"q&a" is 10 years old. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] is ann week, our guest compton. retired after 40 years of covering the white house for abc news. she talks about gerald ford and and shares her personal experiences with these men and her opinions on their administrations. after 40 years of covering the president of the united states at the white house, who had the best and worst press operations? >> they were stable through all

of them. i do think that marlin was ater, who particularly good press secretary under the george herbert walker bush administration, tended to have less good number twos ands threes. the best press operation was pretty even. when barack obama became the president, they reorganized it. when you walk in from the press to the lower were office, there were twice as many people and people who specialized in each issue. if i had a health question, i knew exactly where to go. if i had an immigration or national security question, the division of labor meant there were more people to reach out to and e-mail made that almost

instantaneous in getting answers back. >> which administration was the hardest to get information from? >> each administration had times in which it was difficult to get information. the end of the carter administration, we did not have e-mail. it was handed in paper or announced over loudspeaker. the administration was on the ropes and defensive. it got hard to get routine things from them. the best time for any of the administration's george bush and barack obama. walked in, they had an agenda and the transition was so orchestrated. president bush had an issue a week planned. points of light. education. to get to thehs information they wanted out.

for every administration, during able to getr, being their foreign-policy and national security council people has been really a top priority. i have to give high marks to most of the administration's. -- administrations. you could reach a real human being. >> why did you quit? >> because i felt it was the right time. there is honor in being able to stand up and walk away from something you have really enjoyed that may not still deliver the same satisfaction. come to something of a pausing moment. it is not a presidential campaign year. i never would have left during one. the marketg up on where i would have finished 41 years at abc news.

almost all of that was covering the white house. it comes up to the time in broadcasting when there are new people coming into abc news. a new president and a new anchor of abc world news tonight. there is a new style of reporting where more and more young people -- the digital journalists -- the young people who come in. they are doing so much more and getting on the air. having tutored and encouraged on so many, i saw this lineup of new faces that are now a few years older than i was when i walked up to the white house driveway at age 27. >> we have videotape of you from 1988. it is the first we could find where you appeared on the network. let's watch it and get your reaction. 19 -- will agenda in

the agenda be any different if donna rice had not gotten onto the airplane and confided to a stewardess that she was going to visit gary hart for the weekend? would it have been different if dick gephardt had not designed his campaign logo to look like the chrysler emblem? would it have been different if the network had given difficulties to jesse jackson in the early stages of the campaign? we are here to talk about who sets the agenda. >> do you remember that? >> i don't. i still own the blue sweater. >> what do you think you are saying? >> that is the kind of on the ground, footsoldier covering

le that i always relished the most. it is talking to people who would care what dick gephardt and jesse jackson are doing. i look at the midterm elections in 2014, where some say it is an election about nothing and others say it is an election about everything. somebody pointed out that abc has done almost no stories about it. at the men andh women who make decisions that would guide the country, i like those days. >> you mentioned gary hart. of thet the beginning coverage of personal lives of politicians? >> i do not think so. when gary hart dared reporters got messedim and around with "monkey business,"

a boat that he took a weekend on, politicians realized their private lives were fair game. it is not just the reporters. the managers, the executive producers, the management of ,etwork television news decided yeah, we can go after the stories. what do you think the impact is on the population? do they care? >> unfortunately. i think the general viewing audience love stories like that. and like to see the high mighty, when they become hypocritical, take a fall. figurese to see public on a pedestal. gossipy and see

personal, coverage of men and women as men and women and their personal lives. the public has an appetite for that and it has spawned news-l hardcopy, sli, mecopy, the ones that look like newscasts. it has lower the common denominator. >> what has happened since you have been reporting over the years? >> i love twitter and the immediacy of social media. it does not all pan out as a positive for us. to be able to write in 140 characters is an art. it is done quickly. it still has lasting power because the tweets are out there, and the facebook posts,

instagrams, and other messages. what they do not have is a reporter who has thought carefully and called sources, gotten in editor to make it better -- an editor to make it better. in the last 10 years, and certainly in the last five, i spent less time perfecting good writing. >> where did you learn to write? where did you learn to write? >> writing is a lifelong lesson. and, i do not know how well i wrote when i first came. i have never applied for a job. i have never written a job application. a local intern when television station in roanoke, virginia offered me a job as a

reporter for $100 a week. later, abc news in new york called and offered me a job as a network correspondent. they very smartly moved me to new york. one of the things i did was sit at radio and right and anchor hourly newscasts. a six-day war broke out in the middle east and i had the instant lesson and middle east politics -- in middle east politics. minutesp me write 2-4 as to simply as possible. nctly as possible. when you like what you have written, it is easier to deliver it. the first year at abc news was a huge ramp up in writing. >> born where?

