that is really, really old to be a deputy in the white house. in the white house press office. the hours are insane and the workload is crazy. >> what time would you go in the morning? >> i would wake up at 4:00. dana, she was the principal deputy and press secretary, she and i would e-mail each other at 4:00 in the morning or 4:30 in the morning. i would have four sections of newspapers read before i even got to the white house at 5:30 in the morning. i would pull up to starbucks on pennsylvania avenue and have two coffees waiting for me. an espresso and the grande dark. the national security meeting at 6:30, the press conference meeting at 7:15. senior staff at 7:30. communications meeting at 8:00. in the early days, we were getting ready for the gag hold. >> you were there from 5:30 until 6:00 because it had to be live on the air. >> early tv cable. >> the broadcaster and cable talk radio, all of the needed information currently that morning. that is the glamorous part of the white house. you have to get up at 4:00 every morning. >> the irony is that when i was recruited --

to be a deputy in the white house.ouse press office because the hours are insane and the work load is pretty crazy. >> roughly what time would you come in in the morning? did you come in for senior staff around -- >> well before. so i would wake up at 4:00 and dana especially -- when dana was the principal deputy, then when she was press secretary, she and i were on e-mail with each other at 4:30 4:45 in the morning every day. i would haveçó four a and b sections of newspapers read before i would get to the white house at 5:30 in the morning. i'd pull up to the starbucks on pennsylvania avenue and they would have two coffees waiting for me. a quad espresso and a grande dark. i would be in the white house by 5:00. the national security meeting was at 6:30. press office meeting at 7:15. senior staff ató[ 7:30. xhung communications meeting at 8:00. and then in the ear k days we were getting ready for the gaggle at that point. we ended up getting rid of the gaggle. >> gaggle was a more informal group of those of us who cov

and i moved to the white house in 1995 as a result of what was then a pretty large shake-up in the white house staff. leon panetta came in as chief of staff. so i was part of a transition that happened in the aftermath of what was a pretty bruising political midterm. and not clear that thing were going to get soared out anytime soon. so it was not a happy moment that you would celebrate. >> why did you do it? >> because it was an honor to be asked to work in that place. i think all of us would say it's the coolest place on the face of the earth to work. even though i had had a great time, i had never been outside the country very much and i had just worked for the secretary of state and been all over the world, that was pretty exciting. but the opportunity to work in the white house you know to drive up that little west executive drive and say i've got my own parking place right here right outside the west wing, it's an honor even when the subject matter you have to deal with becomes fairly zesty. >> let's talk about that in a minute. but before we do robert gibbs, what about you? if you

white house. >> believe me, you're always part of the white house. it was the day that the affordable care act was signed into law. it's hard to describe. those of us in the democratic party far long time i was on capitol hill in the clinton administration, working for a member of the senate finance committee, when we tried to get health care passed in 1993-1994. i worked with senator bill bradley when he put out a comprehensive, very good plan for overall health reform that of course he didn't get leblingted, that didn't happen. that moment of actually getting it done after presidents had tried to do it for 70 years, it's really hard to describe. so as many mistakes as we made and i made in terms of that law that was without a doubt the most moving moment. >> let us open the microphones to your questions. i know we are limited on time, so if you can introduce yourself and address if you want to ask one or the other of your panelists here. we will try to make the answers as succinct to get to as many questions as possible. >> hello, my name is eric a

according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son, and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court, an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of 1864. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black

that is really, really old to be a deputy in the white house. in the white house press office. yet hours are insane and the workload is crazy. >> what time would you go in the morning? >> i would wake up at 4:00 and dana, when she was the principal deputy and press secretary, she and i would e-mail each other at 4:00 in the morning or 4:30 in the morning. i would have four sections of newspapers friend before i even got to the white house at 5:30 in the morning. i would pull up to starbucks on pennsylvania avenue and have two copies waiting for me. an espresso and the grande dark. the national security meeting with that 6:30 the press conference and meeting at 7:15. senior staff at 7:30. the communications meeting at 8:00. in the early days, we were getting ready guy cold. -- gag hold. >> you were there from 5:30 until 6:00 because it had to be live on the air. the broadcaster and cable, talk radio, all of the needed information currently that morning. that is the glamorous part of the white house. you have to get up at 4:00 every morning. >> the irony is that when i was recrui

