i covered the carter white house, in those years. eople said, he is the one who has his finger on the bomb. there was a lot of this rhetoric flying around. this was, by no means, a walk-in for him. he had the people. he had the money. >> they were out in california. and he was the nominee in waiting for four years. the only thing that is remotely like it is like what is going on with hillary clinton, to be honest with you. they are not just going to hand it to her, but he had the money. he had the support. the republican party was in transition. and it was going to be ronald reagan's party. nancy that it was true, and she turn out to be right. >> let's fast-forward here. >> are we going to slowly? >> it was a landslide against jimmy carter. 489-49 for the sitting president. much of that was colored by the iranian hostage situation. that was coming to a common close on inauguration day. would you spend just a minute talking about that unbelievable inauguration day, when the country was waiting for the hostages to come home, and it happ

would you tell us about their decision to run for the white house? w they joined the ticket with the reagans? >> i do not think it was much of a decision. he is telling visitors that he intends to run for the white house as early as china. he wanted to stay at the cia after president carter took over. he is laying the groundwork for his ultimate campaign. he does surprisingly well against ronald reagan. ronald reagan was suspected to win the nomination in 1980, but george bush hits the ground running and takes iowa. at that point, the reagans steamrolled them. george bush goes to the republican convention thinking that was it. reagan comes up with a very unusual plan that he will bring back gerald ford and they would be copresidents. that was never going to work. reagan turned to george bush and offered him the ticket. >> what was her role during the 1980 campaign? >> she was someone who listened to her husband speeches and reacted. >> did she campaign herself? >> absolutely. this is the first time we hear about literacy interest and project because s

when ellen wilson is in the white house, she brings the white house gardener back here to this gardent the prospect house and says to the white house gardener, let's re-create the rose section of this garden at the white house. because ellen wilson could look out of her bedroom window at prospect mansion, she could look down and see flowers all day. similarly, she wanted the president of the united states to be able to see roses when he looked out of his window at the white house. of course, this becomes the famous rose garden at the white house. ellen tragically does not live to see the rose garden completed. she is dying in the summer of 1914. she is wheeled out into the space outside of this, in her wheelchair, watching as the gardener works, but does not live to see the completion of the vision she had for roses blooming at the white house. that is a vision that really begins here at prospect garden in princeton. >> the daughter of a judge, first lady edith wilson grew up in a small rural town of whiteville virginia. >> this is the birthplace and childhood home of the edith wilson

>> the white house. at's part of the agreement when go behind the scenes as a photographer, you're there to see, not hear and not listen and not really repeat anything that you hear. it's kind of a mutual agreement because we are let into meetings when you're behind the scenes that are sensitive. i was there when president obama was at a rally and at the same time, the hurricane just come up the east coast and it was up in north. he was on the phone on a secure phone talking to fema director trying to organize it at the same time he was trying to run the campaign. really unique time to be in there and hear him in a really heated or serious conversation about what was going on the ground and organizing that. on the other side of the wall people are banging four more years. it's a unique time. >> here's a photograph i assume on capitol hill with senator schumer and senator mccain in the middle there and senator durbin on the right and senator menendez. how often do we see these photo s? >> not often. it's t

house, mike the president is preparing once again to use the bully pulpit of the whitehouse. >> that's right. and this will be the first time we do see the president in 2014. -- the first time in an official capacity since the christmas break. we will see him in the east room. this comes after a weekend in which the president did apply some behind the scenes pressure making some calls to senators, and evidently that has now born fruit. while libby was on the air, house speaker john boehner put out a statement in an email to reporter. the bottom line is he told the white house before christmas he would pass the extension if it were paid for. the senate bill is not paid for, in other words it would cost the federal treasury about $6.5 billion. there is no offsetting, either cost cuts or revenue raisers in that to offset that $6.5 billion. john boehner saying now he is not going to take it up in the house unless that happens. that is not a very high hurdle, but another way to look at this is there an opening now in the house of representatives to do this. after all it was

she is alone in the white house. e refers to, on the day before what was going to be the last day of the white house, august 14, 1814, i hope i have that day right, and she is waiting for her husband to come home while she is preparing for the worst. she is writing this letter for her sister and running up to the roof looking for a husband. she is observing how badly the battle is going. she is also packing things, she is packing silver and what she considers the people's possessions, and she sends them away in carts. and finally, the word comes and it is time to go. >> the british were coming. >> how endangered was she? >> if she waited any longer, she might have been captured. that would have been a huge prize of war. she knew she had to leave. she wanted to wait for her husband to come home, but she knew she had to leave. and then they reunited a couple days later. apparently she had the table set for dinner, and the british came in and thought that was wonderful. but she did save the pour trait of washington which

