at the white house. these enslaved workers performed a variety of jobs. they were chefs, gardeners, stable hands, maids, butlers, valets, ladies, ladies and. and did all sorts of other cleaning and other work around the white house. so we had this long history up until the lincolns of having a lot of enslaved workers in the white house itself. but things changed with first ladies, beginning with this with abigail adams, who had a very, very different opinion of slavery from her predecessor, martha washington. abigail was an abolitionist and shortly after john adams was inaugurated, and abigail wasn't there at the time. that was not a typical first lady. martha was not there for george's inauguration either. but martha had written a letter at one point in her life to john which said that and fortunately how could they, the southerners, reconcile human bondage with the ideology of freedoms that america had fought for. and abigail hired a free african-american named james, who worked at their farm. and duri

she invited them to white house open houses which had not been done before and the african-american step but she believe education was b a great equalizer and supported the start of kindergarten classes for black children. she is best known from bringing the cherry trees to washington ursula rights activities were certainly very important. next to her in the middle of the road is allen nelson who is woodrow wilson's first wife. she was a southernerwh whose family were and she was not the most progressive first ladies in this particular area but she did do some things that were very important and something similar that we can talk about with lady bird johnson and that was there were the housing situation was for african-americans ande immigrants and she helped with the passage of a bill. she took members of congress to see that housing situation and worked very hard with members of congress to get that bill passed. lucy hoover on the bottom right and there was and there's a wonderful history on her as well but for the first 20 century african-american congress was elected in 1929. they we

first, as a white house reporter, she previously worked as a white reporter and producer for abc news, where she began her career. she is a regular on television and has appeared msnbc, fox news, cnn, nbc, and abc. she holds a bachelor's degree from university texas at austin and a master's degree from columbia university graduate of journalism. she grew up in west virginia and now resides here in washington, d.c. mcgraw will be in conversation with elaina plott calabro. elaina is a staff at the atlantic. previously as she covered politics and the 2020 election for the new york and the new york times magazine. she is currently at work on a book about the relationship between former alabama governor george wallace and frank johnson, the federal judge who regularly upended wallace's segregationist agenda. she was born and raised in tuscaloosa alabama. now, enough of my voice. please join me in welcoming these two wonderful, full writers writers. hi, everyone thank you so much for coming. so i'm sure a lot of you are to follow meredith's work religiously for really the eight years i thin

white house press secretary karine jean-pierre.applause] karine: good afternoon, everyone. it is hard to follow a performance like that. the saint augustine gospel choir. let's give it up one more time. they were amazing. i am feeling very inspired today. just look around. there is so much black excellence here today. give it up. [applause] just think about it. hundreds of black leaders on the south lawn of the white house, who exemplify black excellence. it is because we have a president who wanted to bring us all together to lift up our accomplishments. i think we should probably do this every month, what do you think? i will talk to the boss about that one. we are all here because we have a president and a vice president who have proven they are committed to investing in the future of black communities. this administration has done the work. president biden, vice president harris did not talk the talk, they walked the walk. i want to talk a moment about the president that i know. as the first black openly queer white house secre

the roof of the white house and plug it in.ack in those days there was nobody up there. today, because of terrorism and things like that, the roof of the white house is covered with military guys and black ops and everything else, but back then, there were 218-year-old kids carrying this big stereo equipment to the roof of the white house. we were out there playing led zeppelin's "stairway to heaven." it was like dumb and dumber on the roof of the white house that night. peter: did this experience bring you and your siblings, jack, susan and michael, closer? steven: yes. no doubt. because here was a situation, peter, they were the people that understood what i was going through. i understood what they were going through and at the end of the day you could look at your brother, my brother, mike or jack, or my sister, susan, and say is this as weird for you as it is for me? and they were the people that really related to it, so yes, i think the whole experience brought our whole family closer, mom, dad. finally, mom was happy bec

can ukraine count on the us _ white house. can ukraine count on the us as — white house.us as a partner- white house. can ukraine count on the us as a partner in - white house. can ukraine count on the us as a partner in the - on the us as a partner in the long—term? we saw that the baikal earlier this year with the delay from congress about much—needed funding to ukraine. we see comments coming from the republican presidential nominee, donald trump, about ukraine there, about the war in ukraine. how do you think that kind of international relationship can be guaranteed or otherwise? it relationship can be guaranteed or otherwise?— or otherwise? it is tricky now and president _ or otherwise? it is tricky now and president zelensky - or otherwise? it is tricky now and president zelensky is - and president zelensky is threading a very fine line. he meets with donald trump tomorrow, he met with harris today and biden today and he has got to do a very, very difficult tap dance. we don't know where president trump is to come down. he said a lot of very different things. he sai

