in the white house as well as emergency preparedness in the white house and the use of social media by presidents. i hope you will take the time to listen but also to think about buying this book. we head fourth of july coming up. anytime is a good time to really learn more about the white house and presidencies. karen skinner is also a person of action and scholarly repute. someone who has worked most recently in the white house and in the state department and the director of policy and planning serving a number of other administrations as well as the presidential campaigns but she's also the toby professor in director of the institute of politics and strategy. there they study a presidency. we really have a great lineup today what were you in a do is jump into the meat of the book. we want you to get a little sense from tevi troy what are the key points. we will have some conversation and then bring in a turd to you. when i do come to you for questions you will have a number of ways of getting in touch with us. one is to submit questions in the comment section on facebook and what

the polk china is considered some of the most beautiful of the white house' china. features the presidential seal embossed along the side band. the dinner set is white embossed with gold. they had a tea set that was blue, and they had a dessert set in green. you'll often read that mrs. polk didn't allow alcohol in the white house, that her presbyterian upbringing precluded that from happening. it's not exactly the case. she stopped the serving of whiskey punches at public levees in the polk white house but wine was one of their largest bills during their years there. one of the more interesting objects in the collection sort of speaks to sarah and her ability with music as well. we have a music book that has handwritten notations and one of the songs featured inside is the song "hail to the chief," which she of course is credited with starting as the official presidential anthem during her time as first lady. [end of first -- [end of video clip] susan swain: well, i wanted to ask about that "hail to the chief" because a little controversy has erupted between our las

this is a cup and saucer from the white house service that he didn't ordered in the white house afterhe renovation was completed. and there was -- the public was very interested in this activity, in this is an example of that. it's a newspaper article showing the new white house service. you can see the cup here in the top picture. she ordered 1125 pieces of new china to replace what she called the scraps, the bits and broken pieces from all the white house china sets that were in the house when she got there. what we do have here are examples of an invitation to a garden party that she threw. i love the dinner invitation because they're very specific. they tell you when to arrive, they tell you when the dinner will be over. so it's very clear that you're not to overstate your welcome. you're not a party with the president afterwards. here to come, after dinner, and go home afterwards. some of the other optics you see here include a gold plated vanity set, like the silver one that she had as a younger woman. this was very elaborate. and has her initials carved into it. these are cryst

>> the problem is the white house was a house of wood. it was an old, old house. truman's daughters piano falling to the floor of the old family dining room. they talk to present truman and it was plaster from an old building falling on their shoulders. they realized it was time and something serious needed to happen. brian: truman goes away and comes back and says to me a favor, check this out and they don't want to let them back in. they say this thing is about to fall down and about to collapse. >> absolutely. she was well known for hosting parties on the second room in the yellow room and the inspection they told him you can have more than 15 people because it's that unsafe. brian: when it comes to rebuilding this house how much did they rebuild? >> everything. if you can imagine, they took the interior structure of the house and completely demolished it. after saving the historical pieces and what you see today is this steel, concrete structure built within the original stone edifice. brian: some of the mysteries are how did the birds speak so loudly? but num

the whole white house, the atmosphere in the white house was brilliant.i don't think there had been anything like it since madison. he had a little flurry with julia tyler, but she was only around for eight months. past that, the white house did not really spark under buchanan. it sparkled. the >> the woman responsible for coordinating the social event in the white house was harriet lane. >> she was the niece of james buchanan. he took her under his wing as she was orphaned at an early age. when her father died, he became her guardian. >> both her parents died by the time she was nine or ten. he was her guardian. he took care of a bunch of nieces and nephews. he was a bachelor. >> for the pennsylvania's out there, we should mention he was pennsylvania's only president. we will be visiting the home he built in lancaster pennsylvania as the series continues. we'd like you to be involved. it is more fun when you ask questions. you can do that by calling us. you can tweet us using the hashtag first ladies, or you can post on facebook. we will take your questi

