national park conservation association. washington journal is live every

morning. >> before she was first lady, grace coolidge taught at a school for the deaf. in a moment, the life of grace coolidge and the wife of calvin coolidge. then, president obama talks to fema workers. later, congressman peter king on the government shutdown. >> grace coolidge was enormously popular as first lady and influenced the taste of american women by becoming a style icon. married to a man known as silent cal, she never spoke to the press, but she did use her office to bring attention to issues she cared about.

good evening and welcome to the c-span series "first ladies: influence and image." she came to office in 1923 after the sudden death of president harding. here to set the stage is a coolidge biographer, syndicated columnist, and author of other books. welcome to the program. tell us about the arrival of calvin coolidge into the white house. how prepared was he for the job? >> why prepared, because he had been a politician all his life. president coolidge is one of those men who started small on the city council as city solicitor in massachusetts, and went all the way up the ladder in the state of massachusetts, and then to vice president. one can never be prepared for a shock like the death of a

president, but he was quite prepared professionally. >> raise coolidge was at his side all along that way in public life. how ready was she for the white house? >> she didn't think she was. she wrote to her sorority sisters and pray for me, friends. she had been a politician's wife and she had quite a realistic view of politics and that particular job. she called this kind of marriage a double harness. that is not a phrase we would use now about marriage in a positive way, but she pulled her load along with the president when they were little politicians. even when they were courting, they would think about sitting in the governor's chair. it was clear even when they were courting, that calvin, her future husband, was ambitious and politics.

>> the 1920s were a time of enormous change for this country societally. just a couple of we pulled out as an example, 1825, the first woman governor in the country was elected in wyoming. in 1926, the national broadcasting company was founded. the first talky movie came out in 1927, "the jazz singer. what kind of country did calvin coolidge inherit? >> he inherited a country in rough water. interesting, but rough water. when we came out of world war i, that was 1918. we owed quite a bit of money. taxes were very high. there were revolutions overseas, and people wondered if there would be revolutions here, if the workers would take over the streets as they had done in europe. when we look at what happened in world war i, some of us have forgotten this. it was quite progressive and interesting and unexpected.

for example, the government nationalized our big industry, the railroad, and in de nationalized it. the stock market was shut down. no one knew how we would come out of it. then there was inflation know when acknowledged, so public- sector workers were very angry, and justifiably so. that was a factor as well. plus, one third of the returning vets, and remember there was general conscription in world war i, had some form of disability, and we had no penicillin. that is a lot. >> so how did president harding use his vice president? in other words, what was the relationship like between the first and second couple? >> you want to separate out the first and second ladies and the couples. i think the couples got along quite well. the famous thing harding did was invite his vice president,

calvin coolidge, to set in on the cabinet. i was a form of welcome. and very useful for coolidge. he never did hear all the dirty details of the harding administration, but he did hear some. he got to know the senate, which he recalled as quite an experience. between the ladies, it was a little bit rougher. mrs. harding was much older. she was a bit in the us of young grace coolidge, who had a beautiful complexion. that was much treasured in that time. she still had the bloom of youth upon her, and mrs. harding defined one color as her own, a certain blue called harding blue. every color looks good on grace.

she could be snippy with grace. we have some letters that suggest she was thinking about the next election, and maybe president coolidge would not be the candidate the next time. when the issue came up that maybe the coolidge's should have a vice presidential house, there was one nominee, but mrs. harding said she did not think so, that the willard hotel was just fine for the coolidge's. >> they were also very different than just what we have learned about the two women. last week with florence harding, we learned she had a bold personality. there were issues that she cared about. she encouraged her husband into politics.

we seem to have quite the opposite with the relationship between the coolidges. >> grace's biographer said the harding marriage was more like a business, and they had a deal. warren got to do this and mrs. harding got to do that. it was an older marriage, as well. in the coolidge case, i would not say that mrs. coolidge was always so deferential, it was just that she was deferential in public. in private, maybe there were some fireworks, but in public, she could talk about politics. her husband didn't want her to talk about politics. he kept her in quite a prescribed area. one time when mrs. coolidge tried on a riding habit, he didn't want her to do that. he said i buys you not to try anything new while we are in the presidency.

in some ways she was a very old- fashioned wife. >> we will visit a number of sites associated with the coolidges, and the first is vermont, which is the birthplace of calvin coolidge. we will learn what happened there on the night he took office. what is it like yucca >> i'm just newly the chairman of the board of the foundation there, and it is beautiful. the calvin coolidge memorial foundation, would invite all americans to come to visit this place. it is one of the most beautiful villages in the world. you can see coolidge's workplace. he was not born over the store like margaret thatcher, but he was born behind it. you get a feel for how beautiful and hard life was for people in a town like that. >> you are seeing some scenes of plymouth notch, vermont. we will talk about the dramatic night he got the news he was about to become resident of the

united states. one of the things it has been very special about this series is learning from your questions. we encourage them three different ways. you can call us. the phone numbers will be on the screen throughout the program. you can also tweet us. you can also join the conversation on our facebook page on c-span. you can find a beautiful photograph of the coolidge administration. there is already a conversation under way. now to plymouth notch, vermont, and the night that calvin coolidge and grace coolidge learned they are coming to the white house. >> plymouth notch is the birthplace and boyhood home of calvin coolidge. he was born in a little house attached to the back of the store that his father operated. when he was four, he moved across the road to the building

we now know as the coolidge homestead. this was an old-fashioned town for most americans in the sophisticated roaring 20's. grace spent some of the time just walking around, that was one of her great passions. she loved to walk, so she would go down to the cemetery, especially after her son, gcalvin jr. die. she did a lot of knitting and other types of handwork while she was here, just enjoying the country air. she grew up in the biggest town in vermont. when she was growing up, her house had electricity and plumbing. when she came here, this was very much a country homestead, so there was no electricity or plumbing in a house where she stayed with her husband. this is the kitchen of the coolidge homestead. this is where they would have had breakfast and lunch and

supper's, too. it is very simple. in here there was one running faucet in the kitchen. that was the only plumbing in the entire house. so this was quite a contrast to what grace had been experiencing not only as a child growing up in burlington, which was sophisticated at the time, as well as in the white house when she had all the modern luxuries. this is a two-hole privy, and it was the only sanitary facility in the house. it was very much a throwback to the previous century. this is not what she was used to, but hearing all reports about grace, she probably took this in good stride and regarded this as just part of her experience with her husband. the furniture in here is the bedroom set that grace and calvin used when they were here at the coolidge homestead here in plymouth notch, vermont.

you can see it is a very simple set of furniture, very typical of the 1870's or so. it is country style. the rooms were small in this house, not the spacious rooms they were accustomed to at the white house, certainly. she was also present in 1923 when word came that harding had died. she was among the select group in the family sitting room that was witness to the swearing-in. this is the sitting room of the coolidge homestead. we now know it as the oath of office room. this is where they gathered when coolidge was administered the oath of office. the original lamp at the scene, the pin that was used to sign the documents, and the bible that was here, but not officially used in the swearing- in, because that was not required by vermont state law.

grace would have stood right about where i am now. there is a famous painting of the homestead and auto, and it shows the group gathered around, and she is right next to calvin's side. >> i want to introduce you to our second guest at the table, who knows plymouth notch very well. former director of the calvin coolidge memorial foundation there, and as we learned earlier, a biographer of grace coolidge. thanks for being with us. set the tone of her personality and what she brought to the job in 1923.

