she borrowed one to be on display at the white house. that started the tradition of the creche on display to remind people that the white house is a home. >> very nice. more of the nutcracker ornaments. >> and caroline. you have to know how precious she looks. >> and the nutcracker legacy was picked up again by the bushes in 1990. >> i think those are a little scary. i'm just saying. >> horrifying. >> they do not have eyes. >> we rounded the slides earlier, and the incredibly skillful individual who pulled these images said, she was being kind. this is actually a nice picture compared to the way some of the other was looks. they were rather terrifying. you were there. >> what it was is we bought the faces. they are just faces. blank porcelain faces, and the decorators, the white house florists and people from around the country actually put the different dolls together. they wanted to paint the mustaches to replicate european soldiers at the time. and they were throughout the house. those were on the tree in the blue room. we had a vignet

the white house is aware of this criticism. they've been asked about it directly because remember the press, cnn reported that cash carter was the nominee days ago. it's made an uncomfortable position for the white house. when asked about this micromanagement, it was surprising to hear them say first of all they didn't deny it. they said that's something that had been with other administrations as well, not unique to this administration. and when asked, well, could carter be assured coming in that he's not going to face that kind of micromanagement that's been alleged coming from the white house and the press secretary responded one thing he's going to be very clear of come in is who's at the top of command and who's the commander-in-chief that the president is the commander-in-chief. seeming to put down any notion that he's going to go out on a limb. you heard carter just say i'm going to give you that candid military advice. he's very assertive. an independent thinker. some have called him arrogant in this analysis of his nomi

the inside? >> as a practical matter, and house car would pick me up at some aquatic and the morning -- a white house car would pick me up at 7:00 in the morning. >> you had a white house car? [laughter] when did that happen? >> yeah. >> he cut a better deal than we did. >> i would leave the home at 7:00, get to the white house at 8:00, you to breakfast there, start talking to my staff about what are we going to talk about today, and i would have a meeting with the president at 10:00 and my briefing would be at 11:00. in the afternoon, reporters would wander in and out of my office with their own questions and there were meetings that i attended and so forth and i would usually get home at night around 8:00. i had a very young son then and he would be asleep by the time i got home. been asleep when i left in the would be asleep. i would wake him up and play with him, because that was the only time i would get to see him. but is a long day. -- that is a long day, but that was the way it worked. >> robert, you had kids? >> about the car. [laughter] >> everyone wants to about the car. one of the big dif

the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan myrrhal in the world. harriet lane buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabe

it's still going to be in the hands of the white house. fense both panetta and gates complained openly just a few weeks ago about the micromanaging of the white house. so in that case i don't think they would have picked carter. would have thought he would be troublesome. and he's going to be in lock stop pretty much with the white house decisions. >> thank you. we'll check back with you after the big announcement. >> another challenge, the ongoing sexual assaults in the military. a new pentagon report says unwanted sexual contact dropped by more than a quarter in the past two years. reports of sexual assaults skyrocketed by 63%. it's kind of a mixed message. but outgoing defense secretary chuck hagel said the general trend was a positive one. showing that service members are more comfortable reporting their assaults. not everyone shares their view however. here's senator kristin gillibrand who earlier this year sponsored a bill to overhaul the way military sexual assaults are prosecuted. >> to have that number stay the same shows there is

the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan myrrhal in the world. harriet lane buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabe

a vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's predecessor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the costs would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she proposed to the president that they drop the customary state dinners, not simply for reasons of economy she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her argument was skeptical. i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries proclaimed lauren has determined to abrogate dinners, and lauren got her way. while her husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln zmondemonstrated that the united states remained open for business d

calvin coolidge, in the white house from 1923 to 1929. s is a gorgeous -- >> beautiful. >> amazing. very beautiful. >> the president wanted her to wear a white dress. artist said that he wanted, wanted the composition to be red and white. apparently the president who liked the odd joke said, "paint the dog red." [laughter] >> you said that dress was originally slit higher, right, with some leg showing? >> apparently. this is part of the white house historical association collection, not ours. >> this is a very interesting photograph. president coolidge prevents grace from wearing pants and bobbing her hair as short as she would have preferred. he often bought her luxurious hats and things to wear to public events. what's interesting about this photograph, we were looking at it earlier, it is in the white house. it's a staircase that no longer exists. it's been removed. i hope not because of what she was wearing. [laughter] and this is quite beautiful. >> this is a flapper depression from '25 or '26. that's the perfect little flapper dress.

