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journals from the washington post, the cnn, talk about what is late to be reporting on the trump administration.

andis covered several trips campaigns and was the agent. chief. now, all of you have covered both the refeas administration in one form or another and the trump administration, so the first questionis a softball, what is different, abby? >> how about everything? a lot is different. i mean, i think, this white house, the experience as a consumer of information about this white house is probably similar to what we experience asreporters in that it is probably as wild and chaotic as it seems to you and especially by comparison the past administrationsand covered past presidencies. the white house can often be acontrolled environment in which there is a great effort to control the message to know what

is coming out every single day. there are lots of embargoes on information, you know, obama wide house is very much like that them they were not justtrying to manage the messaging within the west wing but alsoacross the federal government and with this presidency, i think, it is a little bit of the opposite of that. there are a lot of littletornadoes happening all over the federal government and that what is makes it so challenging to keep up as reporter, and i think, i assume, the consumer news can sometimes feel look you never know where to look next. that is because there is not a whole lot of central planning happening here, and that is different. i mean, some people would say, it is good ored about or whatever. it is just different. >> ashley, why in the white house where they attacked thoughpress so much, seem to be enemies throughout the press, why are there so many good sources for you all?

>> um, i think a couple of reasons. one is, as abby mentioned, this white house is in a lot wave ways more accessible than previous white houses. some of this changed when john kelly came in andimplemented new discipline, but i never covered obama whit us who the way i am conversation president trump anticipate whitehouse. but in the west wing or you could be upper press having a meeting ap would not be uncommon for someone to see you and say, hi, ashley, hi, i think the president is free in the oval office if you want to stop in and say hello. that happened to a number of people. main, i wask toking to somebody they said outside of this oval, you are likely to see a preacher, an he'll vant and a republican member of congress waiting to see the president. in the obama white house, i remember any little story i was doing, you know, they had to know, what sorts of questions do you think you which be asking, what's the topic? do you have understanding if it would run on the front page and it was managed and the trump white house is not like that am? you have more acute sense of

what the president is thinking because his tweets are literally what he is thinking in that moment. i donethink, i don't buy the theory is sort of strategically drningeveryone's attention away, you know, covering up one chaotic thing with another, it is just what he is thinking, then to your original question about why so many dad sorses? again, this was especially true at the beginning, but the president is someone who consumes a lot of news through the television and that is of continue the most compelling way to get amesstime him. you would think if you are a west wing stare you could walk to the oval to discuss and walk in, walk out in earlydid a is to revice president the president with a briefing back or deliver the message but it was often less compellings to be with in front of him in person and more compelling to be in front of him through the sheen of cable news. and so you had peoplesort of when they were all of these factions, fighting them out in the press bus that was of continue the most get efficient way to sway the president.

>> how do you manage all of this chaos? in terms of how you are prepared for news shows and so on? barley. i think in terms of the cast itself, within of the most challenge in thises for morning show that is we have to, somehow, have a big prediction of what may be driving the newsat 7:00 a.m. in the morning. and i work primarily day side the day before and i have to say the number of times i have wong up to seven different stories out of washington that we had not originally had when i went to bed at 10:00. it is astonishing. and i think days in particular like my favorite is not super recent but in may, we saw a forly that would maybe drive the week was that russian state bleed had photographed the russian ambassador in the oval office and this story, i though, we were not going to do much better than for the next few

days. that afternoon, thepresident fired the fbi director, and that is par for the course right now. and i think the pace is really difficult because we do have a finance am of space. we only two two hours and the entire two hours of news from washington despite the nacht the washington bureau would like that and now staffed in away that could han deal this, so it is challenging. it is mooing something we can do. we have to roll with it. it requires a lot offlexibility am the or day "the wall street journaled" a big interview the president as i was reading it the post brock her to ry about the expletive countries, so you know, so thedirection,s are in if i knit. abby, some of this accessibility to sources in the white house,part of the in fighting going on there, are people constantly -- do you have a sense of who is on whip which

team and who togo to foo fight out about things about the other them? yeah, i was going to add to what ashley just said, kind of the secondplayer of this is it starts with the fact that trump is a candidate who came into politics fairly recently, sew filled the white house with a lot of people who don't know him that well, whohave not worked for him particularly long, some of whom are the family webs, some of pom are long time allies over the fewer and fewer people left and what it creates is those fabses that you just mentioned. a lot of people with a lot of different interests working for this one person. that is very different from what you typically get. buy the time you become president in the country, usually, you been in politics for awhile. you have developed an entire stable of staff of people who are in continuesly loy droll you. who have been with you.

trump has had the challenge of having a lot of people working with him and frankly he doesn't trust a whole lot. and who are coming into the jobs from all kinds of different perspectives and don't trust each other, alsoment they have not worked with each other. many of them for very long and so it is as reporter wesare often getting people fighting to influence the presidentthrough us through the media but also trying to one up one each other to push people out of trump's in ser circle out of the good grace and i think that has changed one of theinteresting things that is we often, i used to work ashley until recently. >> i know. >> i mean, one of the things we often tacked about and talk about still and her job is just, so who is allied now? andthat changes all the time. would you be surprised. i think was anidea, um, you know, you might have one idea of who is allied with who. like stephon miller for example

has spoken in the same breath as steve been none but in the time we have been covering this white house. that alliance has changed, these people aremaking new ally apes and breaking old article the time. so it makes in testing but also challenging. a lot of it has to do with people trying to survive the trump white house. and in order to do that often, you have to pick your allies as they month to month because that is just how quickly things change aroundhere. >> ashley, don't people get punish for talking actual of this way out of school? i can remember the obama administration. people were afraid of jay carney and afraid of talking and would be punished somehow? >> i think, i mean, yes and no. obviously if people are gettingdeeply reprimanded you would think it would stop. one of the problems is they have noted the great ability to sort of crack crown to figure out who is talking to who?

