white house myth number two, white house tunnels. in fact, we were just talking about this before class the existence of tunnels who used them and why did they use them. so, one of the stories there were tunnels beneath the white house that allowed for a quick escape, that one could actually get all the way to the potomac river and that dolly madison used the tunnel to escape the octagon house and lincoln had an escape tunnel. unfortunately these are not true. the architect of the white house did build several sewer systems. my guess is dolly madison probably wouldn't have climbed through the sewer. she wouldn't have wanted to travel that way. and these were installed for running water but there really weren't any full-size tunnels anyone could have used. now, here of course is octagon house the madisons lived for six months after the burning. and it's just down the street from the white house. now, during the civil war, general winfield scott suggested the possibility of adding a tunnel between the white house and the treasury build

if it was a white house event, we were in charge of it. also had to always do the united nations reception when the president would go speak at the united nations. he would host all the leaders. and so if we are the host country, then we would have to be there. and it made us realize and appreciate how much we enjoyed doing things at the white house. not that you really have control over anything. you have a lot more control than in new york where we had to deal with might first un trip there, we did in new york -- we went to the new york library. but because secret service had to block off all so much with five and drape, the president and mrs. obama could not, they might as well just be in an airport hangar. and so you learn let's just do it at the hotel. and you kind of learn by mistake because it wasn't your footprint. it wasn't the usual, which is being at the white house. >> we have time for one more question here. >> speaking of state dinners. it's my understanding that now when you have state dinners, you serve only american winds.

i said, i do in the white house: instances where you have cabinet secretaries buying has white house staffers or people who seemed to be delegated by the president in a way that was different from what the county government would seem to entail one story in ministration is true and was basically he would issue whether it was recognized, today it's not such controversial proposition. but at the time it was a day? for us policy and most of the national security establishment was against it including george marshall was not only a war hero but secondary estate and truman was revered more than anyone else in public life. truman you he wasn't hearing the other side of the issue so he decided: at the time a white house aide to make the case are recognizing israel and his white house meeting or he would be running against marshall. marshall was not interested in having this junior white house a way the present no. truman backed up clifford and he said he's here because i have to me be here, clifford mexican in the us does recognize israel marshall was so angry he lost his argument he again

he's in the white house. stephanopoulos was no more talks about how much he dislikes and but in the end, he noticed clinton the in the force had results. sometimes the president recognizes benefits, fostering little bit of chaos to get the. >> thank you. i think you have given a good sense of what is in the book. there's certainly reason to go out and buy the book. i'm going to do two things. first, i want to remind you the audience, we will come to you later for questions. submit your question on facebook, or the youtube chat function or twitter. you have all sorts of work in this area. first, some thoughts on the book and then if you want to share some of your experiences in the trump or reagan experiences. >> i'd like to thank you all of the center for going this book event in the work you across the political divide to bring us together and talk about these policy issues. this is a great demonstration of what you did and believe in. republicans in the white house interacting in a scholarly way. that being

a visit to the white house. still have the guide books that are signed by mrs. nixon, because she was the first lady when i arrived for the first time at the white house. i will always remember sitting in beautiful lafayette square one evening with my mother, across the street, across pennsylvania avenue. i said, mother, someday, i don't know how, but i know this will be my lifelong passion. i'm going to be a part of this in some way. so just simply by being a member of the white house historical association, i get to have that feeling. but by being able to work at the supreme court and executive branch over the years, as well as teach about the white house and those who occupied it i feel , like my dream has come true. then the tour that mrs. kennedy gave in 1962 of the redecoration process and the rooms that have been completed by then. that went around the world and the usi, the u.s. information agency, was even able to send that behind the iron curtain. at the end of the documentary that she made with charle

first is anita, white house political correspondent. she's been in the white house seven years now and even before that, she was covering for campaigns. and as a political correspondent, she's already covering the existing administration energies looking forward to reporting on the incoming group. and i'm looking for her to represent the voices in the reporting team now and that would be really good to share. thank you, anita, for being on this discussion with that. one needs no introduction. veteran journalist in this retiredtion, 52 years, 2016 white house administration s between reagan, bush, clinton all the way through 2016. and also started in 65, you have you coveredso america during a time when people said america was going to fall apart. and you've come all the way to now. so, we're looking to the as well as how you look at two coverage on the new part of the country. and then i'm really happy to introduce dede myers. dede myers was white house press secretary for the clinton administration, first female press secretary. she al