to the white house.entral heating and gaslighting. >> she didn't actually bring them. let's say they arrived. and centralbo heating and gas lighting, she did hold out when they put in the gas lights and insisted that the oval room at the white house be left for candlelight. when they turned on the gas lights, of course when they shut down the gas for the night the whole white house went dark and yet the oval room was still lit with the beautiful candlelighting. there were experiments, but it ultimately saved the presidential family a lot of money because they had to heat the white house out of that $25,000 salary. so, these efficiencies did come in starting with the polks. well, earlier but mainly. >> central heating in the white house must have been a great innovation. >> central heating in the white house must have been a joke. >> why do you say that? >> i don't think you would have been very warm. >> it would have to be better than the alternative though. >> right, you got it. >> you wonder though bec

lucy loved the 12 conservatories that are in the white house or were in the white house. every morning, she would make the rounds in there. she would send flowers off to the various hospitals in washington, d.c. she was a very compassionate person, in fact, one of the, or a number of the flowers she sent were to peggy eaton, eaton that we've heard about on previous occasions, that when she died, lucy sent flowers off to her funeral. >> from the petticoat affair in the jackson administration. >> yes. >> bob is watching us in baltimore, maryland. hi, bob. your question? >> hi, i'm enjoying the program as always. my question involves from what i understand was a key intellectual purpose to both mrs. hayes and her husband, and that was specifically the collection of books. she not only enjoyed reading books, but also collecting them, which leads me to my question. did she have any particular type of book or genre that she preferred? >> tom? >> the hayeses collected over 12,000 books, all of which are at the rutherford hayes library in fremont, ohio. and she preferred light fi

but a bit of a sense of it from the white house press briefing that took place earlier this was our 1st indication something might be happening as we await the statement from the rose garden i can tell you that the white house press secretary kili mcenaney did suggest that there would be potentially additional assets that's all she said about an hour later we saw the convoy of carriers carrying military police and soldiers national guard we understand about 200 of them that were deployed parading down pennsylvania avenue and being deployed around the city we understand that this is really consistent with the message that donald trump delivered not just to the governors in a teleconference today but also on saturday when he spoke about the death of george floyd in fact he promised that he would not give into anarchy and not allow america's cities to burn he said leftist thugs will not be allowed to set our communities a blaze we must protect those who have the least so the u.s. president promised at that time that he would deliver a heavy handed presence in coordination with local law en

here comes the white house. the first northerner, new york state. >> the first born as american. >> that's right. another first for, me adam was of english, dissent he was attach. >> he was a dutch descent, and he grew up speaking dutch. he was from a somewhat different culture. >> i would never president coming into the white house, his wife had died many years before. and to set the stage for our conversation on his white house and the first lady who served him were going to listen now to white house historian, bill steele. >> he was president, sherman's favorite portrait issues pretty. she was a southern belle. she married abraham van buren, she was from near columbia, south carolina, and she was a bell at the time. she had plenty of money. singleton's were a big big family in the sand hills as they called it down. there and in the area of fourth jackson, around in. there should plenty of money, she bought plenty of clothes, she was apparently a lot of. fun and so she and abraham went to europe and their hone

among his books is the president's white house. and doctor's, we're going to start with an illustration tonight. for >> the government was spending a lot of money. it's she got into it by wanting to create a house, they were crammed in this house. the only lived upstairs. you see, understand on the picture, the middle of the upper picture, the columns and the street side of it the office was on the left. it's the east room was below that, and the other public rooms on the ground floor. then the other, and the west and on the right side, says that was a bath and a half, she wanted something big to live in but also something to entertain in its, because the harrison's entertained all the time. she had this plan done its. you are looking at the back part of the white house with the rand porch where president truman later built a balcony. it's the center part is the old white house, built at the turn of the century. the white house is on a bank, about 17 feet up, on one side, one story, two story house on the back. what do you see here

white house. they had eight rooms that they had to furnish with their personal furniture. >> when she did arrive, she basically holed up and spent much of her time writing letters to her dead son. >> in her great grief, she calls him, "my precious child, i must write to you, although you are never to see it or know it." a very poignant letter written by a grieving mother. >> they were on a train from boston to concord and there was a terrible accident. >> the train ride was very devastating for the family. an axle rod broke on the train and benny did not survive the crash. >> she concluded that this was god's judgment, that the loss of her son was god's punishment. >> the house was too much for jane to take care of. i don't think she was interested in housekeeping particularly. she just wasn't capable of taking care of a house. >> most would regard that pierce himself as a failure in the office, and she was glad to leave the place. it was probably the unhappiest of all presidencies. >> good evenin