this is coincidentally, according to the white house, happening one day after the revelations started to come out from this book. but a white house official has told me, wolf, this has nothing to do with the book, that this is really about opening up access to white house events, presidential events, because the news media has basically been clamoring for this at the white house. i did talk to one administration official who said they see this as sort of a happy coincidence, wolf. >> are they letting in a reporter in addition to the videographers or photographers? a reporter who might be able to ask a question or two to the president or vice president? >> reporter: no, they are not. that was not a part of the arrangement for this press access for this event. one of these photographers could conceivably ask a question of the president, ask a question of the vice president. we're waiting to see what the material is like when it comes back out of this meeting. but so far, we haven't seen it yet, wolf. >> because as you know, at least when i was a white house correspondent, when we had a

i think i mourned it before i left the white house. i know i used to walk around the house i think, there is my mental health legislation. i think i realize how important it is for the president to have a second term, although jimmy carter would not have changed anyway. he would not have changed anything. >> in your book "first lady from plains," you close by saying, i would be out on the campaign trail today if jimmy carter would run again. >> all the time after he lost the election i thought there is no way he is going to run again. i would have been there. >> you have a grandson who just announced for governor of georgia. >> i am thrilled. i will do whatever he asked me to do. he's a great young man. he graduated from duke university and went to the peace corps, came home and went to law school. he is in a law firm now and has two terms as a state senator. >> rosalynn carter, you have had 33 years post-presidency, the longest in history now. and you and president carter have been very active. what do you think your legacy as first la

harry truman called the white house the great white jail. president clinton said it was the crown jewel in the federal penitentiary system. president obama said what the mistakes of his first term was failing to break out of the white house and mover of the country as much as he showed a tiny stream to change that now. so we've had the problem. church radios have biases funded johnson's 45 years ago wrote a book called the twilight of the presidency and he said the biggest problem he could see coming from the presidency was being isolated from reality. if anything, it's gotten worse in them because of many of the fact as i'm about to talk about. some of them are positive thing from the president's day-to-day life. the president has treated like a king in some ways. ichat white house staff that is there to do whatever the president wants. in addition to the official political staff. there's camp david, presidential retreat, air force one and i wrote a book about air force one that i can tell you of the five presidents have cover, does that mea

and initially that terrified people in the white house. ter the 60 minutes interview, the president said jokingly you've lost me 20 million votes. it was only a few days later when the first polls came in and the people in the white house were astonished that in fact there was an overwhelming 70% of those who were polled sympathized with the first lady's candor and views. >> here is her talking about the equal rights amendment. >> the equal rights amendment when at fide will not be an instant solution to women's problems, it will not alter the fabric of the constitution or force women away from their families. it will help knock down those restrictions that have locked women in to the old stereo types of behavior and opportunity. it will help open up more options for women. but it is only a beginning. the debate over era has become too emotional because of the fears of some both men and women about the changes already taking place in america. >> within the republican party itself, this party that had had bare gold water and the early 1960's

he 25th anniversary of the bushes coming into the white house. we have a still of the important things that happened during those years in the white house. they include his no new taxes pledge, the savings and loan crisis. of course, the first iraq war, desert storm, tiananmen square happened during that time. the end of the cold war happened during the bush years. what was happening domestically? >> a lot of social upheaval. jeffrey alluded to it with the changes in society and the role of women. hillary clinton becomes the first lady later. she had gone to graduate chool. a very different time. >> did barbara bush get involved in any of the debates over the changing in society? abortion, gays, gender equality? >> she stayed away from the abortion issue. many years later, in a televised interview, she came forth and pretty much came out and said she has been pro-choice all along. she stayed away from it. when george bush became the vice presidential candidate, barbara and george had had to take a few steps back from their positions with regard to