what did the white house press corps think of her? she didn't come to the white house and. hang with us in the press briefing room. she was a presence, especially during that time where she got the sadat begin. all that was done, obviously away, from the white house. but when we travel wild with her, she was just she was that that new year's eve in tehran at midnight, they brought the travel pool. me and couple of other reporters up to the the elegant ballroom of the the avalon palace. they opened the doors and there was president carter and mrs. carter shah of iran, king hussein of jordan. and they just all said, happy new year, toast and champagne and everything. and i said, mr. president, you're going to go to egypt tomorrow to see president sadat. why is that? he went one. barbara wasn't there because. she and john chancellor of nbc and some the other bigwigs had been invited to the party they were off dancing somewhere and indeed, a few minutes later, we went back downstairs. the president's secret service agent, -- kiser, came and got me said, the president needs to s

the white house was home the second and third floor. we had our children there. we had been separated from our children for so long. all but one of our sons and his wife could not live there. and and and everybody as i said before, in the family, the same experiences when they go out. so you treasure those times together and a real one close family feeling and the criticisms come and so you develop that attitude in the white house. all of these things are going on around you. you're doing the best job you can, can do. and besides that, you think you're doing a good job and what's best for the country. and all of the hubbub is going on and but you you secure if you're confident in what you're doing and that that's the way i felt i just feel that if could understand sometimes the criticism of who are trying to do their very best in that position in white house and had a little. basic understanding and a little more patience to see how things are going to move along. they move differently every month or so. i'm unhappy reading a lot of criticism and and and real nas

white house is pressuring him, go for a ceasefire.s domestic opposition, half the country rose up to say get the hostages out. hamas said no hostages without ceasefire. if you assign that ceasefire, hamas lives to destroy another day. they have not destroyed the tunnels, you are making invitation for next crisis, another massacre of israelis. it is a terrible position that bibi netanyahu is in. the white house situation room is about size of big dining room, president at one end, he will get briefing from hostage negotiate ors and he will turn the secretary of defense, and turn to secretary of state, what is israeli position? intelligence director, what do we know about israel's capabilities and iran's capabilities? will iran get involved? all around the table and every head turns to the president waiting for his decision. we have joe biden who has been on vacation for two weeks and said . what would your decision be? you have dead silence. >> pete: that is right, help me answer that question, what is kamala harris' foreign policy? jo

the white house weighed in.person said it is in touch with both sides and encouraged them to negotiate in good faith. before we go, stuck nasa astronauts sunita williams and butch wilmore have been stranded on the international space station since june after a boeing starliner mission was interrupted by technical problems. the starliner craft returned safely to earth a saturday but without sonny and butch on board. the pair's delayed return is now expected to happen in february. it means that astronauts won't be on earth for previously planned events including election day in the u.s.. sunny and butch said they planned to carry out their civic duties even from outer space. >> i sent down my request for a ballot today. they should get it to us in a couple weeks. that's an important role we all play a citizens. to be included in elections. nasa makes it easy for us to do that. >> same here. it is an important duty we have as citizens. we are looking forward to being able to vote from space. that's pretty cool. >>

abc's jay o'brien reports from the white house tonight. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump claiming no matter the outcome, this election will likely be his last. the former president constitutionally ineligible to run again if he wins. asked whether or not he would mount a fourth white house bid if he loses -- >> i think that will be -- i don't see that at all. i think hopefully we're going to be successful. >> reporter: on the campaign trail, trump rallying in the must-win battleground state of north carolina where a scandal encircles the candidate he endorsed for governor, republican lieutenant governor mark robinson. >> hello to north carolina. >> reporter: trump not mentioning robinson's name after cnn reported robinson made racist and inflammatory posts on a pornographic website years ago, including calling himself a, quote, black nazi. some republicans tonight standing behind him. >> i still have mark robinson's sign in the yard. we're not taking it down. >> i don't not believe him, i don't believe him. you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinio

bush the white house. give me a sense of how much security is a top of mind issue any time a president leaves the white house. to what extent are the conversations and activity and work effort done to secure a president's safety? >> everything is about security when it is the president of the united states. security is the absolute number one most important consideration . constantly, throw any discussion and the secret service has always been incredible at making it happen and presidents might argue for a situation that the service would not be comfortable with, and they will have their negotiation and the back and forth, but usually the secret service make it happen. this is tragic, though, that we have come to this moment everything back to the beginning of the white house when presidents would let visitors, normal americans could come by and stand in line and go in and meet with the president and now we are to this point of the presidents are not even able to probably -- candidates for political office