>> it was presented to the white house as the white house not denying it, and nor they think that it would be wise in terms of public relations to deny the portrait of their most immediate predecessor, the wife of their most immediate predecessor. the controversy was the fact that, and mrs. hayes was upset also because the money they claim they were getting the portrait done was being spent for women's christian temperance union and other projects. so it had a slight taint of scandal. >> kathy robertson wants to know how popular she was in comparison to lucy hayes. >> there was very little time for her to actually become popular in the sense of functioning as a first lady the way we think. the inauguration was on march 1st. by the end of april she has malaria, and by may there was even a fear that she might die in the white house. and president garfield, does president for three months writes of how she was unable to work with fear that this was going to be, that something would happen to his wife. it is only after he is shot in july that the press really begin to focus on lucretia g

today by your television provider. >> she was close to being broken by the time she went to the white house. >> this is the earliest existing house. they lived here through the 1830s and 1840s. >> she was educated and had taught school. >> eliza would read to him in the shop while he worked making suits for the men of town. >> the north and the south fought over the occupation of greenville all through the civil war. >> it changed hands over 26 times. >> andrew and eliza did purchase slaves so they had domestic help. >> it was used as a hospital, as a place to stay. it was basically destroyed. >> eliza being ill with tuberculosis wasn't able to get out much. >> eliza received many gifts that she brought home with her. >> this is the room she returned to after her years in the white house. >> she was just obscure as she probably would have wanted it but she is who he needed. >> abraham lincoln's assassination just weeks after his second inaugural shocked a war ravaged nation and brought his southern democrat vice president andrew johnson into the white house. johnson's wife eliza was 54 year

some close to the white house. jeremy diamond live with the latest. >> reporter: john, we're two blocks from the white house right now at the scene of the afl-cio. this is their headquarters. the largest federation of unions in the country. as you can see this building has been not only vandalized but damaged by looters and vandals after the protests which happened here right outside of the white house, john. you can see the windows have been entirely broken into at the lobby of this headquarters. there was a fire set in the lobby of this building. you can see some of the smoldering wreckage here. john, we should note that this happened after there were hundreds and hundreds of people who flocked outside of the white house to protest the death of george floyd. for the third night in a row the protests turned violent as the night went on. things started to change -- cars were set on fire. also, just up the block behind me, st. john's episcopal church, a church around for more than 200 years, the basement of that chu

is it a big white house collection?> i would say a dozen, two dozen things from the white house administration and they were allowed to bring them home in those days. >> qualify that before we go on. >> and so you got them from the family collection -- >> the family -- three generations of the family lived in the house after andrew and eliza. the great granddaughter lived there until 1956 and they realized its importance and really wanted it to become a national historic site. so we have about 85% of the original belongings inside the house. >> well, we're going to now see some of the white house collection and our guest, kendra hinkle, will be in this video in her uniform so we'll take a look. >> in this case, we have artifacts relating to andrew johnson's presidency and beyond. we have one of eliza's necklaces, which is a plain black cross, which i think shows her very simplistic taste. another is her sewing case. and three of her favorite pastimes being as reclusive as she was were embroidery work, reading poetry and

for the last two nights i was in front of the white house, in the vicinity of the white house,, and you know, particularly, i guess it was the wee hours of sunday morning, i was out there after midnight. that was the first night of protests near d.c., really large protests. the protesters actually breached the barricades outside the white house. i saw something, i was there for about three hours until the park was dispersed with pepper spray. i saw something that i can only describe as secret service agents quite literally, you know, street fighting with protesters in front of the white house. and that was just incredibly jarring to see in front of a facility that's one of the most secure residences in the country. i was back out again last night , get through early this morning, and at one point i was walking on constitution avenue looking up the south lawn, and the white house was completely dark, and there was just a column of smoke rising up behind it, and you could just hear booms from the various fireworks being watched by the protesters and also some of the flash bangs and tear g