going into the white house, best advice i got? ep your mouth closed i suspect, but nobody dared say that to me. i don't remember getting too much advice. i had been with the senate ladies, and i had a lot of friends. i had done that for eight years, and i went to the senate wives meetings every tuesday morning. i went some tuesdays when they didn't have meetings and had to be called home again. i love that part of life. i loved all my life. i have been a lucky person. >> you opened your memoir in 1994 by saying, i have been very privileged in my life. >> i wrote that because my husband said, you are going to be criticized, because people are going to say you have lived your life of luxury. although i lived in a tiny small house i would be glad to show you in new york and my father and mother struggled sort of because i had a very loving, sick younger brother, but i did live a privileged life. they loved me. they loved my sister, my brothers. we just had a great household, and i hope others could do it. we were privileged. maybe not

out on sotelo kate across from the white house and the executive office buildings over there of as the white house president obama and his family say they have the two weeks prior to his first inauguration the president is approaching the end of his fifth year in office community says when obama at five well george will the columnist said obama's head the worst first year of the second term since nixon i think that it's. overstatement but obama's having trouble now and certainly with obamacare it's not just that the technical website issue it's is it going to work what does it mean to people and whenever there's a change like this a change i think is wise i think people should have health insurance and whether they're going to make it function for millions of people like they promised we were going to see any second terms when he said in terms get off well. and good question i mean the generally is a bump in the road. but if you look at the world right now i think the world is such a dangerous place all of the if you go from north korea down to libya in egypt and ask questions about ch

this is at the white house. aughter] and so you can ma'am what happens now -- imagine what happens now, you know? so the things are so sophisticated now. but i think the surveillance -- it is a problem for the administration that it all has come ou

the roosevelt white house pushing her in front. think jackie kennedy was the first lady that is part of a media strategy. pat nixon did not play the role, the public role, that the white house wanted her to play. >> i think it goes further back. i think the republican party used her during the eisenhower, when she was second lady, and wanted to use this image of and pat as a young couple that mirrored america at the same time, two young children. the republican party actually helped to create the image of her as an ideal how to that house life. when she was there, they could not stop it. it took on a life of its own. >> do you think they were doing the same thing with mimi? >> mimi was so much older. i think pat had to fill in with many. many was more the grandmother. she was not making public appearances the way that pat was. they needed pat to be a perfect housewife who could do all of these things at the same time. >> it is the flip of what we learned with lady bird johnson and jacqueline kennedy. jacqueline kennedy did not campa

caller: in 1976 we were invited to the white house. my husband was in the music business and we got invited to come to the white house and then after that the ladies got to go see the congress, which you just mentioned they were discussing the panama canal treaty and it was a great event. that night it was so -- it was just so wonderful being at the white house and meeting, it was a governors' meeting as well. and then we had done campaigning for president carter through some of the towns in alabama along with tammy wynette. it was a wonderful event and we loved president carter and mrs. carter. they were so gracious. >> thanks very much. we learned that her interest in the arts was much broader than just music. did they in fact reach out to that constituency as well? >> what was interesting during the campaign, the expansion of the media during this time, a lot of the musicians from the south endorsed carter's campaign. southern rock was at its peak. cap corn records was headquartered in macon and musicians like the allman brothers ban

i think i mourned it before i left the white house. i know i used to walk around the house i think, there is my mental health legislation. i think i realize how important it is for the president to have a second term, although jimmy carter would not have changed anyway. he would not have changed anything. >> in your book "first lady from plains," you close by saying, i would be out on the campaign trail today if jimmy carter would run again. >> all the time after he lost the election i thought there is no way he is going to run again. i would have been there. >> you have a grandson who just announced for governor of georgia. >> i am thrilled. i will do whatever he asked me to do. he's a great young man. he graduated from duke university and went to the peace corps, came home and went to law school. he is in a law firm now and has two terms as a state senator. >> rosalynn carter, you have had 33 years post-presidency, the longest in history now. and you and president carter have been very active. what do you think your legacy as first la

and at times with the white house and other agencies. so it was kind of a constant fight for civil day to get things done, whether it was cutting wasteful programs in the budget, whether it was prolonging the surge in iraq, whether it was getting the right equal to the troops. everything was a fight with somebody or another. >> and you are exhausted. >> i was just spent. >> there is also the emotional weight. >> this is something i write about. i had got to the point where, every time that i talked to the troops or even when i start talking about the troops, i would start to choke up. beginning around 2008, i began telling the troops, both in iraq and afghanistan, but also in service academies and elsewhere that i had come to feel a personal responsibility for each of them as though they were on my own sons and daughters. and i got to the point toward the beginning of 2011 when i began to realize that my determination to protect them against additional wars was probably clouding my judgment in terms of hardheaded national security. >> you