upstairs of the white house.r, a man was able to step on to an elevator with president obama. during the president's trip to the cdc in atlanta. that man on the elevator was not cleared to be there. he did have a loaded gun on him at the time, while he was riding the elevator with the president. that same month, a man wielding a knife ran across the lawn and made it into the east room birdie he was tackled by a secret service agent. since all of those have been brought to light, the secret service chief has resigned. the top executives have been fired. the secret was so and white house security have been reviewed bay top level government panel. now we have the drunken drone thing. which by all accounts was a relatively harmless accident. what if it had been carrying a payload of some kind. what if it had been carrying explosives, god forbid? the white house has antiaircraft missiles. the white house is protected by radar that monitors the air space around the white house. but the drone is very little. is the whit

he was the chef to the white house. not the pastry chef. a chef in the white house. that is his gingerbread house and through the years, it has morphed considerably. and a pastry chef said, a pastry chef will create the gingerbread house. >> this is 2009? >> it has electricity now. [laughter] and water and ice skaters this year. >> incredible. remarkable. >> they work from architectural plans to get everything correct, the proportions and everything and each year, the chefs try to update it. there is about 400 pounds of gingerbread and icing. that is on a base there that is on a table in the state dining room and to carry it in, it takes eight people and taken -- and it has to be taken from the pastry shop which is a temporary facility, actually where the china is kept. they need a big area. it is very ceremoniously taken out, loaded on a truck and driven two miles an hour to the north portico, where it is taken off the truck and placed on the state dining room table, the end table, i should say, and it stays there through the entire christmas season and at the end o

the white house grounds. the secret service is inspecting the device. early indications are that this device poses no threat. >> interesting. >> this shows you the threats now of modern technology. obviously. you know it doesn't take much. a remote controlled airplane. you can put it above the white house air space. >> faa is working with companies to figure out the rules of the road so to speak. >> it is a drone lands on the white house grounds. some device investigating. we will bring you more when we get it. we will get something from the white house reporter in a minute. >>> the president is in india defending his counterterrorism strategy in yemen. we will talk to our white house reporter on that and the latest situation on the device that landed on the white house grounds. that is coming up. i've been called a control freak... i like to think of myself as more of a control... enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go str

white house is learning at least the next two years that this president remains in the white house, you've got to be really sensitive to these kinds of moments. learn a lesson from this mistake and then move on. >> reporter: this president has acknowledged in the past that he doesn't have the same foroptics for images as previous presidents. he has said it was not his strength. i think it was more than just optics. if you look at the reality of the march, world leaders were not actually marching but be that as it may, this is being referred to here in france as france's 9/11. this is being referred to as a demarcation, a moment this country is changing. truly, having been at the rally yesterday, having covered it for cnn eight hours straight i have to say it really looks as though france at least for one day, is embracing the right things and great things about france. all the pleuralism and open mindedness that usually thrives here. i think that it was beyond just optics. when you think back about 9/11 which obviously was a much bigger deal in terms of the fact that the united states had

phil, i can appreciate that social context that you just remarked having worked in the bush white house when queen elizabeth came, and senator reid did not come to the state dinner. he didn't have a white guy. at least that's what we were told. so i can appreciate those overtures at how important that they are in building relationships. i would like to go to something that nick mentioned about trust and credibility, that in listening to all of you because you represent years of experience of working with white house's and with congresses, not only the leadership of the staff. and how you've had to build that trust and credibility amongst each other. i'm wondering if you can all comment on the, and all presidents have faced difficult backdrops to do their jobs, and the congress has to. if you can comment on the level of trust and credibility amongst the president and the congress, amongst staff against the backdrop of executive action, executive authority that's being utilized by the president which is perceived to be more than what we have seen in the past, but maybe you could dispute t

white house. new information on the president's speech right, jim? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. the white house is sort of scratching its heads and the folks here are trying to figure out, what do they do about those impromptu moments you sometimes see during a state of the union address? you'll recall the you lie moment from several years ago when the president was giving the state of the union address. well something not quite the same but an unrehearsed moment may occur and we're expecting it during the state of the union speech. democratic source tells us gwen moore's office has been in touch with the white house about a plan she says that she and roughly 50 other members of congress all house members at this point plan to hold up pencils in solidarity with "charlie hebdo" newspaper magazine in france after those brutal attacks in paris, but this is not a coordinated effort with the white house, wolf. we do expect the president to talk about the attacks on "charlie hebdo" in paris, but as

