Handled ebola well. Host the way to get something done, obama was saying, to go it alone jus as to some extend he always had. There is a poinsey there. Mr. Todd that is the lesson he has taken from his presidency. That you know he cant make washington work collectively. He thinks it is washingtons fundamental flaw. I dont think he believes there is much he could have done differently to change that. I argue differently. I will say in the book, look how he feels about going about Climate Change and immigration . There is certainly regrets of his. He is going to leave office with neither problem fully solved but wants to make progress and the only way he knows how is alone. Host chuck, congrats, your book the stranger barack obama in the white house, thank you for sharing. Booktv in prime time continues with books by 2016 president ial candidates on friday. Mike huckabee discuss his book that looks at american culture. Ben car bp carsons book is after that and senator rubio on americas dream restoring Economic Opportunity for everyone and then former secretary of state Hillary Clinton on her book hard choices. 8 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. On the next washington journal, margo sangar catz joins us looking at whether the increase of Health Insurance actually cuts the cost. And we will talk about the 88th anniversary of the Social Security system. And then a talk over the u. S. Foster care program. We will take your phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. Washington journal live each morning at 7 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspan is in des moines at the state fair. We are live as the candidates walk the ground and speak at the soap box chatty on friday morning, 10 30, jeb bush. Starting at noon on saturday rick santorum. Covered the first black president is just amazing. Timing is everything. When he was a senator you were covering the white house. All the president s gathered outside and they come outside of the west wing and they stand on the bank with microphones for the people were meeting the president. At this time it was the Congressional Black Caucus that just had obtain the newest member, senator barack obama from chicago. Everyone was looking for senator obama. I couldnt see him. I was so excited about trying to get an interview with him. At that time, i kept remembering, where is he . What is he doing . At he doing . At that time he was new. He was barack obama but i think i transposed his name and i said where is, i dont remember when i called him, and he said well first of all, get my name right. I was so excited. He was a rock star in chief. This was about being a reporter and and trying to get to him before anyone else. Thats the thing about this business. You want to be the first with the most. I wanted to get this new rock star on the hill. I couldnt get his name right. It wasnt mass. You wrote that he wasnt a particularly popular senator. Did they kind of resent this newcomer . They did resent the newcomer. He was someone who had tried, unsuccessfully, against one of their fellow members. Because they are a small group on the hill and theyre very loyal to one another. That that was one strike against him. The second strike was he was a senator. He was a a black senator, something that rarely happens in this country. He also was on a different schedule. The senate in the house were in different schedules. When the Congressional Black Caucus would meet it was not on his time, so he would kind of ask if he could be placed in part of the meeting to deliver a few statements about whats going on in the senate. In the meantime, they ignored him. He was left to leave the meeting without resenting anything. There were a little hard feelings there. Do you think, talking about your time covering the white house, can you talk a little bit about how you explain in the book how you were treated as, not only an africanamerican black reporter, but also a woman reporter. There. There were not a lot of women in the press corps. Lets start with that first year when bill clinton second term in you arrive at the white house to cover, they are sitting in the Briefing Room every single day. It was kind of rough because there was a gentleman who was iconic there. He was the first africanamerican to become the president to the White House Press corps and his shoes were so hard to fill. When i came to the white house, many people resented the fact that it wasnt him anymore. I can understand that. But also, i think, coming in and really pressing on urban and africanamerican issues which really wasnt done that much as much as i had, some people took it the wrong way because that wasnt really on the agenda on a daily basis. Many people were wondering, who is she, what is she. We she. We havent seen her in washington. Shes a strange kid, you know. I had a little bit of that and had a lot of pushback. I had a a lot of pushback from within the press core and i was such a newbie, not being in washington. Coming. Coming straight out of baltimore really, there was a lot of pushback and people were wondering how is she getting these interviews with president clinton . How is she doing this if shes not in the pool . Lets break it down into three categories because you write about not only her interactions with other reporters and your interactions with president s but of course press secretaries too. Talk about under the bush administration, tony snow was the new press secretary. What happened with the tar baby on that . Oh my gosh, the first day he came into the press briefing, he was a rock star when