i want to move to the second term in the white house. i want to move to the second term in the white house. again there were so many issues. in brief, some of them included the arms treaty., the explosion of the challenger, and the iran contra affair. and there was the iran iraq war. did she become a positive political force in the white house and the second term? >> she came out of it and really was a very careful in her dealings with the press. she has a presence about her -- poise. she was able to communicate in a way that was helpful to the white house. the second term was very different than the first term. they both learned a lot by then. we know president's second terms can be rough. the problems came and you've listed several of them. hi, lucy from wisconsin. >> the question goes back to the jackie kennedy, nancy reagan episode with both of them having the same interest in changing the white house. i sense such a double standard with the press. i have no problem with the press reporting. i have a problem with the president shaking

traditiontinued the of live events from the white house. introduced the public to some of the musicians and other cultural events. that is a tradition that continues to this day. ago, the obamas hosted one of these. >> i think jackie kennedy started this. >> floyd is in california. are you there? about how question did the reagans indirect -- interact with prince charles and princess diana when they went to visit the white house in 1985? >> you have any memories of that? >> i don't remember. i know everybody in the world who wanted to be at the white house probably wanted to be at that dinner. >> let's move on because our time is going short to an event that became very important in the disposition of the white house. from the perspective of the first lady, this was a real crisis in confidence for the presidency. what was nancy reagan's role in counseling the president? >> she thought it was a threat. she did two things. she doubled down on the negotiation on getting reagan to negotiate with gorbachev. she encouraged that because she though

to build on your observations, i mean there was a lot of goodwill toward general mcchrystal in the white house because during the fall of 2009 and we have are debating options for afghanistan, including whether to go with what he had recommended, this 40,000 additional troops or other options with smaller numbers that have been advocated by the vice president and others, there were a number of leaks in public statements by the military including by general mcchrystal that made it appear to the white house that, and to the president, that the military was trying to box him in and force his hand to adopt their option in terms of the 40,000 troops. i tried to convince the president that i could see where this suspicion came from because of these leaks and public statements. the president sought and others around him vice president and others saw it as an orchestrated campaign by the military leadership. i tried to argue that it was not a campaign, not orchestrated that if it had been orchestrated they would have been a lot smarter about it. but i was unsuccessful in that. but it did lead to an un

is the white house saying poor job recruitment the reason that the obama care was botched? is run like a private business. to have it run like a private business. you would have to change all of the federal contracting rules and turn it inside outment the government should never take on something this ambitious and run our health care system. it simply can't. it is got to be decentralized. they used private contractors. and the same one for healthcare.gov, blew two big projects in canada, and they still hired them. so i am skeptical that you can idealistically do what they are claiming to do. >> the same contractor works on state sites and they are having problems in the states, too. bigger government is what they are talking about to fix. >> extra layer of government. >> very odd way to do it. in the bigger picture maybe it is the job's program that came out of the white house. i am being sarcastic of course. but they do have to fix some things. things popped up since january 1st. people are having a hard time signing on care for new born babies. there is something on the

starting with the president's style. his white house was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any you had seen since richard nixon and henrow kissinger rowelled the roost. >> president obama ran on running the most transparent white house. he promised in 2008. what do you make of that exexcerpt? >> there is no conflict of transparency and keeping a tight reign from the white house on the whole national security. by itself nothing is wrong with that. but gates as you know, goes on to say that he had none too senior of the members of the white house staff making calls to senior military commanders and dispensing orders which is way outside of the chain of command and entirely inappropriate. and he intervened to stop that and had generals and others refer the calls to him. i don't doubt the truth of what he said. >> talk about the next excerpt. this is the one that reveals the naked political posterring if ident obama. of hillary here's what he said. hillary told the president that her opposition to the surge

we were very fortunate. >> the prom in the white house. >> everybody went, didn't they? there's always the debate. are you going to the prom this year? [laughter] >> your mom must've had something to do the planning. what did the public not getting chance to see concerning your mom? >> mom, again, was part of our family that she and dad so many times showed us a relationship where you could differ in opinion and yet still love each other a great deal. that is the thing i appreciated most about mom and dad. i remember when mom got behind equal rights for women. that was not part of the republican platform or democratic to be fair. dad listened and let her do her thing. as a son to watch them, have that relationship where they respected each other and supported each other, was a wonderful thing. there's a great story about dad was in a meeting in the west wing during the campaign with some of the political types, not the administration. he and mom had been talking about the e.r.a. and other things. somebody said, mr. president, do you think there is any chance you would go