that area on h street, north of the white house looks directly toward the northport ago of the white se and is in front of st. john's church which is on fire right now on the opposite side of the street. they will look to clear h street, i would imagine here and very soon to remove all of those people off that street. the problem is with these large groups of people while there might be a minority of peaceful protesters as a part of that group we don't know who is in this group right now. these protest groups that started out earlier in the day as peaceful have now fully been infiltrated by these anarchists. that is the way to proceed and i would say you would see some deliberate and significant actions taking place here very soon, on h street, to get that street clear. shannon: we've heard so much about the optics of this from law enforcement and when they take to the street in force or in a way that appears to be military in nature but there are those who worry about the optics of it in the message that it sends and whether it further in flames but how the world does law enforcement

the white house really vancouver, washington. hi, marjory. you're on. conversation. >> thank you. comment and question. last september, my daughter and a family friend and i visited the james buchanan house. and among the things we learned was about harriet lane and her endowment so that a handbook for a manual of pediatric house officers could be used. my daughter, a pharmacist was like, oh, my gosh, this book i've been referencing for years was for a first lady. that was kind of fun. it was obviously from the tour why harriet lane was interested in so many things. it wasn't clear wh9koeú she hadh an interest in empathy and advocacy for native americans. i wonder if your guests might don't think before she got to the white house she showed anic/ there were some indian chieftains who came to the white house to visit and i think they made a great impression on her and she became interested in indian welfare and she was interested in their education. and she was interested in their medical well-being and health. which was very -- it was a proper thing for

that they had built for all the social entering entertaining that got john quincy adams to the white house. when -- >> they don't come back to f street initially. that house had been rented out during the presidency. but they're years here, are much better after about 1834. the first few years are just so much tragedy. i think things really improved. they're able to socialize and entertain and have these dinner parties, but there is no more striving. they've already reached all that can happen. i think that these are years more of peace, there's certainly a lot of political struggle and louisa talks about that, but between her and john quincy, there is somewhat of an understanding. she always knew that he needed politics in order to live. even though she had been very angry at his insistence on going back to washington, she threatened to stay in quincy and not come to washington. eventually she cooled off and followed him after all. i think that they are mostly between good years, even with all the political fights over the gag rule and his century in congress. >> just some mellowing, i th

slotkin worked in the white house for a number of years. ms. spanberger served overseas for the central intelligence agency. obviously also spent time at the agency and both very knowledgeable. i want to thank you for bringing your national security perspective to the meeting. the bottom line is this did not substitute for a larger briefing of all the members. after all, as has been pointed out the central issue in this case was whether or not russia is paying bounties to the taliban for the purposes of killing american armed services personnel, or civilians. we have nolele higher duty than to protect our men and women we send -- we have no higher duty than to protect the men and women we send into harm's way. this is a red flag. it either was not waved or the president ignored the wave. president truman said the buck stops here. president trump says i never aw the buck. this is a serious matter. and we need to make sure that members of congress and the american public understand whether or not our relationship with the soviet union -- excuse m

at the white house. it was about eight or nine large military style vehicles rolling through the white house complex just a few moments ago on the pedestrian part of pennsylvania avenue, that separates the north lawn from lafayette park where those national guard troops presumably are staging right now. as for what the president is doing, we've been told that they're making some kind of preparations in the rose garden for a possible address from the president. that has not been confirmed by the white house yet. but there may be some preliminary preparations under way right now. we know it's been some debate going on here at the white house as to whether or not the president would do that. but getting back to what the president was saying earlier today, after days of violent protests across the u.s., the president is continuing to inflame tensions, as we've been reporting all day long, lashing out at the nation's governors and urging them to crack down on the demonstrations. during a phone call with the g

if you have a picture of the north portico of the white house, the most-photographed side of the house, it is from lafayette park and the now-closed pennsylvania avenue. behind garrett there, to the left of this camera position, is the so-called church of the presidents. it's a real confluence here, because the white house is on secret service-protected property. sidewalk is part of the national park service. step into the street, it's metropolitan police department, washington, d.c. so you have three uniformed police departments. then you have the federal protection service and a couple more. and the national guard. so it is a heavily defended couple of acres. 18 acres in all on the white house grounds. these are fireworks. that's been one of the few means the protesters have had to fire projectiles back. let's go up to boston. nbc boston's perry russom is with us. perry, i've been trying to track the progress of this moving protest. am i right that they are headed to the statehouse? perry? it's brian williams, can you hear us? >> reporter: brian, we're at the statehouse right now, we