he came inches so maybe people were in that room i couldnt even get in my seat. Typically when youre in the white house and in the briefing area, you have your designated seat. You feel comfortable that okay i can rate until the last minute and come up and get my seat. That wasnt wasnt the case to my surprise. I came upstairs and every seat was taken. It was standing room only. I was on the right side of the Briefing Room against the wall. There was a question posed to him by abcs martha route it and he was explaining what was going on and he said im not going to hold a touchback because that is made me shrink because that is a very insensitive phrase. It is from old rare trap it. I actually have that book, just remember that this is what used to be but it should not be. I couldnt believe it. When you think of the time and the tar that the rabbit together so the fox wouldnt find the rabbit and i said okay, so then unfortunately, it was two of gentleman standing in front of me and he told me shut up and i couldnt believe it. After that first press briefing, i marched myself up to tony snows office and i asked him if he realized what he did. He apologized. From that moment on he struck up a really good relationship. He really apologized for his in sensitivity. He didnt realize how insensitive he was. To the credit the credit of the White House Correspondent association, i talked to mark smith who was the president at that time and i got an apology. People really dont understand. I got an apology from the reporter. People dont really understand what happened at that point. There are so many things that go beyond that room and it really affected me that day. The. The press briefing, you and i cover the white house for many years, the press briefings were offcamera up until the time you came. Mike curry was the second press secretary for clinton and he agreed to do it on camera. I tend to agree with mike that the press briefing are supposed to be the raw ingredients of the news and not the invent itself. You had a dust off, while probably not dust off isnt the right word. I was there for it, not because you are and i africanamerican reporter but may be because you you are a woman. That was with robert gibbs. Yes, i think you might be right with the woman issue, the gender. It could be a little a little bit of race and it could be because i was a special meeting. The issue is i was not part of the mainstream, first and second row. Im specialty that focuses on urban and minority america. How dare she, that is the way i felt at the time. How dare she asked me questions. I dont feel they were relevant questions. I was hearing that from inside and outside the white house. It wasnt a personality issue, it was a real issue. A real issue. The challenge was the last day. People were watching and didnt see the two days, the culmination of the two days that crescendoed into that moment. This is after a couple apparently crashed the first obama state dinner. The white house social secretary who was an africanamerican woman from chicago, a friend of theirs, was taking the heat for dropping the ball on this. You asked robert gibbs specifically about her role. What was it that he said to you . He said, i was on a roll with questions, he said something to the effect of calm down. For a woman who has children, but to equate me to a child, it was disrespectful. He was angry at the time and people believe there isnt retaliation when you asked the white house a question, there is retaliation. The. The retaliation was seen on television, part of the retaliation was seen on television. After that i was upset. I couldnt believe it. At. At that time i was sitting in the fourth row and i couldnt believe what had happened. I had just sat there. I see the doors to the Lower Press Office open and it was bill burton. , robert gibbs and he said come here and i said no. He was shocked. The unfortunate thing, i said okay im coming. I couldnt believe it. I thought what did i do wrong, in my mind. I asked the gentleman a question and what happened was, in my mind, and robert gibbs and i have come to a good understanding of we have a different relationship now, but to to my understanding there was loyalty there. The Obama Administration was new and they supported one another. They really supported this president. They were very loyal to this woman that was a faux pas that caused us security be breach at the white house. Did you go up and see robert gibbs at that time . I did. There are other people in the room and i just remember gibbs telling me i0 the first lady an apology and i overheard an apology. I said for what . If i did anything did anything to offend the first lady, i apologize. People were sending sending me emails at the time, why did robert gibbs disrespects you . And he said you tell them to email me and ill tell them. And im thinking to myself what did i do to deserve this . When you are someone that they perceive by yourself, because i dont dont have the backing of the larger networks, you understand. I dont have the backing of having other people, i dont have a lot of specialties that are they are focusing on the same issues to have my back. It it felt like i was alone, but i wasnt along alone. To my surprise many of my fellow correspondents were supporters of me and said that should not have happened that way. It was a serious line of questions and the sources that told me and because of that there was change at the white house. We went back to the old procedure of how to allow people to come in for events. You have to remember, this was about security of the presidency