lincoln's son used to drive goats down a corridor in the white house. y carter roller skated in the east room. alice roosevelt gambled, partied and was even seen wearing a live boa constrictor. this led her father teddy roosevelt to explain, i can be one of two things, i can be president of the united states or i can control alice. i cannot possibly do both. [laughter] >> many presidential descendents have gone on to do great things. two presidential children have later become presidents themselves. other children of presidents and their children have made contributions to american life representing a wide variety of fields including educators and entertainers, bankers and builders, activists and artists. steve ford even became a national villian as the boyfriend who broke meg ryan's heart in "when harry met sally." at the presidential site summit, we've been honored to have over 40 descendents of american presidents join us. these unique americans represent administrations from james monroe to george w. bush. and amazingly, it's going to be here in a fe

through the white house. and so mrs. bush had made sure that any of the resident's staff that were still working in the white house that had been there in the johnson time were there to greet mrs. johnson at the diplomatic reception room door when she stepped in. and in addition, one of the butlers that had worked for the johnsons, mr. german, was now a part-time elevator operator, operated the president's elevator in the white house, just a few days a week, mrs. bush made sure that he was there and that he was the one that greeted mrs. johnson when the door was opened of the car for her to get out. and the way that mrs. johnson reached up in recognition to embrace mr. german and how he embraced her, is really would just make you weep. but would also, the two last things that i'll just say about mrs. johnson's visit, her last visit to the white house, is, mrs. bush wheeled her into the vermeil room on the ground floor, which had just been repainted under one of the restoration projects that mrs. bush did, than

and the white house. a discussion was recorded at the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts in washington, d.c. >>> good evening. i hope you've been enjoying tonight's program. it's been fascinating and there's more to come. a your ago i was honored when fred ryan, chair of our board, asked me to chair the white house historical association's board committee for this important four-day senate. i want to thank the members of our committee for their year-lock commitment and contributions to the planning of the summit. with the terrific staff of the white house historical association and the vision and leadership, we've convened more than 100 presidential sites, as well as leading experts in the wide array of fields and interests at the presidential cite that the representative told us they wanted to hear from. that is what it is like to be in the white house. our next panel, we'll shift gears to hollywood. as dd myers said in her message, we'll examine you the big and small screens portray the ficti

anita mcbride's career relating to the white house and the presidency spans more than 30 years as a white house adviser, chief of staff, and diplomatic adviser. currently, she is executive in residence at the center for congressional and presidential studies in the school of public affairs at american university in washington where she directs programming on the legacies of america's first ladies and their historical influence on politics, policy, and global diplomacy. anita served as an assistant to president george w. bush as well as chief of staff to first lady laura bush. she directed the first lady's travel to 67 countries in 4 years to support foreign policy objectives and human rights, women's empowerment, global health, and education. she's a member of the u.s.-afghan women's council, the international republican institute's women's diplomacy network, the national italian-american foundation, and most importantly, a board member of the white house historical association and chair of the committee that organized the presidential sites summit. mark is an author, presidential histori

you know, i was at the white house. you know, as a pastry chief, we leave a lot of -- not directly, because we're not allowed to do, and i'm glad that's the case, because too many people will take advantage of that. and we're not allowed at the white house to show our faces. we are there to take care to have the president and first lady, regardless of the party they represent and whoever they're thought of. and let me tell you, to be able to do, to present them with this cake, it meant so much to me, and for them. it was really fantastic. and the president and mrs. carter were so happy. i remember when they walked into the home that day, after working all day, they were working all day, and they both went on the dance floor for 20 minutes, no stop. at their age and everything, this is fantastic, you know, absolutely fantastic. so -- and every president that i served is giving me different stories, if you will, true story. this is what i want to be very sure they understand. i do not speak in public to repeat what people