the polk china is considered some of the most beautiful of the white house china. eatures the presidential seal embossed along the side band, the dinner set is white embossed with gold. they had a tea set that was blue and a dessert set in green. you'll often read that mrs. polk didn't allow alcohol in the white house. it's not exactly the case. she stopped the serving of whiskey punches at public levees in the polk white house, but wine was one of the biggest bills during their years there. one of the more interesting objects in the collection sort of speaks to sarah and5 ability with music as well. we have a music book that has handwritten notations, and one of the songs featured inside is the song t<4]$rpr& to the chief which she of course is credited with starting as the official presidential anthem in her time as first lady. >> i want to ask to the hail to the chief, because there's a lilt controversy that's erupted with our last program with the tylers who are claiming they introduced hail to the chief. is there a definitive answer on that? >> i won't touch it

and so, she talked about changing who the footmen would be at the white house door. edith had a gentleman who was white to greet people when they came to the white house. helen wanted to have african-americans in livery. mrs. roosevelt bridled at that. nellie wanted to change the furniture. she had other changes that she wanted to make right away, let's get started. and edith, thinking that, hey, i'm going to be president, first lady until march 3 said, not so fast. wait a while. and there began to be in the taft family, they would say to the president elect, be your own king, you need to take over. and the roosevelt people who had put taft in because he would extend roosevelt's ideas said, wait a minute, what's going on here, what about the cabinet, what about the appointments that are being made? and so the friendship began to erode. it really started to erode when taft wrote t.r. a letter saying, you and my brother charlie are responsible for making me president. and charles p. taft was a newspaper owner and t.r. just was infuriated by that statement. he talked abo

she was married in the white house. the beautiful gown, susan, was founded by george cleveland who is actually at this event, the grandson of grover, his sister anne and also mary anne cleveland cohen, they found that actual dress, the wedding dress that actually exists in the white house collection at the -- the white house first ladies collection at the smithsonian, so that's just a powerful display of how wonderful and how elegant she was. i think people will certainly learn from history from that. >> there was an enormous age difference between the two. how does the family process that piece of information? >> you know, i think it was a love story that was kindled by francis' father. he was a dear friend of grover and i think upon his death, i think grover felt the need to make sure francis was taken care of for the rest of her life and they loved each other. i think definitely he was definitely a lot older by a stretch of 25 to 30 years, but i think, you know, at that time she trusted him and i think that he was th

the plan put out by the white house is one that the white house and the president is now actively working to divert. if it's a joke, it landed on the first of many father's day weekends in which some children will not have their fathers around anymore. here is what the president said. >> so i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. they test and they test, we had tests for people that don't know what's going on. we got tests. we got another one going on here. >> the white house may have claimed it was a joke but the lack of testing that's existed is no joke. calling it a joke is what people like hailey and sarah sanders always do when the president says something that seriously reflects what he's really thinking. >> there was a comment he made in passing. specifically with regard to the media coverage and pointing out the fact that the media never acknowledges that we have more cases because when you test more people, you find more cases. >> is it appropriate to joke about coronavirus when 120,000 people died. >> he was not joking about coronavirus. >> the way it always seems to

most of the morning even made in america but they know what that house means the white house the people's house a living museum of american history that continues to unfold as the white house grew as the presidency grew during the 19th century by the time of theodore roosevelt there simply wasn't enough space to accommodate both presidents family and their growing presidential staff and 1001 the white house was given its official name by president theodore roosevelt along with a major upgrade part of his 902 renovation was to build a separate designated workspace for the president and that is the west wing as we know it today just outside the west wing the south lawn of the white house is not only where the president's marine one helicopter lands but it's also a place for the people a decade ago your family could pack lunch in a blanket and have a picnic on the south lawn overlooking the truman balcony possibly even waving to the commander in chief as president harry truman often did and you really do feel. the presence of history and you're really overwhelmed by your tiny little