i've heard that from three white houses but you know what has really changed over the few white housess the is the nature of the media itself. when i started in 1996 covering president clinton i was maybe two stories at the end of the day for next weeks printing and that was it. today of course we file web stories and we filed logs and we do a lot more tv and radio and podcasts. it's an ever moving ever shifting media environment that is up and makes it harder i think to do longer and more thoughtful journalism. at the "times" we tried hard to preserve despite the acceleration of the cycle. >> host: peter baker's wife susan glasser is that politico and was a longtime editor at the foreign-policy. >> guest: just launched last week, worth looking at. >> host: the cover story was a big piece. >> guest: it was called locking the cabinet. what it's like to be on obama's cabinet and how essentially the white house folks is powerless. i think it continues to be the track. every white house wants to stay in control. the cabinets have looked at people matters of policy but not necessarily centr

the obama white house in controversy and incapacity on almost every imaginable front. rning first to the iranian nuclear talks, the white house has consistently portrayed that deal struck with iran as a dismantling of the islamic republics' uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons program. an end to missile delivery system. iranian president hose san any declared that iran will not yield on the nuclear program. when asked last night by another network if the deal included the destruction of center new jersey he said, quote, note under any circumstance." white house press secretary trying to explain it away as spin for the, quote, domestic political purpose" prompting the exchange with chief white house correspondent ed henry. >>> cnn has broadcast outside of iran. you can confirm? >> yeah. i've seen it here. >> if our -- [inaudible] aren't they sending a message to you to the president. it's not just domestic political consumption if they are talking to broader audience. >> ed, what i can tell you is we are looking what the iranians are actually oing. are they complying w

. >> and now on booktv, from the 30th annual miami book fair international, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." he answered viewer phone calls about his book, "days of fire: bush and cheney in the white house." this is about 40 minutes. >> host: and joining us now is peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and author of this newauo book, "days of fire: bush and cheney in the white house." first of all, peter baker, weerb are just watching president bush. what'd you learn from "decision points"? >> guest: i learned a lot. i think he was willing toh revisit and open up about events that he didn't feel comfortable talking about in quite the same degree of detail when he was in office. be a part of this, he didn't talk about it to the same degree, he talks about how katrina was handled and he still obviously believes in the iraq war, and he talks about how he feels in particular and i thought it was a very interesting memoir as presidential books go. >> what about the number of dick cheney? >> i think that he expresses regret, bu

her televisedg tour of the white house in february, 1962. visitors to our museum are quite surprised to realize that it is red, because of course, the program was filmed in black-and-white and broadcast in black and white. i like to surmise that she chose red knowing that it would be televised on valentine's day, 1962. ands go into the museum look at other examples of jaclyn kennedy's clothing we have on display. an awful lot of thought into her wardrobe when she was representing the country, both at the white house and while traveling abroad. she would think about what colors would mean something to the country i'm about to visit. for her visit to canada in 1961, the first state visit the kennedys made, she shows -- she chose this red suit as a gesture of respect for the red of the canadian maple leaf, and knowing that she would be greeted by the royal canadian mounted police who wear red. we display the green coat and hat worn by the first lady for her arrival in columbia in 1961. the president and first lady traveled throughout south ameri

that's what the obama white house wants. but they need to get busy to take advantage. from health care reform to middle east peace to midterm election, they have their hands full. i'll go around the table to take domestically, what's the first thing president obama needs to do? >> he might want to start by kicking it off with the state of the union but i think march is going to be on his why. why? the management of the affordable care act. we have the dealt ceiling crisis that could emerge again and also the white house is watching those early primaries trying to figure out whether the tea party or the republican riffs might settle enough that immigration reform might seem possible. john: john kerry has been busy foreign front what does he have to achieve? >> a whole lot of middle east. john kerry is in the middle east trying to push on that and in the second half of january, there is supposed to be a peace conference near geneva on syria. there's an irony there because this is an administration that said it wanted to do less middle east and more asia. so far that's not