>> an architectural element from the white house. hat. >> it's not until 2007 that brother-in-law larry forrest convinces the meister family they need to get some answers. and he takes on the role of lead investigator. his first line of inquiry -- the white house itself. >> i spoke to a gentleman, and i told him about what the family had. and after the laughter and telling me that that wasn't possible, i said, "we're pretty sure, it's written on the back," and so forth. and he goes, "it's probably from some other old building or whatever." >> but larry persists. his letters, his calls turn up nothing. then after two solid years, his search leads him to historian and author bill seale. >> i said, "can i just send you pictures?" so when he received them, he called me back and he goes, "i swear i've seen it." >> was it a eureka moment? that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the current oval office was not built until 1934, when f.d.r. was president. the answer when we return. hey guys. today we're here to tal

the white house is saying he's coming to the white house to resign. what we're hearing, in fact, from the justice department is that he has been summoned to the white house, and that if he's asked to resign he will refuse to do so. and that what he's prepared to do is to tell the chief of staff john kelly with the person with whom he is presumably meeting that if the president wants him out, the president will have to fire him. which, of course, the president has the authority to do. so will this result, this meeting result in one way or the other rod rosenstein being out? will it be a standoff? nothing will happen, or what? it would appear that the president wants rod rosenstein out one way or the other, and that if he won't quit, it does sound like the white house is prepared to fire him, but we just don't know how that's going to go. now, it's as we've been saying here, more than just a senior official at the justice department which is unusual and newsworthy and important in and of itself. but rod rosenstein, because jeff sessions is refused, rod r

he has gone to the white house to say i resign or say fire me? >> it's pretty safe to say he is not going to walk out of that meeting and have the job he has now. they are there hash things out and what they say going forward. they had a conversation last week where rod rosenstein offered to resign. what happened over the weekend, president trump was much more focussed on the drama with brett kavanaugh than the bombshell story about the wire and the 25th amendment. this has been a discussion about john kelly and where they are going forward. they are coming out of the white house. we will see what happens coming forward. the president during that interview which was pretaped saturday or sunday with geraldo rivera said he wouldn't answer if rod rosenstein would be fired. he called it a sad situation and recommended to him by the attorney general, jeff sessions. >> this relationship at times and he has been harshly critical because robert mueller exists as the special counsel. let's go into how this matters. if rosenstein is not longer the attorney

-- into the white house. then there was one elevator to go up but those were very tiny. it was better than nothing. it worked for me very well. i was given an additional room, that was the chocolate room of the white house. so you see, everything is possible to give it time. and the white house, i always said, was a place made for me. i love to work there because they let me produce whatever i wanted to. but all my desserts had a significance in some way. >> sometimes, we had desserts from italy. i find something special around the town and that will be duplicated in the pastry of course. i did that all the time, all the time, all the time. one of the first ladies, she was great. i loved to work for her because she knew what she wanted. personally, you better do what she asks you to do and do it the right way. there is nothing wrong there. again, i love to work with people like this. i would rather do that then people who say i do not know. the last one with mrs. reagan, we were doing sunday noon at the white

why don't you guys in the white house do the bigot -- biggest? the same -- we all know that michelle obama is a man. now, how do you deal with that? i say, well, where did you hear that? and people said in exactly the same way, i don't know, but i know it is true. that is what we are dealing with. >> where were you giving your speech? >> all over the place.>> he was on the barstool.>> [ laughter ]>> i was getting my exercise. [ laughter ] but the interesting thing, it was the same question asked -- the same way. that is part of it. the other thing, i think from one side to the other side, we have to have the same suggestion. the politicians need to understand that we are not monolithic in the press, there are some good reporters and some bad reporters. they need to know us well enough to know the difference and we need to understand that they are not monolithic either. they are people we can trust in government, people with good sources, people who aren't and we have to make that decision.>> before i open it up to questions, i would be interested

he did not talk about it on his way out of the white house on his way to the rally, but the white house has been struggling to contain the fallout from this anonymous op-ed all day long from a person claiming to be a top administration official slamming the president. cabinet secretaries have been coming out with statements saying don't look at me. trump world has gone -- it's become a washington who done it as in the history of the senior administration official who anonymously wrote a scathing op-ed in the "new york times" claiming to be a part of the internal resistance. so far more than a dozen top officials a who's who from the vice president to cabinet secretaries released statements to say not it. >> i think it is a disgrace. the anonymous editorial represents a new low in american journalism. i think the "new york times" should be ashamed. i think who wrote this editorial should be ashamed. >> reporter: the daughter of u.s. ambassador to russia said it wasn't her father. >> my dad works for the administration. >> did you write it? >> i did not write it. my dad did not write it a

