. >> joining me right now, cnn justice reporter laura jarrett, and laura, he also, you know, said thatin. >> that's right, fred. he is going to be right back up there on december 17, doing it all again. and sources in the room describe it as pretty tense. highly partisan. as one might expect for a closed door meeting on capitol hill. given this environment. lawmakers questioned him on the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. of course an investigation which was concluded over two years ago now. take a listen to how one congressman in the room described the atmosphere. >> the whole reason why the other side, the house majority republicans are rehashing the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, is to try to paint the d.o.j. and fbi as politically motivated or biased organizations. and the reason why they want to do that is they want to say, just as they mishandled the hillary clinton e-mail investigation, for political purposes, the same is happening with the mueller investigation. >> now, as you heard from the congressman there, republicans in the room were quite dead set on pressing c

cnn's laura jarrett is at the justice department. laura, tell us what barr has had to say about the mueller investigation, the russia probe. >> reporter: well, jake, in the past he has expressed a great deal of competence in mueller. he was actually mueller's boss at the justice department back in the early 1990s. he said mueller will not did i involve into a so-called witch hunt, but he's also expressed a bit of disappointment about the fact that some members of mueller's teams have donated political donations to democrats in the past. he said this to "the washington post," jake. in my view prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party. he goes on to say would i have liked to have him see more balance on the group, earningoing sentiments from president trump as mueller's team being angry democrats despite the fact that mueller himself is a lifelong republican, and barr has also expressed plenty about former fbi director james comey, about the fact that he was widely planned for fl

cnn's laura jarrett is at the justice department. laura, tell us what barr has

laura jarrett joins us now. laura. >> hey there, jim.the justice department for officials to come out to talk about very different subjects having to deal with a national security issue, but sure to be asked about all of the developments surrounding the newly unearthed memo from the president's pix to lead the justice department, bill barr, writing nearly 20 pages to justice department official rod rosenstein, who has up until recently led the investigation, managing it day to day. writing in part that the president could not obstruct justice in asking james comey to let go of the investigation of his former national security adviser michael flynn as well as the firing of james comey, barr concluding essentially that to do that would cause lasting damage, not only to the department, but to the presidency, and we already knew he had sort of an expansive view of executive power, but this takes it a step further and has already riled up democrats with chuck schumer saying this is disqualifying, and i'm sure we're certain to hear from others

laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >> laura, thank you.ack with me now are joey jackson and julian zelizer. thank you both for being here this morning. for more than six hours, lawmakers asked comey about a number of things, including hillary clinton, her e-mails, a lot of other topics that had been covered by congressional testimony for his book and news interviews. comey said the following. take a listen. >> after a full day of questioning, two things are clear to me. one, we could have done this in open setting. and two, when you read the transcript, you will see we're talking again about hillary clinton's e-mails, for heaven's sakes, so i'm not sure we need to do this at all, but i'm trying to respect the institution and to answer questions in a respectful way. >> julian, whaelt's the point o bringing comey back? he's also coming back december 17. >> look, the point for republicans is to try to discredit someone who is at the heart of this story and investigation. they've done it repeatedly. the president in public has tried to discred

. >> join can me is cnn justice reporter laura jarrett and laura, the transcript of the testimony stillt been released, expected sometime today, but what do we know so far about the questions he was asked? >> well, anna, sources in the room tell us it was quite tense, a very highly heated partisan atmosphere, as one might expect. democrats think this entire thing is a waste of time. republicans feel like they're not getting the answers they need in order to prepare their report on the fbi's handling of both the trump and clinton e-mail investigations, in preparation for the democrats to regain control in january. they want to get this report done. now, comey was exasperated that he was questioned at length about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation despite it being over two years ago. republicans were pressing for answers on the genesis of the russia probe. and he also talked a little bit about the special counsel bob mueller. apparently, saying that he would bet his life on the integrity of that investigation. but also, saying that he is not best friends with bob mueller, as trump

laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >>> joining me now to discuss, maria cardona and matt lewis. good to see you both. soma re maria, the president tweeted saying that comey is lying to congress and then on the sentencing filings and said that he is happy with everything that they are reading. so is this the president just trying to put a good face on things or do you believe or detect that he is really worried? >> well, you know, clearly this administration loves alternative facts. so maybe his staff gave him some alternative memos to look at instead of what the real ones were. because i can't imagine anybody in their right mind, any lawyers in their right mind, that would be happy about the kinds of memos that just came out because they implicate this president in criminal acts. and they do it pretty directly. now, whether that is something that the president thinks is not really that important and that he thinks is trivial compared to what he might be afraid of in terms of the russia investigation, maybe that is what he is talking about. i have no idea. but i think what we're

let's get right to cnn's laura jarrett. i know you are still going through these transcripts. what are the big take-aways so far? >> yeah, that's right. we've got 200 plus pages here, but so far what are the interesting take-aways are general michael flynn. we remember the recollection of what comey said about how the president allegedly asked him to let the investigation into flynn go early on in january of 2017, and so comey was asked about the fact that flynn has now been cooperating with the government, ultimately pleading guilty to lying to investigators and so i want to read to you just a little bit of what he told house members yesterday on that point, and he says, of course, there was no chance at all that i was going to abide by the direction to let the flynn investigation go, and then he goes on to say when i saw the public accounts of his plea and cooperation, i felt as a citizen glad that he was held accountable for his crimes and that he was assisting the united states, so it seemed to me like a just outcome. just a little interesting color there about how he is l

laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >> laura, thank you. >>> now as for mr.w looking for chief of staff number three. his current one being shown the door. general john kelly out of the job by the end of the year. kelly first worked for the president as secretary of homeland security, then became chief of staff and he moved into that role to add discipline and order to the white house. his relationship with the president steadily deteriorated. on saturday, mr. trump said kelly is a great guy and thanked him for his service. listen. >> john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. we'll be announcing who will be taking john's place. it might be on an interim basis. i'll be announcing that over the next day or two. but john will be leaving at the end of the year. he's been with me almost two years now as you know, between the two positions. so we're probably fgoing to see him in a little while. >> kelly's time as chief of staff had its fair share of controversy. ryan nobles looks back at kelly's embattled tenure. >> reporter: john kelly, the former marine

cnn justice correspondent laura jarrett has more. >> in over six hours of testimony, the former fbi director went over familiar territory about the beginnings of the fbi's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election, saying he bet his life the special counsel robert mueller is handling it the right way and suggesting you would have to almost fire everyone in the fbi and the justice department to derail the relevant investigations at this point. but comey also fact-checked the president on this claim that he somehow is best friends with robert mueller saying, quote, i have never hugged or kissed the man, and quote, i admire the heck out of the man but i don't know his phone number, i've never been to his house, i don't know his children's names. while comey's testimony did not shed new light on his views about whether the president obstructed justice in his firing last year, the testimony from another senior official at the fbi, former counsel james baker, described how those at the highest level of the fbi were seriously concerned about comey's firing. finally comey was aske

i want to bring in now cnn's justice reporter, laura jarrett. laura, good evening to you. what's going on? >> hey there, don. this story is really about how the president views the justice department, and here's what happened. on at least two occasions in the past few weeks, the president vented at his acting attorney general, hand-picked, matthew whitaker, about the michael cohen investigations. the president angered in particular by federal prosecutors referencing him in crimes that cohen pleaded guilty to. according to multiple sources, telling myself and pamela brown that trump was really frustrated that prosecutors that of course wit kerr oversees as the acting attorney general, filed charges that made trump look bad. of course those hush money payments to women surrounding the 2016 election. and now none of those sources say that the president actually directed whitaker to stop the investigations, but these discussions between whitaker and trump really underscore the extent to which the president believes the attorney general should serve as his personal protector. a

laura jarrett is joining us live with more. what have you learned?just got the third installment of the running tally on the running investigation. what it shows is from april to september of this year, the investigation has cost roughly $8.5 million. when you combine that with the previous tallies we've received from past months, the 6.7 and 10 million, you get a grand total of $25 million suns special counsel robert mueller was appointed in may of 2017. we've obviously seen the fruits of his labor quite a bit this year. we've seen over 36 different people and entities charged with very different federal crimes. we've also seen seven people plead guilty in this investigation, including as you were just referencing the former national security adviser michael cohen along with paul manafort and his deputy, rick gates, along with a slew of others. we've seen a variety of different outputs from all the money that has been spent here. i should mention only a fraction of this is from the special counsel's team. the way they break this down is there are co