>> it was sudden, but she had been second for a little while. she was new to washington. she had not had a major role when her husband was governor of massachusetts. she was very much in the background. as the wife of the vice president, they were invited out quite a bit to dinner. she got to know the personages in washington, d.c., so that was very good. they would go out a lot and they were staying at the hotel willard, so it was obvious that they would need to go out to dinner quite a bit. she said the tone in that she was very joyous, very vivacious. some people said she was the fun one, she was the front door greeter, whereas her husband was the thoughtful one behind her. so it is an interesting dynamic. we often don't see that with first ladies and presidents. >> everything i have been reading about calvin coolidge

over the years is not just the thoughtful one. he earns his moniker, silent cal. he seems to be an anti- politician in a lot of ways. what was it about this man that brought him to politics? his personality does not seem suited for it. >> the principles, but also the politics. he was not a glad hand or in that way, but he did shake a lot of hands. one reason he was able to climb up in massachusetts is he went to the constituencies. barry famous stories about what he would say if someone asked for something, he would say well, maybe. that meant you would get it. more than he under promised and over delivered, that is a political tactic. makes you trust the politician and therefore, also government. so he was a principled and thoughtful politician. more modern than we like to pretend now. >> david welch asked a series of questions on facebook. what aspect of her personality or experience helped mrs. coolidge to be such an effective counterbalance for her husband him and do you think he could have had the political career he

had without her? >> that is interesting, because when he was vice president, he said i need you here to help me navigate these political and social waters. so yes, i think she was key in giving him social stability and reaching out to others. she remembered peoples names and faces, so she could be very engaging with people, and he could sit back and think, as i said before, and also, they both had a great sense of humor. they had all these jokes with each other, and of course, he played a few jokes on some of the people at the white house as well. >> so as they were coming into office, as warren harding died,

there are a number of scandals beginning to come to light. how did calvin coolidge handle these scandals? >> this is one of the tests, because it was his own party, and what he did was appoint a bipartisan group, an investigative group, and he stood back from it. when he came in as president, nowadays one might say make up clean sweep. he didn't do that, because the continuity was important to him. continuity was a big part of harding-coolidge policy. don't change a lot, reduce uncertainty. he kept most of them on until it became very clear that there was too much trouble. all very proper, all very fair. and he had the blessing of not knowing much about it, and

people could see that he hadn't really known much, although he had suspected. the one thing he resented about warren harding was that harding might be sullying the presidency. >> is it true that grace coolidge went to listen to some of the senate hearings on the scandals in the administration? >> i'm not sure about candles, but i think she did go from time to time to congress, and she did listen in on what was going on. but she kept very much in the background. she was more in the tradition of first ladies to have a happy home life, take care of her children, greet the public, but not meddle in public policy.

>> we are going to go back in time now and learn a little bit about how they met and the political partnership, the double harness, how that all got started. here is a bit of a story about how the coolidges met. >> this is the school for the deaf where calvin and grace met for the first time. he was a tenet in a boarding house on the property. she lived up here in the second floor of this building in the dormitory. we are assuming in a courtyard area. there would have been a flower garden and roses that grace would have tended to in her free time. the building right beside us is where calvin coolidge lived as a boarder. his room is in the back of the building. he would have stood there watching grace in the flower garden. she caught a glimpse of him sitting there in his undershirt, and he would watch her tend the rose garden. we are now in grace's bedroom in her school dormitory building. this window here is where grace

would have looked out and seen calvin across the courtyard at the next building. she would put a candle in this window and see if the parlor room below was available for her to meet him. we are now in the parlor room in the dormitory building that grace lived in. this is where they would meet up and be able to sit and talk and have some time together. they still had to abide by the rules of the school and needed to meet some where that they were supervised and chaperoned while they were on campus. here they would sit and talk and get to know each other. >> we learned about their northampton meeting. what about them attracted them to each other? >> both of them coming from vermont attracted them, but yet she is the urban one. she is from burlington, vermont. he is from little, rural plymouth, so they were quite different in that respect. but she found him engaging and thoughtful, and he found her beautiful, but he didn't quite know how to romance her.

so we asked one of his friends, who happened to be the shoemaker in town, what to say to grace. the shoemaker said just complement her. tell her her dresses are beautiful. do that kind of thing. grace actually saved the letters that calvin wrote to her. even though they were neighbors, he wrote her letters, and they were fairly affectionate letters between them. >> how long did they court before they were married? >> they met in 1902, and married in october of 1905. >> she was an only child, and i have read that her mother was not so happy about the relationship. >> myra adored her only child and thought that after grace had graduated from the university of vermont, she would stay in the burlington area. but grace had a mind of her own and said i would like to teach at the clark school for the deaf. so grace said, i'm moving to northampton. myra said that is the home of smith college.

i guess most of the men are married, so it will be all right. myra could still look for a husband for grace. that was sort of her idea, grace with a mind of her own finds calvin, calvin finds grace, and the rest is history. on the wedding day, she has a headache and does not feel well. >> she got married at her parents home. >> and a bit earlier than her mother would have liked. and with some trepidation, writing to her friend that she was going off into this adventure, but they were quite determined. this was a modern thing, they chose one another. she had been to college, she had been to coed college. she had a brain. she taught be deaf. a very modern marriage, compared

to many of the preceding presidencies. >> jennifer on facebook, i am interested with her work with the disabled, was she the first to do so? >> she believed in lip reading, and she had been trained to do that, not sign language. it is a very different art, and i would say a very difficult one. grace took on quite a challenge. >> our first caller of the evening, this is john, watching us in seattle. you are on the air. >> i think you just answered my question. did grace know asl? it looks like you might have answered the question for me. >> i don't think it was that much of a controversy. it was different concepts.

the feeling is that you would fit in society better to do the lip reading. sign language would not advance you in terms of your career. i think we feel differently about that now, but back then, there was a real drive to fit in and participate in society. >> next is jim from springfield, illinois. >> there was a famous anecdote, and by the way, i have talked to jim cook, he has a one-man show called "more than two words." anyway, there was a story about when they were in the white house, when grace was ill one sunday, and calvin went to church alone.

when he returned, grace asked him what had been the subject of the sermon, and he replied, "sin." grace said well, what did the preacher have to say about it? and calvin is alleged to have replied "he was against it." are you familiar with that, or any of the other anecdotes about their relationship in the white house? >> there seem to be all kinds of favorite stories about the man of few words. do you have a favoiter one yourself? >> being against sin, that is a very good one. if you have lived in new england, you was agin' it. >> his cadence was very much of his region. jim cook after sick, and if you

were on this show, you say a full minute to say the word "cow." the other story to which the caller referred, coolidge goes to a dinner party and a lady says, mr. coolidge, i made a bet i could get you to say more than two words tonight. and he said, "you lose." there is a little policy after, and you laugh. >> what are some of the other things we should know about the early years of the relationship before they come to the white house that are key? >> building on some of the stories, when they get married,

calvin delivers to grace 52 pairs of socks to be darned. grace says, did you marry me to darned socks? he said no, but it comes in pretty handy. she started doing it, it was ok. so they did kid each other quite a bit eerie i think she adjusted to some of his personality. i think he was a little tough when he was writing speeches. she said she was really his safety valve. she would listen to him and be positive when he was doing something like that. >> also some key roles before they came to the white house. we talked about the vice presidential years. what other roles were formative in them establishing the people they would become as first couple? >> when he was governor, he came into a difficult situation, the turmoil we described before. right in the middle of it, there was the boston police union striking, just before his

election. many of the policemen were his own constituents. there were whole dissertations written about how good coolidge was with immigrants, and of course the boston policemen were irish. it was anarchy in boston, and coolidge fired the policeman am a very dramatic moment. incredible tension for him. his political career, some of us are not sure he did the right thing. grace is in the background at home in northampton. that was their relationship in massachusetts. back and forth on the train, and at the middle of the strike, he went home. i read it was his son's birthday right in the middle there, but that was to take the hard decisions.