he changed it to the white house. david: linda, what is the fondest memory of your father being president? when you think back on those years, what do you enjoy the most, or what is the best memory you have about it? linda: i think when he went to the congress and asked them, it was bipartisan, he went and asked them to pass massive civil rights legislation. and i'm -- [applause] david: that wasn't easy for somebody whose best friends in the senate were not in favor of it, and had come from texas. why did he decide he wanted to do that? linda: he knew it was the right thing. before he represented texas, he represented his constituency. time had changed. and he personally knew of discrimination. he'd seen it, not just with people who were african-american. but for instance, when he was the senator, our phone number was in the regular phone book, and he got a call, a hispanic in texas, i believe he was killed in korea. the local funeral home in texas, refused to take his body. they said, that if they took his body from t

house and the white house's credibility from the white house. both are under siege today. there's very little trust in the press and there's very little trust among some, anyway, in the information that's coming from the white house. i certainly remember when i was at the white house and when i was bureau chief at cnn, if the president said something or a press secretary would say something that was mistaken or a misstatement there was an effort to quickly correct the record. i remember marlin fitzwater would walk around with his big cigar that he wouldn't light and he would actually walk through the press office and say, what i said or what the president said, let me just tweak that. there was a very good relationship there and he got a lot of credit for that. but we are not at that place now. i mean -- and now there is a very particular and personal and some would say grandstanding environment around this. where do you see this question of credibility now in terms of, again, plugging this into all the technology that we've got and the cameras a

kennedy had been to the white house. he reportedly believed himself that he had been picked for the court. but then at the very last minute, conservative staffers in the reagan white house intervened and said no, no. we have a different guy we would prefer for the seat. better choice. somebody we like more. and so this man, who you see here with reagan, douglas ginsburg, he jumped to the head of the line and he got the nomination. and then it all fell apart. reagan didn't get him on to the court. and immediately everybody started to try -- everybody started trying to figure out who they were going to blame in the reagan white house for this political disaster. >> president reagan today suffered his second defeat in trying to fill a seat on the u.s. supreme court when the man he nominated only nine days ago, douglas ginsburg, asked that his name be withdrawn. it was an embarrassing admission of marijuana use that doomed ginsburg. white house officials knew he could never win confirmation. the front-runner to become the new

at least numbers here at the white house and we are grateful. when the press finds mistakes, we are grateful. >> from the white house, they are grateful when the press finds mistakes from the president. you heard it here. it is not ten years. it is about 12 years. anyway, 56 days until the midterms. the economy should be a strong selling point. his tendency to exaggerate and embellish. he goes for superlatives. the best economy in history. you see the poll numbers. it is not translating outside of that specific point. >> i'll bathe in that for a while from hasset. grateful the press points out must ta mistake mistakes. it was smart for them to put him up. he is nice and mild mannered and honest. that was a breath of fresh air. >> we may see him again. >>> ahead, new details in the shooting death of the young man in dallas. killed in his own apartment by an off-duty police officer. that officer is now charged with manslaughter. ♪ light shine every day >>> the scene last night. a vigil for botham shem jean who attended the arkansas school. students

what might happen if it was brought inside the white house. is there one with enough power, force, and torque to dot job required? >> my guess is our professionals might advise the president against using it on his own staff. if you're already paranoid, it will not make you feel any better, it will also not make you feel any better to put them in front of your aides and have some of them fail, who is he going to hire to replace the people around him. the turn over is already as historic and unprecedented levelest. it is at 61% of the senior officials that have come and gone. trump doesn't have a lot of options left except to be alone and wonder who he can trust. >> now this op-ed. just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you or talking about you. u ep yesterday, we spoke and he thought it was real deja vu. >> and he is amply fieing his attacks on the press. and it is largely hostile to trump, she largely hostile to the press. he is after him. the truth is there is no president that would not endure withering scrut

he went to the white house late friday. he issued a stronger denial saying he never actively thought about wearing a wire or never thought about removing the president from office. but clearly conversations all weekend long between him and white house officials, namely john kelly. here is where the stories start to diverge a little bit, brooke. our understanding is that the deputy attorney general did consider resigning. did have those discussions about what that might look like but he really wanted to control the timing. he really wanted this to be on his own terms. for whatever reason, john kelly, at least according to our reporting, indicakaitlan collin reporting, that he believed he resigned, or that was the plan. that's not what i'm told. he wanted certain conditions. those weren't met. the white house wasn't willing to go along with that, so he went over to the white house today, expecting to get fired. because the white house wouldn't agree to his terms. now, of course he has come back to the justice department here a