>> the south side of chicago from parents who were longtime south siders. my mom and dad raised me, for the first five years of my life, in a house around the corner from barack obama's house in hyde park. at age five, we moved to a suburb and lived inside of lake michigan. i wrote my bike to school. -- rode my bike to school. the village was the home for the rest of my growing up years. i went to a high school in thereis in an era when were wonderful thriving women's colleges. i applied at wellesley and was deferred. hillary rodham applied and got in. ed hollands college.

ns college.olli i fell in love with it. >> where did you meet your husband? as i walked up to the car was leaving a market on wisconsin avenue. i was in a hurry to get back to the white house because i was the lead story on the 6:30 p.m. news on saturday. he said, did you know that somebody i had went to college with was mad at me. he was so handsome. andlled my best friend said, i just met the man i am going to marry. we were married seven months to the day. >> how many children? >> three boys and a girl. i timed them really poorly.

the first was on the 1980 campaign. i was sent out to cover john anderson in 1980. by election night, i was in maternity close with the second baby. annie wasngs easy and born during the reagan years. abc sent me to capitol hill to take charlie gibson's place when he went to anchor "good morning america." it was so easy. people can to work on tuesday and i had another baby. michael was born the night that graham passed the senate. >> how hard is it for a woman with child to do this business when you are on airplanes and not sleeping? >> well, it was easy for me. i was in good health and i had

four normal pregnancies. i had a wonderful husband at home and a full-time housekeeper who is happy to spend the night if i was going to be late or out of town. i had the means at home to feel secure about the family there. i had normal pregnancies. at the reagan and not rural, -- inaugural, they brought me a chair. the first crisis in my first pregnancy came the night -- it was -- i think i was halfway through the pregnancy when i started covering politics into the 1980 elections. i would not be able to travel through the entire election. they asked me to cover republican candidates and i stood in front of the house and senate doing a report. i said, i will talk about the house and senate. he zoomed out.

you could see both ends of the capital, dulles airport, and you could see that i was out to hear pregnant. notproducer said, i do ever want to see your elbows again untold a baby is born. i was not ashamed of it. it was distracting. >> you are asking a question. >> we read your lips, no new taxes. reagan,the pledge from in each of the last five years, some taxes have gone up. now, that is money out of people's wallets. phrase, no new taxes, misleading to voters? >> i have pledged to that. some taxes have gone up. taxes have been cut. the federal to

government by 25% in the last three years. so, what i want to do is keep the expansion going. >> what is the value of these debates? >> what is remarkable about that particular debate and that question that i asked was that nobody was listening. all they remember is the first question that was asked by the moderator, who asked michael dukakis if he would support the dukakisnalty if kitty was murdered. we had urged him not to ask that question. >> bernie shaw. "gotcha"ught it was a question. wife'sg the governor's name, it was personal. we heard a gasp behind us.

i think the debates are important. i think the panel debates are dinosaurs now. i think they are good. the journalists can ask a question that the president or vice president cannot get around. he has already said, "no new taxes." taxes are going up. i understand why town hall debate are popular. you like to have citizens asking questions. ask, will you keep my taxes low? they will not give the candidate a mandate to sharpen the issue. that is the achilles heel in the town hall formats that are popular. >> what do you think of with george herbert walker bush? >> kinder and gentler. he had been vice president for eight years and was the head of

the cia. he had been a member of congress and the ambassador to china before we had an embassy there. he had done so much. office at the end of the reagan administration, in what i consider the third reagan term. he did not have a broad agenda. he wanted 1000 points of light. he wanted private sector and charitable efforts to be recognized. these were not big issues. what he will be remembered for is three things. he had been in office a few months when the berlin wall fell. an indoor miss opportunity to encourage mocker see in eastern europe. rmous opportunity to

encourage mocker see in eastern europe. europe.racy in eastern he tried to walk around saying, i care. nobody believed him. >> did you cover the campaign? >> i did. >> did you know his son? >> i knew four of his sons. >> did you think that george walker bush would become president? was surprised when they both decided to run for governor. the suns are running. -- sons are running. there is marvin bush, one of the brothers. why are you not out campaigning? he said, i am the only smart