veteran journalist in this deduction, retired 2016 white house administration is. reagan, bush, clinton and also started in 65, you have covered america during a time when people said america would follow back and you have come all the way to now. we are looking to the as well as how you look at two coverage on the new part of the country. dd myers was white house press secretary. checking on with governor gavin newsom in california. i am really excited have you here it would be good from the press secretary vantage points where you see how the white house has an institution facing off with the press so that's why i like this group. just very quickly, you can start and i want to thank all the people in the audience for registering and coming on to take part in this. ask your questions anytime in about ten minutes or so. i will see the questions. she will see your questions and relate them to me. give it about ten minutes for these folks. then we can go from there. all three of you, i've asked you to respond a little bit, the white house press relationship, putting

all right, white house myth number two. white house tunnels. in fact, we were just talking about this before class. the existence of tunnels. who use them. why did they use them? one of the stories is there were tunnels under the white house that a lot for a quick escape. that one could actually get to the potomac river and that dolly madison used it, that abraham lincoln had an escape tunnel. unfortunately, these are not true. we know that james hagen, the architect of the white house, did build several sewer systems. my guess is dolly madison probably would not have climbed through the sewer. she would not have wanted to travel that way. and these were installed for running water, but there were really not any full sized tunnels anyone could've used. this is the octagon house. this is where the medicines lived for about six months after the burning. it's just down the street from the white house. during the civil war, general winfield scott did suggest the possibility of adding a tunnel between the white house and the treasury building. here'

there was a time where a white house pet actually messed up the plans for the white house cook.s a dog name winks, the dog was on the scene before -- according to white house reports, on the morning of march 1934, there was a 12 sets a fright egg and hand set for the residents staff. the white house cooked, and then stepped away to do something else, when the white house cook returned, they were all gone. they realize that this was because a winks had help themselves to a nice hearty meal. the press had a lot of fun with this, they staged a photo of winks eating ham and eggs off on the plate. the white house cook were very upset with this, soon afterwards, it was announced that winks was leaving the white house to spend time with his family. that pave the way for the more familiar dog to follow. but one thing that was really interesting about these cooks is, i find overtime, and this plays out in the roosevelt administration, these coax went through kind of boxes. one, they were culinary artists that were celebrated in their time. if you know anything about the "t áurá -- food r

vtñ white house?adams did not own any slaves, but there were in slaved people who worked at the white house. so you begin to $x]oçhave ensld people working from almost the inception really through the 1850s, working in the white house itself. >> so he was very careful to never owned slaves, he did not believe in slavery i guess, but he in fact had enslaved people working at the white house. i presume he knew they were enslaved. >> there was labor that was needed. so for adams, there were people who did the laundry, some people did the work around the exterior into care of the horses. they were enslaved. >> adams was succeeded by jefferson. jefferson was a big slave owner. he had a longtime relationship with a slave, sally endings. did he ever bring selling hemmings to the white house? >> what jefferson did is that he brought some of sally hemmings family to the white house. but what jefferson did was that he brought a portion of his own enslaved population, but he often used people who were already h

jeremy bernard served as the white house social secretary under president and mrs. obama from 2011 to 2015. serve house, and while that was big news at the time, he managed to keep a very low profile in order to do his job, which as all white house staffers are advised, is to serb the president and the first lady of the united states of america, not yourself. he earned a reputation for being affable and extraordinarily efficient, managing literally hundreds of events with a very young staff, and there i say it, a lot of laughter. before serving in the obama white house, he earned his stripes as a campaign fund-raiser for presidential candidate barack obama, and then was rewarded with a job as the white house liaison to the national endowment for the humanities. from there, jeremy served as a senior adviser to the u.s. ambassador in france. after being in the right place at the right time, he landed his role as the white house social secretary. it's a real pleasure to have them with us today, and i hope you will be ready to ask them some questions later. ladies and ge

once it moved to the white house grounds, you could suddenly smell the white house easter egg roll before you could see it. >> if they did not find all the eggs and they were left to rot, that would create a problem. >> it did. it was something that even happened in the 20th century. there was one year in the nixon administration where they decided to use a lot more real eggs. a few got misplaced, shall we say, for a while and that was the last time they did that. >> 1876 was rutherford hays. why did his family and him decide to take over the tradition? >> the president was out on his daily walk. some school children encountered him and said we have no place to store our eggs now. he said that is odd. why don't you just come back with me and you can roll eggs on the white house grounds. a couple hundred children did that first year in 1878. >> then as time goes by, you tell this in your story -- first of all, it's also accompanied by illustrations. who did the illustrations? >> john hagen, an absolutely genius art historian. >> what were you trying to achieve with this? >> what we were tr