i believe that they had an e-mail or a phone record or some hard proof i think would be consequences and every now and then you see something like that, liking now, they sort of banned cell phones in the west within, personal cell phones then west wing, those are cell phones you can receive texts on, secret messanticipating app, a lot of pom in the white house preferred to communicate with reporter at one pin and did that under the gisof security, but these crackdowns seem to happen in moments where there were a lot of leaks coming out of the white house. so i think one of the problems is -- and i have to saner general kelly healths has gotten better and a lot disciplined and somepeople who don't lec at all. but i think the problem is they sortof don't, they have inability to fer rite out leakp within other brief point to what abby was saying, that sort of telltales you how are you to cover this white house but you may notice if youare very, very close reader of the washington noose some of the white house stories we have a line that is

widely mocked in the rest of journalism that says this portrait of the presidentand in this moment is the result of 27 interviews with, you know, senior white house officials, lawmaker, friends, outside confidants, et cetera. the reason we do that is partially it avoids having to like source every single graft which disrups the flow but more importantly, the real reason we do it. to cover this white house at the beginning you had to talk to that many people. and my understanding and again, it is the first i covered in this capacity. but there were certain people in the obama white house told you something you just knew it was true. same with the bush white house. if whoever told you something, you could just sort of like put it in your store rainfeel confident.

and especially at the beginning with all the factions and factions, in each person's story brush sort ofgetting some percent tag of the truth vow some sources like wikipedia a good jumping off point and i would never put i in the newspaper other people who are reliable to get the fullest pishtike to get the truth you had to talk to 25 people and all the lieapeses and sort of in doing that you could actually come closeto figuring out we believe what happened. cane ask prev troy that. >> i think a lot. the next logical questionis so are they lying to you then? and i think the answer issometimes. the answer is also that people within the white house often don't have visibility they don't have full visibility of what is going on. and what conversations the president is having at 10:00 at night with his friends and how it chans his thinking by the time he wakes up the next morning and then, so people are kind of operating times with to what is going on and, and what with as true two hours ago.

there is a sense of lack of dense among people who ought to know thing. they may not always know what israel and what is not. in part because of howtrump often, he draws from special wide array of advisers and people around him but never sure where he is heading with histhinking. appear, obsly to the public that you get a different picture of what is going on from different networks. and how is that, how does it feel at cbs. what do you make of what fox news is doingor what msnb crist doing? what do you sees the charter in thistime now that we see different views of administration and different channels? i think in terms of our charter. i was looking at the steps theother day. that in, i think, in 1980, 52 million people were watching the big three networks and now hall of that. we're at 25 million.

we are not heavily in flew ended by what fix or msnb are doing, that is not how we operate. i will say, ry been in cbs for alistening type, in the current cbs this morning, in many ways we are programming the other two morning shows in trying to takea serious step at the news up the morning which has pot been done and we are doing a good job at it, think i. it is still new in many ways, but the thing we have decided to really down on is time and giving stories the time they deserve and also, inviting lawmakers to come to our show and this is one series call isedshores that matter and so we will give someone five or sucksminutes of tv in the morning to talk about something from apolicy perspective which is unusual and we do not see that on our competitors we had the speaker of the house on the otherday, and on tax reform and gave him 14 minutes which is a lot oftime and unusual. we also unvit lawmakers who you don't see on the competitors, senators, senator langford,

senator jones did his first interview with us, senator gardener who didn't have a lot of visibility but was critical player and is becoming evenmore so. that is the kind of thing we are doing. so i know in tellers of being more serious. that is our answer. but i think we are. and there has been ah appetite for it which i find to beencouraging. ashley, this president has given very full, very few full scale press conferences and the other kind we're used to in mostadministrations but seems to be on television and quoted in the newspapers everyday. how would you describe the accessibility to the press and would you want to change the way it works? again, in some ways, he is

more accessible because you are have a lot of sorses and when he sweets you what he is thinking andyou know you can watch that 5 minute ral i on saturday night and have a good win do into the head in that moment. i will actually say i am a little surprised he has not done more press conferences and in part because on the calm paint was not uncommon are and again, with most, even other candidates i have cover or polls you put in a request and you go back and forth with the staff and they say, ok, we can get you tenminutes here's. all right. will be waiting by my come pooter on the campaign at least you put in a request you know for candidate trump and then you would be like out waiting in line at a food cart and your cell phone would ring and it was the candidate. so we have someone who really in joes engaging with the media and you wanted to challenge is people say he this is heis his own chief of staff. he is thinks he is his own political strategist and director but sort of one-on-one with the media,he is, he can of be like quite good and quite engaging and charismatic not just in one-on-one interviews but especially actually because in on one-on-one interview shall you can see it is easier for people to sort of pin him down, go deep on popple sis and less comfortable with or familiar.

in a room like this. if you are standing up here. that is a good forum for him. it is someplace we are is comfortable there is a home i cab not quite remember. early in the admin rigs when everything was going wrong. maybe you remember. >> this was the only press conference he gave. he came it to east room and he took back control. idea is, you know, sean spicer cannot speak for me. make can't speak for the. i can speak formyself. he did. again, when opens up the cabinet meetings the televised cabinet meetings on the one hand i often reveal the lack of deep approximately sy understanding, but they also show someone who is sort of a deal maker and can win over a room and in this ry trying to get places and so, yes, i would love to make it more accessible ap love to sit him down at the washington post for an interview and come tow briefing room once a week, i am not sure why he doesn't.