another place he went was to the little cemetery to see his ancestors who had come over much earlier in massachusetts. so his family was important to him, and when you hear grace say the phrase safety valve, that is a little bit ominous. it sounds a little bit like anger. but she was that, and she was contemporary. >> next is sean, watching us in louisville, kentucky. >> i just want to say how much i appreciate this series. i want to see if your guest would comment on the death of the coolidges' son. >> we will talk about the death because it was so important to the parents and to his election in its own right. we will catch up with that story later on. you asked about the first lady's portrait. we will show that to you. and you have the opportunity to see the first lady's portrait, it is rather arresting in the red dress. can you talk a little bit about

that portrait, how it was done and how well it epitomizes her? >> howard chandler christy is the portrait painter, and he was having grace pose. he said i really like this, because the contrast between the red dress and the white dog. >> calvin came by and said i love grace much better in her white dress. i don't agree, i think we should just have her wear the white dress and dye the dog red. >> the painting is important because the pi beta phi's gave this to the white house. it was the biggest gathering of women at the white house up until that time. they were her fraternity. they call them fraternities in those days. she was a fraternity sister. now we would say she was a sorority sister. she always stayed interested and

involved and was appointed to higher and higher offices there, and had to recede once they reached national office, but she always loved her sisters, and in 1915, she started round robin letters with her sisters. that means writing letters to them and they write letters to her, and passing these around. so they were very important for the historians, but cause we have those letters to read. >> we will learn more about grace coolidge's style in this next video. >> there are number of items that don't come out very often because of their fragility and sensitivity to light and so forth. we have these in our permanent storage area here.

she was really quite a fashion plate of the 1920s, and that was largely because of him. that was his one fiscal weakness, was to keep her in beautiful clothing. much of the jewelry, there are a few fancier pieces i like to show. this is a beautiful jade pendant that includes a clock that is surrounded by sapphires and diamonds. of course, this would fit in very nicely with the 1920s interest in the oriental style. there is a small brooch that was given to her, and there are newspaper reports of her wearing this piece. it is the eagle of the united states, with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. a wonderful little art deco traveling clock. among the several fans that we have in the collection is this one here, which she received

from the president of cuba when they went to that country. cuba was the only other country that calvin and grace visited during the white house years. this is a particularly fine fan, as you can see, with the mother- of-pearl and gold inlay and the hand-painted screen. one of the gowns in the collection is so heavily beaded that we can never display it in the upright position. when we have it out in the display case, it is flat. you can see that it is almost entirely beads and sequins. quite heavy, actually.

she had a great impact on the style of the 1920's. this was not the flapper look, by any means, but the gowns very much have the ragged hemlines that was so popular during the 1920's, the heavily beaded features, very typical. i can only imagine what this would have looked like as she came down the stairs in the white house. >> patricia on facebook picks up on this. when did that whole dynamic first start in their relationship? >> i think he was interested in clothing for both of them, right from the beginning. he even wrote his father to get funding for their close, because he wanted to look good. this was part of their image as a couple.

i think it is fascinating. we have not mentioned frank waterman sterns yet, who owned the sterns department store in boston. i have a feeling that frank sterns was able to maybe get some discounts on some of that clothing so that grace could wear it. that could have been part of it. but calvin would go window shopping, which is so interesting, as a president. he would buy a hat and bring it back for grace to wear. so he was very interested in what she wore. >> if she didn't like it, she didn't always say. she saw how important it was for him, but she certainly enjoyed the clothing, and that was something they could do together. she enjoyed how lavishly he attended to her. this was one of the happy parts

of their marriage. and she was so beautiful, that is what we forget, how beautiful she was. she became a great and important symbol for her joy, her beauty, all of that. >> we had first lady's earlier in history who said fashion standards, but this was the time of a great rise in advertising. how good was this for business? >> i'm sure it was very good to have a first lady like this. as we mentioned before, she didn't speak much in public, so everyone loved her. she never said anything you wouldn't like, because she didn't speak airy much. >> like her predecessors, she was the master of the photo op. >> he played the silent one, and she played the big volume -- some of this is theater. in marriage, we trade off roles, don't we? they had their act down, we could say. >> as a style and fashion icon, she was honored by the french fashion industry for the style she set in the united states. someone asked whether or not she

would be considered a woman of the jazz age. >> i think she might have liked it. she wanted to dance. she took and sing lessons in washington. coolidge would not have liked that. he did not want her to have short skirts. he did not like her to wear pants. grace did not wear pants until after calvin passed away. and hair bobbing, he did not really like the idea of bobbing hair. she didn't bob her hair until after the presidency. make she did have music, though, wonderful music at the white house, but it wasn't jazz. it was more traditional. she loved to showcase people at the white house who were very talented, but it wasn't jazz. that was going a little too far.

we are in this transition time, and some people feel this couple was quite traditional as the nation was becoming very wild in some ways. remember, they believed in prohibition, too. >> she was among the first of first ladies to pursue a study of her predecessors. we have some quotes from them that look at their approach to this role of first lady. this is grace coolidge herself, and this is a pretty famous one. she thought about herself as first lady and she wrote or said, this was i, and yet not i, this was the wife of the president of the united states and she took residence over me, my personal likes and dislikes must be subordinated to the consideration of those things which were required of her.

here is calvin coolidge about the role. the public little understands the very exacting duties that she must perform, and the restrictive life that she must leave. i would like to have you both comment more about this studied approach to the role of first lady. >> remember how many hands they had to shake, because people came through by the thousands. when he did her a favor, he would shake 3000 hands so that she didn't have to. more often, she had to be there, or she had to entertain. just the very physical obligations were hard to into her. at a point, she did become ill, later in the presidency. you could see how much they had to do, just in terms of pure reception. the idea of the white house as a democratic lace. certainly the harding's had set

that precedent. >> as we all know, you are the head of state. we don't have royalty here. and they are somewhat our royalty. that is what you're getting at a little bit with all this adulation by the public. and they would travel, people swarmed them, so to speak. she brought a little more discipline into the role of first lady. she had two secretaries instead of one. florence harding let people come any old time to the white house. grace said no, i think you should meet me at noon on the steps, or a 3:00 reception. she was a little more organized about these things. people forget that they had the mayflower he got. this was a place they could go and be themselves. the military ran it, and the public really did know a lot

about what was going on there. it was a time out for them a little bit. >> when they escaped, did they go to northampton are back to plymouth notch? >> it was often no escape because of the crowds. limits notch, people camped out, shopped in the neighborhood. coolidge was not sure people should exploit the presidency in that way, but he wanted his neighbors to do well. they began to go on summer retreats. they went to the adirondacks or they went to south dakota, or they went to wisconsin where they could have distance from the rest. this was the president of saving and economy. if he lived too opulently, what about that? there was a housekeeper, she went to the specialty stores. he thought she should go to the piggly wiggly and save. soon she was gone and they brought in a new england lady.

ms. riley kept a record of every penny that was spent, and indeed, she spent less. grace had to be the wife in all this, had to appear to save with all these social demands. what tension that must have caused for her. >> i think it was good that they did have to pay for every body's food, but they had a diplomatic budget. they had an entertaining budget.

some historians said they entertained more than many presidential couples, because they had a separate budget. remember, this is a very middle- class couple coming into the presidency. a don't have their own wealth, as we have seen with others. >> what was her religion, and was that an important part of her public life? >> it was very important. she was raised as a methodist in burlington, vermont. she moved over to the congregational church. her family followed her to the church. she felt and said in her memoirs that she was in a church from the time she was little, and also i feel her face was very much part of her character, and got her through a lot of tough parts of life. >> phil is in california. >> i am a big fan. i am really enjoying this. just a comment and maybe a question about mrs. coolidge. i always wondered if the book babbage was based on calvin coolidge's persona.

a hardly speaking, myopic, very conservative viewpoint of life and even social reform and things like that, and the but of jokes in vaudeville at that time. dorothy parker saying when mr. coolidge passed away, how would they know? did that persona or that idea of what calvin coolidge would look like to the general public permeate into mrs. coolidge's consciousness, the jokes and everything else that were made of her husband at the time? or was she screened away from that? >> she handled it wonderfully. they handled it very well most of the time. coolidge did not really like sinclair lewis, and in one

column he wrote subsequent to the presidency, you could see him complaining about sinclair lewis. i think grace just looked away. she just looked past it. she wasn't so worried about what people said about her husband, most of the time. >> people keep asking questions, in many of the photographs we've seen of her with dogs. tell us about the coolidge animals at the white house. >> there was blackberry and there was terrible tim. they just love their animals.