all along to try and avoid _ the white house all along to try and avoid a _ the white house allontation between america _ avoid a direct confrontation between america and russia, something president — america and russia, something president biden describes as being potentially world war iii, but interestingly he is coming under pressure — interestingly he is coming under pressure from republicans in congress _ pressure from republicans in congress who want him to allow the american _ congress who want him to allow the american weapons to be used in russia _ american weapons to be used in russia and — american weapons to be used in russia and they've written to him, asking _ russia and they've written to him, asking him — russia and they've written to him, asking him to lift the restrictions on the _ asking him to lift the restrictions on the long—range missiles, so he is under— on the long—range missiles, so he is under pressure to do that. donald trump, _ under pressure to do that. donald trump, if— under pressure to do that. donald trump, if he were re—elected to the white _ t

any of this come from the white house briefing which you | white house briefing which you have alluded do you take from that? confirmation of this issue will be discussed in the first of all, we have had some response from putin's morning last night that he regarded any permission to fire these missiles and russia as effectively direct confrontation between nato and russia. and therefore saying that russia would act appropriately to that and the white house spokesman said, such warnings are taken seriously as all such warnings are but reading between the lines, western allies say that they have pushed the boundaries every time these red lines of been announced by president putin and i think the sense from the europeans, they think it is sabre rattling and having think president biden is been more cautious, much more cautious on this issue of firing long—range weapons that could reach the outskirts of moscow in places like that and certainly the americans have been, there's been a blanket refusal to give ukrainians the permission in the white house spokesman with confirmation that they

i international community or the white house?— white house? i think he was talkin: white house? house? i think he was talking to the white house. | white house? i think he was i talking to the white house. the world gets mad at netanyahu after six israelis were killed? i'm sorry, i'm no huge fan of netanyahu, but i! i'm sorry, i'm no huge fan of netanyahu, but 11 months ago, hamas kidnapped these hostages. they've held them and tortured them and killed them, and these six were executed in the world gets mad and outraged at benjamin netanyahu. no outrages at hamas. do you think there is an opportunity thatjoe biden want to look at or if you want to be cynical, dizzy not want a solution? is he not want to hand joe biden a win before the november election? ii hand joe biden a win before the november election?— hand joe biden a win before the november election? if you knew how he would — november election? if you knew how he would have _ november election? if you knew how he would have done - november election? if you knew how he would have done it - november election? if you knew h

was one of those times when we got to that box that -- talked about how sad he felt leaving the white house. he felt like he was packing up and everybody's watching him go. and it's a really a house as opposed the state department. and i don't think he'd absorbed that feeling of sadness and anger even that he'd had about john kennedy. he had loved him so much, but he was able to absorb that. but the great thing that happens is when something bad happens in your life. later, we went to 40th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis, and at the story he told the story in front of castro and all the people, the was very funny with the che guevara thing because the two interpreters at first are sitting on the couches in che sitting on the floor to be a proletariat. so -- is on the floor with him as well and then -- finally says, i can't let him out proletarian ize me. so he's on the floor, until finally the interpreters say on on the couches, this is crazy. everybody love this story. castro loved it so much. he invited -- and me to a private luncheon with him so he could tell more about che gueva

mary alice from the white house, thanks so much. abc's washington correspondent jonathan karl joins us and he joins us with those developments. john, what do you know? >> reporter: we are told that former president trump was on the fifth floor when he -- fifth hole of the golf course heard those popping sounds. people who spoke to him say he is in good spirits and his running mate j.d. vance just spoke to him and said that he is in shockingly good spirits given what happened. i also spoke just recently, linsey, with a former member of the president's secret service detail, former president's detail when he was in the -- when he was in the white house who described how difficult it is to secure the area when he is playing golf particularly at that golf course, the golf course that he usually plays when he is at mar-a-lago. this former agent told me that if the secret service had not spotted the mussel of that gun sticking through the fence that he would have had an unfettered shot and this very could have

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, because i think i worked with the best white house press corps. the be able to tell everybody you did at the white house. i was and i will brag a little. i was the only female full time press advance person for president bush all four years and those were the days when they said we pay you so you stay on the road. so i came home back to my parents house in alexandria about three nights a month. i just went city to city to city. and these four people very much inspire me after we lost to where i saw a lot of things that changed me as a young adult and and and went on to go into communications. i have to ask you all all of you, what do you how do you see reporting today versus the way i watched you all report? and i know the way you used to report and and the brit hume's and the judy keens and the people who really taught me how to be a thoughtful. i would love to your thoughts on what you think of reporting today. well, i'm probably a grumpy old man at this point, but i find myself swearing at the media about three times a day. i think that it has