think he is good in that format. >> speak of the briefing room. the public, the white house press briefings are beginning to look like a accept ap were of somekind. are they useful any more? do you all still go to hem them? we do go to them. >> we do go to them. are they useful? i mean, some days i think theyare useful. some days think they aren't. the greatest use, and ithink you is true not just of the trump white house buts theobama white house when i would go to press briefings.

the greatest use is to create a public record what the white house is position is on a given subject. i think it is actually incrediblyimportant because when everything distill and we find out ether what the real truth is or we are at the point where there is a decision that needs to be made. we can compare that to what was said when we asked the question. i think it is important.there have been i loft ties in the white house where it hasturned out that statements that are made from that podium arejust simply not true based on facts we have learned. it is important for the public to know we are doing that kind of due diligence. think it is in dy and age pes shall willing now whether there are questions about what is truth, what is true, what is false. it is easier to show our work when it comings to the truthby saying here is whats with said on this day. here is what we know now. and think when we can show readers and viewers that record it really matters especially now at a time when people are all questioning you know, just questioning what is rael and what is not. so it is good for from that perspective. i think one of the bad things about the press briefing that is

often the answer is can become incredibly circular so whateverquestion you have asked it becomes, well, you are the one who isreallying that. that i is not helpful. i mean those kinds, thosekinds of back and forths are not helpful. but to the extent thatwe can press for answers on facts and i think it is still very important. to the extend it becomes this sort of game of trolling, not so helpful. >> yeah. just to add to this. the problem there, too, that is tv is a little bit of a curse of the press briefing, too, because you have all the correspondents who want to ask the same , but this isamera a reality and contributes to a justlar dynamic and you run down a rabbit hole of the

same thing over and again and it understandably frustrates somebody like sanders. i would be curious to see how much we see the press briefings playing on cable news, the actual pieces themselves, in three years or so. i remember the obama white house and it was, with all respect to josh earnest, it was a high bar to have him in an evening story and sarah sanders is everywhere. i traveled back, so much happens after the briefings now and they are completely outdated and it irrelevant in a matter of minutes after they conclude. >> go ahead. do you want to say ago? no. ok. i will ask you about the tweets. we have been talking about the tweets. there are crits who say the press shouldn't cover any more. then, because not always true and true also.

and of tep reacting to what he is reacting to what he sees on fox news. what do you think he's the fall val u. whats the newsworthinessof the president's tweets. do have a philosophy of how theyshould be covered? yeah, the debate about whether we should or should not cover the tweets was fair during the campaign.then it felt felt like a valid question. this is the president of theunited states and he is saying something f. and so, it is alwayssomething that should potentially be covered, i think we are alittle selective in what we cover if he is just kind of ranting or trashing the media? i think its never to the advantage when the media becomes the story. so whenever it becomes about with us, it is not good. but i think, again, the have ice, it is what the president is thinking and any given moment it is what is on his mine. i do think i can only speak to the post, this is probably trueyun versely shall we do try

to add contexan sort of factchecking to the tweets. think it would be irresponsible. well, he is the president. said something. here is what he said. if you say said said this. he is saying this about president obama but it isworth noting there isle tally no evidence for that claim, in fact details to the contrary i think that sort of a value and serviceto readers. >> abby? think i we should cover the tweets. ashley said this earlier, the president is literally giving as you window into his mindset and his thinking every single day. that is an incredible amount of aces that he reporters could only have dreamed of five

yearsago or ten years ago it is important. it is telling. sometimes i kindof truck toll myself because sometimes i see reporting that is lake the president is city thissing this thing, and then thepresident literally just tweets it. then it is just, it is, it is important. the president literally just tells us what is thinking, a he want,s what he likes where hash he dice likes when you cantell he when he is angry and happy. it is critical to covering this white house because it takes the guesses with out of stuffbecome we no longer have to together i rely on other peopleinterpreting the moods we condition say this is what he said on this subject. clearly, in the time of me to are and times up how important is it for the news media to investigate allegations of inif i dllity andsexual harassment by the president? do you think they have any political impact inwhat's the media's response k? thigh i the responsibility is automatic. i do think that one of the

stranger things is how the rules don't apply in term of things that wouldhave mattered before. we spent a lot of time talk talking abouta porn star who was paid off right before the election. and conservative republican on the hill don't want to condemn it, don't want to really engage perhaps not know anything aboutit. and i don't think we can be outcome driven. whether it is something the american people care about. whether republicans care about it. i think it is our duty if you are faced with evidence to pursue to pursue it and to do

our due diligence. one of theproblems is having the fin nate resources are now required to do everything we need to do. and we are constanley adding new resources but i think every day, there are things we could be working harder on that we just can't be. and so you think it is important. this stormy daniels thing, we just sper vaued her for 60men misthat is going to be legal thing. that is going be a realthing. i need to stay employed. i think, i think his behavior, he is the president of. the same logic applies to the bets am someways. what he des and says are presidential actions a stappresidential sames of fact. there is now precedence for this,too, and 20 year ago it happened. >> yeah. lakes. ashley, what do you this the am paque of the mooler investigation on moral in the white house. do you have anysense of where you think it may in going and what the fears are in the white house about where it may be going? >> yes and no. think, you know, we only have these very tiny glimpses inwhat mueller has asked and so i think mueller reallyhas the best sense of where it is going in terms, in terms of moral, it is reallied about for moral, i