i brought with me the list that grace typed up her animals that she had, and the names and nicknames and who they were. she loved her animals, but i think the best story is rebecca the raccoon. rebecca was sent to the coolidges for thanksgiving dinner. they were outraged at this and decided to raise rebecca at the white house. this is the only time i read that the staff was not terribly happy, because rebecca was sitting in the bath of the first lady's room, throwing the soap and clawing the curtains. she sent rebecca out to the black hills to play with her. rebecca got rambunctious and was

a bit too much. even though grace designed the house for rebecca on the grounds, they eventually were taken away. >> she did wear quite a bit of fur. >> one of their passions, baseball. click she loved baseball more than the president. when i was writing about some of his great battles over taxes or fiscal problems or vetoing that he had to do, grace would take him to a baseball game. that is what they did in washington, and later when she was alone, she went to baseball with her friends in boston herself. >> she was a red sox fan. >> here, they watched the

washington senators, as they were known then. when did they decide that he would seek the presidency himself in 1924? >> i think it was pretty automatic. the moment it became clear among other politicians was when he a vague long speech, like a state of the union speech, around december of 1923. right before that speech, he was particularly cross, because he knew it was a key speech and if he did it well, he might truly be the candidate in 1924, and suddenly there was respect for him. this man knows how to take some risks, to focus and pick the risks. in that case, the risk was cutting taxes. that was his civil war, his big campaign was tax cuts.

it was all laid out in that speech. >> before the election happened, a great tragedy struck the coolidge family, but we have not really set the stage for it. tell us about their two sons. >> they were teenagers when calvin was vice president. they were still at home in north hampton. as i mentioned before, that was difficult. grace and calvin conferred with admiral boone, the assistant white house physician, and is cited they should go to mercer's burger academy in pennsylvania. maybe she could see them a little bit, and after talking to admiral boone, she felt it would be a good place for them. that was pretty much the decision. their son's name are john and calvin, junior.

>> they were fairly close together. she felt she really raised them at home, because calvin commuted to the general court. she is the one who built the little roadster. she is the one who played with the boys. their father came home on weekends and often i interviewed the president and first lady's sign, he said i was supposed to be quiet when my father came home. he insisted we wear shoes with metal toes, so it was difficult for us. >> the two boys came home for vacation to the white house that summer. that is really when tragedy struck. we will learn a little bit about what happened with the coolidge sons and our next video. >> let's head into the vault where we keep specific things about the coolidge family.

grace coolidge's earlier like before her marriage to calvin coolidge, as well as documents about her relationship with her family, specifically her sons and her grandchildren. she was not only a loving wife, she was a loving mother. she wrote to the head of the academy were both of her sons were, and she writes, is there a way which you can arrange for help and junior to have a soft boiled egg for breakfast for a time without great inconvenience? she was worried about his health. the other letter was written by calvin junior. he talks about his cooling, which was not going to well, his clothing, which needed updating because he was growing out of it, and his plans for traveling back to washington to visit his mom and dad.

>> here's an interesting side note, obviously he had forgotten to put something in the letter "send me some socks." we see it as basically the last documented letter that we have before calvin junior suddenly passes away while in washington. shortly after his death, people wrote to the president and first lady in the white house, sending their condolences. as was common at the time, grace and calvin acknowledged their sympathies by sending letters, thanking them for their condolences and their sympathy. the letters were always bordered in black as a way of showing they were in mourning. we actually have quite a few of those letters.

john was the older and calvin junior was the younger. john coolidge did not die young. he lived to a very old age. we have a wonderful letter from john to his mother on her birthday. it is a wonderful letter that just describes his love. dearest mother, just to let you know i'm thinking of you on your birthday and loving you as no boy has ever loved his mother. john and grace had a very close relationship throughout their life. he never really said much about the passing of his brother and how it affected his family. you can tell from the letters between john and grace until her passing, there were letters many times a year. whether it was increased by calvin junior's passing or not, there is really no way of knowing.

>> we did not hear the story of how he died. >> the boys loved tennis, and some historians think grace taught them tennis when they were little, which kind of makes sense. the white house had tennis courts. the boys played on the tennis courts on vacations. they were not there that much at the white house, but one day, calvin junior went out without any socks and he got a blister on his toe from laying tennis. nothing was made of this, but when the assistant white house physician arrived one day to play tennis with him, he noticed that calvin jr. was quite ill and had a fever. he did look him over and found there were streaks of red on his leg. admiral boone was a learned right away to do something about this. he called in military advisers and military positions and civilian physicians. the family knew this was quite serious, and they also took samples and found out it was staph, and then septicemia. calvin and grace were shocked that anyone could lose a son this way.

>> we just saw the note saying sent me some socks. when you read of the death, it was a very painful death for their son, and they watched all of this. what happened to the first couple after their son's death? how did they respond? >> you want to remember that they were not the only ones in this period to lose a son. it was a much more common event. t.r. lost a son in world war i. all around them were people who had been through this singular experience. lincoln had lost a son, and there are echoes in the way this was handled. the paperboys called extra, the

carts rolled with flowers. they set up the station at the white house and the train went to take the sad cargo to vermont, where calvin was buried. it was a very familiar, very american event. >> there is a quote of calvin coolidge about his reaction. when he died, the power and the glory of the presidency went with him. some biographers suggest that in the time afterwards, that he really went into a state of depression, that he was working shorter days, and that it was grace who was the more stable of the two. did your research show you that? >> there is a very good biography that posits that. he said calvin coolidge could have completed his presidency, but his son died.

i see it as more like abraham lincoln. coolidge pursued his policy plans. he did things notwithstanding more joyless, but still that perseverance. coolidge did not give up, and grace did not give up. >> i think the difference is interesting. when there were holidays, calvin would note who wasn't at the table. grace took joy with whoever was at the table. just very different in that way, the way they handled it. >> bill is watching from delaware. >> is it correct historically that the room we now know as the solarium was built by the

being elected to a full term in 1924? since mrs. coolidge outlived president who lived for so many years, did she develop a friendship with best truman and mamie eisenhower, and did she ever go back to the white house? >> we know that there was a solarium built, and she retreated to it at the end of the first full term of president coolidge. that is toward the end of his presidency, and i don't know whether she visited with succeeding first ladies. >> yes, she did, but back to the roof leak. yes, the roof had to be reinforced. it was cracking.

we read did the family quarters as well and put in more closets and that kind of thing. the coolidges had to move to dupont circle, so they were gone for a little while. grace even donned a hard hat to go in and look at what they were doing at the white house. so yes, that did happen. in terms of friendship with other first ladies, yes. they did get together, and there are people who saw madame roosevelt pay her respects to grace coolidge in north hampton. so, yes, there was sort of a first ladies club in some ways. when they were suddenly thrust to the presidency, mrs. wilson came to call, mrs. taft tame to call. the first ladies were very supportive of each other. what was their inauguration like? >> it was a little bit tense.

it was ruined by the vice president, who took the opportunity to berate the senate for blocking legislation and making everything so difficult. coolidge found that very unseemly and was disappointed. he thought his vice president lacked discipline. he himself had served only the president and given a very short inaugural address when he was vice president. >> i'm thinking not. the ball was canceled the time before austerity. gray said what should we wear. it was stricken. remember, this is a. when the government was trying to save. >> we do have this wonderful photograph. it is grace and president

coolidge traveling together to the eggnog duration. what seems rather iconic about it is the expression on both of their faces. you can see the president looking very serious and grace coolidge having what looks to be a fabulous time. what is this picture say to your? >> it says that she is a joyous person and she's going to take joy in the moment and make it .ork for everybody she felt that was her job and make it work for her husband. in this term that they do win in their own rights, she is more involved. when they're up in plymouth when he is somewhat campaigning, edison firestone and who's the other one? henry ford. she's involved in the conversation. here's a woman that's not supposed to be involved in public policy. things are changing a little bit in this term.