it and his team as he heads to the white house.— white house. it will be. as always. — white house.it will be. as always, thank you - white house. it will be. as always, thank you so - white house. it will be. as | always, thank you so much, sumi. just after president zelensky addressed the un general assembly there. zelensky addressed the un generalassembly there. he zelensky addressed the un general assembly there. he was talking about this risk of russia are attacking ukraine nuclear power plants. he was talking about the chernobyl disaster back in 1986, when of course that explosion at reactor number four happened and how nuclear clouds do not regard borders. so very much a wake—up call for the rest of europe, for the rest of the world in order to get behind ukraine and to support it. much more on this and of course much more on this and of course much more on this and of course much more on the ongoing tension, the crisis happening in the middle east coming up next. do stay with us here. middle east coming up next. do stay with us h you so much, always, thank you so much, sumi.

governor, with republican lawmakers, and none, she says, violated any. because of this visit, so the white house spokeswoman, karin jen pierre, called on the republicans in the house of representatives to leave these accusations political, and she said that it should be forgotten because it is a normal practice, there was nothing unusual about this visit, and therefore, ostap, it is very important that the white house communicated about this communication because it was a big topic this week and during the visit of the ukrainian president, of course yuli, thank you for this analysis and for your work, yuliya yaremolenko was with us to... communicate with bilogod. in addition to meetings with both candidates and the us president, volodymyr zelenskyi also visited the us congress. meetings were held with representatives of both parties, both in the senate and in the house of representatives. and although speaker mike johnson did not appear, american lawmakers assured that bipartisan support for ukraine remains unchanged. our correspondent kateryna lisonova asked congressmen and senators what they t

. >> john: moments from now the white house will brief reporters to the very first time in more than two weeks at the administration ups the ante on israel to move forward with a deal with hamas after the grim discovery of six hostages executed in gaza. and right now, live pictures out of tel aviv showing protesters and families of the remaining hostages pleading for a deal. the state department saying this, last hour. >> it's time to finalize that deal. the people of israel cannot afford to wait any longer. the palestinian people, who are also suffering the terrible effects of this war, cannot afford to wait any longer. the world cannot afford to wait any longer. >> john: i'm john roberts in washington. good to be with you today. if they can finalize the deal, talk to hamas. >> gillian: some of the parents of these hostages will tell you the time to sign a cease-fire deal was six months ago. but here we are. we'll try and move forward. i'm gillian turner in for sandra smith today. this is "america reports." israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is striking a defiant tone after p

celebrities wanted to be at the obama white house.hey wanted to know what she was wearing, what designers, and then there was the whole black first lady element of it, the racial scrutiny around her was enormous and she navigated that by all accounts with grace and a pragmatic understanding of what was expected from her. so in that sense, following that , and also we had ather first lady in between the two of them we cannot leave out melania trump, really, because it kind of reset the expectations to zero when you had a first lady who did very little with her platform. so if jill biden had followed michelle obama, that probably would have been much more of a question. but there was that period where things were unraveled and reset. peter: here is michelle obama from the 2008 democratic national convention. >> you work hard from what you want at life, that your word is your bond, you do what you say you are going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you do not know them, and even if you do not agree with them.

our white house initiative has built momentum for health research focused on women. but we have to keep moving forward. we have to keep working across government and the private sector and incentivize innovative health research for women. it's time to write a new story of health care in this country, one where women get the answers we need where the united states continues to be home to the most cutting edge research in the world and where everyone can lead healthier lives. thank you. >> thank you so much. thank you, press. thanks so much. president biden: in the peace process, we tried to from the beginning to make sure the people in northern israel as well as southern lebanon are able to go back to their homes and go back safely. and secretary of state, secretary of defense, our whole team is working with the intelligence community to try to get it done. we'll keep at it until we get it done but we've got a way to go. >> thank you so much. thank you, everybody. move this way. thank you so much. reporter: is it realistic or have too many bad things happened? preside

obama was in the white house and i wrote to him. let them know i was going to be in washington a few months later and got no response. he was hosting illegal teachers almost all the college students and they were there in dc and i was less than two blocks from the white house and the democrat party does not want to acknowledge how citizens are being harmed by illegal criminals and that's a sad reality and i talked to many law enforcement and going for them and sheriff in the cochese county and a couple sheriffs in texas and the more the crimes are reported now are completely different -- the way the crimes are reported is different and being hidden from the american people and it's sad. i was very, very sad to see rachel moran's mom and other moms testifying in congress and this has gone on for decade and the democratic representatives going from hawaii and dick durbin, von kan versus frequencn kansas city chiefs escobar -- veronica escobar treated me like garbage basically that i was an idiot. thank you for joining us. this story,