a documentary on the white house.nd we visited the lincoln bedroom. we'll show you a clip from the documentary next to see the kind of spending that mary lincoln did on the furniture of the white house. >> the bed dates back to 1861. bought by mary todd lincoln as part of her white house refurbishing, it is eight feet long, six feet wide, made of carved rosewood. >> mary todd lincoln had draped the lincoln bed with the purple and gold and fringe and lace. really high victorian decorating. and we did have later photographs, not contemporary with lincoln, but the bed still dressed the way she had dressed it and so we did that again. >> this is this bed bought by mary lincoln and the most well-known piece of historic furniture in the house that holds the key to understanding the lincoln family's time here. >> the famous bed that was one of mary lincoln's many extravagant purchases as she began a campaign when she got here to redecorate this entire building. >> they held a bill back forever so lincoln wouldn't see it beca

at least not to fix up the white house. the white house was an absolute mess at that time. the white house was in poor repair. he must have use some of his own funds to entertain people and they did entertained lavishly. >> you suggested earlier that they were always on the edge of solvency. how did they do that? >> you assume that a lot of them big -- one of the most extravagant is john tyler himself. he spends most of his life in one sense, anyone sort having his family, people like letitia, trying to keep him outside of it. if there are these lavish entertainments. priscilla who is taking a page out of the book, she holds during the congressional session, she will hold to formal parties every week. she will do every other week, public receptions in the evenings. she will hold public parties every month that would have as many as 1000 people. she opened up the white house on new years eve. on new years, she opened up the white house on july 4th and she started the tradition of having the marine band do a perform in the south lawn. they are finding ways to do that. he they

colonel house apparently had living quarters in the white house. as he commanding too much from the president time as far as it was concerned, or where their political differences? >> house did not have living quarters in the white house. he spent a lot of time there but no, he didn't have living quarters there. there is a bit of both. edith, wilson coordinate the widow. she ate it up she admits in her memoir that this was a good bit of her attraction to wilson. she was attracted to him to, personally. but this made him much more glamorous figure to her. so she's going to be the advisor. i think a lot of, from the very beginning to her is that house is just, you know she just wanted to get him out of the way. house was concerned. how saw wilson as this very valuable property to manage and keep healthy and keep in power. he was worried about the effect on this. he very quickly backed off when he saw how determined wilson was to marry edith. he turned tail very quickly. he tries to make up to her a lot, but she masked her dislike of how house was up u

and the white house staff's excuse for the president's retweet was that he didn't know what the trump supporter he was glorifying on twitter was actually saying. he didn't know that the guy screamed white power in the video because, quote, this is the white house staff words, he did not hear that particular phrase. now, when i watched that video and if you watch that video, it's the only thing you are going to hear. it is the only thing that i heard, white power. that's the only thing i heard. now, i'm not going to play that video now because it is obscene. and i don't want to give the man in that video a forum for spreading his poison. but what that video provides, along with the white house staff's reaction to it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the people who work for donald trump and donald trump will try to get you to believe the most utterly absurd lies about what did the president know and when did he know it? and tonight the most important application of that question is what did the president know about vladimir putin offering a bounty for the killing of american soldi

>> less in this white house than probably in many of the previous white houses. and frances is involved in this in at least one occasion. like we said, one of grover cleveland's, perhaps his biggest issue was tariff reform, and she actually attends a senate debate. she's sitting in the gallery over his major piece of legislation on tariff reform. so it's one of the only pieces of direct evidence that we have of her involvement in any kind of political influence. >> but other than that, they're using the white house for very different kinds of things, and she's able to improve his standing in d.c. simply by standing next to him, because he has a reputation coming into the white house of being, he likes poker, he likes hanging out with his guy friends, he likes smoking -- >> smoking cigars. >> he likes hunting and fishing... >> drinking bourbon. >> ... drinking bourbon, right. and she socializes him and civilizes him almost immediately, which gives him some political cache. but then when you're talking about how the white house is being actually used in the ways th