white house members talk about the relationship between congress and the white house. then, then glickman -- dan glickman discusses the prospects for bipartisanship in the 114th congress. then, bob cusack on the legislative agenda. the most diverse congress industry poised to take power and a wave of new lawmakers is arriving on capitol hill. republicans called it the ranks. and that spirit, the hill should look at the quirks of the voting members and the new congress. there is a record number of female lawmakers, alongside 430 men following the departure of michael grimm. you taught -- senator tim scott is part of the largest black republican lass in congress since the reconstruction era. there will be 46 black lawmakers and the new congress. hispanic lawmakers will have 33 in the house and 30 senators. that is peter sullivan reporting on that. the 114 congress gavels in tomorrow at 9:00. next, we hear from former white house officials and the obama bush, and clinton administrations. >> this would not happen without pat griffin. he has been a background of being an as

the white house o -- the white house is the only one who didn't think it was important to go on saturday. it's almost as though the white house, you know, isn't listening to the rest are of us are. >> i think in terms of labeling, the white house has challenges in terms of having to conduct diplomacy. >> why? there is radical islam and islam. talk to the radical islam don't talk. they are trying to kill us. >> i heard senator rand paul give a speech yesterday. he was asked specifically about that the distinction he sees is between civilized and barbaric islam. it uses justification. but, again not giving credence to it. not lending credence to it. other politicians would make other choices in terms of the labeling. they made -- they recognize that the weekend not recognizing how big the paris event was was a mistake. which is pretty extraordinary to have any white house acknowledge that so i think that piece of it is little bit separate from. this i don't think that if they had hudenly labeled that differently that would have forced their hands to send one to paris. >> any way it validat

mike viqueira is at the white house. the president is not the only one travelling to saudi arabia since the death of king abdullah. what is happening there? >> that's right. it's a measure of the economic and strategic importance of saudi arabia that there is a stream of foreign dignitaries travelling to iraq paying respects to king abdullah who passed away last week and to the new king. king salman. the prince of japan arrived there. japan is a country dependent on foreign oil and saudi arabia is the largest exporter of crude oil in the world. also the president of venezuela, president nicolas maduro arrived in riyadh a member - leader of an o.p.e.c. nation an oil producer. of vital interest. president obama, as you mentioned, cutting short a visit to the taj mahal in india. that was to be day three. he himself, the white house changing course after saying vice president joe biden would attend. now, president obama making the trip from india to riyadh to pay respects to the saudi arabia royal family to help ensure sa sm

but one of our colleagues on the white house staff .one of our colleagues on the white house staff died on january 3. his name is marty anderson and when you read my book you can see that he's a very prominent player in the story and he was famous for what he did when he came back on the reagan administration. but he did one thing very importantly and it happened to be earlier when they talk sensibly about him. that was richard nixon creating what became the volunteer army and that was actually a proposal that was developed by marty anderson. and we had flew in from los angeles to said francisco 1970 in the movie they showed us was called the greatest game in town and i'm sure that no one remembers. elizabeth taylor was senate others were in it. and it inspired marty to talk about this story when he was getting his phd at mit he had access to the great computer and he thought that maybe he would have suffered down which was the closest track to boston and then he went out and told me everything that he put in the computer and this went

officials from the white house here attended that massive rally on sunday. the commander in chief tried today to keep the focus on his domestic agenda hosting republican leaders for their first face-to-face since republicans took over congress. as you noted the fallout continues. one of the excuses was that there was concerns about security because this event had come together so quickly. as you know the secret has since said it would have been challenging, but they were never officially asked to put together a plan raising the question whether the white house was seriously considering going. the other excuse was it came together so quickly, white house decided that they wouldn't go without ever checking in with the president. interesting because politico reported today that white house officials believed that after that mission of a mistake on monday where josh earnest said, look, we should have sent a higher level official than ambassador, i pressed earnest today on what the president really was doing sunday. listen. >> did you get a chance to have a conve

you've covered the white house. i've covered the white house. you don't hear that often from the press secretary do you? >> reporter: you don't hear it much from politicians at all. in addition to the fact a josh was acknowledging a reality that most people feel like the united states should have had a higher profile representative at the march, josh was doing something smart when it comes to public relations. admit an error, admit it early, acknowledge it, and move on. it stops the bleeding in terms of crisis like this. look this was something that people obviously, within the white house and in the obama administration were privately expressing agreement with when some people including myself said that we wish there had higher level higher profile person. if the security is too big an issue for the president to attend there's vice president biden, secretary of state john kerry, hagel and others. it is rare in politics to do so but in some cases it's a rather wise thing to do. >> certainly is. you make a mistake, everybody understands that. eve