>> first lady michelle obama welcomed military families to the white house earlier this month for the first public the 2014 white house holiday decorations. up next on c-span, we'll show decorations,hose followed by remarks from the first lady. >> they notified you in october. us.06 of >> from every -- staren a mother hangs the on the tree, lost her son in 2010. tears come down her face. enoughdn't give me kleenex, because i'm -- you don't know, when you come in to volunteer, you have no idea where you're going to be placed. and i think each of us are put significant place. i have a grandson that was a marine for four years. two of those years, he was in iraq. and he was -- god bless him -- he was shot for the second time, when he came home. was right after the war was really mean. see them place a -- when i see a child placing his ither's star on there or think, you know, that could have been me. respect these to gold stars. >> sometimes it's chocolate. gingerbread. gingerbread.a to u.s.is dedicated service members, as it has been in the past. >> how are you doing? are you having fun

castro has indicated a desire to visit the white house. is that -- >> any more outrageous than the president going to cuba? >> i suppose not. the president has had the leaders of burma and china to the united states. so for that reason, i wouldn't rule out a visit from president castro. >> so there you go. it looks like trips from high level u.s. officials will come first. both secretary of state john kerry and the commerce secretary, who is a good friend of the president's, they say they are heading to cuba in the coming months. encounters between the castros and u.s. presidents are not unheard of. president clinton and fidel castro shook hands at the united nations in 2000 and president obama shook hands with raul castro at nelson mandela's memorial service last year, wolf. >> we heard from marie hearth just saying a little while ago here in "the situation room" that an assistant secretary of state will be going to havana very soon to work out the detaidetal il s of a full diplomatic relationship. so this train is leaving the station pre

>> that's the big question, sean. white houses is getting more intense behind the scenes here. that they are now having daily white house meetings

and she had just returned from the white house. r, and that means decorating all the beautiful things that you see here now. what piqued my interest most about what she had been assigned to do was that she was the one that got to decorate the gold star tree, which you've probably already seen downstairs in the entry lobby. and in reading her story, i vowed to myself at that time -- didn't tell anybody else about this, but i thought, i would love to do that. i would love to be a white house volunteer and get to have the same opportunity to honor my brother. my brother was a lance corporal in the united states marine corps. he died in service to our country on september 21, 1967, in vietnam. two years later, jed was awarded the congressional medal of honor for his bravery. and i have to tell you, the past week, for me, this has been an honor and a privilege to have been chosen to do this and to be here as a holiday volunteer, decorator. i did indeed get to decorate or help to decorate the gold star tree. and in honor of my brother, it

it is the only room and the white house that is not controlled by the white house. reporters control that room. measuretrol it in large the rules of some of that briefing. i just cannot think that if you are just reading pool reports, i would not depend on the white house to disturb it does. -- to distribute those. >> this thing about poor reports as one of the most shocking things. as a former white house correspondent and press secretary, this is supposed to be five or six reporters who represent the whole press corps because they all cannot get into an event. so these five or six, they go, they write out what they see and hear and they give it to the other reporters. now, what role does the white house have in that? now they have taken it over and they are editing the pool reports. the next thing you know they will go to "the washington post" and edit the post. this is a shocking developer. i'm not making this appeared i have a tremendous -- this has had a huge impact on me. to the whites house, i do not remember this issue coming up a lot was there, but in fairne

almost all of that was covering the white house. it comes up to the time in broadcasting when there are new people coming into abc news. a new president and a new anchor of abc world news tonight. there is a new style of reporting where more and more young people -- the digital journalists -- the young people who come in. they are doing so much more and getting on the air. having tutored and encouraged on so many, i saw this lineup of new faces that are now a few years older than i was when i walked up to the white house driveway at age 27. >> we have videotape of you from 1988. it is the first we could find where you appeared on the network. let's watch it and get your reaction. [video clip] >> would the agenda in 1998's political election be any different if donna rice had not gotten onto the airplane and confided to a stewardess that she was going to visit gary hart for the weekend? would it have been different if dick gephardt had not designed his campaign logo to look like the chrysler emblem? would it have been different if the