brother. jeb did not win. george w. bush did when. -- did win. my greatest moment with george w. bush was when he was still the smart alec son. he was playing golf. we would see him go off on the first and come in on the 18th. 18 holes in one hour and 53 minutes. said, one hour and 53 minutes. write that down. that is a record. the white house doctor said, "aerobic golf." 1992, what was it like to be

chosen to do this and how much preparation did you do to ask questions at the debate? that we wereld chosen. i was on what benson's -- lloyd bentsen's campaign. ann compton had a phone call. i was given a number. the head of the debate group said, will you be on the debate tomorrow night? i said, can i call new york and ask their permission. he said, yes. i got almost no preparation time. i did spend that night staying up and writing questions. we had at least a week or two notice. at that point, when i was asked questioner, i cut off contact with the campaigns

and those who were trying to influence the questions. i wanted to be able to have a clear head and clear thoughts and look at it with fresh eyes. >> here are a couple of questions that you asked back in 1992. >> how can you watch the killing in bosnia and the ethnic cleansing or starvation and anarchy in somalia and not want to use american might or the military to end the suffering? governor clinton, can you lock where middle income families can be gearing to eat a tax cut or, at the very least, where they can begin airing tv no tax increase. be guaranteed a

at the very least, note they can begin having increase? hepeter jennings call me and had done the vice president of the bay. he said, make sure you have enough questions for 90 minutes. met in my home till room -- in my hotel room. we had yellow sheets. we asked, who would ask about the supreme court. andrea wanted to ask about the nuclear triad. we had every base covered. >> the public things that reporters are biased. >> the fact that many audiences think that reporters are biased

means that we have already lost an important battle. the mainstream media does a wonderful job. we have editors to keep us on track. the audience things that much of the mainstream media is liberal and not in the mainstream. since i started getting that question 40 years ago from audiences, what i get now are audiences who feel that they have a place to go. one toave a comfort z go to on cable television. if they are more conservative, they can go to one channel. if they are more liberal, they can go to the pundits on another channel. the main newscasts and prize-winning newspapers do an exceptional job of telling the entire story without

shortchanging the opposition view. >> who was the maddest at you for something you reported? wo pressnk -- to secretaries come to mind. jay carney reamed me out because assuming i put in a report because he believed that he had put something off of the record. i thought it was integral and included it. for minutes, on a cell phone, almost melted my hair. newtown,n our way to connecticut to visit with the families after the shooting. it was a long drive. it was something about how he would deal with the families and what their plan was. important toit what the president was doing. i remember another time when ari fleischer called me to the

office under president bush 43 and he was furious. there was nothing i had said on abc news. a local -- maybe he was syndicated -- right-wing talkshow host had taken a story i had done and broken it up into little pieces, inserting commentary and ran it. i had not heard it and had never heard of the radio personality. bushs on whether president should have come directly back to washington after the 9/11 attacks. 10 hours onim for the plane. i was allowed to stay. ari was angry. i explained to him that what he had heard was not reflective of what i had said on the air. >> i have heard you talk about this before. start with 9/11 and where you

were. >> we were in a place of innocence on the most routine white house trip effort. there were only a small group of us traveling with the president to several stops in florida, where he had been giving the same education speech over and over. we got to sarasota very late and it was hard to find places. thatnt to a tennis club had a country club-style dining room. i set with sanger from the new york times. andy card and the president were eating near us. he came by and said, good night. it was a 28 year anniversary for me being at abc. david said, why do we do this? i said, we cover the president because anything could happen.

morning, we are in the small group of reporters at the cafeteria in the school waiting for the public remarks. will listen to a group of second graders go through their drill. andy card came and interrupted the president. he whispered to him. i was stunned. i wrote in my notebook. nobody interrupts the president, even in front of second graders. the president said, he had to go. then, we had discovered that two plane crashes had happened in new york. ari fleischer came out to the pool. we were in the parking lot outside the school. he said, stay right here. i said, no. the president has to speak their. there.not want -- speak he did not want to scare the children.