think this president can take a lot of criticism, he can talk a lot of bad stories. he is actually quite good at boning back, but there us something against russia that will never not drive him crazy. i know this is a little bit of armchair psychology but also armchair psychology i have gotten back from people in the west whipping,but he basically has hard time. he is inchannel of saying the two things that possibly seem to be true. which is that rush sh absolutley sper ferred in the 2016 presidential election and yet he won the electoral college fair and square. he sort of feels like if he admits to one, that russia's medalled it delee legitimizesthe victory and one thing he cannot toll rite. whenever it comes up. there are people who are in and out of the president's circle,

right? it is like hotel california but the people who are cast out for good and never recover are the people who commit the cardinal sin of in his mine crossing him ow on russia.so that is attorney general jeff session because he recused himself which the president bleebs the probe and no matter what jeff sessions does and mat are how tough he is on drug dealers and sentencing and terms and immigration he can justnever recover and thief bannon, too, was in and out of the president's circle and out of the white house. trump was stilltalking to him and then steve been none made the mistake saying to michael wolff in that back into the

meeting that the president's son had at trump tower with the russian lawyer waspossibly treasonnist and that was the end of steve been noneso something that the president cannot stomach and something that makes him behave in ways that often exacerbate the problem and seng out. you sort of have the two pk ket, right. the collision and the obstruction of justice and sort of the fact of this makes behavior you ward the second back ket more lockley because he is reacting to information he is receiving and that is of course all bad for the west wing. >> that michael wolff book, how realistics, how much reality is there from your experience? >> it depend on what part of the book you are referring to. my rule of thumb on the michael wolff book generally that is when people are quoted in the book, you should just take the quote. for example. steve bannon. one of the reasons steve bannon part of that book permeate soddeeply was because he was on the record. those were his boards. he never denied them and they were telling where he was at the time when he was talking to michael wolff and buildsthe level of access wolf had for some period of time and in the west wing which was

extraordinary and so i think that much is very true, um, i really, i don't want to get into -- i haven't actually -- i shouldn't admit this. i have not actually rad the entire book cover to cover but as it per tans to how it affected my come, that is how we approached it a lot of assertion maidenthe book that as a journalist, he interpreted what he took in from the sources and sin thattized it into something he thinks gives it a good picture of the white house and one part of that is the level of kiss chaos that is fairly accurate picture but that is lass fairly accurate picture that you can read in the washington post and the new york times and on cnn every single day. and then the other thing as i said. the real on therecord quotes of people who work in the west wing at the time i think those were, flows the most important part of the book from our perspective because it let, it set off a whole still of bannon being excised and also kind of a fracturing of the trump yun verse that i think is still ongoing story about the been

none faction and then the trump white house and howthey deal with each other and the fact that it leibs in the president's mine they are not necessarily this entirely the same thing any more. pro trump come pen men taters often describe the press as resistance trying to put them them out of office and how, how do you reag to that? do you any sense among the pom you work with and the coverage they are pursuing its anti-trump as opposed to the normal accounting that one would want to have with the president, too fo i mean, i think it is normal accountability, think it is easy narrative to say that we are are art pav the resistance and i also think it delve tells with the enemy of the american people.

the opposition party and the rhetorics that this white house has attached to the news media. i think i think, it doe pen on how tired you are. how you feel when youer that language. but think technically, we worked inan environment with strong press frem and the first amendmentand things are not so bad. i actually think about this a lothaving been based in beijing where the very different rule of thumb when it comes to press freedom and watching, watching people in china use some of this opposition party enemy of the american people rhetoric to just fy the way they treat their own press, and it is scary. and i think that if you see in places like-gry or turkey or the physically pens who are using this rhetoric as well, they are adopting pro trump commentator rhetoric the president's own language to just fy incredibly harsh crackdowns on the own journal is so the amplicationsare wide ranging when you take on the press but i

feelconfident what we're doing every day is a job. and it is about accountability and responsibility and i don't see an again to oust the president buy any stretch tef imagination. ashley and abby. have ear of you been the targets of anti-media and personal media and anti-media either on the internet or when you are out with the i have an antidote about this. i was covering him during the campaign and i travel. work for "the new york times" but i traveled with him and one one of the reporters i red a lot. we posted a story that the

president did not like and so we were atthis huge rally in san diego and like 10,000 or more people and the way the press was was to be clear shall all press no matterwhat candidate i covered you are sort of in closed butnormally you are the back of the room but with trump we weresort of part of the show because right ins this moment when he would, you know, say look at those cameras in the back of the room they are not showing the crowds then another moment when he just heard to the press pen and cnn sucks is part of the way he would call for building the wall.

part of the trump showin the mild of the room and 10,000 people or more and he just, he starts complaining about the story. he says you know where? there is a woman named parker. a woman, they were at the most, i actually had a little name card that i quickly slid my laptopover. the most dishonest. the most despicable. t are not here are they? i am sitting in the front row and the entire crowd. like then the good part about being a print reporter is that no one knows who i am. right? and so i will say, a lot of good friends who are on tv so a lot more, especially women, felt a lot more, you know, this has been reported, but cnn ap other outlets gotsecurity guards for their female reporters to walk to the carsafter rallies so it was legally disconcert unfevers experiencefor me being called out by name in a farley neg of way by the president and a crowd of 10,000 people but i know the stories with accurate which was the mawn thing i cared about and i knew no one knew what i looked like. what happened to you. i have gotten a lot, the internet has become really aggressive in this era? it has been kind of building for

money years but i hadpeople post the parent's address. i had and i won't call this person a reporter but a conservative person who writes and website on-line and publish a story about my mother includingposting her photo online and it is in an attempt to attack me for coverage of a trump surrogate and that kind of a thing has escalated and it can be scary. i dop mind that my personally. i mean, i don't. obviously, you are concerned about your physical safety but i don't worry about people attacking me personally on-line. it is really i worry more about the in pack on their family and you know, the people who didn't sign up for this. i didn't sign up for this income my mother did not.

