festival. then, we are live up for the tribune fast. including an in-depth program with a politico's winning author. that is this spring on c-span two book tv. ♪ >> this week on "q&a," our guest is kate anderson brower, author of "the residence: inside the private world of the white house," which takes a look at the executive mansion through the eyes of a workers, butlers maids, florists, engineers electricians and others who run the white house and sometimes see the first family in their most private moments. brian: kate anderson brower, author of "the residence" about the white house, who is married -- mary prince and what is the

story about her time? kate: she is one of the most interesting characters. she was the carters' nanny and she was convicted of murder in the early 1970's. it is a fascinating story. she was convicted of murder. she was in georgia with her cousin and they got into a fight outside a bar. she ended up killing this guy. she says it was in self-defense. she went to prison and was on a work release program. she went to the governor's mansion and interviewed with rosalynn carter. carter loved her and said, would you come and meet our daughter amy? she said the minute she met amy, they clicked. they couldn't stop laughing. they would play hide and go seek. they loved each other. they took her on as their nanny and their nanny was still in prison. when jimmy carter was elected president, she went back to prison for a period of time.

they had to have the president be her parole officer in order to bring her to the white house. so she came to the white house. eventually she was cleared of , the charges. i interviewed rosalynn carter for the book. she says it was a racially motivated -- mary says she didn't meet her lawyer until the morning of the hearing. there were strange things surrounding her conviction. but, she worked at the white house. they loved her. the staff at the white house were a bit dubious about her because she was brought in by the family and then that happened. but i loved her story because you just couldn't make it up. the president was her parole officer, which is hard to believe. brian: where is she now? kate: she lives in georgia and she babysits for amy's son hugo. so she is still a huge part of

the carter family. i set up the interview with mary through the carters' assistance. they consider her one of her -- one of their own and they just love her. brian: how often over the years has a president and first lady brought in somebody from the outside, instead of the white house staff? kate: it happens fairly often. the bushes brought one of their personal maids. nancy reagan took one of the maids with her to california too. it does happen the other way. they grow so close that they bring them with them after they leave. but largely, they do rely on these 96 or so permanent staffers at the white house. brian: zephyr wright. kate: she was the johnsons' longtime cook. they brought her from texas. she is an example of someone they brought with them. lady bird johnson, ladybird has a great story about driving from texas to d.c. with zephyr, and they couldn't find a place to stay because they wouldn't allow african-americans in the state

-- same hotel. there is a great scene where ladybird is talking to some motel clerk and the clerk says we work them, we don't sleep them. ladybird says, that is a nasty way to be, and storms off. zephyr talks about how compassionate ladybird was and how that trip across the country helped to inform president johnson and lead to the civil rights act. it was part of his decision to push for it, seeing their friend go through this. brian: what was her relationship with the president? kate: it was very close. the president would say things to her like, they don't appreciate what i'm trying to do. your people don't understand what i'm trying to do. he felt like martin luther king and these other activists weren't grateful enough, always pushing for more, never enough. she was a sounding board for him. but she stood up to him. there's a scene in the book

where he got angry at her for leaving the lights on. she stood up to him because he was always yelling at people about leaving lights on and trying to save electricity. she's one of the few people who could stand up to him. brian: your book went right to the bestseller list. it is called "the residence." we just showed the cover of it with the white gloves. whose idea was it for this cover, and this title, and why do you think this shot to the top of the bestsellers list? kate: the cover, i give harpercollins credit for that. it is a beautiful cover. i think it is gorgeous. i think it shot to the top of the "new york times" best because it is something people can relate to. i'm seeking to show the presidents and first ladies as human beings. we know so little about them. any shred of personal information we get told from a

unique vantage point, so it is unique, and there's a lot of interest with "downton abby," and "the help" and this culture that you never see. i think the book shed light on what goes on at the white house. the title, they call it the residence, and i thought that was a great, powerful title. brian: you worked in the white house as a reporter for what organization and how long? kate: i worked for bloomberg news for four years during obama's first term. i traveled around the world and it was a wonderful experience. before that i was at fox as a producer and cbs as a producer. al hunt gave me my chance at bloomberg to go to the white house. but i was in tv first. i wanted to switch to print. bloomberg is a powerhouse of the