he did speak. he said he had to go to washington. the pentagon was hit. with did not know that as the plane took off. -- we did not know that as the plane took off. >> how many people were on the airplane? >> there were 12 reporters and camera crew there, including a magazine newspaper. small.e staff was karen use would usually challenge with -- travel with us. condoleezza rice was not with us . it was a skeleton staff. i said, what you have on here for dinner? have one sandwich on

board and enough fuel to get to washington. we stopped in louisiana. the head of the strategic air command brought us down into a bunker where they had telecommunications. the press remained upstairs. a national security meeting at 1:00 in the afternoon. we went upstairs and ari fleischer told us that we are returning to washington and we could tell our offices that. the only way we knew what was happening was that i had a clam cell phone and was able to get a signal out. i would dictate to our desk. peter jennings will put meat live on the air. i knew that the tone of my voice, the clarity of detail, and specificity without a motion

was the bestotion way to tell the world that the american government had not been brought to its knees. were left washington around 10:00. -- we left washington around 10:00. we were on the ground at the air force base around 7:00. the president flew to the white house. they had a helicopter and allowed to reporters to stay on. they allowed a reporter from the associated press and me as the broadcaster. we took off and flew on the potomac river with the smoke from the pentagon still rising. of thended on the ground -- we landed on the ground of the washington monument. we went inside the white house.

we went into the press area. our colleagues were working. i saw my first e-mail. it was from my son's at vanderbilt university. at vanderbilt university. it said, mom, our friend was on the 91st floor of the tower. it was a handsome young man who had just gotten his first job. i set down and i cried. >> what did president bush say ?o you he said one thing. he waved away our notebooks. he made it clear that this was not on the record.

any president had to choose his words carefully and we knew that he was going to address the american people. he had reached his wife and family. he had talked to the white house several times. he said, something along the lines of -- we are going to get those thugs. those lines were not reportable. andelt the frustration get -- we are going to thugs. the cbs camera crew, a veteran crew from cbs. doug mills, the new york times photographer. you had five journalists who

knew, inside and out, how to cover the white house. i told andy card that that was the smart thing to do. said, do not push all of the white house press off of the plane. it would be the wrong message to show the president disappearing into the wild blue yonder. you needed voices to get his message out. >> how did things change after 9/11? >> i do not think that 9/11 changed anything in the way that i do things. a the next two years, it had significant effect in how we covered national security. where we gaveme tremendous latitude to the president, the pentagon, to those writing the patriot act on civil liberties, to the congress, which justified moving

did.e direction's is it we were asked to keep things for guidance and not make them open to the public. 's schedule used to be published and public exact times when the president would be where. they would have more planning q and weanistan and ira gave them leeway to keep much of that off of the record. maybe too much. >> here you are with president obama. it was 64 days into his presidency. he called on you in a press conference. >> ann compton. hey, ann. you sound surprised.

>> i am. can i ask you about race? yours is a historic presidency. debates if, during the in the white house, the issue of race has come up or in the way that you have been perceived by r the leaders ot american people? has the last 64 days been a colorblind time? >> i was criticized by african-american reporters because they thought i did not approach it the right way. i thought it was interesting that the first black president had gone for 64 days with the economy hanging off of the cliff. he was so consumed with that. he goes on to say that he is handling the economy for all americans because the tide will

raise all boats. i got e-mails and criticisms online. people said that he should look out for blacks more because they are suffering more than the majority of whites in the weak economy. >> were you surprised that he called on you? >> thank you for asking me. the president, all presidents in recent times, get a list from the staff that suggests which reporters. he had called on all of the television networks and he had called on a website. he had never called on a single newspaper reporter. the new york times is there. all of them are there. i was in the third row. it was late in the news conference. i said, i will never get called on.

he had to go to a print reporter. instead, he called on me. i had a question ready. i was surprised. >> you are no longer there and do not have to worry about the future. we hear a lot of grumbling from reporters that this is a terribly difficult administration to get information out of. put it into perspective. >> before i walked out the door on september 10, i was a strong voice for complaining that this particular administration has been more opaque than any i have covered about what the president does in the oval office every day. he is far less accessible on photo ops with meetings. even meetings on the record, the issues withom or on environmental groups, with public opinion leaders, i think

morepresidents have been forthcoming than the second obama term, in terms of what the president is doing every day. time of 3-4gh a months where i was never in the oval office once. part of this may be that the president feels a little bit on the ropes. his job approval rating is down at 40% consistently for the last couple of years since israel action. -- his reelection. he is the first president with his own journalistic tools. he has his own photographers and videographers. he has a newscast on friday mornings anchored by his former deputy, josh earnest. it is fine if the president wants to present his own version