so i think that us the kind of thing that has really escalated and when i was at the postand i mean it was very much like when things like that happenedthey were like we have resources to help you. the newsorganizations have get point where they know they ned to findways to protect journalists and so physically and on-line and protech their families as well. because it is, discriminating the kind that you get online. >> one thing the obama administration that is they actually prosecuted people who leaked out classified information to the press and subpoenaed members of the press phone records andother records and so on as part of those prosecutions. now i know the attorney general has said he has got like 35investigations. some large number. are you fearful that that is actually going to happen during this administration?

>> i am fearful of that. i do have to say for as much as the president literally yells about reporters and what we aredoing, we don't have a point. we don't have agapes rossensituation. and how inevitable it is. i don't know. i mean, that is up to the attorney general who is in precarious spot with the bossright now and i think we are with waiting to see what happens. idon't really see any indication that there is going to be any sortof active push to go after the print media. sorry, any media rightnow. but all the in are talk to ture there and the mandate isthere. all the intrastructure is there. i don't know. it is a fear. idon't think it is a fear we should be consumed by all the time as long as we have organizations who support us. >> ashley, are any of the source

fearful of discussion classified information with you? >> i think, i should say, most of my -- i guess i don't technically know what is and what is not classified always. as it turns out a low bar for something being classified and story i am worrying onnow. where -- this is not someone trying to leak but trying to be a good steward within the administration and want to help theunderstand something. they are fearful and i am lake, tell me.this cannot be classified. you know? they are sort of trying towalk a line so they personally don't violate anticipate norms.but i will say, i think on the whole again, in terms of the storiesdow which are much more political based and i think it is sort of not the same level of sources as people on the russia team orthe investigative team because you know, some of the stuff is like, you know, what channel is the president watching when he got md at the attorney general? not to ermine the stories i do. that is that level of classification. abby, has the press made any

mistakes that you would be concerned about during this coverage? i am thinking forinstance, how john, most of the initial coverage of john kelly was he is going to come in and straighten out the white houseand going to become more regularized and there won't be so much chaos and so on. now there have been stories that are much more, exposing other aspects of kelly's behavior that doesn't if it f that i nertive? nar sniff. >> i think we have shall certainly made mistakes. we made mistakes first of all, that happens. we tried to correct them when they do happen. they happen. the problem in this administration isalways at any time spie happen. the media in general even something as mall as early days of the trump presidency when

areporter didn't see the martin luther king jr. bus ten oval office then had to correct a tharp the president would not stop talk biting. he is still talking about it on twitter. so mistakes like to, small, big. they do matter. we are disproasker ately, they areused against us. the think what you are also asking is are we making mistakes mistakes. i that i we sometimes -- i want to use the john kelly is saying as maybe as the best ebbs ample of this. because i think that our interpretation of john cannily was largely based on what people knew about him at the time. and the thing about kelly is that not a whole lot of people in washington knew him all that well. he was not known to have deep political views on, you know, policy. he was military pepper.he was then on the hill for his

advocacy for the military and he had friends on the hill in that span of issues but we have learned more over time about his views on a broader arrive sun jeks for the first time in as far as we know in the public life, he has had to weigh in on those things and his stewardship of the department of homeland security was one thing but now he isactually in a completely different position we are is not just executing the law which is how he would often people people he dealt with issues at dhd enforcing the law as it was. now in the white house, he is advising the president on what direction totake the law, and so we are gaining a broader, and a betterunderstanding of him. i think that as reporters, we have -- wehave the responsibility to have that greater understanding playout, as we are learning it.

i mean, i think, we, it would be, i think, itwould be in fire suggest we should have known in july all of john kelly's deeply held personal beliefs about immigrants andabout dreamers and whether some of them are too lazy or not. some of these issues have not really been played out and we would, i remember in the early days whenyon kelly was selective. we were knowledge base about what he believes about anything. and i remember talking to sources about this and people saying, you know what? he doesn't, he didn't really go there a lot of times in the personal bea leafs. and now, he is justin a different job. i think a lot of things like that that are developing in this administration. they are changing all the time. i think the knowledge of situations is evolving some of it has to do with the fact that so many players are new buys to the political scene and don't

have a whole lot of record for us to kind of take through as they would through normal staffersso we are dealing with that. i think is a struggle. it is part of a job but i wouldn't. i personally would not characterize them as mistakes in that way. >> ok. >> i was going to add this this is a defense or one criticism in the media often gets that is quite fair and everyone carves about drama and process story and why down the focus on the poll san what the voters care about which is a valid criticism that everyone is aware of and working toward and seems like a bit of that figured out but with this white story and why down the house it is hard to overstate sort of how bound the personality and the politics and the drama are with the actual policy so it is is quickly sort of connect the dots. if you look at the way tariffs went down. would you have to start with the photo that ran in a british tabloid of hope hicks on a night out on the town that story ran

and that lead to two of the ex-wifes coming forward with allegations of domestic and emotional abuse and that lead to a number of people in the white house lying to us which was helpful to know as a reporter who does and does not lie to you and also lead to robporter who by all accounts was hidely of den and professional and quite good at the west wing job of how bad he was basedon the allegation and his personal life and leaving the whitehouse and he had all process in place to basically make sure that on trade especially rigorous process was run and a lot ofpeople who did not believe in tariffs who were free traderswere using him to block and when he was out of there the whitehouse dissolved into chaos because they were dealing with thatin a income before he other