laura jarrett has more on that. >> reporter: new details on matt whitaker's role in overseeing the russia investigation. after he rejected the advice of justice department ethics officials who said he should step aside. whitaker, who has never been briefed on the mueller investigation, is expected to start getting updates now that he isn't recusing himself. however, whitaker was given a heads-up. the president trump's former attorney michael cohen would plead guilty before it was publicly announced. meanwhile, rod rosenstein promised the investigation would continue to be managed properly. >> we've continued to manage the investigation as we have in the past, and it's being handled appropriately. >> reporter: rosenstein's office will manage the special counsel investigation day-to-day, but whitaker can block any significant steps mueller wants to take for now. an investigation whitaker long criticized before joining the justice department. >> the attorney general doesn't fire bob mueller but reduces the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> reporter: even echos

laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >>> and now to the u.s. and afghanistan. the u.s.has been ordered to draw up plans to pull out around half of its troops from that nation, this according to a u.s. defense official. but one u.s. senator says a premature withdrawal is one of his greatest fears. >> one of the goals of senator lindsey graham's recent trips to the country was convincing president trump of the same. cnn's kate bolduan was granted exclusive access to his trip. >> reporter: are senatsenator l graham is on a mission to connect with the troops and also on mission to convince the president that after 17 years, afghanistan is still a fight worth fighting. you've been here so many times. why come back this time, what is this visit about? >> well, i always come back as much as i can. one, if you are end is being people over here to fight for your country, at least you owe to them to kind of check in on them. >> reporter: we had exclusive access to follow graham on a world wind tour. he's been to the region more than 40 times, but this marks his first trip back wi

let's discuss, laura jarrett.the very sharp, unexpected criticism of flynn by this federal judge, emmett sullivan? >> i think judge sullivan had a clear message for everyone in that courtroom today, which is i am not a rubber stamp. the tone of the court papers going into today's hearing was sort of, this is a done deal, he's not going to get any jail time. mueller doesn't want any jail time. of course, flynn wants to walk free. but, you know, folks tell me who know sullivan, say the worst thing you can do is to walk into that courtroom and make it seem like he doesn't have a really important role to play here. and he is fiercely independent. he wants to exert his authority to say, look, i am the one in the driver's seat here. don't think this is going to be all just a done deal. and i think he sent that message today, and clearly something spooked flynn to say, let me just walk this back a little bit and make sure i eke out the last bit of cooperation to make sure i get the benefit of the doubt. >> his words, you

cnn's laura jarrett joins me from the justice department. break this down for us.t is this case specifically about? >> jake, this entire case surrounds whether the foreign money flowing into the trump hotel here in washington, d.c., violates the emoluments clause, that little-known clause in the constitution that prohibits federal officials from taking a thing of value from a foreign government. the trump administration and trump's legal team has been fighting off this suit, along with a slew of others for months. but a federal judge in maryland has decided that the case can go forward and that the plaintiffs here, those state ags, can actually get discovery, meaning documents, depositions. and so they're now readying these subpoenas, everyone from the irs to the treasury department, trying to get their hands on this information within the next six months. the justice department may be ready to keep this fight going and has signaled they may try to go to the fourth circuit of appeals to try to get a pause on this discovery process, jake. >> laura, these documents t

laura jarrett reports on the just-released transcript of that hearing. >> reporter: in over six hours of testimony, the former fbi director went over familiar territory about the beginnings of the fbi investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election saying he bet his life the special counsel robert mueller is handling it the right way and suggesting you'd have to almost fire everyone in the fbi and the justice department to derail the relevant investigations at this point. comey fact-checked the president on this claim he is somehow best friends with robert mueller saying i've never hugged or kissed the man and, quote, i admire the heck out of the man, but i don't know his phone number. i've never gon his house. i don't know his children's names. comey's testimony did not shed new light on whether the president obstructed justice in his firing last year, the testimony from another senior official at the fbi, former general counsel james baker, described how those at the highest level of the fbi were seriously concerned about comey's firing. and comey was also asked to weig