hours ago the white house calling this hack a national security matter. and the subject of meetings between the president and his homeland security advisers. our chief white house correspondent ed henry is live at the white house for us tonight. ed. >> reporter: that's right, megyn. josh earnest saying this is a serious national security matter. there's now a daily meeting here at the white house not just with cyber security officials but military advisers as well. josh earnest would not say what kind of sanctions against north korea or anyone else that might be considered by the president right now. republican john mccain said part of this is the president's fault. he took a shot at him by saying today "the need for sony pictures to make that decision ultimately arose from the administration's continuing failure to satisfactorily address the use of cyber weapons by our nation's enemies." now, josh earnest said the president did defend sony's art is in this interview with abc news yesterday by saying go to the movies. but i pressed him on that. listen. >>

the last day in the white house. the last half-day in the white house. the president slept fitfully for a couple of hours, and then woke up on that last morning, friday morning, and the family then said goodbye to the white house staff, which was a tearful goodbye. had aite house actually staff of the house, the butlers and the maids, the next development down and spoke to each of them. and the nixon went back to the lincoln sitting room to prepare for his farewell speech, which was going to be made -- was made -- at 9:00 in the east room to speech --s a good buy farewell speech to the staff. al haig comes in with one minor house speaking -- minor housekeeping detail. he describes leaving the white house. >> went to bed. did not sleep very well. i woke up with a start the next morning. the last morning. i wondered if i had overslept. i look to my watch and it was only 4:00. i tossed and turned and then i got up. i walked to the kitchen. i got a bite to eat. johnny johnson, a white house butler was there, and i said johnny, what are you doing here so early

but while the evidence is pointing to north korea and possibly some of its allies, the white house so stopping short of blaming the rogue nation. here's the white house's press secretary, josh earnest. >> this is something that's being treated as a serious national security matter. there is evidence to indicate that we have seen destructive activity with malicious intent that was initiated by a sophisticated actor. and it is being treated by those investigative agencies, both at the fbi and the department of justice, as seriously as you would expect. >> in the meantime, ambassador john bolton says the u.s. is woefully unprepared to deal with cyber warfare, and it's a blessing in disguise that hackers chose to target the entertainment industry rather than defense. >> i think we have simply not paid enough attention to the threat that the cyber attacks pose for the government, for our business community. if we can conclude it was north korea, we need to put them back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, we need to put all the economic sanctions back in place. this regime never sh

batch of clips that relate to august 9. >> yes, the last day in the white house -- the last and whiteouse. the present woke up on that friday morning. the family said goodbye to the white house staff, a tearful goodbye. factual staff of the house up in the family quarters, the in the maids were all in a line in the nixons went down and spoke to each of them. then, the president went back to lincoln's sitting room to his farewell speech. the east de at 9:00 in room. it was a farewell speech to the administration staff. at that point, the president was in the lincoln sitting haig came in with one housekeeping detail that had to taken care to -- the present then describe the east room speech, and describes leaving the white house. >> went to bed. did not sleep very well. i woke up with a start. i wondered if i'd overslept. only k to my watch and was 4:00. to the kitchen, and one of the white house butler is was there. i say, what are you doing here so early. he said, it is not that early, it is almost 6:00. i looked at my watch. it is the watch i have here, it is one of those that the sh

and the real problem was the carter white house screwed up as well. when the italian prime minister came to town they invited him to the white house. and when the japanese prime minister came to town, they invited me. and finally norman i put a baseball team together and we played under the sign of the rising pizza. >> one thing that we see in this book, mr. secretary, is in dealing with congress we help with the crime bill and we have a very effective speaker. so what we do then and what we do now that is missing? >> well, they rolled up their sleeves and they wanted to get it done. o'neill was political, he was a democrat from boston, all politics are local. but he had a heart that i think was unmatched in terms of wanting to do the right thing. and so whether it was ronald reagan or carter or whoever was president, he was really devoted to help not only the president but the country and so even though it might be somebody from the opposite party, he felt that it was important to move legislation and to move the proposals forward and i will never for

the white house so far is not weighing if on the question. the president they're trying to avoid the questions of do they work. >> you mentioned the white house sending this out in the new york times article saying, quote, obama avoids takes sides on effectiveness of cia techniques. while the president said they institut instituted tortured a etortured. the times quotes the senior administration official as saying we are not going to engage in this debate. why not? why not engage in that part of the debate, at least, perry? >> the in the president's view there's two questions they refuse to answer. one is should the anyone be punished? they talk about doj investigating, we're looking into it, it happened in the past. they don't want to answer that question. and my sense is the question about whether torture works is something the president wants to avoid. his view he expressed over and over on some level it doesn't matter. the same view that john mccain said we should not use torture period whether it works or not. i think because the way mich