it's taking off, about to lift up over the white house. will pass over blair house where the incoming president waits to take the oath of office after noon today. >> reporter: for clarity, early today, we heard from members of joe biden's team that there has been no direct contact between president trump and president-elect biden. of course, none, as you note, will happen face-to-face. there has been no call of any kind, in spite, as we were told, allies and advisers of the president urging him to do just that. >> how long is this ride, savannah? >> just a few minutes, 5, 10 minutes. joint base andrews is just a few minutes outside of washington. that's the quickest way to get there. >> yeah. >> marine one. it also affords -- that ride affords an incredible and beautiful view of the nation's capitol and all its monuments. the united states capitol, the lincoln memorial, the jefferson, the white house, the washington monument. he is flying over a city in lockdown, whose mall is closed. spectators, other than a handful, not allowed because of

service in the military and you have the people whota need to understand the infrastructure of the white house. like the whiteus house personnel system. who you are hiring to work at the white house. it's really building a largema corporate headquarters with many subsidiaries in one building or three or four buildings because the white house complex is included in executive offices of the president, there's a lot going on. as of this should be focusing on right now and they can do it. it's kind of exciting though and you have to keep your head in the game. and one of the challenges you most people who go to work in the white house automatically find that their head grows about four sizes. and you want to remind people that know, just do the job. be humble and how you do it and remember that lots of people are watching you. >> john podesta, now i know that we have two very critical races inof georgia right now. but kind of put that aside, because as of the biden team is kind of the world are operating in right now. joe biden and his team, as they're trying to determine their cabinet picks, and

household where she was served by many people, and she fit right into plantation life after leaving the white house, and one of the interesting things about the second part of her life was she was a big proslavery activist, and she is the first white southern woman to make the public argument that southern women take care of their enslaved people and that they are like family. she does this in an open letter, which she publishes to the duchess of sutherland, a british duchess involved in antislavery activity and basically says mind your own business. we take care of our people. this is an argument that gets made over and over again, and it is very unique for a woman, a wealthy white woman in the 19th century to make this kind of an argument. having been first lady, this really gave julia tyler a voice that she may not otherwise have had, as regrettable in retrospect of what came out of that mouth actually is to us today. speaking of slavery, we have included in the exhibition a number of other things that point to the complicated lives of first ladies and the ways that they relied both on slave lab

i'm the president of the white house historical association and it's my privilege to welcome you to historic decatur house and the white house historical association. tonight's program is very exciting and we are honored to partner with our good friends at the richard nixon foundation. i'd like to welcome dr. jim kavanagh, the chairman of the board of the nixon foundation, his wife esther right up here on the front row. and hugh hue wilt, the president of the nixon foundation you'll hear from in a few moments. many guests are here. we are happy to have you here tonight. this marks the 50th anniversary of patricia nixon becoming the first lady of the united states. they added over 600 paintings and the most of any presidency. the significance of this will be discussed in tonight's program but it's very important to us here at the white house historical association as a core part of our mission, which was inspired as most of you or all of you know by first lady jacqueline kennedy for conservation, restoration of those beautiful state rooms in the white house, for the acquisition of items for t

, into the white house.d see if we are, perhaps, going to get a glimpse of the vice president and the second gentleman. right now, they are holding in place, as we listen to the howard university drum line, which is quite festive, i must add, just down the way. it's really wonderful. and so we're -- of course, that's her alma mater, the vice president's alma mater. we are waiting to see at this point in time as we are looking down pennsylvania avenue here towards her motorcade. i will also mention that there is a truck of press that is tracking her in order to get some good views of the president and the vice president. they have been followed by open bed trucks with large contingents of press on them. you're looking now at a shot of the howard university marching band and what we sort of saw before for the president was this grand entrance for the university of delaware marching band. we're waiting to see if that's what we see with the vice president coming this way. hopefully, erin. we're keeping our eye o

on productions depicting the white house and the presidency from the white house historical association, this discussion took place at the john f. kennedy center for performing arts in washington. >>> good evening. i hope you've been enjoying tonight's program. it's fascinating and there's more to come. a year ago i was honored with fred ryan, the chair of our board, asked me to chaur the white house historical association's board committee for this important four-day summit. i want to thank the members of our committee, martha, mike, ann, and our historian adviser michael beschloss, for their year long/du#■ commitment and numerable contributions to the planning of this summit. with the terrific staff of the white house historical association and stewart mclawrence's vision and leadership we've convened more than 100 presidential sites as well as leading experts in the wide array of fields and interests that the presidential site representatives told us that they wanted to hear from. i want to thank our good friend david rubenstein for moderating a fascinating conversation with the desc