i'm live outside the white house, molette green. back to you. >>> likely a lot more to come on that later on throughout the day. >> and this just into the newsroom. county schools has canceled the professional day it had for teachers. so that proves al dayfessl canceled these a live pictures of rockville. the rain has turned over to snow and the snow is picking up. >> it looks like it will stay that way for a while? >> if newgood news, it isn't really sticking to the roads or sidewalks because pavement temperatures are above freezing and so are the air temperatures. that has been a gift for the morning commute. but that wet snow pretty much melting on most roads. and the area in green on radar, that is rain. you can see there is a lot of rain. that is falling in virginia and southern marylanr partrlower part of the eastern shore. but it changes over to snow when it gets closer to the metro area. there is the battle line. laurel up toward montgomery county line and from there, west it is snow. and it's snowing across northern fairfax

official and cnn's senior white house correspondent jim acosta joins us live from the white house to. jim, what did the white house have to say? >> reporter: well jake something amazing happened over here at the white house today. the white house admitted it made a mistake in not sending a higher level official than the u.s. ambassador to france to that rally in paris yesterday. but white house press secretary josh earnest would not say how that mistake was made or who made that mistake. as you mentioned, there were ample officials who could have gone. secretary of state john kerry was in india. the attorney general, eric holder was in paris for meetings with french officials. he did a round of sunday talk show appearances but did not attend the rally. then you have to add that to the fact that the president and vice president were at their respective homes. the president was in washington here at the white house, the vice president i should mention was at his home up in wilmington delaware. but here's how white house press secretary josh earnest acknowledged the error on the part of

what's the white house game here? >> i don't know. i don't think they're trying to set up 2016 because if they are they're making a mistake. i think this is all about his legacy. i think president obama sees himself almost like tr did where he set up 20 years of progressive change in the country. he is looking long view. for 2016, if you ask smart democrats, including people working very closely with hillary clinton, they're worried what the president did with his very muscular very non-bending state of the union address is put her in a box, that she will be forced to let quicker and harder than she would like to be to be elected in a general election. >> liz, the white house pointed out, there is good economic news growth is up unemployment is down gas prices are way down and in a new pole, washington post poll this week the president's approval rating back up to 50% which is tremendous for him after where he's been. what about the argument the white house makes he enters this debate this confrontation with congress with some of the

uycf >> youífÑ got a white house car?lnt >> you got a white house car? >>go)m!er in and out of"áqt myz]ilñ office with their ownr questions, you know, and there were meetings that i attended and so .c&éy and i would 8:00. and i and he would be asleep by the time im sÑ w5. x)ñ been asleep in i left and asleep and i would wake him because that's the only time itr would get to see him so you know, that's alrb2Ñ long day. but that was >> about yiqrví[ car -- >> we want to know about this car. p:7ybody wants to pö !m about this car. one of the big. x differences is9yÑ televised briefings even when i was]kixñthere, marlin, you very rarely had >> my partner to the right --f.o >> what's up with that? what's up with the televised÷taí÷ briefings? and do you regret it now? >> i had televisedá the state department. theyip was the $ spokesperson back in the iranv-k?xr(t&háhp &hc% hostage crisis. and it seemed weird to me, they had this thing that maybe dated back to march lip's táftime. they turned on the cameras for the first two or three minutes and turned the lights off,

you'll remember another unnamed white house staffer. referred to the prime minister as a chicken expletive and a coward back in october for refusing to de-escalate tensions with his muslim neighbors. the escalation and personal attacks means the prime minister can't ignore even israel's friends when it comes to threats. but iran won't be outdone when it comes to threats against israel. the iranian state news agency published pictures of netanyahu's children and calling for a hezbollah hunt. mr. obama is assailing our key ally in the middle east. and seeking -- only for a time with our enemy the islamic enemy of iran. former ambassador daniel among our guests here tonight. (?) we begin with the taliban exchange. the swap, all five guantanamo detainees for sergeant bergdahl have been accounted for in qatar. one of the five has made phone calls to the terrorist group. joining me now, retired four star army general. general jack keane. for the institute study of war. fox news military analyst. good to have you with us. let's start with this