>> ellen cabot on facebook wrote did the first couple vote publicly? >> they did vote, they voted publicly. she organized some effort in her town of north hampton to get women out to vote. >> what happened in this in the second time women could have voted, what happened with women and politics as a result of their ability to participate in the vote. >> people supported they would vote another way with their husband. but they didn't. that was one of the big surprises of their 20s. then they asked should they be in politics. then there were a few female by -- a few female appointments by coolidge. no big one, no cabinet ladies. but it was more modest than might have been predicted or hoped for by the suffrages, suffragists, isn't it?

>> this is also the time the talkies came to being, the first film that actually had sound attached to them. and this becomes the first president and first lady that we cannot only see on film, but also hear. coming up next, a short clip of calvin coolidge on film with sound. followed by grace coolidge with film and sound. >> i want the people of america to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. i want them to have the rewards of their own industry. this is the chief meaning of freedom. until we can re-establish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty. >> the ringing of this bell announces the opening on thanksgiving day of the 22nd annual sale of christmas -- the proceeds from which go to the

for [hich is being done the prevention of tuberculosis in the united states of america. bell ringing ] this is a picture of a 100 of the seal, each seal costing one cent. no letter to your sweetheart is considered authentic unless it bears one of these seals. >> there we have it. a president and at that point a former first lady. but it's the first time we have her on sound and film. i wanted to ask you about how being able to hear and see a president as you went to the movie theater around america increasingly popular for the american public. how did it change politics? >> it changed politics a lot. there's a myth that goes with that that coolidge wasn't good in the new media and he was stiff -- he was very good on

radio. they said his voice cut through the air like a wire that new england voice. our problem is we -- he ranked high in the polls when people were told which radio voice do you like? our problem is we don't have those recordings. the radio isn't recorded as it is now or as it was for franklin roosevelt after him. it was popular, it was impactful. >> next is michael watching us in new york city. hi, michael? >> hi, how are you? >> fine, thanks. what's your question about grace coolidge. >> caller: i wanted to ask about the rumored affair she had with a secret service agent? was that a public scandal at the time? is it something that's been speculated about more recently? and either way, do you give any credence? thanks again for the

programming. >> thank you very much. at what point did the presidency with the mini scandal take place? >> it was in the black hills when they were there for the summer white house. she and the secret service agent were lost for a few hours. when they returned, calvin was not happy, but mainly because he thought she'd been hurt, a secret service agent is supposed to be taking care of the first lady. he sent jim haley back to washington, d.c. grace tried to explain, no, nothing had happened. she was okay. she hadn't fallen down. it was all right. they had just been lost. that's all that happened. so i say no, there's nothing to this. she kept up letters, communication with this family she felt embarrassed about the whole thing. this was very much in the public. there was no affair. it's just a few people thought jim haley was handsome and there should be an affair.

>> i want to tell you at this point about our fabulous website at c-span.org/first ladies where we have been accumulating all kinds of video attached to this yearlong series, not only the programs themselveses are stored there in their entirety for you to watch. but we have additional videos of the places we've been visiting that we haven't been able to put into the television program. each week there's a featured item. this week, the featured item is the piano given to grace coolidge by the baldwin piano company. was she a pianist? >> yes. she loved her music. she had had lessons when she was a child. kept up her interest continually and invited famous people to come to the white house to play the piano. so it's very important in her life. music was very important in her life. she would turn on the radio to listen to music.

it helped her day go better. >> next a call from sandra watching us from huntington, maryland. hi, you're on the air. >> hi, i want to thank you. it's a wonderful program. my question was regarding children and i hasn't heard -- i hadn't heard anything about them and then you came on and talked about the children. so it did answer my question. >> thank you for watching. we're delighted. you have another comment? >> caller: well, i want to say how very much i enjoy the program. it's wonderful. >> great, glad to have you in the audience. thanks for making the call tonight. celebrities, the film was enormously popular. celebrities was part of the politics, a political scene in the harding white house. did the coolidges continue that trend? did they involve celebrities in their politics? >> absolutely. not only the hollywood celebrities who were brought around to show they were jolly at various points and they had an elaborate friendship with will

rogers, a superstar -- i think he's like jon stewart. i don't know who you care him -- who you compare him to, but he had columns, he did acts, he made movies, he was very funny. and he came and he called mrs. coolidge -- the first -- the favorite first female number one. and they had a whole courtship going, the rogers and the coolidges. and charles lindbergh, the flier who had become a celebrity by going over to paris. in that way, they hosted the lindberghs at the house on dupont circle where they were while they were out of the white house. they were celebrities. >> rare picture of calvin coolidge with a big smile on his face standing next to charles lindbergh. >> and his mother, i think. >> that's an important moment. calvin and grace went to talk at the budget bureau and left mrs. lindbergh with morrow and they sort of plotted to get together charles and an morrow.

-- anne morroww so that was the beginning of that idea. >> another celebrity that they brought to the white house was someone that continued grace coolidge's passion with the deaf. that's helen keller. we have film of helen keller's visit to the white house, we're going show people. will you talk about, talk about when she visited, the significance of her visit and how the public reacted. >> helen keller wanted to use the white house to publicize the need for support for deaf education. grace and calvin were happy to accommodate her. you see in this picture helen keller reading the lips of grace. and she reads the lips of calvin too. so grace did as much as she could to bring children -- deaf children, children with disabilities, veterans with disabilities to the white house and highlight their needs for the american public.

>> ann in newport, vermont, hi, ann. >> caller: i was going -- quite a few years ago, i went to a yardsale, found an old cookbook, the orleans county cookbook put together in 1924 by various women's groups and there's a recipe here for a coffee souffle by mrs. calvin coolidge, washington, d.c. i was upstairs and i was missing the program, but i thought i would give mrs. coolidge a chance to share her recipe with you if you would like it. >> thank you so much. there are many grace coolidge recipes available on-line. this is part of the way they established her persona to the public. will you talk about that? >> she was kidded by calvin a lot. we haven't mentioned that, about her cooking being very good. -- about her cooking not being very good. and when she gets to the white house, she has recipes that had been handed down over the years and that she's happy to share with the public. she felt that the first lady

should leave something at the white house that they had made. she made a coverlet for the lincoln bed. so she did want to highlight things that were cooking and sewing, crocheting, those were important things to her. >> andy williamson on twitter. mrs. coolidge was asked to give a speech to newspaper women which she did for five minutes in sign language. was that the first? >> i did ask her son if that was true. he said absolutely not. we have a contrarian in here. he said my mother didn't use sign language. she didn't know it. was it observed by someone who disagreed with him? i don't know. >> coolidges, by the decision to create the third floor space changed forever the white house and also the way that first families used this with the creation of the solarium. so we have a view of what the solarium looked like when they

were finished and also we'll show some video from the white house documentary series of what the solarium looks like today as first families used it. this space, established the coolidge's very much the private , space on the top floor of the white house. can you talk about grace coolidge's desire to change the white house and how involved she feels in the process? >> she was very involved. jackie kennedy, we think, is the only one to bring things to the white house. grace got to the white house and said i would like to have a committee. i would like congress to allow gifts to be given to the white house. that did go through. she was able to accept gifts. she went through the attic trying to find colonial antiques. her committee got a little ahead of itself. and the american institute of architects got a little bit upset with them. they were in charge of the white house.

at one point when they were off at one of the summer white house -- the summer white houses calvin said we've got to stop and we can't pursue this attempt to change the green room and the red room. so she sort of dropped that. but she's really one of the first first ladies to say the white house is a museum and we must honor it. >> we have some of the important points of the coolidge presidency, including the farm subsidies in 1924, the indian citizenship act passed. 1926, he signed the revenue act which was, in fact, lowering of taxes. and the pact which is known as the paris peace treaty which did what? >> outlawed war, the job they did with that. >> we mock it, but it's getting -- it has a new attraction. because what president coolidge said was well maybe the rule of law, international law, might be a better step than intervention. well, that idea is interesting.