denying they wrote the scathing "new york times" op-ed about president trump. and whiteides believe they are close to naming the unnamed white house official. abby, who is it? >> if i knew that i think i would not be standing in front of the white house this morning, but a controversy over this op-ed continues to consume the white house. these denials are getting so extreme that we have had vice president mike pence agreeing to take a lie detector test to prove it was not him. the white house making an aggressive push to discredit the unnamed senior official that wrote the scathing "new york times" op-ed last week. >> if this person thinks they are being patriotic and not p pathetic, they should come forward. >> mike pence insisting he's 100% confident nobody in his office is the author. >> should all top officials take a lie detector test and would you agree to take one? >> i would agree to take one in a heartbeat and would submit to any review of the administration. >> one of the claims of the op-ed, there's discussion of removing the president from office. you have ev

hopefully the white house will put out a statement after. s said between the two in that meeting at the white house happening shortly. >> we will, and it will come from you. thank you so much. we'll get back with you in a second. as she was talking about the timeline of how things transpired and how things have developed since the bombshell "new york times" report first came out on friday night, laura jarrett has more on what has played out since that report was released. laura, what has happened? how did we get from there to today? >> well, kate, the short story is this is not a done deal yet, i should say, and there is still a deputy attorney general over here at the justice department, and that person is rod rosenstein. there has not been a resignation. there has not been a firing. we have not seen a statement officially out from the justice department or the white house. but we are getting a better picture of the timeline of what happened here. just to take us back to friday afternoon, "the new york times" issues that bombshell report on

the white house tells the fbi hey look into this. that was not the stop the presses moment in the anita hill/clarence controversy. there was not any big fight about this. the white house learned there were new allegations of derogatory information about coll clarence thomas since the fbi looked antonio the nominee and documenting derogatory information about him. the white house asked the fbi to look into this new information, too. we actually spoke with boyden gray today about that moment of the clarence thomas nomination. mr. gray confirmed the understanding that we have from looking at the historical record that this was -- it was not a pivotal moment in this controversy. the fbi did reopen its background investigation to thomas to add this matter when the white house asked them to. the fbi when they receive the request, they interviewed anita hill and thomas about it. gray told us by phone today what they interviewed hill about was the basic facts. the fbi inquiry such as it was were basic and quick. if there were any controversi

whatever it is they do. >> the white house is not micro managing this process. this is the senate is dictating the terms. >> for more, let's bring in nbc's jeff bennett at the white house. jeff, okay. so it's been ever moving here. question being who's on the list that we know about? and who is not on the list? >> great to see you, richard. there are reports that the fbi spoke with deborah ramirez today in the investigation into supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. nbc has not yet independently confirmed that. but we have confirmed that the fbi has not yet contacted dr. christine blasey ford. it doesn't mean that they won't. but they haven't yet. meanwhile, president trump and senior white house officials are pushing back against our reporting that the white house has laid down ground rules for this new fbi background investigation into the sexual assault and misconduct allegations leveled against brett kavanaugh. democrats have said a limited investigation could taint kavanaugh and the confirmation process, criticism about which president trump is saying in a

this should not be new information for the white house. p against this issue over and over again, leaks, comments by jim comey, and it is really remarkable that they sort of refuse to understand, you know, get the basic message that, you know, this is in line with the department of justice, that they're not allowed to cross. >> david swerdlick, what does it say about the line of paranoia in the white house? one thing i was struck by when covering the president in billings how much he was talking about the deep state and how they're out to get him, and they have the cabinet officials swearing up and down, the vice president saying he'll take a lie detector test, it sounds like there's a state of paranoia in the white house. >> yes, to follow up, the president inherited this bureaucracy that he found is there to serve the american people, not him. in terms of the senior staff under scrutiny in the graphic you just showed, look, this administration as you know well, jim, has a lot of people in it who are there to serve their own agendas. when