we're watching president obama and the first lady leaving the white house. d i'm going to go to jim acosta who is on the lawn of the white house, the north lawn. jim. >> reporter: jake, that's right. you can seat president and the first lady climbing into their limousine now to head over to the white house. the motorcade should only take a couple of minutes to make the trip down pennsylvania avenue. and jake, i can tell you all this conversation that everybody's been having in the last several minutes about immigration reform and executive orders, that is one thing the president cannot do by executive orders which is why you're going to hear the president according to sources i've been talking to make a real soft pitch tonight for immigration reform. so as not to irritate republicans. he wants to create the space according to the source so republicans can find a way to get immigration reform to his desk. but as for those executive orders we've been talking about this all night, i'm hearing from a source familiar with this speech there could be as many as a do

how is the white house going to go about doing that? dent indicated in the state of the union, he's going to use his pen and phone when necessary to get things down with or without congress. this is an example of effectively going around congress but there are limits to what he can do. what he's basically doing now is

mike viqueira live at the white house right now, and mike, the white house keeps saying jobs, jobs, jobs, but the word from the white house is spend, spend, spend. >> well, the white house you can expect them to point out the positives. the unemployment rate was down to 6.7%, but as you pointed out, down for all of the wrong reasons. 2.2 million jobs created in the last year, the unemployment rate sinking by 1.2% during that time. but as you point out only 74,000 jobs created. economistss expected about thre times more than that. and 347,000 people dropping out of the work force last month, and one other figure to throw at you, the u-6 as it is termed here in washington, or the real unemployment rate, those who are unemployed and maybe looking for a job, that rate holding steady at 13.1%. but they use this opportunity to push the congress to pass that unemployment extension for the long term unemployed. here is jay carney just a little bit ago. >> the short-term employ rate is now roughly at where it was during the last expansion, and maybe a little bit below it. which means the unemploy

man i ask each of you to comment about her stewardship of the white house and how they used the white house politically to advance their goals? would you talk about her interest in the history of the white house and how she approached it? >> she started america's treasures preservation and did a lot of research and found a lot of things and put them on display. she did restoration of the treaty room, several of the rooms in the white house. she was not as active as jacqueline kennedy was, but she was still pretty active. i don't know much about their social entertaining. they had some big white house lawn parties, but they didn't use the white house nearly as much as the kennedys who made it a cultural center. she was very busy doing other policy things. >> we know about the lincoln bedroom. they brought in a lot of musicians. bill clinton loved music, much like president obama and michelle bringing in various musicians, the clintons did as well. they also turned it into something of a sleepover place. a lot of friends stayed there often. no one actually lived there like under rooseve

at the end of last year, we've been committed to providing better access to photographers at the white house. today was part of fulfilling that commitment. again, i don't think anybody who has covered us or knows the president, vice president, knows how this white house functions has any doubt in the president's faith in vice president biden as an adviser and counselor. so we don't need to reinforce that, it's a fact. >> this photo was a coincidence. >> it was. he had the weekly lunch. we've had, as you can ask our friends in the world of photography here debate and discussion with them about how we can better improve access for them. this has been something they have raised with us in the past. so you guys can decide for yourself. the president greatly values the counsel of the vice president on matters foreign and domestic. >> what would you think if you were sitting here? the timing was a coincidence. the back and forth on this. >> i can just tell you what the facts are. you can decide for yourselves what you want to believe. >> former advisers, former national security advisers tom donne

this is the scene outside the white house. we will continue to watch as we hear from ken from california. caller: i think tonight we will hear more of the same from president obama, whether it is to raise minimum wage or obamacare. they will fund yet another program so people will be dependent on bigger government. republicans want you to keep more of your hard-earned money which you can put back into the economy that will allow jobs to be created for more americans. [indiscernible] >> thank you for the call. you're looking at the motorcade. president biden -- we are waiting for the president that will be departing momentarily to head up to capitol hill. re mr. nices -- no mo president. mr. obama needs to go and double at that take a stab nation cozy political n -- nation's political narrative. caller: thank you for taking my call. one of the main issues i want to millionhat -- 1.6 resourceshat have no whatsoever. i'm included. i'm 25 years old. i mail. i have an associates degree. i have been out of work since the december of