to do our jobs at the pentagon and hard for secretaries of defense to run the pentagon because the white houseas been micromanaging and doing it in a way that has been indecisive or vague on what the policies should be. so it's a real combination of problems in dealing with the white house. what mccain was getting at when he made the statement to ashton carter, look, we don't have a lot of faith even though we think you're pretty qualified that your arrival is going to make any big changes because it's a bigger issue. it's how the administration deals with the defense secretary. and that's a big deal, so i think these hearings will really focus on the white house perhaps more even than the nominee himself. >> yes, back to that statement that you mentioned, senator john mccain saying that carter should expect micromanagement. in his statement he says "i hope that dr. carter fully understands that, as previous secretaries of defense have strongly attested, he will likely have limited influence over the tight circle around the president, who apparently controls the entire strategic decision-makin

and peter baker, the new york times, who has covered three white houses. the obama white house, bush white house, and clinton white house. and he was moscow bureau chief and recently wrote a book about bush and cheney, which everyone should read. and stephen collinson, who is a white house correspondent emeritus. he recently left us for cnn. but he covered the white house for afp for a number of years and also did a number of stints overseas, asia and europe. and so i'm delighted to have all of you. you're definitely among my favorite white house correspondence. and selfishly, i've decided to start the panel off by one of the things that i am most interested in as a white house correspondent. particularly given all of the access, limitations that our previous panel talked about. i'd like to know how these guys get their stories and like where do you get that information from and how does it all come story about how to white house had stopped releasing the lists of the wine that they were pouring at state dinners because the wines had gotten expensive and ha

there are some critics who believe the white house react to the news of the day. ce the cycle rotates and it goes to a different matter they drop it. what is your sense on this. >> reporter: i think this white house and this president is committed to this issue. he brought everyone in after the ferguson case to the white house, and the attorney general, i think they look at this as a legacy issue for both the president and the attorney general holder. and i think this is not something that's going go away quickly. i don't know if they can get over the legal standard. we'll see in either of these cases. but i think the issue will be talked about for a while. bill: thank you, bret, see you at 6:00 eastern time. we wait to see what happens at night fall. in were several nun the streets mostly around times square. largey peaceful. there was no vandalism. the police chief came out days ago and said that's not going to happen in our town. march prr they are very organized. the people in the street were peaceful and law-biding as well. let's hope that keeps up. so a choke

the u.s. office of special rights, congressman, white house budget director, white house chief of staff, so what is left on your bucket list? >> guest: well, i'm waiting for the pope's position to open up. [laughter] i enjoy being back home in carmel valley, as i said, i have a walnut ranch out there and it's nice to be home working with a different set of nuts. i'm enjoying that. >> host: almost all of your life experiences and your positions are enviable but you have done one thing i'm not sure everyone here would be jealous of. you have been roommates with senator schumer. >> guest: yeah, we were all kind of bachelors back here and our wives were back in the district, and we came back to washington and we were all kind of living separately, and george miller had a house up on the hill, and george miller eventually -- we were all friends and would good out to din. he said why don't we all kind of stay together? so we all moved into george miller's house and it was four congressmen, myself, george miller, of course, our already, chuck schumer, and a guy named marty russo from illinois, and chuc

would have been very unwise for the democratic interests for the house democrats to vote it down on principal. >> and that i think also the president and his allies in the white house are very aware of the progressive or the populist elements of the democratic party because the centrists got wiped out. they understand these are the democrats we're going to hear more from. we're not going to hear from them less. >> i want to ask both of you if this gives us any clues of what life in washington is going to be like next year with a republican majority in the senate. john boehner, the speaker ruled out a shutdown real early. are we going to have an era of one kind of complicated messy compromise after another? gwen: you just mentioned john boehner. he is the speaker of the house last we checked. it doesn't seem like he is central to this debate. >> he was key to getting enough republicans on this board. it does give us a window into what is going to happen next year. two words to keep in mind next year, regular order. what does that mean? on the senate side and the house side of the capital, they don't appropriations bills one at a time, department by department