wire service. it was incredible. the greatest story was under my nose the whole time, these people who you never see. brian: you say you did 100 interviews with people who worked in the white house? kate: more than 50 former resident staffers and one current resident staffer. and 50 plus advisors. more than 100 people for the book. including people like president obama's body man, and katie johnson, who had a unique view of these people and how they served the presidency. brian: how often did somebody say to you, you can't write this? kate: only one person said, you are going to have a lot of trouble. it was very difficult to get

them to talk. it took two years, a lot of time and energy. this was my full-time job. but there is one woman christine limerick, the head housekeeper. she was the linchpin for me. because she is beloved, and once she agreed to talk to me, and i went to her house in delaware, she opened a lot of doors for me. i think she put in a good word for me. she gave me phone numbers. brian: let's show some video of something we used when we did a special on the white house to give people an idea of what it looks like. this is done that graphically into them i will get you to expound on this. [video clip] >> inside the central mansion, there are 130 rooms with a floor plan that unites the ground, state, and second floors, with a centrally located oval-shaped room. on the ground floor, there is a

diplomatic reception room, with the library and china rooms complementing it on each side. next is the state floor, anchored by the blue room in the center, with the state dining room at one end, the east room at the other, and the red and green rooms off to either side. on the second floor private residence, the yellow over room -- oval room is the central space bordered by the treaty room, lincoln bedroom, and the queens room to the east. and presidential bedrooms and studies, the west sitting hall and the families private dining room to the west. brian: to the best of my knowledge, we've never seen any photos of the obamas' private quarters. kate: they are so intensely

private. that is another reason i could not interview current resident staffers. you know because they have two young daughters. they are very protective of that space. understandably i think. but i didn't realize there is this room on the third floor called the solarium. it is a really cool family room. melia and sasha obama have their sleepovers there. it is where president reagan recuperated after the assassination attempt. it is a very cool concept that there are layers of history in each of these rooms. brian: did anybody let you go to rooms like the solarium? kate: i didn't get any cooperation from the obama white house. anyone who talk to me on the obama's were people who talk to me from having covered it. the closest i got was a lunch with michelle obama in the old family dining room. that made me think about doing

this book. this butler was coming in and out of the room and serving her. it was a small luncheon with her. it made me think of this other side of the white house. but i never got into the inner sanctum myself. which makes it -- i mean it -- i am even more intrigued. i would love to go there. these resident staffers told me some wonderful things. in my mind's eye i can visualize , it. brian: who are the thicklens? kate: they are an incredible family. nine members of the family have worked at the white house. i interviewed james jeffries the only current part-time butler who i didn't get to interview. he works every week at the white house. nine members of his family worked there.

his uncles were maitre d's, which is like the head butler. they brought him in when he was 17 years old in 1959 during the eisenhower administration. he is still working there. he describes how he used to work in the kitchen. they kept giving him ice cream to eat. it is incredible that he remembers what the eisenhower's were like. there's this dying breed of person who remember that. that's what i wanted to do, to pay tribute to these people. i've gotten some great feedback. they are very happy with it. six of them have passed away in the past two years. one of them passed away. his daughter wrote me a note saying, thank you for honoring my father. she included a $75 check saying, have lunch on me. i mean, these are the kind of people they are, very generous sweet, and kind. having written a book, you usually don't hear back from people saying thank you. it is usually the opposite. brian: why are so many of the butlers african americans?

are there any white butlers today? kate: it has changed. since the clinton administration, it changed a little bit. historically, it was an african-american job. especially in washington, d c it was a job they were really proud of. they formed private butler's incorporated, a group of butlers who would help each other get jobs. one of the butlers passed away recently. he told me that the women, these ambassadors' wives, would introduce him as mr. westerly, who works at the white house. this was something they were very proud of. it was a good paying job for a lot of the staff. they did very well because they made money outside the white house. i think it is just a tradition. because they would bring in their relatives. one person works there and they bring in their brother, then they bring in their cousin. it is about trust. brian: who is freddie mayfield?