conversations] [inaudible conversations] next on booktv joshua dubois former executive director of the white house office of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. he talks about the devotional e-mails he has been sending president obama. this is a half-hour. [applause] >> hello everyone. it's great to be with you this evening. there has been a little bit of a change in plans. i shall be cooking dishes for michelle obama. we will get to that after the devotional. thank you all for being here. it's wonderful to see so many friends old and new. it's like a family reunion a little bit in here so thank you so much and i'm excited to share this book with you but i wanted knowledge my wonderful wife michelle. [applause] we have been married for precisely 82 days now so you see the glow on my face. anyhow thank you all so much for being here. when i first started working for barack obama had no idea who's going to be sending him at devotional every morning and become his spiritual advisor. i was a young kid from nashville teen in tennessee a preacher's kid working on the 2008 campaign. i didn't know

white house. he said, that's okay. the policy was driven by the white house. ut what seemed to have really annoyed him time and time again was the suspicion of the military that he said ran rampant within the white house. and so here's a man clearly defending his commanders, a great belief in the people who work for him at the department of defense and he believes that they were being treated badly and that they were greeted always with a kind of skepticism, which as paul points out, is sometimes very healthy, but i think gates is saying sort of went beyond the pale. so i think what you're seeing is somebody who has a lot of emotion about the way his people were treated. >> he talks about going up against -- exactly what you're talking about. one point they had disagreement, don't give the white house staff and national security staff too much information on the military options. that's not good for national security, gloria. >> it may not be, but it was a reality. i recall during the whole run up to the surge that the president had these meetings and meetings

he's going to try to do both. >> we are taking a look at the white house, the back door of the white ouse. that is a door from which the president will emerge momentarily, we believe, and make that little trip up pennsylvania avenue past us here. what is this moment about? i recall that some people said that president clinton was marking his speech all the way up the hill. >> i remember those days. [laughter] >> a little flutter of the heart then? >> the most anxious moment was when the aide put the frog tape on the teleprompter and the president ad libbed for 20 minutes. and the vice president came off to the podium and i think we had a different reaction today then then. there are always unexpected moments. >> he handed that well. i said you worked for george w. bush but that was george h. w bush: talk about the intensity of this night. >> it is tense, and intense. you have worked hard. it is a big speech. you need a lot of energy and stay focussed as well. there's always a little bit of uncertainty. you have had this in the past the state of the unions where a member said something

the phone. a white house reporter for bloomberg news. to talk about the memoir by former defense secretary robert gates. it was leaked to many reporters. what was the reaction from the white house yesterday? guest: good morning. it was a pretty swift response. surprisingly,t back to the portions of gates' book where he supported the president or praise to the president and distanced the white house from any portions that were critical or raised new questions about the white house's approach to foreign policy. host: what did we hear from them and what did the white house do when it comes to the criticism that defense secretary gates had for the vice president and his foreign-policy decisions were thinking? -- or thinking? the book pretty strongly criticized vice president biden. oning that he has been wrong every foreign-policy decision over the past four decades. this was probably the easiest criticism for the white house to push back on. they circle the wagons around biden. officials current and former came out in support of biden. biden

why won't the white house do this? $5 million or $6 billion that it will cost the u.s. taxpayers. what's the white house contention and argument against it? >> the white house argument is that this started under george w. bush. they started doing these extensions under george w. bush and the white house says the deficit was going up under george just last year, these unemployment benefits were extended again, without pay-fors. so the white house is saying what's so special about this time around? but i think practically speaking, another political reason for this, and that is they feel the republicans moving in their direction. so if they're feeling the republicans moving in their direction, why would they go ahead and agree to that demand. and there's another thing going on here, as well, wolf. you're going to hear him talking about it a lot this year. and that is the issue of income inequality. he is expected to be talking about this in the state of the union speech in about three weeks -- actually three weeks from to

not even by the white house. the benghazi massacre could have been prevented. me house intelligence committee member com kevin nunes. congressman, good evening, did the administration lie to us? >> well, they -- not only did they lie, judge, but they continue to lie. and, you know, we are still waiting for witnesses to show up. we are still waiting for phone records. it's getting -- it's very very frustrating. i know the american people are frustrated. but i really appreciate you staying on this issue. >> well, you know, congressman, it's not many of us were surprised at what happened. i mean, it just, you know, made sense, based on the pieces that americans were putting together. but this came so late in the game because the administration chose to lie over and over. the families would have gotten closure a lot sooner had they not done that. >> well, and what is sad is i think they are doing this to cover up their middle east strategy. so they don't -- their narrative was that al qaeda was on the run. i find it rather ironic that al qaeda is in syria. al qaeda