allegations and sort of mini crisis on aum ber of fronts and that allowed peter navarro to walls into the oval office when general cannily was not payingattention and a breakdown of protocol. we'll bring you tariffs then the president announced tariffs actually have pretty serious policy implications for the implications for the global economy and then that was deeply tied into how he felt and the people and the drama sew sort of have to if you want to tellthe policy story and ununderstand the decision you have to understand all of those other things that in theory seem more trivial but i would wagger the president or not. chloe, one of things i grew to hate as executive of the wash tokington post was the core core ant dinner and it became a hollywood show and potential sources and get know them better over dern. i see cbs people going this wear. that is worthwhile at all? >> well, whether it is worthwhile is a different question but i do believe cbs people will be going this year,

i don't of the way whyte house correspondents dinner. i think it is stressful. think this year was more interesting with the president not there. it was one of the more substantive dinners and less about the celebrities and but, re, i will keep it brief. cbs i am sure will bethere. it seem look the president will show. don't know how that will change the equation. >> i was going to ask that. yeah. >> yeah. are we allowed to say that? i believe he is going to go. i think he may have. i was talking to somebody today who said may not. you never know. was he pleased with the gridiron?

he really enjoyed himself on the gridiron and seat low bar and that was helpful. he had good time. and so sort of a two minesthat may encourage him to go but also may want to go out on a good note and test the luck with the correspondent dern. one last question then you can ask questions. i flow is a microphone that is shared for that that is right over there. right over there. so a quick lining are round question. howmuch longer will jared and ivanka be in the white house? >> in my personal capacity, um, i don't think it will be through the end of the first term. i don't really want to weigh into any of the more evidence as to why that may be. think i the reality with jared, to be a where what is his, he has such a wide portfolioright now, without security clarence in particular that issue gives him a problem of credibility whether or not the mideast peace plan is actually finalized does he have the actual ability technical ability to do anything there so i do question how he finds hess way with limitations including the russia investigation, too.

>> i am still torn. i read ivanka profile that everyone hated. i don'tknow. i think i could see them trying to ease out because admittedly they are under scrutiny they are unaccustomed to and do not enjoy. at the end of the school year would be anatural transition whether it is this year or next year. there is a thought that jared has soft landing pad on the campaign. wereported this. you cannot even get a clear signal to him on this. will say, you know, e are horrible. they are getting killed. i van a is my little girl they

got to go back to new york then in the next breath and will say you cannot leib. i need you here. i need your counsel. he is sending mixed messages that feels like probably out before the end of the first term. the other part of me feels look these two people are their family and survivors. sopwilling to bet on this. i will only add i totally agree everythingboth of them just said especially the idea that trump doesn't quite know whether he wants them to stay or go. then i think hefeels badly for how this has turned out for his daughter and son-in-law who he thinks is, you know, undea serving of the scrutiny he has been getting. but also, one new factor in all of this that is now there are fewer and fewer people that the president knows and likes and trusts around them and hope hicks is definitely leaving. we know that. i think people who knowtrump wonder what happens to him when he has no one left. and so that is a factor in, you know, both, whether he wants to

help fewer people around him and that he trusts and then you know,i think, also, there has been a recent effort underway by peopleto the white house in the public and the media to bolster jared.there was op-ed was written this past week talking about how far he has been treated and how much great work he has been doing so you kind of have to read those signals asar red and i ran a wanting to kind of settle them selfs a little bit more and settle the dust around the presence here. who knows? i think it is anyone's guess but right now the going theory that the soft landing this is campaign. that could be heating up soon. dy not ask you about melan degree. questions from the audience? yes, sir. wait another microphone, please. >> my question is the first term and that struck me.

is the second term expected? what is the mood like? when the president or when the candidate was running people did not take him seriously? now what is the mood inside? is he planning for a second term? do you think there are chances? is the mediataking hum seriously? >> he is running. he said is running. he said is running. he talked over this weekend which is keep america greatexclamation point. and i, i know, i don't go though white house everyday. i would defer to abby and ashley about the mood inside of the white house. i think to the point of jared's softlanding the choice of the campaign manager already and digital capacity and what he did for the campaign. technically in police and being

built and you have groups and georgetown holdingderns for the dinners for the president and i will defer you on the rest of it. everything totally goes here. whether he says he is running i think you have to take that seriously to your pointabout the campaign and we are accused of not take him seriously be a being literal about everything, so may be is theweakest answer, but it certainly suggest that is think there is speculation that he would hate the job, um, how much he hates the job is probably too early to tell because he certainlyenjoyed himself part of the time. don't know what do you think? the president is exactly what you would expect. we know from our sources that the president things about this all the time. he thinks about his poll

numbers, the electionprospects, how he is doing in iowa. he thinks about and talks about it all the time. it is a sure sign he is acting on that and what he did with tariffs. it is a political move not at all about republicans and 2018. it hasn't helped him a lot. even republicans will say maybe not so much, this is all about the president in 2020 and if he can go back to his voters and say, i delivered thisfor you. it is about those union emma kratdemocrats to get people to stay or come over to him. >> another question.