other people around the white house to. jeremy: we cannot exactly say, well, valerie jarrett said no. so we were often the bad guys. joanne: absolutely. question over here? thought i saw a hand over here. jeremy: very shy crowd. joanne: it is a shy crowd. >> jeremy, i have a question regarding the couple that snuck into a party. how did that happen? how didn't they get checked? how did they get in when they were not on the guest list? jeremy: lea knows it even better than i do, because -- lea: that did not happen on his watch. jeremy: yes, let's make that real clear. [laughter] but it was, in fact, on june 7 of 2011 was my first state dinner out in the rose garden. it was gorgeous, but i could not relax for any of it, because you know that anything that goes wrong is what makes the story. and that gatecrasher certainly did put the fear in the white house that lasted the entire administration of mistakes happening. and it was -- unfortunately, the people who really suffer our guests now, because it is such a process. you hav

kennedy's hand in the east room of the white house. but mrs.kennedy also was able to expand the arts by making the white house a stage for the arts. remember we didn't have our national cultural center which came the kennedy center she worked to support that as her time as first lady. we didn't have that yet. we didn't have a national stage. this was part of the cold war message too that the united states had a cultural history and i love stewart's term of mrs. kennedy and her cultural diplomacy. this fit in with president kennedy's policies that he explain especially in the fall of 1963 his speech on the arts at amherst college end dedicating the frost library there about the importance of arts and the representation of arts in a free democracy. next slide, please. i didn't think that lafayette square would be quite in the news as it has been when i put together this presentation, but we need to thank mrs. kennedy for preserving it because in eisenhower administration there had been a movement supported by the president to take down the beauti

, like the white house personnel system. how do you hire people to work at the white house? so it's really building a large corporate headquarters with many subsidiaries in one building or three or four buildings. because the white house complex is, it includes the executive office of the president. there's a lot going on. that's what they should be focusing on right now. and they can do it. it's kind of exciting, though, but you have to keep your head in the game. and one of the challenges you have is, most people who go to work in the white house automatically find that their head grows about four sizes, and you want to remind people that, no, just do the job, be humble in how you do it, and remember that lots of people are -- remember there is lots of people watching. >> john podesta, now i know we have two very critical races in georgia right now, but trying to put that aside, because that's what the biden team is the world we are operating in right now. joe biden and his team, as they're trying to determine their cabine

gwendolyn dubois shaw to white house history live. gwendolyn dubois shaw is the national portrait gallery senior historian and director of history, research and scholar lay programs. appointed in 2019 she is the first woman and the first african-american to hold that position. before joining the national port rate gallery gledwend lynn was associate professor' -- her work focused on race, gender, sexuality and class in the art of the united states, latin america, and the caribbean. in addition to the first lady's exhibit we will be talking about this evening, dr. shaw has cue rated many exhibitions, including represent, 200 years of african-american art at the philadelphia museum of art, and kara walker, virginia's lynch mob and other works for the art museum in new jersey. gwendolyn received her ph.d. in art history from stanford university. if you'd like to ask dr. shaw a question, please type it in the comment section of this live feed. we will get to as many audience questions as possible at the end of our program. glend ly dwe gw

in the white house.she gives us insight on how eggnog plays out in the roosevelt white house. so she talks -- she observed from henrietta nesbitt. i'm going to give once more the recipe of one of the other drinks under my department. cocktail and highballs were served upstairs and i had nothing to do with them, but the new year's eggnog was a traditional, and the entire white house was concerned with its making. the creamy mixture was prepared in the same way and the great punch bowl was carried before the president, and each time lifting his cup, president roosevelt gave the same toast, to the united states. lillian rogers parks a white house maid declared after tasting some of that eggnog that president eisenhower made in his upstairs kitchen was very strong, but the one that roosevelt had was also very strong so you see a lot of really strong eggnog, not only from the roosevelt administration but to the present day. if you go to the -- i don't know about in the trump white house right now, but the one

she was in a rather sedate beige look, look how beautiful she looks on the truman balcony on the white housewith washington monument behind her. the glossy color jet+ coloring, her beauty, her clothing. the tv, even those black and white still look so beautiful, the news reels that were still showing. this was very important for the image of the united states. sadly we are coming towards the first lady ship ending, there were two tragedies that that ending suffered. how the presidency ends we all know. mr. mrs. kennedy lost their baby patrick in august of 1963. here, this beautiful family with carolyn and john, they are pictured at cape cod with the family canines. but it was just after mrs. kennedy lost their premature baby. he only live two days but he had the almond that could not be treated. even just a couple years later it was able to be treated. the president brought from washington the family came in to try to boost the morale. this imagery of this beautiful young family really had had such a young family in the white house since theodore roosevelt. the grandchildren yes, but not the