okay, let's start the egg white. whip the egg white. we were whipping the egg white at the time. and you know what? it never came up. i said, man. or different word. so, at the dinner, the white house takes a little bit less than an hour. we wash the bowl. start all over. it don't come up again. it's sticking. you know at the white house, when they come for dessert, you cannot say, i need another 10 minutes. you cannot do that. the only word the butler wants to hear is, speak up, now. so, we were cutting eggs again. washed the bowl. when i heard -- this is when i was still working in the main kitchen with the chefs. i heard executive chef about the mayonnaise they made on the machine that morning. do you know how many drops of oil it takes to mess up on those egg drops? one drop, two drops, that's it, forget it. they do the mayonnaise, but i didn't see it. i wasn't there when they did it appear so the oil splash on the machine. so, when you came with your merringue, you don't know what it is. when i heard them talking, i said, oh, my god, should i kick their ass now or later? i w

if nobody from the white house or other officials have told us that. t we do know he met with the president on friday and they have been doing some other wise business and we are watching to see what will happen when the deputy attorney general arrives. our own catherine herridge is talking about some conflicts of interest he may have with investigations that are going on right now at the justice department and there was a "new york times" article which said that he was willing to wear wire in order to collect information for igniting or executing the 25th amendment to kick the president out of the white house, he denies that. it is been an interesting morning watching to see what will happen as the white house staff and leadership john kelly of that staff come into contact with rod rosenstein the president of the united states is here in new york for the u.n. so we did not anticipate other than by miracle that he would be there but we are covering this of course and we will bring you the news as it happens. let's bring it now fox news senior judicial a

house press corps on the lawn of the white house. one of the reporter says laddie boy was supposed to be in the picture. he's right in the front row. he's right here. saidurse right when they they couldn't see him, i said i have to find him now. he's right in this front row there. george, who gave up his house in the campaign. tois personal secretary harding. he's also going to act as a press secretary, although that term wasn't used yet. they didn't have a chief of staff. but he's everything rolled into one. to george to get through the debt you to get through george to get to president harding. he's the one that white house correspondents are going to go to first to say can we talk to the president or when is he scheduled come out and talk to us? going to filter a lot of those press requests. until the hoover administration that they had some of called the press secretary. you can see how we are moving in that direction. until the hoover administration that they had some of called the press secretary. oren harding loved the new tech

a lot of people inside the white house want to get information out there. we're grateful for that. >> peter, is there any indication that donald trump comprehends the irony of the moment? specifically, the irony of the conversation that you and i are having at this very moment? which is that today with his white house in crisis over people within the white house expressing their dissatisfaction with the trump administration that when they have a meeting about that and when they have a discussion about that and when they reduce their suspect list to 12, that it is immediately leaked to "the new york times" that their suspect list has been reduced to 12. >> yeah. you know, of course it's also in their interest, perhaps, to make clear that anybody that might think about doing the same thing as this author that they are doing to respond, right? a white house wants to have discipline. they don't have any discipline, as we see in this white house at the moment. so they're trying to basically send a signal this will not be tolerated. there will be repercussions for

we're getting mixed messages from the white house. president trump saying they have free rein to investigate whatever they need to. the scope of that investigation will be limited. kavanaugh and the gop, will the supreme court nominee help or hurt republicans come november and what the future of the party may look like if republicans go all in. he hasn't made it to the supreme court. >> i'm here tonight to tell you it was a con job orchestrated by the democrats and hillary clinton. i'm usually an optimist. i'm a keg is half full kind of guy. for what i've seen from the monsters make me want to puke and not from beer. >> president trump saying snl is no longer funny, no talent or charm. every someone a critic. >>> white house official confirms to nbc news that investigators were told to steer clear of kavanaugh accuser julie swetnick. officials telling nbc that fbi has not received new instructions after the white house counsel limited the scope of the inquiry. also off limits, kavanaugh former classmate who is contradict him on stories

she was married in the white gown. beautiful george cleveland, the grandson of clover, was at this event. found that actual address, the wedding dress that actively exists, in the white collection atdies the smithsonian. it's just a powerful display of how wonderful and how elegant she was, and i think people will certainly learn from history from the. host: there was an enormous age difference between them? how does the family process that information? massee: i think it was a love story that was kindled by francis's father. dear, dear friend of grover and upon his death, i think grover felt the need to make sure frances was taken care of. he was a lot older, 25 to 30 years, but i think at that time she trusted him. he was the guardian for many, many years, even prior to mr. olsom's debt. they had trust they had a wonderful family. host: they didn't like life in the white house and tried to protect the family? francesa lot of times, would take the children by cares to sites off campus from the white house, and unbeknow