cnn's laura jarrett explains what this might mean for mueller and the russia investigation. >> reporteracting attorney general, matt whitaker's role in overseeing the russia investigation. after he rejected the advice of justice department ethics officials, who said he should step aside. whitaker, who has never been briefed on the mueller investigation, is expected to start getting updates now that he isn't recusing himself. however, whitaker was given a heads up that president trump's former attorney, michael cohen, would plead guilty before it was publicly announced. meanwhile, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein promised the investigation would continue to be managed properly. >> we have continued to manage the investigation as we have in the past. and it's being handled appropriately. >> reporter: rosenstein's office will continue to manage the special counsel investigation day-to-day, but whitaker can block any significant steps mueller wants to take, for now. an investigation that whitaker long criticized before joining the justice department. >> that attorney general doesn't f

let's go to laura jarrett who is doing reporting on all this and joining us on the phone. comey's testimony will still go public and there will be a tribute although it won't happen in realtime. why was this such a sticking point? >> that's right, wolf. he came out with a really aggressive move saying he didn't want to do it behind closed doors and he wanted to do it in public. his main argument was selective leaking. he looked at the past witnesses that came before the oversight and thought the republicans were playing political games with the russia investigation and the hillary clinton investigation, two subjects they want to question him about. he said i'm happy to do it in public and not behind closed doors. he backed down and really the writing was on the wall when the judge appeared skeptical there in court, hearing arguments about this questioning. whether he could order the house to do this given sovereignty and unity. >> the chairman, the congressman offered comey those conditions on wednesday. he wrote i just offered director comey that the committees will publi

laura jarrett who covers the justice department for us.leading contender to become the next attorney general? >> reporter: well, really, wolf, this is a dream pick for conservatives, for republicans who look at him as an adult in the room, who look at him as a known quantity. he was at the justice department under bush 41, as we've been reporting. he was the attorney general, and he was actually bob mueller's boss. when mueller was there as the -- as leading the justice department's criminal division, so they have quite a storied past. now, he has come out -- to hasn't shied away talking about the mueller probe. he has expressed confidence in bob mueller saying that this wouldn't be a so-called witch hunt, but, yet, on the other hand, he's also said things that he thought that the fact that mueller had picked democrats who had made political donations to democrats was something off balance, that he wished he had seen a little more balance in mueller's team so we have to wait to see how the president reacts to this person. this is not someb

with me now, laura jarrett, our justice department correspondent and, josh, to you first.in your piece, "persons familiar with the discussions, quote, he's a serious guy -- this is barr -- the president is very, very focused on a candidate looking the part and having credentials consistent with the part." why may this guy be the best guy for the job? >> the president has looked at a whole range of people for this job. he's looked at chris christie to alex azhar and he's settled on bill barr as the leading candidate. with the president things are always a bit unsettled until he sends a tweet or until he says it. you always have to have those caveat. the search is in advanced stages and barr is emerging as the most likely to be named as attorney general. he was in the h.w. bush administration as a.g. the president's legal team, emmitt flood are big supporters of barr and people around the president are telling him he should go with him. it seems increasingly likely he might. per usual, you never count your chickens until they hatch in trump world. >> never count your chicken

laura jarrett looks back at the top eight justice stories of 2018. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> 2018 produced a downpourents, immigration battles, clashes with capitol hill, the departure of an attorney general and an investigation looming over the presidency. here are the top eight stories in 2018. ♪ >> number eight, the rise of hate. >> 11 people dead. six people wounded in what one fbi agent calls the most horrific crime he has ever seen. the suspect, 46-year-old robert bowers. his social media accounts littered with anti-semitic and anti-immigrant views. >> in october, a massacre of worshippers in a synagogue in pittsburgh and the fatal shooting of two black people in a grocery store bringing hate crimes into sharp focus. >> in 2017, hate crimes shot up 17%. the motivation for nearly 60% of was race, ethnicity or ancestry. >> number 7. trump's war on the justice system. >> president trump making a strong demand on twitter moments ago. >> trump under the ante on the justice department and the fbi in 2018, demanding they investigate whether his campaign was spied on for political reasons. >> the presi