kate: freddie mayfield was a doorman. he was there during the reagan administration. people loved him. one of the ushers told me that he was told he needed bypass surgery, and he never got it because he kept saying, i want to be here for the president. i'm going to wait for his next trip. he passed away on his way to work. he had a heart attack. i talked to nancy reagan through her assistant, and i said, can you tell me if mrs. reagan remembers freddie mayfield? i got an immediate response from nancy, she remembers exactly how sad it was, how empty and lonely it was when he wasn't there anymore, because she saw him every morning in the elevator. she still remembered that. she remembered the details. she was at his funeral, and

repeated a little of what others had told me. it was moving to see the first lady at his funeral. brian: what is the story about nelson pierce and richard nixon in seattle? kate: nelson pierce was born in seattle and he heard the nixons were traveling out there, so he asked if he could go on this trip. he tells this beautiful story about being on air force one. he could view all these beautiful mountain ranges where he grew up. he said his eyes filled with tears. he was just so moved by that. afterwards, he went up to mrs. nixon and thanked her, and she said, i wanted to see the mountains too. it was a sweet thing to do.

he thinks they did it for him. the nixons came across, from my reporting, as more sympathetic than you would think to the staff. brian: who came across as less sympathetic to the staff? kate: i think the clintons because they were just dealing with so much at the time. they also weren't used to having staff. that is a key difference with the bushes, the reagans, versus the clintons and the obamas. they didn't know exactly how to handle it. they wouldn't tell them when they were eating, so suddenly there would be a panic in the kitchen. the bushes would say, two for dinner at 6:00. it was very regimented. they lived their lives this way. they were very patrician. these people grew up in this luxurious environment. they treated the staff very well, with a lot of respect. bush sr. especially.

brian: i know you've been asked a lot about this, where bill clinton, or hillary clinton -- i think gary eldredge was the first to report it. there is a story about the book being thrown. you say that clinton had stitches in his head? kate: that is what a staffer told me. he had to get stitches, and another staffer confirmed this for me. he had stitches. they believe it was a book thrown. nobody saw the actual book being thrown. the way i described it was, they found blood on their bed. the president says he walked into the bathroom door in the middle of the night. the staff thought that she must have clocked him with a book. i have it on the record from a florist who says he heard them yelling at each other in the west wing hall when he was going to switch out the flowers and he heard a heavy object being thrown. it feeds into the idea that it

was a very tumultuous time. i think it is understandable. there was a lot going on during their entire eight years. not just during lewinsky, but before then. i think it was a tough time for the staffers. brian: were you the first to report the stitch? kate: i hadn't seen anything on it. brian: how did they treat you, the clintons, when you wanted to write this book? did either one of them talk to you? kate: i asked them for a letter that was read at the funeral of one of these beloved butler's named james ramsey. when he passed away, laura bush went to his funeral. the clintons and the obama's both had letters they sent. the clintons gave me the letter that was read. that's the closest i got. brian: here's president obama talking about the staff in a brief interview.

[video clip] >> mr. president, what is it like to live in the white house? president obama: it is an extraordinary experience. the thing that michelle and i and the girls appreciate most is the staff, which are so diligent, constantly thinking about how to make the first family comfortable. in what is, to some degree, an artificial environment. they have become great friends. >> i think the white house staff has figured out how to accommodate families and make them feel as normal as possible, even though there are dozens of people around all the time. you begin to see them as family. that's the beauty of this place. it is really the staff who make it home for so many different families over the years. brian: what has it meant to the people that work there that this is the first african-american couple to the president and first lady?

kate: one butler told me he would keep working there as long as his legs let him stand. you know, it means so much to him because he is black and self. -- because he is black himself. their secretary said on inauguration day, she could look at these older gentleman and see the pride. the head of operations told me i don't care if it is a black man, white woman, it doesn't matter to me. i'm going to do the job to 100% of my best ability. it does not matter. so they also are sort of -- they stick with that too. like the president said, they make the house comfortable for the first family regardless of color. but certainly, there is an incredible -- but they never thought they would see this day, they told me. it was an incredible moment for them. brian: here's a clip from lady bird johnson's tour of the white house in 1968. it shows the family in the family dining room. is this where you had your lunch

with mrs. obama? kate: yes, the old family dining room. brian you said it was intimate. : kate: there were about 10 of us, 10 female reporters, who covered the first lady. it was to celebrate the anniversary of her "let's move" campaign. brian: let's watch the johnson family. [video clip] ladybird johnson: having the entire family together for lunch is a joy, but also lindens hours vary with his work and the girls are just as unpredictable. but once in a while, everyone's activities coincide and we gather in the family dining room. [indiscernible]