the white house historical association to read a young readers book about the white house easter egg roll. before we get into history, tell us about it today. how large is it in 2018? >> it would be a lot larger than it actually is, except the popularity is so high that everyone wants to be a part of they kept the attendance at about 30 to 35,000 people. >> where is it held today? >> it's held on the south grounds, the south lawn of the white house. that's what i like to call the president's backyar". >> and are the eggs real eggs? >> the eggs are sometimes real. they also use wooden eggs. here. >> they're collectibles. >> definitely. there is traditionally some real eggs used and in the past it was all real. >> who gets to go? >> anyone can go, but you have to submit a request online in advance. and then a lucky lottery winner gets to go. the other thing is, you need to have a small child with you. otherwise, it's really an event for the kids, and otherwise you jusá have adults like me wanting to go. >> your book really details a lot of the interesting history ong of the interesting

they did not particularly care about coming to the white house. they cared about getting on a tv show. >> we have a question right here. yes. >> [indiscernible] there's so much going on on so many different levels. how did you coordinate [indiscernible] jeremy: i drank a lot. [laughter] i actually had advised my predecessor, you should have a big bulletin board that tells every event of every day. we would have from 390 to 410 events every year. it was never spaced out the way you would want it to be, so it was keeping and i and knowing -- it was very difficult, so i would tell my staff, we are so busy going from one event to another, don't forget to enjoy the history of it. when there is a metal of honor or medal of freedom, this is an historic moment. this is something you are not going to see most likely in your post-white house lives, but it's difficult because you are going from one to another to another. i actually changed some of the staff when i got there. there. there was turnover. having a great staff -- i really hired people that had be

white house. to have any friends who might be interested in working on this initiative? i'm sitting in my office in denver, she's and. d.c. it was called initiative for one america. it was a outgrowth of president clinton's initiative on race. it had this wild and crazy idea. if we would just talk to one another and listened we might realize that we have a lot more in common than what's supposedly divides us. after she told me, this i did the same thing that dick cheney did when -- george washington -- george bush asked him to head the search committee. only mine went on the. list so i did get the job, move to d.c., and boy i worked in the clinton white house at the end of the second term, after that i started this interest in food, writing and that led to the publication of soul food, and then to this. book now what i love about the roosevelt presidency is that it has been found in my. book we have these african americans who are celebrated culinary artist doing their best to make the presidents

so there is no doubt that you do not have a white house without the enslaved labor. >> so when it wasfinally completed, it took about eight years to finally build the house. george washington was no longer president and the president was john adams. he came down, lived here only for a few months before his term was up. he only served one term. but did he -- when he lived there, did he have any slaves servicing the white house? >> adams didn't own any slaves, but there were enslaved people who worked at the white house. so that you begin to have enslaved people working from almost the inception, really through into the 1850s, working in the white house, itself. >> so he was very careful not to ever own slaves. he didn't believe in slavery, i guess. but he, in effect, had some enslaved people working at the white house, and he presumably knew they were enslaved. >> well, there was labor that was needed. so there were -- for adams, there were people that did the laundry, some of the people that did the work around the exterior who took care of the horses were enslaved. >> okay, well, ada

she said during her white house dreadede said, i really coming to the white house for fear of loss of privacy, and what would be the impact on these young children? firster, they are the president and first lady to have a baby between the election and inauguration. they come to the white house and the children do not come immediately. three year old caroline, an infant john junior. she was worried what would be the impact of living in this fishbowl? she wrote to bill walton about halfway through her time and she said it's the happiest time i've known. i have control of the things i need to do, and i can farm out those things i don't want to do, but i get to live at the same home with my husband, whereas before he would be out on the road frequently campaigning and running in the senate. this way, his office was at home. he had a home office. she said at that point, it was happy. but obviously, the tragedies at the end of the presidency took their toll, but certainly towards the end of her life, she seems to have had real happiness with maurice templeton. her children were doing well.

