nina easton: you are an afghan citizen. you were criticized by some for not being islamic during the campaign, not being in your lebanese roots. some people say the country should not have u.s. first lady. how did you deal with that? first lady rula ghani: i was born in a christian family. but i was an eastern christian which means we prayed in arabic. when you pray to god, it was pretty much the same. for me, it's not a difference whether i am muslim or christian. for all the indications that come to see me, it has never been an issue. they are happy that i am there that i'm opening my doors to them, listening to what they have to say. and that maybe i will be able to help them. nina easton: it seems like that works well. you have a caretaker gene. when you came back to afghanistan, you got involved in [indiscernible] can you describe that? first lady rula ghani: yes, it was a school that was started to take care of the children who work on the streets. i have always liked that organization. the children are ones that pay

nina easton: you have your work cut out for you. i want to thank you for being so insightful but so inspiration for a lot of people in this room. thank you. [applause] kathleen hicks: thank you everybody for coming, thank you so much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the most memorable of my moment for this week was to hear senator cory gardner say to reflect on your principles, and i think it reflects on the hearts of polarization -- the harsh polarization of our country, so if all of the state legislators can top this, we should come together as a country and solve these pertinent issues. >> my favorite evoking from julie adams, the secretary of the senate, and she said remember to be humble and have a strong work ethic, be kind to the people you meet on your way up the visual meet them on the way back down. >> often times we have a lack of true statesman, and as much a

jonah goldberg nina easton. thank you. >> thank you. >> steel cage match as jonah was mentions i like the description for the republicans. jon: republican contenders. jenna: republican senator rand paul is set to hold his first rally in south carolina since officially beginning the race coming up about an hour from now. the first southern state holding a primary is key to propelling any candidate to victory. republican senator south carolina senator lindsey graham potential bid could change the gameplan for other candidates. john roberts is live in charleston with more on all of this. john? >> reporter: good morning to you. beautiful day in charleston. spectacular backdrop for the rand paul event uss yorktown, highlighting military to south carolina voters. on that front there is skepticism where rand paul stands. one of his biggest critics south carolina senator lindsey graham said rand paul's foreign policy is to the left of president obama. lindsey graham is mulling over a bid for president saying one of asse

providing the moderation for this evening is, as always, nina easton, who helps us host this "smart women, smart power" series. she is a columnist and chair of fortune's most powerful women international summit. please join me in thanking our speakers for tonight. [applause] nina: thank you kath for that terrific introduction. i want to give a shout out to another piece that we do, which is a weekly podcast. it is right on your smartphone and it is a great way to hear women talk about pressing foreign-policy matters of the day. thank you so much for being here mrs. ghani. it is truly an honor and it is delightful to get to know you over the course of these days. it is interesting because your predecessor, the previous first lady was a doctor, a professional woman, but never seen in public. you have become quite visible in the past month. and have been accused of making waves, as we like to hear. [laughter] let's start with that. what is your vision for how you want to be first lady? rula ghani: first, i would like to say i am very glad to be with all of you tonight. i hope that i will not

nina easton.amy walter national editor for the cook political report and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. what about this? >> interestingly she added an epilogue to her book to humanize her as a grandmother and spent a lot of time talking about the arrival of her new grand child. i also was struck by that epilogue in that most campaigns run on change. this is about status quo. she highlights barack obama and bill clinton both hugging on stage at the convention while she is half way around the world doing diplomatic duty. this is both her strengths and her weakness. she is very much tied to a past. to me what is really interesting is how she runs against this president particularly on foreign policy. she was secretary of state. i predict that this supportive sense of barack obama right now is going to become prickly and possibly hostile as she tries to continue her dance away from him on foreign policy. >> no doubt the democratic party is united when it comes to dealing with hillary clinto

let's cover it with nina easton, a fox news contributor, jamie weinstein is senior editor at "the daily caller." welcome to both of you. >> great to be here. >> thank you. jon: it sounds nina, like the republican field is about to get a lot more crowded. we have, what, three declared candidates already, but everybody seems to be headed for new hampshire and those early primary states. >> and what's still fascinating, jon, is that there's been such an attempt -- by both parties -- to lessen the importance of these small states iowa and new hampshire. so we've seen these efforts the past couple years to move the primaries of other states, bigger, more important states up. but still once again we're in that cycle where these states matter. particularly new hampshire which has a storied history. remember john mccain, his campaign collapsed essentially, in 2007. he did not win iowa. mike huckabee won. but he came roaring back in new hampshire and new hampshire is really a place where you can make a mark come roaring back and get ahead of the pack. jon: chris christie, jamie has seen his nasc