michael linton said he did call the white house, spoke with a senior white house official, informed them, briefed them about what was going on, that they had been working with the federal government for several weeks. he was complimentary of the fbi. he spoke with very senior white house officials about precisely what the president says he wished he had been informed about. >> the president says he wishes -- i wish they had -- what is your response? >> my response is that a few days ago, i personally did reach out and speak to senior folks in the white house and talked to them about the situation and actually informed them that we needed help. the fbi has been with us now for several weeks and has been great. but i did reach out and explain the situation to them at that time. >> so the president is wrong when he says that you did not reach out to him? >> well, when he's asking about reaching out -- >> i wish they had talked to me first, that's the quote. >> right. we definitely spoke to senior advisers or a senior adviser in the white house to talk about the situation. the fact is, did w

the war between the white house and the minority leader. how is the white house reacting to the ongoing anger we're hearing from democrats around the country to their taking what a lot of people would consider to be the wrong side on this bill? >> reporter: they're trying to smooth it over. they're pointing out this is, in their opinion, differences in tactics and not over principle. in fact, yesterday when the white house announced this, josh earnest said we don't like the provisions they're unhappy about either, including financial reform and campaign finance that had nancy pelosi getting her caucus together and saying, we need to take a stand. this is about who we are. the white house felt very firmly that going into next year, when the republicans will have that super majority, this was the best compromise that they were going to get. that's clearly what it was. a compromise. and they are continuing to emphasize the things they think they did get that should make liberals and people who support, as they say, middle class families happy b

it came from the white house. ered to take off the gloves as the white house said right at the beginning. don't worry about what people say when they find out. go to the dark side. they were following orders. now, ultimately, the president and the vice president were briefed intensively about exactly what cia was doing from the beginning and throughout. bush was quite engaged in this as was cheney. they got regular reports, what is the yield of the interrogation, is it successful, is it not? both men are directly driving this. >> to the extent their cruelty involved, michael, essentially, torture, whatever you want to call it, there's torture, cruelty involved, you're hurting people, causing them pain and fear and all the mix of horrors you get in your mind when you're being tortured, where is it going to end, is it going to end with me ending, all that, did they do that with an attitude of we want to do this, we don't like these people, they are bad people, was it personal? ron? that's to you, ron. >> you bleeped

an amazing statement from the white house press secretary. would have thought they're not necessarily ruling out the possibility of inviting raul castro the president of cuba to come to the white house for a meeting of the president of the united states. alina is joining us from little havana in miami. i take it there's been some mixed reaction over there as well? a lot of cuban-americans live in that part of miami? >> yeah. wolf, we've seen very strong reactions on both sides of the issue. on one hand, we have the younger generation of cubans who say, change is a good thing. on the other hand, we have people who came in the '50s and '60s who went through tremendous amount of hardship when they arrived and they strongly oppose any change without a change in the government of cuba, specifically, the castro government. i spoke with one woman in particular who says her parents sent her to the u.s. in the '60s and on one of those peter pan flights. i want you to listen to what she had to say. >> it hurts me. my family, my country, went through a l

did they sense the white house can end the year on a better note? >> i think at the white house they hope that looking toward a republican congress where republicans feel responsibility for governing they really can get to a place where there's a little more room for deal making. listen, they're realistic about the prospects of that. a lot of the things they can work with republicans on, taxes and trade, it's going to be a very tough road to hoe. i do think what's happened in ferguson and with the sort of racial tensions boiling over around the country, the president does see an opportunity to play a coming together role, a unifying role. in that respect, i think he does think he can end the year on a higher note to try to give a hopeful tone to next year. >> that will be full circle for this president. someone who began their career nationally in politics, famous speech in boston in 2004 saying there's no red and blue america. if he were to end his presidency with some efforts of racial reconciliation, it would sort of be a very symmetrical obama er

again, more than a full page statement released from the white house will be officially released with the release of this report. >> nbc's senior white house correspondent, thank you. the latest statement from the president. back to congresswoman sanchez. you heard what the response will be from the president based on what chris told us. part of this response is also came yesterday from the white house press secretary josh ernst. he refused to say whether the techniques that had been described that will be critiqued here in the report coming from the senate he refused to say that the harsh interrogations lead to finding bin laden. i want share what he said yesterday and i'll get your response. >> you're asking a difficult question there are varieties of views on. the president's views wherever you come down on the equation of, yes, it yielded information that was helpful. it yielded information it was crucial, or no, it didn't yield any helpful information. the president believes regardless what the answer to the question is, that the use of these techniques was not worth it. because