>> he looks so much like his daddy. >> skinny. [indiscernible] >> i thought it was a tractor with a bulldozer will stop >> that is what i thought. brian: the little fellow there is patrick lyndon nugent. he belonged to lucy. also we saw a brief clip of jean , allen. tell us about jean allen. kate: i love this video. he was a butler who the movie "the butler" was loosely based on. lee daniels, the butler. charles tells a great story about how he was in the infantry in vietnam. he said, please ask president

johnson, is there anything he can do to get me out of this? i will be in the air force anything else. eugene allen said, if this was president kennedy or anyone else, maybe i could help you but i don't have the relationship with him. they are not supposed to ask for favors. that is a big ask. charles told me that it was just heartbreaking for him. he really wanted his father to push. eugene allen was the penultimate butler. he never asked for favors. he was very diligent. people say that he was not the one who asked for a raise for the black staff. i've been told that that was not something he would do. because he respected the institution of the presidency. the way the staff was paid, a lot of the african-american staff were not paid as well as the white staff, because the white staff worked as plumbers and in different positions.

they weren't butlers. there was an uprising led by bill hamilton, the storeroom manager. the movie portrays it as something eugene allen did. he was really beloved, but he never stepped out of bounds. brian: what is the difference between eugene allen and skip alan? kate: skip alan is an usher. he's younger than eugene. he is a white usher. he worked there for decades and decades. as an usher, he is more of in a management position. the ushers are in charge of the you know -- he was in charge of the housekeeping shop and the curator's shop. they are in a completely different position. they don't see the residents as

much as the butlers. the butlers have the real intimate work. there are six butlers who rotate on the floor and see everything. those are the hardest to talk to, because they are very careful about what they say. brian: three of your presidents, how do you ask this, show up on occasion nude. those three would be johnson kennedy, and reagan. would you tell a story about each one? kate: johnson was probably the strangest character in the white house. he would often conduct business on the toilet. he was obsessed with the shower and the water pressure. i had seen that reported before. but one thing i did not know is, i interviewed the head plumber's widow and she said her husband had a nervous breakdown about the shower and was hospitalized for several days. it was all-consuming. and, in one scene in the book the president is trying out the shower, having other people try out the shower, and they would come out beet red because it was so hot and the pressure was so intense.

and then kennedy was, you know he was -- brian: that shower was, i've never heard of a shower like it. explain what he wanted in the shower. he had one like this in his home? kate: the general manager of the residence, johnson took him aside a couple days after kennedy was killed, and was furious. right after johnson moved in. in december of 1963, he and he said, if you can't ask this -- can't fix the shower, i'm going to have to move back to the elms, which was his house in d.c. he was obsessed. he had six different nozzles spraying all parts of his body. he wanted to go from cold to hot. he didn't want it warm. he had a bunch of mirrors installed on the ceiling. when the head plumber would try it out, he would come out beet red, his veins popping out. it was not a comfortable thing.

president nixon took one look at it and said -- when he came in he said, get rid of this. so all of the work they had done , was for nothing. but at the very end, before johnson left office, he was using the bathroom and he asked the head plumber to come in. he said, i want you to know that this shower has been my delight. thank you. that meant the world to the head plumber because he worked so hard to try to please him. ent and felt it was never good enough they had five different , replacement showers. they rerouted the water tanks to make this happen. it was just -- everybody was involved in this from the chief usher on down. it was all-consuming for those five plus years that he was there. brian: you say that he had no compunction just to show up nude and walk around the workers and everybody? kate: he was very uncouth. he would talk to people --

johnson was kind of, he would swear a lot, he would wander the hallways of the residence, he would go to the shops in the basement and stick his head in. and, if he found a light was on when it wasn't supposed to be he would be furious. the head electrician described a scene where johnson found a carpenter working late at night and he didn't realize the carpenter was still working at midnight. he was there with a secret service agent. johnson turned off the light. the carpenter said, what the heck is going on, and came out and found the president standing there. the president said, i'm sorry, i didn't realize you were still there. but he was very intense. he would wander in. i think it was either lucy or linda, they said because he was their teacher before he got into politics, he never stopped grading people. he would grade them on how they did when they were out