i think when the white house announced about the white house announced about the american hostage, theyt as the american hostage, and they want to send a message to the israeli community as well that they are important, they are doing their best to try to get the rest of the hostages alive. this news will have, as you rightly said, a big impact inside israel as the pressure would be more on the pressure would be more on the israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu and his right wing government to try to strike a deal, try to lessen their demands a little bit upon hamas. when understand that there is you little differences between the position of the army in israel and political leadership in the government. so the army think that there is no need of having a permanent military presence in gaza, and that they can operate exactly with the same model that they have in the west bank. to redeploy, somehow, and they can have access at any time, as we saw injenin, as we saw in nablus, and we saw in bethlehem, as we saw in ramallah, and as we saw in all the operations that they do in the opera

shannon: just steps away from the actual white house is a new cutting-edge interactive 3d exhibit. e story of the executive mansion by weight one-of-a-kind experience it is called the people's house. behind the scenes to or from white house historical association president stuart mclaren in this week's sunday special. >> so, here we are at the people's house for the white house experience. grand opening >> visitors are greeted by a model one fit the size of the white house south faÇade. cooked is a lot of history obviously made in this building but some of it triumphant. some of it very difficult. people will see this white house essentially inflames it. >> the british advance on the city of washington and the war of 1812 in august of 1814. almost burned it to the ground it was thwas then rebuilt and reconstructed. but you see the flash of flames that come out of these windows for. >> the main event at the people's house full-scale replica of the oval office. >> this is where all of the difficult decisions, the contemplation, the work of a president happens. >> this is the place. th

we got a behind-the-scenes tour for the white house historical association president in this week's sundayare the people's house, the white house experience, grand opening. >> visitors are greeted by a model one for the size of the white house's south side. >> there's a lot of history made in this building obviously. some triumphant and some very difficult. people see this white house essentially inflame. >> yes the british advance in the city of washington and the war of 1812 on august of 1814 almost burned it to the ground. it was then rebuilt and reconstructed but you see the flash of for claims that come of these windows. >> the main event is of full-scale replica of the oval office. >> this is where all the difficult decisions contemplation a work of a president happen. >> this is the place. this is the recreation for the current president of the united states so everything down to 80 is measured and recreated with the items on the bookshelf, the paintings behind us. even the secret service panic button they are. an exact replica of what president biden's oval office is. >> obviously

white house didn't want him to be in the way.ter area. you don't want to be accused of not going quickly enough but don't want to put a strain on local resources you basically heard the same thing from the vice president today trump said he wanted to go to north carolina logistically it wasn't the right time. that's why he went to valdosta. biden and harris come under criticism. he was hat rehoboth and she was out west doing fundraisers when all of this went down. >> peter doocy asked karine jean-pierre at the white house briefing. listen here. >> people in western north carolina were drowning in their houses this weekend. others were losing everything, president biden is at his beach house and vice president harris was hosting political fundraisers on the west coast. is there a reason they could not be here? >> the president did exactly what a president in this moment needs to do which is directing his team to take action. >> john: he pushed back against that saying look i was on the phone the entire time which he likely wasn't

the white house. this police have detained several people involved in an anti government demonstration. and these really city of tel aviv protesters are demanding a deal to release captives held by hamas and gaza. and the accused, the prime minister of failing and his duty to secure their return to israel. the interest was triggered by the recovery of 6 captives found dead in a tunnel in southern gaza on saturday from the so who has this update from a month. and a reminder that she's reporting from the georgia and you can to do to in is really government stand on else here. a 3rd consecutive night of demonstrations across the israel with the main rally being held in tel aviv after the army had retrieved the bodies of 6 is really captives from a tunnel in southern gauze over the weekend. now this has caused a lot of outrage among family members of captives, especially after is really military intelligence. found that the captives were alive just a few days before and according to a weeks from is really

last year at the white house on august 19th.s ended after you can hear marine one behind me. he has been vacationing for the last few weeks in southern california and rehoboth beach, delaware. harris released a statement yesterday and what she said. i strongly condemn hamas's continued brutality and so must the entire world. as vice president i have no higher priority than the safety of american citizens where they are in the world. what we don't know right now, kevin, is what impact the killing of the hostages may have had on negotiations. there are, of course, a few reports out there unconfirmed by fox that biden plans to present a final deal in the coming days. hopefully we'll get an update on that very soon. now yesterday israeli prime minister netanyahu said that he was talking about the whole situation saying whoever kills hostages does not want to negotiate. biden asked if he talked to netanyahu and told the pool reporters there are talks but not specifically saying whether or not he spoke directly with him. we shall see