, pieces about intellectuals in the white house as well as emergency preparedness in the white house and the use of social media by presidents. so, i hope you will take the time to listen, but also to think about buying this book, white house. we've got fourth of july coming up, we've got more president's birthdays in the summer and anytime is good for someone to learn about the white house and presidency. kiron skinner is also a person of action and scholarly repute and worked recently in the white house or in the state department director of policy and planning. served an um into -- served a number of administrations as well as presidential campaign and the professor and director of institute of politics and strategy at cash carnegie mellon university and she's written books on reagan an and foreign policy as well. we have a great line-up today and we're going to jump in the meat of the book. we want you to get a sense of tevi what is in the book, the key points and turn to kiron to hear her thoughts and we will have some conversations. i'll mention it to you, when i come to you fo

. >> christmas at the white house. >> christmas at the white house. that is in a store where we would spend our christmas and summer. mother bought a knock this -- necklace which i know have. that was the last big family picture that was taken. that was about 2002. we did that at about the 20th anniversary of the betty ford center. most of those granddaughters are married and with children of their own. >> where is that? >> it's out in palm springs an hour yard. >> susan, i brought a picture as well. my kids don't remember this, this was long before i got married, but i often traveled with betty ford on her adventures around the country. i will tell you that, of first ladies who made themselves available to me, it was the first time i was covering the first lady so i had nothing to compare to, but i've now covered seven first ladies over a period of 40 years. i think she was one of the most accessible first ladies because she really did believe that it is part of your role as a public figure to carry your message out t

she brought the first radio into the white house.and although she tried her best to stick to the traditional notion that first ladies should not speak on the record with reporters, she couldn't help herself. so she really was in a very short period of time a very dynamic woman, and a very honest woman. now, everybody always also wonders about the scandals. and the fact of the matter is, as far as personal life goes, we know from letters released that warren harding had a full-blown love affair with a woman who had been his wife's best friend back in ohio. carrie philips. we also know now because of dna that the very young nan brittain, i think she was almost 40 years younger than harding, and passionately in love with him, had a child by him. the degree to which mrs. harding knew about nan is not entirely clear, although there's some suggestion that she suspected something. but she certainly knew about the carrie philips incident. but in another entirely different dimension, the hardings very much loved each other. when mrs. harding

and she said during her white house time, she said i really dreaded coming to the white house for fear loss of privacy, what would be the impact on her two young children. they're the only president and first lady to have a baby between the election and the inauguration so they come to the white house. 3-year-old caroline and infant john jr. she was really worried what would be the impact of living in this fish bowl? and she wrote to bill walton about halfway through her time in the white house and said it's the happy time that i know. i can farm out the things that i don't want to do. but i get to live in the same home with my husband. before, he would be out on the road frequently, campaigning, when he was in the senate. and this way, his office was at home, he had a home office. obviously the tragedies at the end of the presidency took their toll. but i think certainly towards the end of her life, she seemed to have found happiness with maurice, her children were doing well, she had grandchildren, one named from her husband jack and two granddaughters from caroline and i think at th

kennedy and his wife come to the white house where they are greeted by president eisenhower.e president nixon, vice president-elect johnson and their wives were also guests at the white house. for many weeks the outgoing and incoming administrations have worked together to ensure the orderly transfer of government. mr. eisenhower and mr. kennedy now ride to the capitol for the inaugural ceremony, the completion of this transition. ♪♪ >>> undaunted by the unusually gold weather, the crowds began to gather early in the morning. and here beneath the gleaming dome of the capitol, honored guests are assembling in order to take their places on the portico. members of congress. former president harry truman and family. robert frost and marion anderson, two of many guests representing the arts in america. members of the kennedy family. justices of the supreme court. the diplomatic corps representing countries throughout the world. mrs. john fitzgerald kennedy with her mother. president dwight eisenhower and vice president richard nixon. the vice president-elect, linden johnson. and t

with white house curators. they request loans from us. we request loans from them, so it was really nice to be able to get these works, and to have preserved.fully in they look fantastic. asked do first ladies get to choose who the artist is for their official portrait and to the artist receive a commission for their work? dr. shaw: yes and yes. first ladies, presidents choose. there are the portrait gallery portraits and the white house portraits, of course, which are two separate commissions. portrait, youor a are exposing yourself as a sinner. you want to have an artist working with you that you have a good relationship with, that you feel comfortable with. it is very important that not only does this inner light of work that the artist does but they also have a report with with them.port part of the commissioning process is making sure that is the case. sometimes a portrait is made of a president, the first lady, and they do not like it. ladies have been such sensitive and conscientious folks that if they d