campaigning for him. i love the -- i'm so interested in ladybird. one thing she said, she said -- she took the chief usher aside and said, the president comes first, my daughter comes second, and i take what is left over. she really lived that way. it was incredible. brian: when did the butler's or the maids see a nude woman running around the white house living quarters and it wasn't anybody connected to the family? kate: that was during the kennedy administration. the head electrician and the dog keeper at the time saw some really strange things going on in the second and third floors. they technically weren't supposed to wander up there when mrs. kennedy was out of town. she was often going down to the farm in virginia. during the weekend, she didn't like staying at the white house. and when that happened, the

president wanted the staff gone. he would ask for food to be put aside, and a picture of -- a picture of daiquiris left for him it just goes to show they kept all this -- they kept president roosevelt's paralysis secret. they would wheel him in and hide the wheelchair. they were very protective of the first family. ask when did you start? >> president kennedy. it is easier to talk to people who have often been, who were alive and can talk about what the kennedys were like.

one of these butler's remembers tacky kennedy would ask for different chairs -- jackie kennedy would ask for different chairs to be put in different places. it would annoy people because she always asked the butler's to move furniture around. he was younger. he was excited to be there. everyone would run away. they are very sweet stories i think people remember. >> did she also say she would move furniture and not tell them ? >> the clintons would do that. they would be up until 1:00 or 2:00 moving furniture because he could not sleep.

as the usher, he was in charge of the curator staff. they were very upset by this because all of the furniture is catalogued. you need to know where it is. >> i don't want to leave the story of nudity until we get to ronald reagan. >> my thoughts for him were proven to be true. what you see is what you get from him. you saw him as someone who would be affable. he was he would chat up the staff and there is one scene where there was a maid walking in on him, and he was in the sitting room naked reading the newspaper spread in front of him. she was so embarrassed she was blushing. and she ran out. later in the hall, he said who , was that guy? >> let's go back to some video. we do this because of the staff. flex i just met with the members of the white house staff, those who serve here in the white house.

day in and day out. i asked them to do what i ask you to do to the extent that you are requested to do so, to serve our next president as you have previous presidents, because any of you have read here for many years. i was thinking about it as i was walking down this hall and comparing it to some of the great houses i have seen in. this is the biggest house. many and most and even smaller countries are much bigger. this isn't the finest house. many in europe, china, asia have

paintings of great value, things we don't have here and will probably never have until we are 1000 years old or older. but this is the best house. brian: last day in the white house. what was the reaction of the staff when he left? kate: they were very heartbroken for him. some say it was harder than the jfk assassination. watching the sunday by day sink into depression. his body language was different. the head electrician said that the schedule used to be like clockwork. he used to be in the oval office at the same time. but when watergate cap dragging on, he would roll up later.

there was a painter. he painted that podium. his name was cletus park. he just passed away a few months ago. he told me a great story about how he was called into paint the podium before president nixon spoke. he was in his all-white uniform. he was still painting before the president came out. he was the louvre's at an -- he was the only resident staffer in the room at the time. he stood over to the side. he had his paint bucket in his white uniform and he was totally worried he was going to stand out. when they see a camera, one usher told me he remembers being caught on camera and being mortified. it is funny that that scene reminded me. i spent the time trying to find cletus in the audience but couldn't find him.

brian: how much do the butler's make? kate: it depends. the head butler can make a lot. brian: over 100 thousand? >> maybe 30,000 for people who are new. maybe some beginning major something like that. they can go up to $100,000 for the head chef, the head butler the head housekeeper. the maitre d'. brian: are they still service? >> they are government servants, but they can be higher -- fired much more easily. the president can fire you for any reason. brian: how many people who work over the years have read books or articles revealing some of -- written books or articles revealing some of the things they saw? kate: probably half a dozen. a few people i spoke with said they are working on their own books.