we should consider that as well. what i notice about these, though, is that they took enormous political capital to get them through and each one of them was hard for calvin. and when you look at their marriage, his view of scandal, the reason he -- i learned about scandal from the coolidges, the reason he avoided scandal, and, indeed, any controversy right down to her wearing a riding habit or redirecting the white house too loudly because he wanted that capitol to pass laws. well, okay. that's what you're elected for and this is all going on in the marriage. you feel like redirecting the decorating the house, but maybe you shouldn't. it attracts so much attention and i might have one fewer vote for this or that. quite cold but also quite concentrated focus presidency in that way. that's what struck me as i went over the years seeing that. >> calvin coolidge is also experiencing a number of

digestive problems, stomach problems as his presidency progressed. how much of a factor was his health and his decision not to run for re-election. >> real but not dispositive. >> when did he announce the decision? >> this was in the summer of i 1927. noticed when i was writing it he happened to be right near mt. rush more. coolidge was a man kprnd about -- coolidge was a man who was concerned about having his head turned by power. he thought, you know, every president thinks am i becoming a narcissist, the presidency makes one a narcissist. when i worked with president bush, i think he didn't become a narcissist and he always thinks about humility. you see that with coolidge too. you try very, very hard not to turn into it's all about me. he writes about this very carefully. with the president surrounded by flatterers. he gets big heads, they weren't sculpted yet, of giant presidents. i think he was grossed out by it.

he said that's not the presidency i want to have or be remembered for. therefore i might run again -- i might not run again, though i might. he stepped back and in some footage you have him at mt. rushmore when the sculptor was about to take a step in the process, coolidge said i want to draw back. i don't want to be a part of the show of vanities, it was a moral decision his position not to -- his decision not to run, summer of '27. >> there are storied about how -- there are stories about how grace coolidge was informed of her husband's decision not to run again. what do you and your scholars believe in your writing of her autobiography that she knew in advance? >> she did know in advance. i found the letters to her girlfriends and she told them in march, i'm getting ready.

i'll soon be on the trolly. i won't have these cars. she did know about it. and she hinted around, please, treat me like everyone else. she knew it was coming. but when he announced that day, she acted as if she didn't know. i'm perplexed a little bit about that. once again, i have to stay out of public policy. i don't want to comment kind of thing. >> we have one more video as our program hurtles towards the close here. this is about grace coolidge and baseball. >> one of the letters that she wrote to her friends dating from october 22, 1946, yes, i was much excited over baseball and terribly disappointed that the red sox lost the world series. i had a grand time at the games in boston and met many of my old baseball friends as well as some of the players. she was a lifelong baseball fan starting out as early as the undergraduate at the university of vermont where she was the

official scorekeeper for the uvm baseball team. this continued on being in massachusetts and vermont, they were big boston red sox fans. when they went to washington, they had a little allegiance to the local team down there, the washington senators. in our collection, we have a number of the season passes that she was given by the american league, usually they were issued with her in a wallet or a pocketbook. the pocketbooks were art deco in style. he was given the 14 carrat gold season passes. we acknowledged the president's interest in the sport but focused on grace's passion for it. one of the items in the exhibit is the certificate that she was given by the boston red sox and the washington nationals as they were called in 1955.

designating her first lady of the land, first lady of baseball. another object in the exhibit is a very fine baseball that was given to john coolidge, the son of grace and calvin. and it's signed by both booth and louose babe ruth gehrig. >> we're going to return to phone calls. next up, joseph in south dearfield, massachusetts. hi, joseph. >> hi, i'm wondering if the panel is aware of calvin coolidge's great, great grandson, clark coolidge, who is one of america's greatest living poets. i haven't heard any mention of them and he's a quite important figure in literature. -- in american literature. >> thank you very much. that would not be a direct line. because calvin and grace had john and calvin jr.

who we heard about. john married florence trumbull, the governor of connecticut's daughter. they had two daughters. olivia and cynthia. cynthia had chris and lydia had jenny and john. the next generation is coming along. john has two children, jenny has two children, chris has two children and i hear his two sons love baseball. >> so the coolidges left the white house to return where afterwards? >> they returned to north hampton, massachusetts where coolidge had begun his career as the county seat attorney if you can imagine. they went back on their house house, which is half of a two family which is not much distance to the sidewalk. and people did come up. and as much as they wanted to fit back into their old clothes, that was the metaphor grace used, of course, they couldn't because it wasn't comfortable. people were always pressing them.

whether it was in north hampton or at the house. they were treated to the house with a bit of order around the -- with a bit of a border around the beaches, also in north hampton. the president said, the doggies can run here. but there was more fence. they could have privacy. still quite modest by presidential standards. and after the president passed away, well mrs. coolidge built yet another house somewhere nearby. >> how long after they left the white house did the president die? >> it wasn't very long. it's january of 1933. so in his retirement, he did write articles, daily articles and then he turned to grace and said, you know, i think you could write too. so she started writing some articles for american magazine. those are very important to those of us who studied first ladies because she does tell about her life. but then he seems to feel strongly about the -- what's happening in the nation.

the friends say he's not good at figuring out his own medical problems. he denies medical treatment. and one day, he goes up to shade -- to shave and grace goes out and walks back and just by happen stabs happenstance goes upstairs and finds him and he has died. >> and here is what she said, a quote from her about the death of her husband, her lifelong partner. i'm just a lost soul. nobody is going to believe how i miss being told what to do. my father told me what i had to do. then calvin told me what i had to do. how do we process that remark? >> i don't think we judge it. it's a different time. she was a different kind of wife. and for someone who didn't know what she was going to do, she did quite a lot as a widow. she was active at the clark school. one of the stories that's the background of this is a story of great love. i've been watching president bush build his library and we were watching the presidents do that. coolidge, too, had to raise

money for his library and his papers and stuff. he did get his friends. led by clarence barron of "the wall street journal" to raise $2 million. and i don't know quite what they thought they were going to do with the money. they didn't believe him. in the end, he did what he said, which is he gave all of the money of his friends to his wife's favorite charity -- the clark school for the deaf. he was giving back after she had given to him, coolidge wanted to give to grace. and therefore there was no great monument for the coolidge papers. there was only her charity. he knew it would pass, i think, he knew it would be wonderful if after he died his wife could be the most important lady in the town and lead a charity that meant something to them both at the clark school where she had begun her career so many years ago. you can't think of a greater act of will than that. you have to juxtapose it with

the statements that sound shall we say unmodern. we find it wonderful and intriguing. >> she stayed a truls tee of the -- a trustee of the clark school throughout her widowhood. we have a photograph of her with a young john f. kennedy. what's that photograph? how did they work together? >> she was constantly fundraising. >> wasn't he also a trustee of the school? >> he was. powerful as a senator. a good person to talk to. she understood politics and got his support for her cause, very, very smart of her. she also when calvin died, asked about 50 friends to write up their view of calvin coolidge. so that softened his image quite a bit and she contributed the last love letter he wrote to her which was really just before he died. she did manipulate his image a little bit. >> this is a real cat's meow. what happened after calvin died?

did grace have to be the defender of the coolidge presidency to the ravages of the rest of the 30s? did she have to answer that? a lot of weight put on her to cope with that? >> you don't have to accept the contention that the policy of the '20s made the depression as great as it was. she'd never been political. that's the liberty of not being political. you can say it's very sad. you can see her doing charity work throughout the '30s. it was a terrible time. but she didn't have the burden of it having been her policy.

>> there are some references and biographies that she whispered to friends that depression was coming. was there a knowledge that the country was heading towards am -- toward the financial calamity that it had? >> no, i don't think so. people didn't really know a crash was coming. >> crashes happened all the time. a decade of double digit on employment, not the crash so much as the depth of the unemployment and the duration of it that makes the depression great in our memory. so that's the key thing. and he was bewildered by it and also by the policy applied to. it and she was bewildered as well. >> she lived a great long time and went all the way to world war ii. -- what was her role doing world war ii?

>> in the run-up to world war ii, she was a champion of the jewish children in germany. she was part of the north hampton committee and wanted to rescue children. she proposed 25 children come to the town of north hampton. i wouldn't have been surprised she wouldn't have taken a couple in herself. but her proposal was fold in the wagner rogers bill who we all know did not pass. she was brave with that stand and strong about america's participation. she urged americans to get involved in world war ii. >> jerry in decatur, georgia. you're the last caller. what's your question? >> caller: my question has to do with race relations in the 1930s. i've seen several images of african-americans in the program here. and my question is, what were the coolidges' reaction to how to deal with the race relations in the 1920s and particularly the lynchings going on in the 1930s?