the white house struggles about the economy. the president mucking up the message with false information about how strong the economy is. forcing his top economist to come out and contradict the boss. the bad information. the gdp rate is higher than the unemployment rate for the first time in 100 years. that is not true. it happened 62 or 63 times. at the white house press briefing, kevin hasset has cleaned tclean clea cleaned it up. >> it has happened in the last ten years. we are grateful when the press finds mistakes. we are grateful when they are pointed out because we want to correct them. >> you are welcome. there is not much gratitude. by the way, it has been since 2006. it is 12 years. what is 20% among friends. with 56 days to midterms, the economy is a strong selling point for the president's agenda. can they stay on it or does the personality get in the way of the data? >> a fascinating dichotomy. we talk to julian zelizer this morning. >>> ahead, new details of the young man shoot and killed in his own apartment by a

rick, i want to start with you should be everybody suspected around the white house be given a lie detector test? >> no. the hunt for this -- i think a horrible person who would do something like this, orable in a lot of levels because if you care about protecting the country you don't put a letter out there that you know will cause more turmoil within the administration. you don't do something that will further undermine those who you say are actually trying to work together to keep this country on the -- so even given this is a good guy or gal trying to do something good he didn't help the case by publishing this letter. it's simply a rehash of several books including the woodward book. the president shouldn't be or the white house shouldn't be fixated who this is and just try to do a better job. >> but it appears he is fixated and we heard it at this event in montana. it was a 90-minute speech you heard him go back again and again to the fact he thinks the "new york times" is out to get him, the deep state is out to get him and this is about impeaching him. >> i think if 10% of what you

jeff, the white house is pushing back hard on the latest allegation. seems to me, based on reporting, this is the start of a new tone from the white house. >> reporter: oh, you are absolutely right. a white house official says president trump has no plans to withdrawal his nomination of brett kavanaugh for the supreme court. they tell us the president views the claims as decades old, accusations that brett kavanaugh should fight against. we are told by a source, the president had two conversations yesterday about the latest claim as outlined in the new yorker before the new yorker published that story and the president didn't express change in his view about brett kavanaugh. now, this is really another split screen day here in the trump presidency. much of washington, much of the country is gripped by the slow rolling kavanaugh story. the president was headed into a session and got a question about brett kavanaugh. here is how he responded. >> i think it could be, there's a chance this could be one of the most single most unfair, unjust things to happe

cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house for us. kaitlan, this follows excerpts from the bombshell book by bob woodward, the book comes out next week, but it fits in with this general theme that there are senior officials in the trump administration who are trying to protect the country from president trump's worst impulses. >> reporter: that's right, jake. you can't ignore the timing coming out one day after that excerpts from that bookmaking stunning claims about things that bob woodward alleges, that the defense secretary to chief of staff, several other people close to the president who work with him on a daily basis have said and now we have this stunning op-ed in "the new york times" with a rare thing for them to do to publish an anonymous senior official in the trump administration. they don't say this person works in the west wing or the administration generally but this person essentially making the same argument as a lot of those claims in bob woodward's book saying that they do not agree with the president. they are stayin

this is the third day judge kavanaugh spent at the white house. we have been told he hasn't spoken to the president directly. despite the on-going controversy, he is standing behind his pick for the vacant supreme court seat. kelly o'donnell, do we know other than the obvious that they're probably working on a strategic, and the white house is steering the nomination strategy for brett kavanaugh, it is coming out of the white house counsel, don mcgahn's office, but do we know specifically what's going on? >> reporter: some idea. with this nomination and others previously, the white house remains the headquarters for a supreme court nomination confirmation process. that's part of why judge kavanaugh has been here at the white house multiple days this week as he was prior to this latest series of events breaking open. it has sort of been his new office between here and capitol hill. we are told by some of our sources there has been a question and answer preparation. that's done for every time there's a witness going to appear before a committee. as i

