robinson of "the washington post" who will lead a discussion with white house chief of staff denis mcdonough. i'm sure we'll have some comments about what they're saying. [ applause ] >> denis, have a seat. hello, everybody. hello. first let me thank our first panel. you teed it up very nicely for us. i'm here today. i'm gene robinson. i'm here with our special guest -- [ applause ] -- with our special guest who took time out from his busy schedule, and it's one of the busiest in washington, i'll tell you. the president is somewhat demanding, i'll hear. denis mcdonough, who is white house chief of staff. he is the 27th white house chief of staff. the previous 26 are the stooped and broken figures you see wandering around washington occasionally, because of the nature of the job. denis joined the administration in 2010 as the national security council head of strategic communications, i believe. he quickly became the deputy national security adviser and became chief of staff in 2013. so denis, thank you so much for being here today. so we just heard a fabulous panel giving us a fairly definit