but everything i'm hearing ised that the white house is is white wash the bergdahl case. sergeant bergdahl walk. hey, by the way, something that really, really particulars me off about this. the funny promotion of sergeant. bill, i wore a buck sergeants stripe on my collar before i went to the dark side and became an officer. is he no sergeant unless you get stripes for serving the taliban. but at any rate, back to the key point. the white house doesn't think beyond the next pr op. for the president saving face and so oso for the white house, they don't get it desertion, why is it dissnergs that can't be such a big deal it's like skipping class. for our army for our military, it's much bigger than this pathetic guy loser bergdahl. it's about the president. if you cook the books military justice very fair and pain staking system. if the white house manages to let this guy walk away, you you have basically said desertion is just fine because every future case the defense of any deserter would be able to do the bergdahl defense like it wasn't desertion for him why is for me.

the white house is right. this could be part of a package of compromise with republicans and he is trying to lay down his vision. highly poll tested. >> thank you for calling me a cynic. in some panglossian world this would be an opening bid your it in the world where we actually live, the president knows full well nothing he will propose will get accepted by this republican congress, so if republicans decided they would come to him, he would take it but in his heart our hearts -- of hearts, he is putting republicans in a bad position on popular issues to pave the way to a democratic presidency. >> more likely than the patriots would not be the spread. what do you expect the president to do? >> i do not think he is doing the wrong thing. i think it is a fine strategy. i just do not think he really thinks they will get tax reform done on the bases he is proposing, as part of the grand bargain on tax reform. >> it could be, and that is the gameplay for the six months. all right. an unprecedented move, the white

so in 1970 i held the white house conference on children, and in 1971 i held the white house conferenced left the administration at that point, at the end. so january i joined the brookings institution, which i've been there since and at that point -- as often happens when you're a friend of the president's, you've served him -- he invites the family into the oval office to say good-bye. it's a ceremonial thing, it's a photo op. everybody wants their pictures taken. the kids get -- my wife, two kids they get -- they're 8 and 10 at that point, they get little trinkets. and i should say the president was never good at these functions. he was never at ease with them. he had certain jokes that weren't very funny. and so we're sort of -- and this is the end of the day and he's, the next -- he's next to get on a helicopter which we can see right outside of the oval office to fly to andrews air force base to fly to ott where where he's -- ottawa where he's to meet with the prime minister of canada. so there's a military aide who's getting a little restless and we're having this conversation an

here at the white house, we do.i think republicans have no way to coherently fight against that message, unfortunately. >> keystone pipeline is taking center stage in the senate today. can republicans get enough votes to override a presidential veto? if not, will the president sign it? plus he has been ready to run again. he may be ready to run again. mitt romney telling donors he's thinking about taking another shot at the white house. how that would shake things up in 2016. i have great credit. how do you know? duh. try credit karma. it's free and you can see what your score is right now . i just got my free credit score! credit karma. really free. >> we are just hours away potentially from a senate vote on the keystone pipeline. the controversial project will be at the very center of the senate's meeting this afternoon. and the president has already announced he will veto legislation approving the pipeline if it hits his desk. but after it passed the house friday lawmakers backing the project said they hope to ge

the normal procedure would be visiting world leader would contact the white house first. he legislative branch is an equal power to the president. the speaker of the house has the right to invite speakers to address congress his house. the fact is the president came before the congress last night in his state of the union address and told us a number of things that he was going to do with or without congress so i don't understand how the president is suddenly offended that congress is actually exercising its prerogative. >> last week the british prime minister david cameron echoed what president obama has been saying that further sanctions against iran or even the threat of those sanctions could hurt this international coalition that's negotiating with iran to try to prevent them from pursuing nuclear weapons any further than they already have. why take the risk? it's not as if getting a sanctions bill to the president's desk would be a heavy lift. >> we continue to have discussions on sanctions against iran. the fact is there are sanctions, in fact at the hearing this mor

the white house saying we got it wrong.josh earnest saying a higher profile person should have gone to the huge unity march yesterday in paris. look at leaders linking arms. dozens there joined by lower level dip lo hats but flo top level americans were present, something noted by several observers including jake tapper during coverage of the event yesterday. here's white house spokesman josh earnest. >> it's certainly a free countydowncountry and people have the opportunity to subject elected officials to criticism and make it clear when they disagree with a decision or action taken by the administration. to the extent there are those out there saying the administration should have sent someone with a higher profile to participate in the march, i guess what i'm saying is that we agree that we should have sent someone with a higher profile. again, in addition to the ambassador to france. >> and mr. wolf blitzer sitting next to me to talk about this. you, in the 90s, were a senior white house correspondent. how often do you