i am going to reach out to you at the white house. there is plenty more from the administration today on this, right? >> that's right, alex. great to see you. as you might expect, white house officials are working overtime to dismiss and discredit the claims made in this anonymous "new york times" editorial and this forthcoming book from journalist bob woodward which paint this disturbing portrait of a president who is uninformed, unprepared, and unprincipled. you saw vice president mike pence who in terms of temperament is opposite of donald trump but is nonetheless a royal trump foot soldier. he is dismissing this as absurd. he was asked by margariet brennn if he took part in conversations about impeachment ever. he said no, why would we? the president liking this to treason, pence called it un-american. talk of lie detector tests being used in the west wing to ferret out the author, pence said he would take a lie detector test in a heartbeat. there has been speculation that the person behind this op-ed might be in the vice president

it's in the white house collection at the smithsonian. that's just a powerful display of how wonderful and elegant she was. i think people will certainly learn from history from that. >> there was an enormous age difference. how does the family process that piece of information? >> i think it was a love story that was kindled by francis his father. he was a dear friend of grover. upon his death, grover felt the need to make sure that francis was taking care of for the rest of her life. they love each other. older,definitely a lot by like third -- by up to 30 years. he trusted him. he was the guardian for many years. even prior to mr. folsom's death. i think that she had complete trust. they left each other. they had a wonderful family. >> they really did not like life in side -- inside of the white house. how do they protect their family? >> francis would actually take the children by carriage to some of the sites off campus of the white house. they would secretly do that. or sometimes probably in the evenings when no one would be suspect

pete: bob, what will the white house do? >> they're trying to figure out the pepper but they're lost, talking with some of the president's closest advisors they say they don't know what to do. the president is urging the department of justice to get involved but they know that's a maze that's not going to go anywhere. they're trying tfigure out who could be disloyal but they know that so many people have been leakg inside of this administration since january of 2007. as m people are coming out with their own lists they reall have as mu an idea in the white house as we do on this show. pete: ya current number reporter, you're a former one. do you think wewh'll ever kno wrote this? >> we might. we were reminded this week but for almost 30 myeark -- wrote "deep throat" and yet he was deep throa it may not be tomorrow, it may be years from now but i sus one day we will. one thing to keep in mind, the m senior official" could conceivably apply to as many as 4,000 confirmab positions and hired political guns across the federal gove

judge kavanaugh was a senior lawyer in the white house. he advised the president on judicial nominations, provided legal advice on separation of powers issues, and handled litigation matters. as a supreme court has put it -- [shouting] -- >> unless the present can give his advisers some assurance of confidentiality, president could not expect to receive the full and strength summations of fact and opinions upon what's the effective discharge of his duties depend come in a quote. the issues judge kavanaugh worked on are the sort of issues that require according to the supreme court some assurance of confidentiality. we in the senate and everyone else in america expect exactly the same sort of confidentiality. most senators would not agree to turn over their staffs communication to anyone. for example, we didn't ask that judge cajuns records for her service be turned over duringg her nomination. and because of attorney-client privilege, everybody has a right to keep communications from their lawyers out of governments hands. we therefore didn

resistance at the white house. the fear, bob woodward's explosive new book describes a near mutiny in the white house against president trumwa >> this wo book is a total -- it's a total fraud. these people, libel laws, libel laws. >>> the resistance, an anonymous ite house official writing that colleagues are working diligently from within to frustration parts of his agenda inclinations, the president calling on the justice department to investigate. >> i think it's a national security matter, they should look at it, they should look at it very strongly and we sho od fi who it is. >> is president trump in charge of his own white house? >>> plus the supreme court, brett kavanaugh says very little, while protesters and senators. >> there is clearly rule that applies. >> then applynd the rule bring the charges, bring it. >> take the spotlight. >>> my guests this morning, counselor to president trump, kellyanne conway, republica b senatoren sasse of nebraska and democratic senator dick durbin of illinoi >>> also, guess

jordan gray was the white house counsel. they reopened the investigation into clarence thomas and it took perhaps ten days and it was done. >> but there's an important distinction here, which is that they opened the fbi investigation before this was made public. and we're now in a situation where there's no possible way to have a fair process here for judge kavanagh. the democrats have charged him as guilty before they have any evidence. and meanwhile, with respect to the piece in the new yorker today, that was completely irresponsible journalism. the "new york times," to their credit, could not find one person to corroborate that story. not one. and the people that they called who the accuser suggested then told the "new york times" in some cases that she herself, ms. ramirez wasn't entirely sure that it was judge kavanagh who expose himself or didn't know facts around the party. so it looks to me like inkr increasingi increasingly like the quote, unquote crime here is judge kavanagh is a conservative about to go on the supr