in the same vein i have been told about people like sean hannityor personally charming or engaging, are the people in the administration who have been vilified by the left or who you found to be actually more sympathetic or professional? i find myself having good thoughts about sean spicer -- can you saysomething about that? this is all of the president and whether you can go back to his

face and say he delivered for them and it is about union democrats who have drifted away from the democratic party and getting them to stay with him or come over to him. >> another question. vein of people who told me that sean hannity is charming and engaging, are there people who have been vilified by the left who are more sympathetic or professional? having goodf thoughts about sean spicer or anthony scaramucci? >> i think i should punt too ashley. >> these are i always tell people -- to the

rest of the world, they are characters in this administration. they are people who have personalities, and many we knew before the trump white house. -- there are a lot of people who are perfectly lovely to work with on a day-to-day basis who are professional. i will tell you two things. people tell me that when they meet trump, that is how they feel about him. he is nothing like the caricature on television and you -- when you meet him in person. he is very inviting and easy to talk to, and warm. i have talked to all kinds of people about meeting with trump, some people who don't really like him and they will almost all tell you the same thing, they enjoy the face-to-facewith him -- face to face with him.

i have heard people say that about ivanka as well. she comes across a little bit as there is a screen in front of her when you see her on television but in a room she is , believed to be very diligent. democrats on the hill will tell you this. she is engaged and people like working with her. so there are people like that who are different than the person that you see, or that they act out ontelevision on cable. >> i was going to use the yes, president and ivanka as the same examples. i haven't spent a lot of time with them, but we did an interview with ivanka and anchored the entire broadcast from inside the white house, with peril andht they upped the ante when we aired a portion of john dickerson's interview with the

president from the white house. it did not paint the president in the most favorable light, that made the president look childish and petulant, because we were in his house and he came down and spent time with us and was jovial and arresting in person, and was focused and clear. and was completely friendly. i will say the same thing about her. she does know her stuff and is steeped in policy. very kind, she fed us, which especially goes a long way with our camera crews. was some interesting examples of people who get a hard time almost every day, and ashley knows to story short on ivanka and how people feel about ivanka. >> yes, i have sat down with ivanka and jarrett a number of times and they are both incredibly polite.

i wrote a story that followed the line,follow the house of questioner, and he couldn't have been nicer and more polite. i have had to deal with stephen think on stories, and i people have a lot of opinions about him. professional, polite. i did a profile on him, not revealing sources, but one thing that supposedly about this profile -- everybody in the white house, and even people who diametrically disagreed with all of his views just really like him as a person. i kept on trying to get someone to explain to me how you find them so charming? but he is someone who is widely liked within the white house, and one thing that people really respected about him is that he is incredibly loyal to the president. that is in short supply in this white house. he doesn't agree with the president and all views, but -- on all of his views, but you

would not see stephen miller freelancing and sank his views on his personal immigration, and ask, why, z. stephen miller will try to hold the present back but would -- president back but would , accept the decision and what pulled back. there are a few notable exceptions, i had positive dealing with people in experiences dealing with people in a professional basis. >> questions on the side of the room? >> i am kind of wondering about the rest of washington that seems to lose coverage because of all the air taken out of the room. are we missing a lot of the stories because of everything that is happening in this chaotic administration? is such a huge factor in this political environment that we are in. there is a whole government out there that i personally believe is undercovered.

there are a lot of policies being changed, regulations that affect back real people. i know that there are a lot of reporters out there trying diligently to chip away at those stories every single day. i think the "new york times" ran a story ran a great story about the deepwaterhorizon regulations that are being rolled back. there arestories about air quality and water quality. there are stories about what the cabinet secretary's -- cabinet secretaries are spending and how they are spending that are also important. i think there is a -- cody we said this earlier need infinite , resources to not just cover the trump white house but the administration. that, a convocation to there is, even as there is an inexorable drive to roll things

back, there is also a certain amount of chaos that makes that drive actually difficult to cover. in the normal administration there would be a transparent process where stakeholders are brought in and they get to weigh in on it and are informed of things that are happening. often in this white house, that process never happens. that you -- you know, people on the hill are surprised sometimes when things happen that directly affect their district. as the public is when they read it in the newspaper. so it makes it more challenging to cover but no less important. , i think we all wish they were a million more people -- -- people doing it. >> when of the challenges that i would add, is that cabinet secretaries -- some of the stuff gets covered but doesn't get the air time or attention to breathe and get results. oftentimes the way change happens is because sort of

public accountability and the media shining a spotlight on something. for instance, if you take any cabinet secretary --taxpayer-funded trip with his wife to europe where they went to wimbledon and he is charged with carrying for the v.a., for our nation's veterans, which is arguably one of the most important things and something trumpcare is about. -- trump cares about. a wonderful story that got little attention because of the absurd details -- the insurrection thathis agency, he has an arm guard standing outside of his office. in any other administration -- the process will be the article runs, the ig comes out, and people are clamoring -- believe it or not, people do not always do things, because it is the right thing to do. clamoring for change and they start administration realizes they have to pay a penalty if they don't switch this up. people in washington are saying

they were stunned and relieved that they were not getting a ton of questions on shulkin because during the rob porter then, and it happened during the rob there'shen, and domestic abuse, and stormy daniels, and it doesn't quite stick. >> my impression is congress is not doing a whole lot. it is either in opposition of the president or holding him accountable that normally, give-and-take what go on with -- give-and-take that would go on within the party, with white house and the congress, progress may not be holding up on its end.- impression?right >> my colleague, major garrett says that is daily struggle at the white house to separate the interesting from the important. i think we are starting to figure out how to do that at the white house. the first few weeks of covering the trump white house --we were

blasting every tweet onto the air without knowing what is happening. even building new software to make sure that the tweets are on tv faster. really crazy. we are starting to stabilize a little bit in the white house, and we realized that there is -- a lot of this is newness, and an experience, and not some deliberate plot to destabilize the entire country. on the congress front, i was talking to our correspondent -- and she was talking about how frustrating it is covering congress right now because republican leadership is so hamstrung by the president, at least in more public forums. it comes back to the tweeting. the easiest way, thing is to say that i did not see the tweet, but they are presidential statements, and has a policyne implication, and you are hearing

that from the speaker of the house. that is a big challenge. of i think in terms washington, one of the most interesting places is the judiciary. i'm one of the people who cover the supreme court for us feel like it is your typical republican white house. the appointments are solid conservatives. the federal society is successfully informed of the decisions there. there is a little bit of newness with the tweeting, especially taking on the courts which caused lower courts to look at things in the bit more closely than they might have, in terms of executive actions. but to the point, things are happening quietly. judiciary has been packed with solid conservatives, the white house has chosen, and in record numbers. they are dwarfing what obama was able to do in terms of judicial appointments and that is the kind of think.