we will see. no one told me there was anything they have to sign. one person said they have to promise they would not write their own memoir for another two decades. and that was bill kleiber. bryant was the predecessor. brian wrote a big tell-all about his time at the white house. i guess it was so concerned about that. brian: at what moment did you interview someone and say, i just picked up some unique? kate: is it happens all the time. they didn't know what they were sitting on, these great stories. when i was talking about his walk with president nixon after nixon and out his resignation. he was one of a handful of people in the oval office. because he was the electrician. he had to be there for technical reasons. he was walking down the west colony to walk down to his office in the basement of the white house and he heard foot

steps. it was the president behind us. the president said, walk with me. then bill said, you did the best you can do. the president said i wish more people felt that way. his eyes killed with tears. it is very moving. i think that is such a poignant movement. brian: here is gary walters, who was an usher. he was talking about george herbert walker bush. gary: president george herbert walker bush is the nicest person that has probably ever lived in the white house. there may be people as nice in the future, but there will never be anybody nicer. when president bush was in japan on a visit, he got sick, but being the gentle man he was he did not want to call off the

meal. he got really sick during the actual occasion. when he came back to the white house, it was a monumental trip that included other countries. i interviewed the resident staff, about half of them joined me, and i got surgical masks and put them on everybody when he was coming back in. he stopped by to say something to the press. barbara bush walked in and looked around the room and saw these surgical masks. she broke up laughing and said george bush is going to fire you all. she turned to me and said, especially you. president bush walked in from the outside and broke up and proceeded to shake hands with everybody and sign their masks. brian: did he ever write a book? kate: no, and i don't think he ever will. brian: did he talk about the good and the bad in the white house? kate: yes, he is guarded.

he wouldn't say anything negative about anybody. but i do believe everything he is saying absolutely because everybody says that about bush 41. they call him old man bush talked about how he would play horseshoes with the staff. one staffer told this sweet story about the day his father passed away. it was thanksgiving day and he suddenly got a phone call and home and it was camp david. it was the operators saying, can you hold for the president. he said, barbour wants to talk to you. it is very meaningful things they did like that. barbara bush, i interviewed her. they said when they left the president was too choked up with a motion say goodbye to the staff. they were by far the most beloved residents of the white house. brian: what did the least beloved do that would be the other side?

kate: i think the clintons it was very chaotic, and i think it troubled the staff that they didn't know what was expected of them. there were things like moving the furniture, changing the phone lines, where calls would have to be transferred by an operator, and the clintons didn't like that system. they didn't trust the staff. even gary walters, who paints everything in a positive light he loves and respects these people. he says the clintons, it was a difficult transition from the bushes to the clintons. brian: here is gary walters talking about the impeachment time in the white house. >> we talked about tough times in the white house in early administrations. what about times during the impeachment? how did the staff deal with that? brian: quiet. the resident staff takes its lead from the first family.

when things aren't going well. when family have lost their parents. mrs. clinton obviously did. the president did. there have been times like that. it is very solemn. we just do our job and try to make things as mundane as possible. was there a door slammed here and there? possibly, but we just carry on. brian: how much of the stuff you wrote about the clintons made it a bestseller? kate: the fact she is running, people are intensely curious about her and what they are really like. i think the book shows her as a multifaceted person, like everyone is. not only was there difficult times, but there are also very sweet stories.

there is a story in the book about how a president was very upset he didn't get to decorate the christmas tree. he was looking forward to doing this with chelsea, antioxidant -- by accident, the head housekeeper accidentally put the ornaments on the tree. the president was livid when he saw the tree was already decorated, which i think is a sweet story because it was something he wanted to do with his daughter. the head housekeeper went to hillary clinton and said, i'm worried about this. i didn't realize there was a miscommunication. hillary clinton said sometimes good deeds don't go over well in this house and was commiserating with her. there are a lot of scenes were hillary clinton is commiserating with the help and the staff, whom she respected and treated well. the head housekeeper in particular really loved working for hillary clinton. brian: another president gerald ford, what's the story about susan ford leaving the white house?

