[applause] >> so please join me in welcoming gigi whitley. [applause] [cheering] [laughter] >> well, thank you. thank you, jeff, for nominating me, as well as laying out such a bold vision for the new department. it really has been an honor. but i want to start by thinking, you know, penicillin and the whole antibiotic family because those of you who work with me know i'm a little sickly, and i'm a little accident-prone, so i'm really pleased that i was actually here, able to accept this award. the last time i got an award was in the 12th grade. [laughter] >> it was also for public service, i might add. a virginia rotary club award. and because i had had an accident, or had been in the hospital -- i can't remember which because i'm often in the hospital in the emergency room -- my mom spelled out my name, g-i-g-i, and she used the flash cards for some s.a.t. cards, and "g" was for ge gregarious, and "i" is for inquisitive, and on and on and on. i'm very grateful to be here. i couldn't have done this without my amazing team. part of this award

formally and also to admit that they were perhaps wrong in condemning him or siding against him so whitley in the early stages of the war so they're tactically to me to undermine the reconstruction process by the prolongation of sanctions and by refusal to invest on the grounds that iran is present in southern syria or on the grounds that more legitimacy has been completely shattered over the past eight years because of his work rhymes use of chemical weapons and the like so i think that western countries would want a situation where syria's reconstructed but in a way in which you can start by a third power not russia iran not by the west of by the g.c.c. or by china so effectively a new set of powers kind of restore influence by the prospect of those countries investing in syria appears to be quite remote at this point you wrote recently about small schools objectives in low being for syrian record struction including how being assad to consolidate he's holding power and increasing russia's profile perhaps benefiting from it financially what about the syrian people do you think they figur

why is whitley inside? monitor what will happen toa her head and they monitor what will happen to a crewmember if they go up. when we have astronauts that later this year hopefully. that's her on the left. a bit of a stigma lookalike. 7 white feeling that, why is she name to that? after the alien character. we have had people saying why does this really matter? it's all about redundancy. when something happens and goes wrong, we wa nt something happens and goes wrong, we want another way of doing it. we saw just before christmas what happen with the russian rocket, there was a failure, two arsenals made safely back to. —— two astronauts. we have to ground them. it also opens the market, these companies will be part of the efforts as we go towards the moon and on to mars. does it also mean the americans don't have to rely on russia? we see the political tensions between east and west, are they nervous about having to rely on russian capsules looking ahead? they are keen to return to having their owfi are kee

on thatngus whitley massive airbus deal. let's get more on president xi's trip to europe.hips between china and the broader european region -- great to have you with us. and is really interesting in the context that ever since the beginning of president trump trade war, he has been trying to garner allegiance from the likes of europe to push back against the rise of a greater china. is that a sign that xi jinping -- we have the soft, economic power to keep these alliances on our side. >> there is no doubt that president xi is on a massive charm offensive against europe. italy became the first g7 country, the first western european country, to sign up to the belt and road initiative, which is a major thing for the chinese. in paris, president macri will be very pleased with the airbus deal that has been signed. the europeans are trying to play a third way, walking a tightrope between the u.s. and china. as distinctmselves between both camps. they don't want a cold war. they are wary of china. mornings to be done to hedge against china at this -- more needs to be done to hed

that was in insistence on his own coequal powers and we see the judiciary frank whitley -- frequentlynsisting on its power to review the act of the president and congress. to the importance of judicial independence and there are also times in history when the court insisted on coequal power, most particularly in a case called cooper and aaron when there were troops trying to integrate schoolhouses in mississippi and the governor was at the school door and president eisenhower sent the troops and the supreme court upheld his power to insist on integration and the supreme court in a decision called cooper and aaron said it was supreme in its interpretation of the constitution, which some people thought went too far because they believe the court should have said it was coequal but had no stronger power to interpret the constitution then the president or congress. we are seeing all three branches insisting on coequal powers and that is certainly something framers hoped for. host: so much more to learn about the constitution at the national constitution center. we always appreciate your t