that's why this ongoing relationship between the white house and the justice department where the white house is constantly straining across the lines that define that relationship are so dangerous to the mueller probe and a number of other things. >> i want you to jump in on this. if it happens that rod rosenstein is fired on thursday or does resign on thursday, there are different scenarios about who the president could get to fill that role of deputy attorney general. the one scenario we know is that at least as of now, what it looks like, is noel francisco will be the one heading the mueller investigation. we can put his bio card up on the screen. he's the u.s. solicitor general. if he ends up having to oversee this, what do you think is in store for the mueller investigation? >> so much going on here. you said if he's fired or resign but there's a whole kind of dance going on and that seems to be what the stand off with kelly involved today as to whether rosenstein would be fired or resigned. if he is fired, it may well be that the president's ability to put in somebody in his stea

is this just the white house being sloppy? gahn who was the one who was pulling all the names and making the suggestions for supreme court nominees to the president as he did with neil gorsuch? >> i'm not sure what specific individual might be at fault, but what i can say is that this appears to be more of the same in terms of how this white house respects the vetting process. you know, when i was directing the office of presidential personnel i took the perspective that vetting our candidates was an essential part of the process. you learn a lot about how they are going to be acting in their prospective positions, how they will be dealing with a bureaucratic process that will test their patience and whether or not these are the sorts of individuals who the president wants to put his imprimeter on. that was important to us and president obama. it does not appear that the same is the case for this white house. remember, you're coming off a period of time where there have been background investigation issues previously with white

it's doing the job for the white house. that's part of the reason that this investigation is likely to leave so many people concerned that they are not getting the full story. because the nature of the investigation is the fbi is working with the white house as a client. the result is there will be lots of open questions when the investigation is finished. >> geoff bennett has been saying that all day that makes it crystal clear how this is going. >> you saw kellyanne conway asked about this. whether the white house counsel gave a list of witnesses to the fbi. none would flatly deny that. what's your sense of that? >> listen, trump had to order this fbi investigation after the hearing and after what senator flake did, but he can shape it. through his public comments, he wants to find out who leaked the letter that led to the revelation of dr. ford even though she didn't want to come out publicly. they can shape it and certainly we are not seeing julie swetnick being contacted yet. they will start to see as the week goes on,

the white house could choose to focus on some good news, okay? people always say, oh, you don't tell the good news about this administration. i'm talking about, you know, the surrogates. okay. so let's give some facts. unemployment is down to 3.9%. the gdp is up to 4.2%. there's even growth in blue dollar jobs, up 3% over the past year in industries including manufactures, more growth than in service jobs. and americans are hearing that message. again, facts first. 69% in our exclusive new cnn poll say the economy is good today. so those are the facts. we're laying them out. good news for the economy. but even when the news is good, it seems that this white house, this president, well, just can't help but lie. i want you to take a look at the president's tweet this morning. falsely claiming that it's the first time in over 100 years that the gdp is higher than unemployment. okay? that is just not true. in fact, in the last 70 years, it has happened in at least 62 quarters, most recently in 2006. that's a fact as well. and by the way, economists wi

jeff zeleny, cnn, the white house. >> all right. so the anonymous writer isn't the only administration official out with an op-ed. nikki haley published her own in "the washington post" writing i too many a senior trump administration official. if i disagree with something and think it is important enough to raise with the president, i do it. and he listens. sometimes he changes course, sometimes he doesn't. that's the way the system should work. the author and frenzy media reaction to the op-ed hurts all of us who are trying to do our jobs for the country by throwing gas on a fire of endless distraction. on twitter, you called this anonymous op-ed a cry for help and its author a coward. so what do you think about nikki haley and what she wrote in "the washington post"? >> thank you, fredricka, for your question. let me first say the senior white house official has confirmed what books and articles have shown about the trump presidency, which is that donald trump is unfit for office. but i agree with nikki haley that the way the whit