white house the u.s. president entering those gates he's crossed back through lafayette park pennsylvania avenue he is now walking up the driveway and back into the white house he is flanked followed by the national security adviser mark asked for he also has his daughter of one of his advisors the attorney general. william barr among other advisers of the presidents he is continuing to walk it is really a historic site one we've not seen in modern history the u.s. president making and sending a very clear message to the protesters not just in washington d.c. where we should point out a curfew has now taken effect it is now 717 in washington d.c. that's eastern standard time 2317 g.m.t. the curfew set to take place at 7 pm eastern standard time or $2300.00 g.m.t. the u.s. president walking out as that curfew settles in on washington d.c. i can tell you it is much quieter than it has been in some hours from those protests we know that there are protests that were also taking place at the u.s. capitol i can

do you have a reason from the white house's perspective clearing the park, why the white house wanted it done? secretary mcenany: it wasn't the white house. it was a.g. barr who said the perimeter needed to be expanded one block each way because we were not going to see the church burn another night. i've already gone through in meticulous detail with my friend, jim, here, how that came about, that that perimeter was eventually moved. i am not going to repeat myself again. reporter: would not have been violent protesters that would not have happened? secretary mcenany: no. there were three announcements. if the protesters had remained peaceful and moved the perimeter as they were not instructed one, 2, 3 times via loudspeakers that would have been different. when bricks are thrown, rest assured, officers will protect themselves. reporter: he went down to the basement to inspect it. what was he looking for? secretary mcenany: i won't go further than what the president said because there are security matters and i won't engage on that kind of discussion. yes. reporter: so going back to

she started as a white house fellow. and grabbed this issue when she was working with john ehrlich go and has never let it has had a very distinguished career in government to this very day. but she has also done other things in the technology field as i said, i am challenging each of them to begin their remarks with explaining how they got into this area, what they have been doing since, and it will give us a context for our conversation. dr. lee huebner is not with us. flu and winter have taken their toll. and there is another fellow who is very instrumental in these panels, jeff shepherd. he is the person that has organized them for the nixon foundation. he has a cold and could not come. he lost his voice. so, we are not limited in -- we won't be limited in our discussion, but i want to thank those two people who are both not feeling well and cannot be with us this morning. now, use the podium if you want, but when we get to the conversation, we will just sit over here and talk. i would like to call on bobbie, who wil

i would like to know how the hamlin white house would have differed from the johnson white house?how the hamlin white house would have been different? do either of you have a sense of how he was as vice president and what would have happened if he ascended to the white house. >> i don't. i'm sorry. >> interesting question. >> so back to the johnsons. how did eliza contract the tuberculosis that would eventually have her become an invalid? >> it's hard to know. it was rampant at that time because they didn't realize it was contagious. even the grandchildren visiting her daily in the white house, it would take its toll on them as well. >> how early in her life did she contract it? >> hard to say. could be after the birth of andrew jr. certainly by the beginning of the 1860s it was clear that she was suffering from consumption. >> and how often was andrew away as he became more interested in politics? >> considerably. he was away quite a bit. and that's why another reason why so much of the responsibility fell on eliza. i also read different stories that she, in fact, was good at sel

the white house admitted he did.berman's office prosecuted michael cohen and currently investigati investigati investigating rudy giuliani. joining us the first u.s. attorney for the district, preet paraha and jeffrey toobin. preet, you wrote that attorney general barr should have lost his job this weekend and not attorney berman y.? >> well, look. the saga dating back to friday is incredibly unseemly. you have multiple people who understand that the chief law enforcement officer, federal enforcement officer in the country made a misleading statement, some might say a lie in an effort to oust berman in a convenient way. he put out a statement saying that geoffrey berman was stepping down. that turned out to be false. he was not stepping down. we also have a report and i don't know if it's true or not but i credit the source, talking points memo and has a lot of sources going back to 2010 when i helped to investigate the political firings of u.s. attorneys back then and they have a report that the new jersey u.s. dist

the octagon is two blocks from the white house. natural fit for james and dolley madison as they try and resume government as quickly as possible. this majestic, elegant, spacious house was the perfect setting for the different events that dolley needed to orchestrate and manage in the life of the president. this is the entry foyer. this is why the house is known as the octagon. it's a round room, which was very popular in those days. but for dolley, this was an important room to welcome guests in. as you can see, it's a round room. and when you're in this room, no matter where you stand, you are an equal. and this was very important for dolley, to make everybody feel welcome, be they enemies or allies. this room is a good example of why this house was so good for dolley. she was known for her wednesday drawing room events, where they became known as "squeezes," because you had 200 to 300 people before the war coming and during the war up to 500 people were coming. this room, of course, could only fit about 50 to 100 people, but it