of what he did all week. most of it is behind the scenes shots of him with supreme court intices and leaders coming from wall street. it is fine that he puts it on the internet and that everybody can see it. those same elements should not be blocked from the white house press corps. >> does all of that work for him? >> i don't know. they have done the newscast for years. i think the reach out to his own constituency -- the people who would bother to go online to whitehouse.gov on friday morning newscasta four minute are more his supporters then detractors. it may hold the base. that is something has always been a hallmark of his campaigns in 2008 and 2012. his campaign rigorously went out

for those who had reached out to him, giving him money or putting getrmation online tog out the vote. >> you have covered seven presidents. let's go through them quickly. let's go to gerald ford. >> accessible and press-friendly in a post-watergate era. i came in when gerald ford came in and he was open and accessible. he was not afraid of the press. >> jimmy carter. >> jimmy carter was too trusting, in a lot of ways. americanhat the foreign-policy, if we were open and honest with our adversaries and friends, the world would be a better place. it did not work out. iran became a nightmare for him. after losing reelection, he gets

the peace prize. >> ronald reagan. >> um, i have heard him theribed by journalists as captain of the ship of state. he knew where he wanted the course to be. going to worry about how the engine ran down below. he had his eyes on the horizon. >> george herbert walker bush. >> kinder and gentler. thousand points of light. >> this is a man who took us to war. >> he took us to war and out of war. he did not notice when the economy got worse and worse. he seemed incapable of working without greenspan at the fed and his own treasury secretary, nick brady. he want to keep the united states recession from hitting.

and, his reelection campaign, i did not recognize him. he was harsher and more shrill. >> bill clinton. i want to say this correctly -- he has a compelling posonality, incredible litical smarts. he overcame something that surprised me. i thought the impeachment and the personal stain of the monica lewinsky episode was something that people would not forget him for. it has been more than a decade. it seems that americans have very much forgiven him. behind the scenes, kind of controlling what the message was? >> one of the more affected

people behind the scenes. bill clinton had a good staff. i think mike was a good choice to take over from myers. he did two things. mike did two things. able to him of being see around political corners. he would not stand at the podium and say something if he worried that, down the root word -- down the road, he would have to eat those words. he always thought out policy beyond the day or the week. he also knew that the president of the united states needed to separate fromty the scandal that was now beginning to become red-hot. he had the white house counsel office appoint someone from their ranks who became a scandal. for the

that way, he could continue to be the press secretary and let the nitty-gritty of those questions be handled by a separate chain of command. had a separate reporter assigned outside of the white house, jackie. she took over ownership of and the hours that it took to work on that story. from that point of view, the clinton structure and the second term, was the second handled as best as a could have. >> what about george walker bush ? derestimated. that is his word. he slipped up and used it in a public statement. misunderestimate

me." underestimated. he lost the faith of a lotta people who support him strongly -- of a lot of people who strongly supported him in 2000. , after 9/11 and the two wars, he felt very strongly that his worldview was right. what he was doing was right. would make the vable, something that had not been done for generations. derestimatedsh misun

the economy and it teetered on the brink of depression. >> barack obama. >> it is hard to capture a president while he is still there. he is not a complete picture. "hope and change" was what he campaigned for. he had a solid election victory. he won reelection convincing people that he was the right answer. i think that americans now heond-guessed his -- whether took his hand's to much off the too much- hisan off of the control on the middle east, on health care. barack obama likes campaigning. i am not sure that he is enjoying governing with the same

gusto. >> a lot of americans think that presidents are lying to us. how can you tell if somebody is telling the truth and when they are not, as a reporter? >> i think i can tell a president is telling the truth when two things happen. when the words coming out of his -- "ido not make sense never had sexual relations with that woman." when the body language betrays them. they get down in a subservient or submissive position. that phrase is the biggest lie i have ever heard from a president. we were in the roosevelt room where he made a statement. ehrer was

interviewing him for the news hour. the president denied it. the president came outside and talked to our cameras. madeleine albright and donna said the president said this did not happen and they believed it. none of the reporters did. >> what about weapons of mass destruction? >> the president bought into a lot of intelligence at was not convincing. he and his advisers will tell you that other countries agreed with us. they said the intelligence shows that there are weapons of mass destruction. where do you think they got the intelligence? i assume it was the united states. he wanted to badly go in and end as a problem in the middle

east. he said, we will never settle israel and the palestinian state -- bill clinton endorsed a palestinian state. will never said, you get that to happen until saddam hussein is out of power. he believed it. >> biggest mistake? >> i hope it is not retiring. my family took me out to dinner and i held my granddaughter on my lap. the president said, "warplanes into syria." i was not there. a little pang. god"e never had a "oh my moments. pit-of-your had a

r-stomach moments. trent lott called to complain that i had to democrats -- two democrats and only one republican. moments like that count. every time you do not have complete confidence or what you are reported does not pan out completely, that is a chink in the armor. >> here is some video of you on air force one and 9/11. it is about one minute. >> i am ann compton of abc news. i have covered presidents over 40 years. today, my last ride on a -- on air force one. there is an office.