>> very briefly. it's a good question. it's too bad we don't have more time. someone wrote that it was deploring that the black man ran for office, i think congress of the united states. coolidge wrote back and said i'm really appalled, anyone may run for any office. that's the main thing. the same speech that coolidge gave to still and quiet the ku klux klan. as you know in the 20s, lynchings went down over time. that is the effect of the prosperity of the period. thank you for the question. >> so that was not long after the civil war, all the way to think of the enormous changes 1967. that our country went through in grace coolidge's lifetime. in those years she spent in the white house, how did she change the job of first lady. what should we remember her for? >> we should remember her for treating the white house as a museum. she took her job very seriously.

she thought she was the national hugger. she was to hug everybody, greet as many people as she could. keep the doors open forked the -- open for the public, so to speak. also, keep her husband and her children happy. it was very important to be a good wife and mother and provide a solid home life for them. that's what she saw as her role. >> when she died in july of 1957, she joined her husband in death. you can visit their grave sites. >> we hope you do. especially in the summer. >> encourage -- >> it's a lovely place. >> especially the fourth of july. >> as we close here, what's your answer? what should she be remembered for? >> her great joy. that she could transcend any

trouble through her faith and her joy. >> our thanks to her partners at the white house historical association for their help throughout the series and two guests for being here tonight to tell us more about the life and legacy of grace coolidge. thanks to both of you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> future first lady lou hoover graduated with a degree in geology. she is fluent in several languages including chinese. before entering the white house in 1929 with her husband herbert hoover, the couple lived in china and great written. she also played a role in the founding of the girl scouts of america. next monday on first ladies, influence and image, lou hoover. specialffering a edition of the book, first ladies of the united states of

america, that provides a biography and portrait of each first lady. first thoughts from michelle obama on the role of first ladies throughout history. now available for the price of $12.95 at c-span.org/products. our website has more about first ladies, including a special section, welcome to the white house, produced by the white house historical association which chronicles life in the executive mansion during the tenure of each of the first ladies. >> coming up on c-span, more on the government shutdown. we will hear from president obama who met with federal emergency management agency monday.on then congressman peter king in new hampshire. and later, senate debate on the government shutdown. president obama made an unannounced visit to fema today to thank employees for working during the government shutdown. after meeting with the workers,

he spoke with reporters for about 10 minutes. >> i'm here at fema for a couple of reasons. first of all, i want to thank craig fugate and his entire team, and the incredible workers who are here at fema. they are having to, under less than optimal situations, still respond to mother nature, which doesn't stop just because the government has shut down. i want to get initially a briefing on what had happened with hurricane karen, became tropical storm karen, and then fortunately dissipated, so we dodged a bullet there. in the meantime, we're on tornado watch here in the mid- atlantic states because of severe weather patterns. and we've got blizzards up north, we've got some weather patterns in the middle of the country that we're still monitoring.

and so i just want to say thank you to all of you for the incredible work that you're doing. i think it's important to understand that the people here at fema have been doing everything they can to respond to potential events. here at fema, they're in touch with their state and local partners in case resources are needed. fema remains prepared for natural disasters year around, with supplies pre-positioned in distribution centers across the country. but their job has been made more difficult. thanks to the folks at fema, we were prepared for what might have happened down in florida. nevertheless, the government is still shut down, services are still interrupted, and hundreds of thousands of hardworking public servants, including many fema professionals, are still furloughed without pay, or they're not allowed to work at all. so craig was just explaining to me here at fema -- about 86% of

the fema workforce is furloughed. in response to the potential event that might have happened down in florida and along the coasts, craig called back 200 of those workers. keep in mind, calling them back doesn't mean they were getting paid, it just means they had the privilege of working without pay to make sure that they were doing everything they can to respond to the potential needs of their fellow citizens. now that this particular storm has dissipated, craig is going to have to re-furlough at least 100 of those folks who were called back. so think about that. here you are, somebody who's a fema professional dedicated to doing your job; at a moment's notice you're willing to show up here in case people got in trouble and respond to them, even though you're not getting paid, even though you don't have certainty. and now you're being put back on furlough because the government is shut down. that's no way of doing business.

that, by the way, just speaks to the day-to-day emergencies that may come up and that is fema's job to respond to. craig was also explaining the fact that when it comes to training first responders, for example, we have on a weekly basis already scheduled training for first responders that now have to be rescheduled. it will probably end up ultimately costing the government more money for us to put those things back together again. and so not only is this shutdown hurting fema workers, not only is it making it more difficult for us to respond to potential natural disasters, but it may actually end up costing taxpayers more than it should. right now, congress should do what's in the best interest of the economy and the american people, and that's move beyond this manufactured crisis and work together to focus on growth, jobs, and providing the

vital services that americans all across the country depend on, including the services that fema provides. i heard a lot of talk over the weekend that the real problem is, is that the president will not negotiate. well, let me tell you something i have said from the start of the year that i'm happy to talk to republicans about anything related to the budget. there's not a subject that i am not willing to engage in, work on, negotiate, and come up with common-sense compromises on. what i've said is that i cannot do that under the threat that if republicans don't get 100% of their way, they're going to either shut down the government or they are going to default on america's debt so that america for the first time in history does not pay its bills. that is not something i will do. we're not going to establish that pattern. we're not going to negotiate

under the threat of further harm to our economy and middle-class families. we're not going to negotiate under the threat of a prolonged shutdown until republicans get 100% of what they want. we're not going to negotiate under the threat of economic catastrophe that economists and ceos increasingly warn would result if congress chose to default on america's obligations. now, the other thing i heard over the weekend was this notion that congress doesn't have the capacity to end this shutdown. the truth of the matter is there are enough republican and democratic votes in the house of representatives right now to end this shutdown immediately, with no partisan strings attached. the house should hold that vote today. if republicans and speaker boehner are saying there are not enough votes, then they should prove it. let the bill go to the floor and let's see what happens. just vote. let every member of congress

vote their conscience and they can determine whether or not they want to shut the government down. my suspicion is -- my very strong suspicion is that there are enough votes there. and the reason that speaker boehner hasn't called a vote on it is because he doesn't, apparently, want to see the government shutdown end at the moment unless he's able to extract concessions that don't have anything to do with the budget. well, i think the american people simply want government to work. and there's no reason that there has to be a shutdown in order for the kinds of negotiations speaker boehner says he wants to proceed. hold a vote. call a vote right now, and let's see what happens. the second thing congress needs to do is to raise the debt ceiling next week so the treasury can pay the bills that congress has already spent. that's what most americans do if they buy something -- if they buy a car or if they buy a house, if they put something on a credit card, they understand they've got to pay the bills.

this is something routine. it's been done more than 40 times since ronald reagan was president. it has never before been used in the kind of ways that the republicans are talking about using it right now. we can't threat an economic catastrophe in the midst of budget negotiations. so authorize the treasury to pay america's bill. pass a budget, end the government shutdown, pay our bills, and prevent an economic shutdown. and as soon as that happens, i am eager and ready to sit down and negotiate with republicans on a whole range of issues -- how do we create more jobs? how do we grow the economy? how do we boost manufacturing? how do we make sure our kids are getting a first-class education? all those things will be on the table. i'm happy to talk about health care; happy to talk about energy policy; how do we deal with our long-term fiscal situation. all those things i've been eager and anxious to talk to

republicans about for the last seven months, and i've put out a budget that specifically lays out my vision for how we're going to grow this economy. and i expect the republicans should do the same, and we can negotiate it. but we shouldn't hurt a whole bunch of people in order for one side to think that they're going to have a little more leverage in those negotiations. last point i'm going to make -- the bill that is being presented to end the government shutdown reflects republican priorities. it's the republican budget. the funding levels of this short-term funding bill, called the cr, is far lower than what democrats think it should be. nevertheless, democrats are prepared to put the majority of votes on to reopen the government. so when you hear this notion that democrats aren't compromising -- we're compromising so much we're willing to reopen the government at funding levels that reflect republican wishes, don't at all

reflect our wishes. for example, here at fema, they're still subject to the sequester, so even before the shutdown they were having trouble making sure that everybody was staying on the job and fulfilling all of their various functions. we need to get that sequester lifted that's been hanging over the head of the economy and federal agencies during the course of this entire year. this short-term legislation to reopen the government doesn't even address that. that has to be done in a broader budget framework. so democrats have said we are willing to pass a bill that reflects the republicans' priorities in terms of funding levels. that's a pretty significant compromise. what we're not willing to do is to create a permanent pattern in which unless you get your way

the government is shut down or america defaults. that's not how we do business in this country, and we're not going to start now. so, again, i want to thank everybody at fema here for the extraordinary work that you're doing. you show each and every day that you take your responsibilities seriously. you do your jobs with consummate professionalism. and hopefully you're setting a good example for members of congress. they need to be doing the same thing. and if they do, then there's no reason why we all can't move forward and make sure that we're taking care of america's business. thank you very much, everybody.