>> she snuck away. it was actually a dare that the secret service number dared her to do it. she told me she she snuck away. she and her friend ended up in a parking lot drinking beer. they got back, and she said she had a hall and oates concert to go to. president ford, who was an affable man, was so angry with her that night. she was one of the only first daughters to have a secret service protection. even when he was vice president because of these threats from the lebanese liberation army. he was really concerned for her. >> how did she actually leave the white house? what were the circumstances? >> i'm trying to remember the scene in the book. she took a car. the gates were opened. the staff couldn't close the gate in time.

they pulled the cars around. she just jumped in and met her friends. it's like a scene from a movie. steve ford tells a great story about a beat-up jeep in the same driveway. every time he would see it was not there a few minutes later. it would not be appropriate to have an old beat up driveway. -- car in the driveway. brian: who did you want to talk to who said no? kate: hillary clinton, chelsea clinton. bill clinton. i wanted to talk to the bush daughters. i interviewed the children including patricia nixon. she told me the staff really made it more tolerable to live in the white house during watergate during. the clintons would have been great to talk to. brian: did they give you a reason why they wouldn't talk to

you? kate: no. brian: how many times did you ask? kate: probably three or four times. when you get the definitive no there is no point in going back. i was very happy to talk to laura bush and carter. this book is not partisan. i thought it was important to get mrs. carter on board too so it was not seen as an ode to the bush family. that's not what it is at all . i just reported this story people told me. brian: where did you grow up? kate: connecticut. washington, connecticut. i went to school in new york. i went to barnard. connecticut is where i grew up. brian: why did you get interested in journalism? kate: my father is a writer. he writes biographies.

i thought it was really exciting. he has written a bunch of books. i don't know how he doesn't because it took me two years to do this one. brian: what's his name? kate: christopher anderson. i grew up watching that thinking it was fascinating. i love to ask people questions and find out about other people. brian: what did you do after you graduated from barnard? kate: i worked at cbs. on the news desk for the early show. and then i went to fox in new york and then d.c. brian: why did you do that? kate: i was into politics. new york can feel like a lot sometimes. i needed to get out of new york. brian: what was the difference between the cbs news organization and the fox news organization? kate: because fox is cable, i actually had more ability to do things. at cbs i was right out of graduate school. i went to oxford for a year. i came back, and i was doing

things like putting people's milk and things like that. -- putting people's mail in slots and things like that. at cbs at least i was getting to call people. it was a step up for me. it was a better job. brian: what did you do at oxford? kate: i majored in american history. brian: was this a special, or did you just decide to go there? kate: i just decided to go there. i spent a junior year abroad there, and i loved it. i went back for a year. it was an incredible experience. i wrote a thesis about margaret thatcher and ronald reagan and their relationship, but i would also get stopped at customs with people laughing. why are you coming here to study american history? it was looking at american history from their vantage point. from a different perspective. brian: you say pete williams took the picture of you in this book. how did that happen? kate: my husband works at msnbc.

the two of them are friends. he said, pete is a great photographer. i said, i don't think he has time to take the book jacket photo. he was so generous. he came over with his lights. i think he did a great job. he was a lot of fun. brian: you have two children you say in the book. charlotte and graham. how old are they? kate: charlotte is one, and graham is too. -- and graham's two. i got the sweetest note from the obama's because one of the resident staffers promised me they would get me a note from the white house. i thought that was so sweet to say congratulations on the birth of your daughter. it just shows how these resident staffers always follow through. i called to thank them, and they said, we are sorry we didn't get it to you sooner. very sweet. brian: here is michelle obama talking about the private residence. we see the bush family during their last six months when they did a documentary.

let's get your reaction to it. ♪ >> i tell people it feels like you are living in this beautiful hotel and the ground floor is the lobby, and when you step out into it you are going to interact with a range of people, maybe a group of tourists, maybe you see some staff members, some special visitors and staff. you feel a greeting them. then you get into the elevator and go into your quiet, private, personal space, and it feels like you are the only people living here.

brian: that was back in 2009. we have not seen their private quarters. how much of their own furniture to the presidents and first ladies bring into the white house? kate: it depends who it is. laura bush told me she barely brought anything with her. it is an incredible storage facility where i would have loved to have gone, but it's top secret. they don't let journalists in there. i interviewed several curators who said they catalog all the furniture. you get to choose. you can take furniture that was there during madison and adams. it was incredible. if you are smart and creative you can go to a storage facility and pick out furniture. brian: can the first family do anything they want to? kate: with the second and third floors they have a lot of leeway.

but not with the state floor. you have seen with president obama they can change the colors of the carpet and all that stuff. brian: here is another usher. did you talk to him? kate: yes, i did. brian: let's just listen. >> are you going to serve the president? there is no normal day in the white house. every day is different. i basically manage the operations of executive residence. and its grounds. i do that through 95 terrific people who work here. that includes the chef, the executive pastry chef, the ushers, a electrician's, carpenters, florists, curators and a number of other folks.