. >> our justice reporter laura jarrett who broke the news joins me now.e is that replacement, for now. until william barr is, you know, if he's confirmed by the senate, that's him. he has the power to do so much when it comes to the mueller probe. and he ignored, after multiple meetings with the ethics office, their advice to recuse himself. how big is this? >> it's significant, poppy. the justice department is trying to quell the concerns that we're now hearing on capitol hill about this entire situation, sending a letter to lawmakers late last night saying whitaker has no plans to fire the special counsel, pointing out that whitaker things he's, quote, a good man, a proeflfessional, ane would only go after legitimate targets. this is doing little to quell the troubling comments he said in the past about undercutting mueller and the ways he could sort of undermine the probe. and so democrats on capitol hill are also pointing to how this process played out, and what really happened here is although the senior ethics official found he had no legal conflict

what a source told our laura jarrett is that barr has discussed the fact that he sent this memo with. and of course, barr has told the president that it will likely come up as part of this senate confirmation process. so the president is fully aware. rod rosenstein also addressed it this morning, pam, and said that he didn't share any information with william barr and sometimes it's typical that these people send in their opinions to the justice department, but it does not affect the investigation. >> you mentioned he shared it with the president. no doubt, it's probably something the president liked, that he doesn't believe in robert mueller's obstruction probe and the premise of it. jessica, thank you very much. i want to get perspective now from cnn legal analyst, renato mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. thank you for coming on. i want to start with acting attorney general matt whitaker, what do you make of what ethics officials told him? >> i gotta say, i'm very surprised that this was the conclusion they came to, pam, because when i was in the justice department, we weren't

laura jarrett, you covered the justice department for us.merging from this closed-door session. >> the president of the united states is lying about the fbi, attacking the fbi and attacking the rule of law in this country. how does that make any sense at all? republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters and the truth matters. where are those republicans today? >> so what exactly set comey off? >> i mean, on the one hand, it strikes me as deeply personal, right? the president attacks james comey relentlessly, besmirches his character, called for him to be investigated, jailed. so i think comey takes his moments to punch back a little bit. you see him looking directly into the camera there. he's using his platform. but he is also, i think, genuinely offended by the deafening silence by republicans on capitol hill every time the president politicizes the justice department and the fbi. we saw just this weekend calling michael cohen a rat, suggesting that cooperat

laura jarrett looks back at the top justice stories of 2018. >> reporter: 2018 produced a downpour ofhe justice department. indictments, immigration battles, clashes with capitol hill, the departure of an attorney general, and an investigation looming over the presidency. here are the top eight stories in 2018. number eight, the rise of hate. >> 11 people dead. six people wounded in what one fbi agent calls the most horrific crime he has ever seen. the suspect, 46-year-old robert bowers. his social media accounts littered with anti-semitic and anti-immigrant views. >> reporter: in october, a massacre of jewish worshippers at a synagogue in pittsburgh. and in kentucky, the fatal shooting of two black people at a grocery store, bringing an uptick of hate crimes into sharp focus. >> hate crimes shot up 17%. the motivation for nearly 60% of those, the government says, was race, ethnicity, or ancestry. >> reporter: number seven, trump's war on the justice system. >> president trump making a strong demand on twitter just moments ago. >> reporter: trump upped the ante on the justice departme

laura jarrett looks back at the top eight justice stories of 2018. >> indictments, immigration battles general, and the investigation looming over the presidency. here are the top eight stories in 2018. number 8, the rise of hate. >> 11 people dead, six people wounded in what one fbi agent calls the most horrific crime he has ever seen. the suspect, 46-year-old robert bowers. his social media accounts littered with anti-semitic and anti-immigrant views. >> a massacre of worshippers at a synagogue in pittsburgh and a shooting at a grocery store, putting hate crimes in sharp focus. >> the fbi says hate crimes shot up 17% in 2017. the motivation for 60% of those, the government says, was race, ethnicity or ancestry. >> number 7, trump's war on the justice system. >> president trump making a strong demand on twitter just moments ago. >> trump upped the ante on the justice department and the fbi in 2018, demanding they investigate whether his campaign was spied on for political reasons. >> the president is on a tweetstorm this morning to make unproven claims of something that he is now call