just quickly tell us about the first day at the white house. >> well, look the first day at the white house was a day of action we didn't look at office dos those things because of president biden a has been very clear and trying to focus on us getting things done and coming in as not necessarily underdog but with so much to do that we just hit the ground running. you saw him go from the capitol to signing events there, all into memorial to pay due respect to fallen soldiers and those men and women who serve he did it along with three other presidents and then you saw him come to the white house and start signing executive actions and i think that other staff is -- following him he's leading by example that we're going just hunker down and get work done. so for me, that i'm following suit so after this i'll be back in my office trying to get work done. >> just on that where is your office? are you going to be in the west wing today? >> i will be. w>> yeah. >> what's, what office did you snag there's always a lot of jockeying for best offices where did they set you up? >> all i know is

do you and does the white house agree with that assessment that there is security threats coming from inside the house? has biden spoken to pelosi and is he worried about the safety, the physical safety of members of congress? >> well, he speaks with speaker pelosi on a regular basis and has reiterated his support for her and members of the caucus and he has spoken publicly about his concerns about the rhetoric of course around the events of january 6, but some of the rhetoric that has continued and the role of social media platforms. so he is in close touch with her about events on the capitol, about the safety of members, but i don't think i have anything more for you to read out beyond that. go ahead in the back. >> reporter: thank you, jen. two quick foreign, one domestic if that's okay. can you i don't know firm officially that roberto mali has been appointed special envoy for iran. >> i can. i believe it's been announced this morning and i can confirm it here for you, too. >> reporter: as you know settlements have been a major obstacle to getting the palestinians to the negotiat

not only did he design this church, he worked on the white house after it was destroyed in 1812. and in 1818, he built the decatur house. and if grow inside the decatur house and you look up, you see a very similar entrance. it's almost like a miniature of this dome that we have in our church space. and the original church was built as a greek cross. it was an even four sides. and six years later in 1822, they expanded the church building to make room for more seating. we don't know who the architect was who did that expansion and who built the bell tower. tragically, latrobe had already died at that time. he died in new orleans. i imagine there might be some historians in the room. if anyone is interested in helping us involve the mystery, we would love to know. the bell tower is a beautiful addition to the church. and it houses a bell that was forged by paul revere's son. stamped on it, it has 1822, boston revere. it's not the only revere bell that came to washington, but it's the only one that is still in its place and being used for its original purpose. it's interesting too t

and we show her in this beautiful portrait from the white house which was done after leaving the whiteouse and at sure would forest, a plantation in virginia that her husband bought for her. she was a first lady who had a real reputation for being beautiful and social before coming to the white house. she had scandalize for parents, her family by doing this advertisement in 1844 a newspaper, she is just kind of paraphrasing. if you see that cartoon right by her handbag, in the image it says something to the effect of, i always shop at my cleanly and smith, they have all the best merchandise. it's such cheap prices. this was a scandal. it's a drawing, how do people know it was her? along the bottom of the advertisement it says the rose of long island. and this was her nickname. our name which she was known as coming out as a beautiful debutante on long island. before she was born in new york on long island, she did a period when slavery was still illegal in new york. her family was wealthy, they still owned gardeners island which is a very large island off the coast of long island. she

which is, no matter how hard the white house tries to get republicans onboard, the white house has to figure out if it's ever possible at all. and i know that sounds like a stark choice here, but it's a reasonable thing to consider, if you think about obamacare back in 2009, you know, the obama white house worked for like a month to get olympia snowe onboard and couldn't do it, failed, ended up going with just democrats. so, you know, when will this white house decide whether or not they can even get a single republican? and what's the calculation on the republican side? is there pressure just to oppose it because it's a democratic white house? >> well, you bring up such an excellent point about the obamacare debate back in 2009. if you recall, before the health care debate, the debate over the economic stimulus bill, where the obama administration tried to work with republicans in congress and only ended up getting three republican senate votes. certainly, the biden white house doesn't want to replicate that in an ideal world. they would get their big package with a lot of bipartisan

just quickly tell us about the first day at the white house. >> look, the first day of the white house really was a day of action. we did not get a chance to move around much and look at offices and do those things because president biden has been very clear in trying to focus on getting things done and coming in not necessarily underdogs but so much to do that we hit the ground running and then you saw him go from the capital to signing events to the memorial to pay his due respect to fallen our soldiers and those men and women who serve and he did it along with three other presidents and then you saw him come to the white house and start signing executive actions. i think the staff following him . he is leading by example and that we will just hunker down and get work done. for me i'm following suit. after that i will be back in my office trying to get work done. >> on that, where is your office? will you be in the west wing today? >> i will be. >> what office did you snag? there's always a lot of jockeying for the best offices so where did they set you up? >> all i know is on the we