" has this column, five things you missed while trump was doing god knows what. it is about policy thinks we are missing or not paying a ton of attention to. i think congress -- at the end of the day i tried to read all 750,000 emails i have gotten.and some days there is so much craziness in the white house -- it is buried that congress has sed mandatory sexual-harassment training. especially in light of weinstein, it could be the lead story on any day. i think congress -- it is a hard time, especially with the renewed gun debate saying they are getting a ton done. there is about one day left in the legislative calendar before the year ends. >> i was just reminded that we are running out of time. one more question, and we are finished.

anyone got a question? i'm looking for a woman's question, we have a lot of men. [laughter] myers, i am a contrite alumni. the question is, just speaking about the gun debate -- when you guys do cover him and he says something that seems to be a major policy statement. in 24, 48, or less he says the exact opposite. nra.with the -- ou have to wait until he >> the age limit? >>he has this past president of contradicting himself a rolling it back or do you have to wait until he basically says the opposite 24 hours or less later? >> i think the north korea meeting is a good example of this. this is not specific to guns, but there is that camp who has not spent a lot of time in washington. ,'m not criticizing my bosses

the president said he is going to meet with kim jong-un, where's it going tohappen, maybe in geneva or something like that. and maybe thereis a 10% chance that happens, probably -- so, the point about running for reelection again, you have to cover it in the moment as it happens with the appropriate context and look at the implications. i don't think it makes you say, " i am not going to pay , because he isat going to change is my tomorrow." i think it informs patterns of behavior and legislative tendencies. youmay be able to infer from some of his actions. >> especially some of the policy stuff is on immigration and guns, he says one thing and then goes back to the other side. it is the balance between covering what the president said, which is newsworthy, and putting it in the relevant context.

this was a weird thing to adjust to, sort of less policy but , people. soho is going to become the next secretary of state -- and president trump feels like he is the only person -- if the news leaks out who he is going to choose pompeo, it leaks out, he might change his mind because he is angry it leaked or because he watches a lot of news coverage of pompeo and it turns hast people don't think he -- is as great of a pick as the president thought. i am sure obama or bush or whoever is appointed leaked out, they wouldbe frustrated when notrustrated, but would choose a different cabinet secretary. you notice a lot of the stories are irrelevant caveats, and the president said he is going to pick so and so, but nothing is a done deal until he announces his decision. >> and his staff want stop -- won't stop trying until the words have come out of his mouth and have been rented in blood, -- printed in blood, on paper.

[laughter] >> thank you very much. now i know that it is time to stop. [applause] here is a look at our love of dance -- live events. until your secretary testified before the senate energy and natural resources committee. the house comes in at noon eastern and they work on legislation to improve access to experimental treatments for patients. the senate is back at 10:00 a.m., the continued debate on a financial deregulation bill. the command centers of the u.s. central command and africa command testify about the president 2019 budget request. education secretary betsy devos on the gun safety and school violence. that is at 2:30 p.m. eastern.

we join a senate committee hearing where david cameron testifies about global security. on c-span's "landmark cases," we will explore the case of plessy versus ferguson, where a man was arrested in new orleans for taking a seat on a trying car reserved for whites -- train car reserved for whites. this narrow interpretation of the 14th amendment was not overturned until brown v. board of education. join the conversation. @c-span. there are lots of resources on our website for background on each case. also, find a link to the national constitution center's

interactive constitution. ♪ >> in this year's competition with asked students to choose a provision of the u.s. constitution and create a bit of -- create a video. from 46ved 2985 entries states. the first prize winner for the high school is category goes to -- is category goes to these are the first prize centralfrom our category. these are the winners from a

high school west. from our prize winner middle school is category. east category. the judges special citation for creatively -- creativity goes to the students. finally, we are happy to announce the grand prize winners. -- these students for their documentary. >> we are calling to let you know that you won the cap price

-- grand prize. [cheering] >> it was an open-ended question, so we had time to focus in. when i looked online and got the contact information, i thought, we have to do this. we have to get in contact with the person. we sent them emails, started filming, sent even more emails, and everything fell into place. >> 26 different amendments that we looked at, lots of controversy going on right now. we kind of sat down and thought about it in relation to us, what really affected us. the 26th amendment, we were able to get in contact with senators around the country. we got working as soon as we could. >> the top 22 winning entries

will air on c-span and april. you can watch every documentary online. ♪ >> theresa may told british lawmakers that it was highly likely that russia was behind the nerve agent attack against a former russian spy and his daughter. she took questions about the poisoning. the russian ambassador was summoned to russia's foreign office. the kremlin has until tuesday afternoon to explain the incident. whole house will want to once again pay tribute to the bravery and professionalism of the emergency services and armed forces in responding to this incident. as well that the doctors doctord nurses now treating those affected. our thoughts in particular are with detective