with that group of 95 folks plus another couple hundred extra contract people, our job is to put the best face on the white house. brian: what did you see there? kate: he was a butler i really got to know. brian: the gentleman with the white hair? kate: yes, he was one of the most beloved butlers. he passed away last year. i went to visit him. he had a very small apartment. it was crammed with incredible things. you walk into this area. it is a very modest apartment in the suburbs of d.c., and on the walls are pictures of nelson mandela, bill clinton, autographed photos of president obama saying, thanks for being a good friend. he was incredible. he was a fun-loving man. it is sad to see it, because i kept asking him to go out to lunch after the first meeting

because i knew he had amazing things to tell. it turns out the whole time he was really sick and had cancer. i didn't realize how bad it was because it didn't seem, when you would talk to him he seemed ok. a lot of these people who passed away will carry incredible secrets and stories. this book tells a lot of their stories, but it's the tip of the iceberg. brian: how did they get the job in the first place? kate: they get it usually through friends. people know somebody. that's why they are related. there are security checks. these are not jobs that are advertised.

tony savoy, the head of operations told me the story about suddenly you apply for a job during the clinton administration and they dug through his records and found out he has been charged with rape. they had chelsea clinton in the white house. you cannot have some but he was a serious criminal record in the white house. even a minor criminal record. james would tell me, i have a clean record. no drunk driving arrests nothing. that is very important to them. brian: except for somebody named mary prince. the president gave her a pardon? kate: carter cleared her. she was cleared eventually. it was overturned. it was racially motivated, they say. mary told me it was out of self-defense. she didn't deny killing him, but it was out of self-defense.

it went away when she got to the white house. brian: one last area. walter and i, we did not get along. because i knew he couldn't cook. kate: that was the executive pastry chef. a funny guy from france. a big character. he and the executive chef hated each other. everybody said it was almost comical. the kind of fireworks going on in the kitchen. they had to have a separate pastry kitchen built because the two of them kept clashing in this small space. one of the staff said he thought there would be blood on the floor. he was not joking. it got so bad the executive chef would walk over, hand him the menu and decide to accompany it for dessert. there was no collaboration.

they clashed so much. the personalities were so different. brian: did you talk to both of them? where are they today? kate: they both have written books about their time at the white house. roland does a lot of speaking. and so does walter. walter is younger. the clintons hired him. walter is more like a ceo businessman. and roland is a creative chef type of person. brian: miss rogers, who was the social secretary for the obama's, why did she leave? kate: she left because of the incident. -- the gatecrashers incident. she did very glamorous photo shoot. i did interview her for the book. she told me sweet stories about some of the butlers. including one butler who passed away. she remembers how sad that was. they invited the family to the

white house for a service. i think everybody who spoke with me did so because they wanted to pay tribute to these people because no one ever asked them. brian: what is next for you? kate: i am going to hopefully work on a new book. that is white house related. brian: wendy make that decision? kate: hopefully it will come out in another two years. it takes a year and a half. i want to take the time to research it and write it. brian: the name of the book is called the residence. inside the private world of that house. our guest has been kate anderson. we thank you very much. kate: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> for free transcripts, visit

us at q&a.org. q&a programs are available as c-span podcast. >> monday night on the communicators, at this year's consumer electronics show, we met up with peter nowak who says we are in a new phase of human development and through robots and other technology we are likely to enhance the human condition. >> robots i think is an interesting one. in 2014 was the year of robot angst. i don't think there was a day that went by that i didn't do a story about how robots will do human jobs and we will all end up out of work. here is a robot that is a better are tender than humans, better waiters and humans. the thing that i find -- the

point that i think is missed in that is that every prior revolution or advance in automation has resulted in better jobs for humans. we are really worried about robots taking our jobs and have a hard time i think that history has shown that we will figure out a way to combine with the robots to create new jobs that are previously unimaginable. >> monday night on "the communicators" on the c-span2. >> david cameron remarks on thursday's election results. and then ceremonies in britain and germany celebrating the end of world war ii in europe. and then a seminar on the use of the inter