. >> thank you, laura jarrett, with the breaking news. thank you very much. i appreciate it. or of "enemies: a history of the fbi," and senior legal analyst laura coates. lots to unpack here. thank you both. you heard what laura reported. what's your reaction to this? >> i'll use the word that she ascribed: asinine. it seems odd to me that you would weigh in unsolicited and offer a 20-page memorandum and say, i thought you would want my advice because of my previous role as attorney general of the united states. he takes it a step further saying how the president of the united states couldn't possibly be investigated because he fired his own cabinet member, he actually said it's grossly irresponsible the way mueller approached the entire issue and he never should have had the president of the united states weighing in on this. he's weighed in on so much right now, including the reason to investigate whether or not the reason behind comey's firing was intent. yes, the president can fire members of his cabinet. we've seen it again and again, but he couldn't do it with corrupted

laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >> part of the government is shut down this morning.we've been talking about that the entire morning really. lawmakers are hitting walls and can't seem to find any bridges when it comes to making a deal, so how long could this brag on? rag on? drag on? (music throughout) discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. (nicki palmer) being a verizon engineer is about doing things right. and there's no shortcut to the right way. so when we roll out the nation's first 5g ultra wideband network, it'll be because we were the first to install the fiber-optics and small cells, and upgrade the towers that will change the way we learn, work and live. and i'll always be proud that we're not just building america's first 5g network. we're doing it right. ♪city fallout let our lungs breathe♪

i want to go to pamela brown and laura jarrett who are breaking the story.you tell us. >> well, at least two occasions we have learned the president vented at his acting attorney general matt whitaker about the michael cohen investigations. the president angered by federal prosecutors referencing him in crime crimes. trump was frustrated that prosecutors that whitaker oversees filed charges to make him look bad. we should note nobody no one directed whitaker to stop the investigations but these underscore the extent that the president believes his attorney general should serve as his personal protect or. >> laura, tell me more about the instance here, because what happened and the timing of what happened is so important here. the president lashes out at whitaker, two instances, tell us more. >> that's right. so there's at least two discussions that we know about. the first took place a few weeks after whitaker took over and trump was angry after special counsel robert mueller charged michael cohen with making false statements about the trump tower project in

fast forward to today, laura jarrett, there are these filings out that show exactly how all of this went and at least it indirectly rebukes what the president said. >> i think directly rebukes it. >> it is as much about rebuking him as rebuking michael flynn's lawyers for saying the fbi caught him off guard? >> i don't know it was their intent, but it was the output of it. almost they do almost point by point destroys the tweet. he didn't get a great deal because they were embarrassed. he got a great deal because he's been cooperating from day one. i think the filings show how the fbi actually went out of their way to say, let's do this quietly, let's try to resolve it discreetly and let's get this done, much to the chagrin of the justice department, didn't inform them, went about it, got him in there to interview him on that day, two fbi agents come back and say, you know what, he didn't even show any deception, he didn't show any physical manifestation of his lies, knowing full well he had lied because they had him on tape, but it meant he was a really good liar. i think that's the que

valerie jarrett was a mentor, the first female executive chef at the white house who laura bush appointed, she was a mentor. and they would meet with these kids all the time that they would come together once a month in the white house. and it was interesting to see their transformation when they first start. they couldn't look me in the eye they were just nervous because it was nerve-racking. you are in a white house meeting michelle obama. but we would spend time talking and by the time they completed usually two years with us by their graduation ceremony when their parents would come, they felt there was just a shift in who they thought they were. they felt comfortable in that space, in that room with me. they felt they deserved it for themselves and it was the process of giving them exposure saying you are worthy i don't even care about your grades who are you as a person. they had a confidence an and myb for them is if you can walk into the white house and introduce yourself, there is no room you can't go into after that. [applause] right before we started there was a high schooler w

jarrett was a mentor. chris comerford was a first in the executive chef at the white house who laura bush appointee, she was a mentor. they would meet with these kids all the time but they would come together once a month in the white house. it was interesting to see their transformation when the first start, they were shy, they could look me in the eye. they were just nervous because it was nerve-racking. you're in the white house, your meeting michelle obama and why would you pick and you are wondering. we would spend time talking and eating popcorn and we'll talk with everything, and by the time to complete are usually two years with us, by their graduation ceremony when the parents would, they felt, it was just a shift in who they thought they were. .. and you are worth being talked to, being listened to and after a while they owned the place. they didn't even notice me. oh yeah mom, that's michelle obama, where old friends now. let me show you the blue room. my belief to them was if you can walk into the white house and look me in the eye and introduce yourself, there'sno room you cannot go in . there'