the white house. we were five minutes from the white house. we get to the white house. i go to my office, she goes to the residence. as i walk in, there's nobody in the office, and the phone is ringing, which is very unusual. i pick it up and it's this reporter for "the washington star," jennifer hirschberg. she said, "capitol police are reporting" -- "the police radio is reporting there were shots at the washington hilton. do you know anything about it?" i said, "no," and i dropped the phone, and i just ran all the way back toward the residence. she ran this way. we went right to the hospital in , in spite of the fact that the secret service did not want her to. no one knew yet what was going on, and they like safety. they like to know what is going on before they walk into a situation. ms. drake: i think she even said, "i'm going to the hospital." her agent said, "no, ma'am, if you just wait, we will drive you over." she said, "forget the car, i will just walk, if you won't take me." ms. tate: yeah. she said, "he needs me." ms. drake: at that point, you did not know h

who helped or at the white house? how were first ladies staffed at this point? >> there was no social secretary. usually, the guys got together and it was the president and mrs. grant and their friends would come over for a tea party and they would fill out the blanks usually. she had mary mueller as the housekeeper, the one who traveled to europe with her? >> i think so. she called her a most excellent woman. and i dare say she helped with some of that. but most of the social duties, there might be a clerk from the office that would help, but there was no social staff until theodore roosevelt. >> here's the question about their days preceding coming to the white house who wants to know, grant's family was often close by during the war in washington d.c.. did julia has a presence in washington before the election? >> i would say, yes. >> yes. because grant was still head of the army after the war and for a short while the secretary of war. she talks about the receptions that she held, that they held in their home in d

the white house put this squarely on the attorney general. a senior official said there wasn't even a plan, that it was entirely barr's decision. now, there is pushback on that notion. in this interview, the attorney general saying he didn't givl the final word. i want to read you what he said. that he would not be involved in giving tactical commands like that. to break it down, it does sound like splitting hairs, in terms of i wanted it done. hoivr, he's not your choice of trying to distance your selve. this has been a shifting of blame. and the secretary of defense originally said he didn't know where they were going and he corrected that he did know. a lot of back lash to that event. >> another interesting development that's unfolding. we just learned wichita state university tech has disinvited ivanka trump from giving a commencement speech. why? >>. >> reporter: we had this unfold today. turns out last thursday, it was announced by wichita state university text, that ivanka would be the virtual commencement speaker. this is a place she

what is the white house's view on that? >> there have been a lot of discussions obviously, the president from day one has talked about our crumbling infrastructure in this country. and that ultimately we have to invest, especially in the most vulnerable communities. this isn't just inner cities, this is america, too. what can we do in the short period of time while we are here to bring the best policy and policy making and lift the most people to a real shot at prosperity and dignity, and safety and security? i believe this president, infrastructure is at the top of that list. to be determined. whether it remains in the mix moving forward. frankly, nobody knows. but i think this president -- it is a priority for him. >> so you have been involved in conservative policy circles for a long time. two thing are striking to me. number one, anna and i started covering in congress in 2010 when congress wouldn't spend any money without cutting corresponding discretionary spending. it is a sea change from ten years ago. products like

to die in the white house.d >> that is the lincoln presidential museum and library in springfield, illinois, which our guest, richard norton smith, was very much involved in the creation of. >> but going back to her need for money, dan nygaard reminds us on twitter that abraham lincoln was a very successful lawyer in springfield and, in fact, worked for the railroads and made quite a bit of money for that. so what was his income in the late 1850s? and why did they need money so far? >> that's great point, because - it's interesting. if you go back and look at the contemporary accounts, mary's preoccupation with money seems to have been something that started with washington. in fact, there are friends and neighbors who talked about how thrifty she was necessarily, what a good housekeeper she was during his legal days back in springfield. >> i think it was grounded in her sense that we've talked about a little bit already, that she was a national figure and she was representing the west, if you will, that she wa