they were sneaking the president out of the white house. if any of you have been to washington you know tourists are everywhere. you can't just drive him out. so there was a lot that went in to getting him out of there and getting him to andrews aboard the plane and then having the plane take off and then fly all of the way to iraq without another airliner passing it in the sky and saying there goes air force one and that's happened. >> that happens. >> the first one, if you remember, we had left crawford and we had a switch in the hanger at andrews because they had to leave with a full tank of gas and we flew direct. >> joe, do you have some -- during nick's time i was with the white house branch, so i was just involved in helping him get out of the white house complex, but then years later president obama went over on one of those missions and fortunately, i had the experience from watching nick and how his team worked it and the one rule was that if it leaked out we would not do all of the stops. we would limit the time on the ground and

now he is in the white house residence. >> he knows the place. >> he is in the white house residence.ll have a chance to take a breather here, unpack, go lie down on the bed for a minute if they need to after all the excitement you can imagine that the president will be in the oval office in the west wing before too long we do expect to see a number of other activities this afternoon and this evening including a press briefing by the new press secretary jen psaki in the briefing room about 7:00 p.m. a resurrection of the daily press briefings which languished under the previous administration. this administration feels like they've got a lot to say and they'll start saying it at 7:00 tonight, guys. >> that is just what i was going to ask you the other striking element here is the difference, just in the men, president biden versus president trump, personality, style, the warmth there, the hug to dr. jill biden. so different from that day four years ago. and the press briefings are back how is this going to be different for you and other members of the white house press from where it w

and donald trump left the white house early and flew to florida becoming the 1st u.s. president to snub his successors inauguration in a 152 years. joe biden has made an impassioned call for unity after being sworn in as america's 46th president in a heavily protected but peaceful inauguration ceremony biden urged americans to quote end this uncivil war defend the truth and the feet to the lies just 2 weeks after trump supporters protesting his election victory stormed the capitol building another historic moment was the swearing in of vice president camila harris the 1st female black and asian american to serve a heartbeat away from the presidency they were allowed going president donald trump's knobbed at the ceremony leaving the white house earlier in the day and flying to florida particular has the story of that they so far. they climbed the steps were just 2 weeks ago rioters stormed the capitol walked the halls where they spread fear ladies and gentlemen the president elect of the united states joseph robinette biden jr and dr jill biden and took the oath of offi

we have partnered with key lenders, the white house with special conservation support from the white house historical association. we've also partnered with the nationals first ladies library, the library of congress, the state department and numerous presidential sites and libraries. and to mark the occasion of this exhibition, we established what we call an evergreen book, a book that will outlast the exhibition of first ladies of the united states. and it's dependent on the for our book "america's presidents." these make fabulous stocking stuffers in case you're looking for something for the holiday season. at the national portrait gallery, while we do have this wonderful collection of presidential portraits, we only began to commission portraits of first ladies in 2006 with this portrait of hillary rodham clinton. and we've commissioned portraits of laura bush and michelle obama. and we hope that this tradition will continue. this is really important. first ladies have not always been the portraiture. and this is the lacking the faces of a couple of women that we consider first la

to the white house now. jen psaki beginning of the white house press briefing. let's have a listen. >> okay. i have several announcements for you to today. to begin, i know many of you and the american people are interesting in the news coming from johnson & johnson trial data. the president is encouraged by positive data on a potential new vaccine. he also knows that this is just new data and now is the time for the fda to do its job of evaluating the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. in the meantime he continues to urge all americans to mask up and follow public health guidelines until it is their turn to get vaccinated. now i know there may be a lot of questions you have for us about the trial data or johnson & johnson. i'm here to tell you i won't get ahead of the experts to you hear from in the next hour in our public health briefing from the covid response team. they will discuss this more with you and what everything means then. at wednesday's briefing i also shared some of the engagement and outreach the white house is doing to move forward the america

, and we also got this book called "the white house".rtly before kennedy was assassinated. and jackie kennedy wrote the introduction. she said the book originally was intended just for children. i'm going to get emotional just reading this. it seems such a shame that they -- meaning the kids that visit the white house, should have nothing to take away with them. it was hope they would read more about the presidents who interested them the most. this book, for each administration was updated subsequently. last version of this i had the cover photo and had several photos of president obama inside the book. so talk about full circle. this was when my mom met president obama for the first time. and he wrote, to lillian, it was a joy to meet you. thanks for doing such a great job with pete sophomore this is my grandmother and grandfather. they were both born in -- they emigrated within a year or two of each other. my parents both worked. my mom was a nurse. my dad was a boat mechanic. i had no interest in anything other than sports. i didn't