i want to go to the white house. jim adocosta is there. jim, president obama, then senator obama ran largely on releasing the details of what went on. he was adamantly opposed to it as a candidate. now that he's been president for a number of years it is much more complicated. >> it is much more complicated and it would be interesting to do a then and now because i think they see more grays at the white house. make no mistakes, when president obama came into office in 2009 one of his first executive orders was to ban these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques which included waterboarding which, by the way, arizona senator john mccain, president obama's republican rival in 2008, he has referred to waterboarding as torture. the president in recent years has said we tortured some folks. so there's no dispute as to where the president stands on this. however we should point out and dana was talking about that somewhat. in the last several days you have noticed a hesitation on the part of this administration and tha

mike viqueira has been monitoring all of this from the white house. mike, you, of course, heard what the president said, and any reaction? any statements coming out of the white house about the tone that the president is already getting from some of his critics? >> i think the tone, not not directly in reaction, but you can bet that the white house is anticipating this. a couple of things, david. last night, i'll go ahead and say the annual party reception for the press was held last night. i was in attendance. i happened to see top officials in the white house huddling near the corner of a room, and then suddenly disappearing. in retrospect, gosh, it was evidence that something was going on here. obviously the president had been on the phone that very day for 45 minutes with rule castro. much of what is happening, in terms of the criticism he's getting. >> what you said is so intriguing. there you are at the christmas party and the president spends three hours with the first lady shaking hands and posing for pictures. the president left for a period o

or may be coordinating with the white house? who knows? that's the frustrating. that is the frustrating part. and, when john j i have got an idea. major it a criminal offense for the tourist turny information over to the white house without giving notice to the taxpayer and to you that they are giving the information over. make it a criminal offense. >> we have a whole series of those kind of reforms that we want to do. just good government reforms that protect taxpayers and help us get to the bottom of this and get the information we need to do. >> make it a criminal offense for anyone in the white house or anyone in any administration to ask for those personal information without first notifying the person? >> i would like to remind people too. remember what this is all about. the irs systematically targeted people for exercising their most fundamental right to speak in political fashion against their government. >> the president called it a phony scandal. >> no corruption. not even a smidgen. and yet now potentially there is c

the white house says no. te house is doing is asking congress for the funds to give police officers body cameras, some 50,000 of them, that could answer in the future some of the difficult questions that surfaced in ferguson. and the white house commissioned a broad review of federal money and military equipment that has been given to local police. nearly half a million pieces of equipment over the last five years, including ammunition, planes, mine-resistant vehicles and more than 5,000 humvees. the report shows a glaring lack of consistency in grants, as well as needs for training and community input. with the effort all the meetings that the white house has organized since michael brown was shot, the unrest remains. the key to easing such an outpouring that spills over to violence has yet to be found. >> these are the kinds of issues that i don't think anybody expects are going to be resolved overnight. he recognizes that not just one presidential trip to ferguson is going to solve the problem here. >> repo

the u.s. and cuba. white house secretary josh earnest compared a possible visit by raul castro to other leaders of countries like china and burma. >> the president has hosted leaders from burma and china to the united states. for that reason, i would not rule out a visit from president castro. >> well, john kerry says he hopes to return the favor becoming the first secretary of state in 60 years to visit cuba. meanwhile, the new york times is reporting that president obama will act on his own to lift many of the elements of the trade embargo to the company a move that will cause a fight with the republican congress. the president plans to use broad executive powers to lift restrictions on travel and commerce and financial activity. >>> no one is more eager to see the trade sanctions against cuba lifted than the people who live there. whether cuba with the wrecked economy is ready for the influx of goods and american tourists is another question. cnn's patrick oppman has more from havana. >> reporter: there are two