. >>> we're going to turn now to that scare at the white house. a small drone flying low, crashing onto the white house grounds. raising alarms, so many asking, who sent it and why? well tonight, a government employee revealing it was him. abc's senior justice correspondent pierre thomas now. >> reporter: in the hours just before dawn, secret service and emergency personnel descend on the white house, after a secret service officer reports seeing something unprecedented. a small drone, two feet in diameter, flying at low altitude, inside the white house south lawn fence.

we will talk with white house chief of staff in a moment but, first, chief white house count for fox is traveling with the president in india and joins us with the latest. ed? >> chris, here in india the president has fended the japanese prime minister to express solidarity over this beheading and called it a brutal murder coming a few days after in the state of the union the president claimed american leadership is stopping isis advancing. at a news conference he was pressed of another contradiction that he called yemen a success story in september while now it is clearly in shambles. the president denies united states counter terror efforts have been sidelined but the defensiveness shows that the isis beheading is one of a series of crisis in the middle east and on the way here the president called the new king, sing salmon, and abruptly canceled lands for vice president biden to leave the delegation mourning the death of king an constitutional that. images of the french president personally greeting king salmon was too much. he was slammed for not going to the antiterror rally in

the white house is protected by radar that monitors the air space around the white house.very little. is the white house protected from small, commercially available drones. at some point, it will be someone trying to do some harm. joining us now is the washington post national reporter carol lennick. >> you wrote today this is a problem, the prospect of a drone posing a threat to the white house. this is something that has gotten quite a lot of attention in the government recently. they have been studying how to deal with this as a potential threat? >> inyes, on thursday that panel of experts that you mentioned were having a private briefing a lawmakers just a few days before this event and they were asked are there any other things that have serious risks to the white house security, and drones was one of their top three suggestions. we're not describing the others but the drone, it got across the white house lawn it crashed, it lead to a series of secret service officers running around with flashlights. when the suspect's friends woke him up and he heard about the news

and the white house will not fall into that. listen. >> i'm describing to you the reasons why we have not chosen to use that label because it doesn't seem to accurately describe what had happened. we also don't want to be in a situation where we are legitimizing what we consider to be a completely illegitimate justification for this violence. this act of terrorism. >> meanwhile, the fallout also continued over the white house's decision to not send the president or another high official to sunday's paris rally against terror. political reporting that white house officials believe the admission that it will sem pli lead reporters to geth bored and move on. i pressed earnest today again on what the president was doing sunday instead. >> did you get a chance to have a conversation with the president? >> well i -- there was -- there were conversations here at the white house about that. but i don't have anything to share about that. >> is the president upset with this decision that involved all these other world leaders, that it nev

so as we did tarp, and in and i worked together on this committee as he was leaving the white house and i was coming in, let see how many republican votes we can get. when we get stimulus, we brought in large number of house republicans. we worked with senate republicans. we only had 59 votes in the senate so we cannot do whatever we wanted to do, to see if there were changes we could make. one of the things i learned very early on that told me things had changed his we had house republicans who came in and said if you give me these provisions i think i can support the bill. so we put those provisions in the stimulus, and they opposed the bill. the president of the same thing on health care, where we had extensive meetings with house and senate republicans. one of the unsung heroes -- there are lots of people who describe themselves as architects of the health care bill --a person with me spent day in and day out on the hill, and she spent as much on the house as on the senate side. i'm breaking my room now, with conversations, but all the things he could do for outreach. i put together

you're going to have the white house threatening to veto. think the question will be in the opening salvo. >> what do you make of this first week of the new balance of power in washington. how did congress do with the republicans leading it? >> the republicans were quite right to emphasize keystone because it reveals four things, first it reveals the president's mask of being a scientific driven man. it's just a mask. second the president says i just want to spend on infrastructure the keystone pipeline. the president says it won't create permanent jobs. ask the people who work for block buster video until netflix came along. i believing that if we don't do the pipeline they shrug and say let's leave the oil under the ground. it's going to be taken out of the tar sand turned into oil and shipped to fuel cars around the world period. >> before all the talk before congress and the president went back to work this week all the talk about bipartisanship, big compromise compromises, there sure was no sense this last week that anything big is goin