we can spend the night on the plane. we haven anything else, a electrical power at our seats and television screens. 11, we used those screens to know what was happening on the ground. i have never been frightened on air force one. not in bad weather. not in trying circumstances. on september 11, we were the only airplane up there. most of the people have been dropped off. i think that, if i ever felt fear, it was the idea that the president could run and could not hide. i was not afraid for myself. i was worried about the country. >> which president traveled the most? >> gerald ford, although we only

had 2.5 years, traveled more than any other president. he spent 250 days a year campaigning and enjoyed getting out. richard nixon had been sober clouseau. -- had been so reclusive. there was lack security back then. i was covering a banquet. i walked up to the president and said, this is the seventh saturday night in a row that the only guy i have been out with is you. >> what was the longest trip you ever took? >> the longest foreign trip was one of the africa trips. when you get over there and you are moving around, you are gone for two weeks. the longest campaign trip was a difficult one. it was the last weeks of the

1988 presidential campaign. full-time abc correspondent on the democratic vice presidential nominee, lloyd bentsen. i had little kids at home. halloween is a favorite holiday. i remember calling home on halloween and the kids were so angry that i was not going to be there. mom, itly found, as a hard to call home at night. i felt so bad about being gone for so long. you brought something with you. i do not know what it was or what it is. being, as well as a president, i am asked for favorite moments. george herbert walker bush goes to camp david and convenes a war

cabinet. he stops in front of my camera and says, the arab world is united against saddam hussein. have flownb leaders to baghdad and embrace temp. -- embraced him. before he sends american troops to the war, he writes me a letter and said, he was not pleased with his answers to me. he drews signature, a happy face. a magic and president taking a moment to apologize to the press. -- imagine a president taking a moment to apologize to the press.

me. i retired, he wrote two apologies from the president of the united states. presidents were that aware of what they said to you and how many did not pay attention? >> i think most presidents realize -- they have a personal connection. that we werenk ever in a confrontation-type moments where they felt unable to apologize. have seen barack obama really angry twice. both were off the record times. one was profanity-laced. he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals. another was where he took us to task for not understanding the limits that he has with foreign policy and the middle east, iraq, and afghanistan.

i do not find him of college at a. apologetic.find him he is willing to give us hell. >> does he have a point? >> from his point of view, he may. we cover what we are allowed to cover. when presidents are not accessible and do not take questions on a regular basis, they reap what they so. sew. they >> what is ann compton going to do in retirement? >> i have good health and speaking engagements. i have a plan that i would not except from a politician -- accept from a politician. i would scoff at politicians say

they are leaving office to spend more time with their family. it is true. i am 67 years old. i have a husband who has supported me. he is a medical doctor. he has never traveled. he was always home. kids who are wonderful young professionals. a doctor, a lawyer, an entrepreneur, a business executive. i want time to do things with them. honest truth. compton, 41 years at abc news and 40 years at the white house. thank you. ♪ for free transcripts or to give us comments about the program, visit us. asgrams are available podcasts.

>> "q&a" is 10 years old. to mark the anniversary, we are featuring an interview for each year of the series, starting on december 22 on c-span. up next on c-span, british prime minister david cameron and the house of commons. advisortional security susan rice on global security threats. later, another chance to see "q&a" with ann compton. in the british house of commons on wednesday, david cameron paid tribute to the members of a british embassy staff in kabul who were recently killed in an attack. he also took questions on the national economy, the national

health service, and policy. this is about 35 minutes. >> questions for the prime minister. question 1. thank you, mr. speaker. house willhe whole join me in paying tribute to the british embassy staff who were killed and injured in kabul following the horrific bomb attack last week. our thoughts are with their family and friends at this time. we will not allow such inhumanity to deter us from building a safe future for the afghan people. we have nothing but admiration for the staff of the embassy, british and afghan, who worked together at great personal risk to help achieve this. i will be having meetings with ministerial colleagues and others later today. >> i would like to associate myself with my constituents about the prime minister's marks