reagan's designer clothes and what will the new style of the white house be. and that was a white tie inaugural ball. white house be? and that was a white-tie inaugural ball, the first one since the eisenhowers and just a much more formal white house. we really do look to her clothes for indicators of what the administration will be like. >> that is a powerful role to have. and she wears a lot of adolfo. >> yes. >> her good friend. >> and galanos. >> and galanos. in fact, this is galanos. the last two were adolfo. >> there was a scandal, too, about her accepting designer clothes as gifts, was there not? >> i thought about that. >> were they gifts or were they declared. but she came from a world where this is normal. >> in hollywood, you get swag all the time. >> all the time. and how to translate that into washington life which is just such a very, very different thing. and, you know, a few bumps in the road. fascinating closet, though. everything has a tag. and she recorded when she wore this dress, to what function she wore this dress, the date on which she w

president obama back at the white house today after making an unscheduled trip yesterday to the walterer in maryland. the white house says the president underwent a routine ct scan because of a sore throat related to acid reflux. in just a fuse hours the president and first lady will host the kennedy center honores reception in the east room. israel has not responded to reports out of syria that israeli war planes launched two air strikes today. syrian state television says one of the attacks targeted a warehouse near the damascus airport. no casualties reported. >>> the paper says jason who holds dual american and iranian -- has not given a reason for his arrest and has denied him access. four syrians, a tunisian and -- the united nations will eventually repatriate them with their home countries. all six men had been cleared for release nearly five years ago, but it took years to find the country willing to accept them. >>> we now know the makeup of the new u.s. senate. louisiana senator mary landrieu, the last democratic senator from the deep south, lost her bid for a fourth term in

do you think the relationship is really icy between israel and the white house? we, yeah, there's no question. i think it's probably the most strained as it's been certainly in the modern era. i can't think of any white house that has had such strained relationships, and it's mutual. it's mutual dislike. it's coming from both directions. they have a very different view of things and, look, i supported obama when he came in, i said i think it's good he's being an honest broker or, take them on on the settlements, but then it has gotten to a point now where it just has become a nonfunctioning relationship, and that's a problem. it's okay to be an honest broker, it's not okay to get to the point where you really don't have a relationship with one of our key allies. >> it's interesting we're back to talking about relationships -- [laughter] in the first story of our hour here, it was how you can't quit me, dude, and now this one is, you know, the sort of corrupting of relationships. sandra, i'm curious to get your point of view on this. this is the fourth time that we

i do think, judy, david is absolutely right about the white house. ce, now, they've had three entirely different secretary of defense all with the identical criticism of micromanagement from the white house. it all begins with barack obama. every administration, every white house is ultimately a mirror reflection of the man at the top. this is what he is comfortable with, what he has encouraged, condoned and this is the structure he's created. if it's going to change, it has to begin changing with him. >> woodruff: i want to bring up something else we have been covering every night this week and that is, for the second time, we've had a grand jury, david, decide not to indict a white police officer in the death of an unarmed black man, most recently eric garner in new york. they listened to testimony for a couple of months, to 50 witnesses, but when you look at this on top of ferguson and some of the other cases around the country and the protests continuing night after night, how widespread is the problem with police use of deadly force against unarm

now the obvious question is well if the white house is doing this study and they want more does the whitethen see that militarization of police departments as some have portrayed it contributing to what's continuing in ferguson and the white house doesn't want to go that far to say they feel that was the problem but they said it is an issue that has been raised and, obviously, when the white house looks at the broader problem and that's what the house says it wants to do. it wants to look at the broader issue not just in ferguson or that region or that community but across the nation. it's apparent that's one area they want to look at. giving this military equipment and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo to local police. >> concerns we've heard echoed on the streets throughout the country with some of these walkouts, some of these protests we're watching, video of michelle kosinski at the white house. thank you. as we mentioned the president in multiple meetings today. we're expecting president obama's remarks actually at any moment. so stand by for that. plus her husband punched her ins

the white house correspondence association says this is the white house press corps in the 1950s. notice something different here? look, a lady. we found one. the white house press corps, which is the american people's line to the white house, has long been mostly dudes. in the 1940s the first female was the photographer who broke part of the glass ceiling when she followed harry truman around the world. in 1960 helen thomas was the first female reporter to cover the white house. and over the years, more and more pioneering women have ascended to that journalistic height. but president obama, from time to time, has put his own presidential spotlight in women in the white house press corps. the first time was the past september when he did a press conference in wales. he made a statement and then he ended up taking four questions from the traveling american press. >> i'll start with julie from the associated press. >> angela king. >> julie davis. >> is the goal to -- >> one last question, colleen "wall street journal." >> back in september president obama took four questions from t