clip use the set button or hand tools. it bylick share and send e-mail, facebook, twitter or google plus. ,he c-span video library searchable, easy and free. crated by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. >> now, republican representative peter king of new york on his party's strategy in the government shutdown.

he spoke monday at the politics bedford, newst in hampshire. our coverage begins with jim bread, the ceo of the new england council. this is a little less than an hour. [applause] very much, neil. one item that i would like to mention to the new england council, next week on october 16, we have our annual new england council dinner and we honor individuals from england -- have done extraordinary have done an extra ordinary job in our event here. senator kelly a are. people over 1500 registered to attend this event. it is going to be quite an evening and we thank all of you for your support. not only just to provide dinner,

but throughout the year. we wouldn't be as successful without your support. i just want to say thank you. on october 22, we go back to washington where we have a program called capital conversations where we bring in members of congress and united states senate from england to speak to our members who have representatives in washington. on october 22 we will have the junior senator from maine, senator king will be speaking. we have a full calendar of events coming up in not sober november and we hope you will participate. today, we are here and we are delighted to welcome new york congressman peter king to the granite state. he is currently serving his 11th term in the united states congress, representing the second congressional district, which includes many of the communities along the long .sland south shore the congressman got a start in public service some 40 years ago

as a nassau county attorney. he went on to serve as a county controller. before his first run in 1992. outside of public service, many of you may not be aware, but he has some unique hobbies. he is the author of three novels and has been known to step into the boxing ring from time to time. i think that experience helps him well in his current position. [laughter] highlight ofs a what is going on in the arena. best perhapsing is known for his leadership on the committee on the homeland security where he chaired that committee in 2006 and then again in 2011, 2012. today he is the chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism and intelligence. he is been a leader in the ongoing effort to have homeland security funding based on threat analysis. the congressman has also led the

fight to continue funding the secured cities program to protect new york and many other metropolitan areas from attack. the congressman also serves in the house services committee. has reauthorized tree which is the terrance risk insurance act which is very important to all of new england and to the country. it is a bill of reauthorization. he has been a leader in urging his colleagues to support this legislation. respecthe things that i most about our guest speaker today is his independent spirit and his willingness to break party lines to do what he believes is best for his district and for our country. as his district in so many other communities on the east coast struggle to recover from the devastation caused in the superstorm sandy, he broke ranks with the gop to fight for the federal disaster relief

funding. the congressman recognized how important this funding was to help families get back in their homes, to help businesses reopen their doors. i am told that not only did he work very very hard to get the funding, he has some irish in him that he still hasn't forgiven any of his colleagues that did not support this piece of legislation. timers forget- everything but the grudges. he is gunning for some people out there to say hey, where were you when i really needed you? weeks, congress has struggle to reach agreement on funding the government. our guest speaker, congressman king, has emerged as a voice of reason within the republican party, while the more conservative wing of the gop has refused to back down in defunding healthcare reform, congressman king just one week

ago told reporters "i don't want to be the facilitator of disastrous process and plan." of 12onday he is just one republicans to vote against it latest version of the gop's stopgap spending plan that would strip funding for obamacare. it well when they ascribed congressman king -- stand up guy who is not shy about tangling with the powerful, even those in his own party. king has become a national for theho delivers region and his district." i couldn't agree more. i'm pleased he can join us today please do us a warm new hampshire welcome to understand peter king. [applause]

>> thank you very much. let me first thank jim for finding the one good thing that "newsday" said about me. [laughter] for us thatly good we don't say too many things about each other. it would probably be better free translator so you could understand my new york accent. i'm still doing my best to figure out new hampshire. there are some new yorkers here. we have some people who lived in my neighborhood for a while. it is interesting. you hear about these old parochial irish and italian and jewish neighborhoods where you basically didn't know people beyond the three or four blocks relived. we have thousands of people living on each street heard there's only one guy on our street who ever went to college. he went to saint anselm's in new hampshire.

then he went to saint anselm's and he kept coming back every -- or three months and tell and told us would agree time he was having. it is a great school. the architectsof of the successful giuliani campaign we went to saint anselm's for debate. say, it is great to be here. coming from a nassau republican , some people say we never grow up. in any event, we have a very strict party hierarchy and you have to respect what republican leaders tell you. i want you to know that i did ask for a visa to come to new hampshire. they said it is a very limited

visa as long as i go in and out. i'm not going to stay too long. [laughter] it is a tricky job. the congress needs all the assets it can get right now. i would like to speak chiefly on this whole debt showdown we're having right now. touch on a few other issues about leadership. and for better for me you if we have as many unscripted questions as possible. i have said from the start this was madness. republicans, 30 or 40 republicans in the house of representatives allowed themselves to be hijacked by ted cruz. you,or cruz, let me tell nobody was talking about defunding obamacare in april, may or june third suddenly in august this issue took off and people came back to congress and this september it became

great issue among republicans that we had to shut down the government unless the president agree to defend obamacare. obamacare 42st times. i think is going to be harmful to particular states. be -- itt is going to is a separate issue. yet somehow it came down that unless you are willing to defund -- unless you're willing to close on the government, anmacare being defund it was article of faith. you couldn't be a conservative unless you voted to shut down i am aernment. conservative who believes in his ability of institutions. youcan't just take the law don't like and say you want to repeal it. if you want to repeal it, you have to do it the way it was enacted. give the democrats their way. -- give the democrats credit for

getting their way. we should elect more republicans and then elect a republican president. that ifot going to do we continue policies of shutting the government. againsthner said he was threatening to shut down the government if obamacare was not defund it. eric cantor said he was against it and they were not going to allow this to happen. said -- insisted that we vote to defund it. he said don't worry. send to the senate, harry reid will back down, the president will back down, the government will stay open and obamacare will be defunded. now we have a government shutdown and obamacare is stronger than ever. to me, what happened in the house was you had 40 or 50 republicans who threatened to vote against what we call -- basically bring down the house unless john boehner voted to

shut down the government's and defend obamacare. ted cruz was going to take care of it. was done based on what he said. it went to the senate and basically he spoke for 21 hours, he read dr. seuss and that was it. he couldn't get it done. then he said we should keep fighting and the house. also we find that senator cruz's building mailing lists so they can get funds. it would be great if it was only a republican fight, but the fact is the government shutdown and there is no immediate strategy to get out of this. now we have coming up next week i will be very critical of

republicans. president obama is president. he is the leader of the democratic party but he is president of the country and it is totally wrong for him to be standing on the sidelines and criticizing republicans. he madepartisan points, his point but as president, i cannot imagine harry truman or lyndon johnson or john kennedy or bill clinton or ronald reagan standing there while government shuts down. is shutnse department down now. the executive branch is it's a yet-- hit so hard by this the president is content to sit back and see all the ramifications that will flow from this. you can make things happen and -- teddy roosevelt lived in my former district. he is the symbol of politics on long island. the guy who got the job done.