but is there any other way of thinking about it when the white house is the last to know? >> congress is a co-equal branch with the presidency. and if anything we have not seen congress acting enough. the matter at hand the negotiations with iran are an issue where the united states is at odds with many of our allies not just israel. >> do you agree with that that this is a healthy development, and that congress needs to assert itself on diplomatic relation shims with iran. >> to say that the united states is at odds with israel is just wrong. passing new sanctions at this point would be counter product ty. the problem is not inviting netanyahu to speak, it's not even not informing the white house, although that's bad form. it's the idea that u you're inviting a foreign leader to come specifically to attack the president. if if if. >> and it steams like this was pretty thought out. this isn't just an aside, but this does appear to even though who are not in the circles there in the white house or even in congress it does appear to be a slight a real insult. >> well i think

there will be the white house conference at the white house. there will be five sessions throughout the country. in florida, in oregon another in arizona and another in ohio. one of them will not be in california. and also aarp has put money towards the conference. you asked earlier about the consequence of not having the act. the white house has put in money and so has aarp but it's nowhere the money that would be needed. thus we're having the five and six probably in the fall. >>any comments or questions from kathy? any comments or questions from the public? thank you. the next item on the agenda is the case report. hello patty and valerie. >>good morning. i'm here with some of my colleagues, we have a presentation we're going to do and you have it sitting at your desks now. we met in december we had a holiday party and our white elephant is becoming quite famous and getting some interesting gifts and a lot of fun was had by all. our board also met in december and we finalized our advocacy platform. this is what we feel is needed in our commu

what we have heard coming out of the white house. >> as you point out, we still have a white house that won't call radical islam radical islam, and for the life of me, a lot of us don't understand why there's such a reluctance on the part of the white house to call this what it was.

long the way. >> you know, liz i was thinking about when president bush and your dad was in the white house, if nancy pelosi invited a foreign leader to come and address congress on a policy issue, wouldn't the guys in that house hit the roof? >> i think one of the things that they believe and i believe strongly is in the importance of a powerful executive and part of the challenge here is we don't have a powerful executive. and at the bottom of this whole debate and argument is the substance. the president stood in front of congress in the state of the union and say we've halted iran's process toward a nuclear weapon which is just absolutely nonsense. and you have a situation where the house is pushing hard for the deal with the iranians each time they fail to meet their obligations, the white house pushes the date aagain. and then they announce they will start two new reactors. and they are feeding gas into the centrifuges they were supposed to shut down. so yes there is a political debate going on and i think boehner was right to invite netanyahu and he was right to accept. but this is a

the white house spokesman josh earnest confirming that there was a device found on the white house grounds. and early investigation of that device shows that it poses no immediate threat to anyone inside the building inside the white house. just a few minutes ago, we saw more officers patrolling the grounds with flashlights. this video was taken about 15 20 minutes ago. but the officers are still on the grounds using flash flights, searching the area. the secret service is expected to give us more information on exactly what type of of device was found, where exactly it was found on the white house grounds. and what is going on with that. of course the president and the first lady are not inside the white house. they're not there. the president traveling overseas not expected back in washington until a little bit later on this week. but again we still see a lot of activity here outside the white house, we park where the secret se cars right behind me not heletting anyone inside. la fayette park closed. secret service police are patrolling the area on in their patrol cars as well. again, we

martha: there is growing anger in the white house over house speaker john boehner inviting israel's primethe new york times" reporting that the president's inner circle is outraged that he accepted that invitation without consulting the white house. one senior official even slamming israel's ambassador about this whole situation. speaker boehner sat down with bret baier and say, he was not surprised. >> do you think there is some kind of antipathy in this administration towards netanyahu? >> of course there is. they don't even try to hide it. israel has been our strongest ally in the region for decade. we have, we have a great relationship with them and we ought to look for ways to work together on behalf of our shared interests, not have the kind of antipathy well, that we've seen over the last several years. martha: that was just one of many straightforward answers that bret baier got from john boehner, the speaker yesterday. he joins us now. he anchors "special report." bret, good morning. good to have you with us. >> good morning martha. martha: its was an interesting response and it