and the president. The first africanamerican president had so many death threats. Its not just about being africanamerican, its about being president for this type of thing to happen. Talk about the specialty media because i think a lot of americans dont understand it. Of course theres theres the networks and the Wire Services get those from row seats. Major newspapers all have seats, but you really do cover the white house and write about it in this book from a very particular vantage point, which is crucially important for those who listen to you. Specially media. Specialty media is media that is not necessarily focused in on the traditional. We are a group that isnt in the front row. It could be media or a newspaper or radio. We are not abc, cbs, cnn. We are the smaller networks. We are those types and we are the lgbt newspapers and the christian broadcast groups. All sorts of things that are not part of the mainstream. But you do have a seat in the press room . Smack dab in the middle. I was in the sixth row when i first started and i moved up to the third row and i do have a seat. I think that is because i am there every day and i asked questions with the principles and i asked questions. We have an audience that they want to get a message to. Does sometimes a president or white house communication Operation Take advantage of your specialty media by saying we want to get this race story out there, this urban story out there and they seek you out . Oh yes. How does that work . Just recently president obama did a race interview with bet. It resonated more with that group than it would with a cnn or an nbc. So when they want to put out information, they will sometimes have a go to person. They use to call me a foil. Im not a foil but ill let them call me that and get the story at the same time. Sometimes you have to use what you have at your advantage. That was to my advantage. The fact that im working for a minority company that focuses on urban and African American issues, but i also question on other issues as well such as mainstream issues. How did you deal with that second group . The White House Press colleagues that i for years set right down the road from you. You write about asking a question at your first president ial News Conference and you said that after you asked the question you were treated like media slime. What happened . This is a roughandtumble business. We are happy for one another but its always why not me. Why did she get that and why not me. They are asking why they didnt get it. Recently, last couple of times i got a question from the president at press conferences, the last one at the end of the year and the one around summer time about africa, its like why not, we get questions all the time. I dont always get to ask questions in press conferences as much as others. We all want to have that moment where we get that question. We want that question. How did she get it . Shes always getting it . I think some of that was part of the problem but i was new. I worked hard. How did you get it question being brandnew . Well at the time, at the time when i first went to the white house it was more open than it is now. You were there when it was much more open than it is now. Open in what sense . You could walk around and run into the president more. I was literally coming in from outside and i had my coat on. I walked in and then at that time i think there was a door. This is the staff area and i dont think there was a door at the time that you could see people walking back and forth. I just happen to be standing there and i asked if if i could go to upper press. Which is the press secretarys office up a hallway just outside the oval office. Yes just outside the over office. I was headed to upper press to see the press curry who was secretary who was Michael Curry at the time. I wasnt understanding what was going on. My First Encounter was with the secret service and i didnt understand. All the sudden im walking down the hall and eating a pretzel was pres. Bill clinton. He didnt know who i was was at the time. I guess he thought i was someone on staff or something. He was talking and stopped in the hallway and im standing there looking at him and im thinking okay hes talking to the staff in the lower press area. I introduced myself and i said please call on me sir. Call on me . Call on on me on a press conference. There was a press conference that immediately followed and he didnt call on me but the next one he did. I told michael mccurry, thank you and i sent a note to mike mccurry to send to the president to say thank you. The president president wrote me back. He wrote a note back on white house letterhead and thats all she wrote. Thats a good one. You wrote a thank you note to the president for getting a question in and then you got a letter back. How in News Conferences you talk about that first question when you called yourself media slime. Was it the content of your question . Were reporters hostile to you . I dont think was the content of the question, i just think media slime is a adversarial relationship in that building. To some extent they dont like us and to other extent some do. When we get classified, i just say media slime. It mightve been for others but they didnt like that questions. That was not for them to say because once again specialty media, we are there focusing on one thing and you may be theyre focusing on another. Thats the great thing of having a group of people in that room. They room. They ask different questions and move around. The topics shift around. At the daily briefings . At the briefings and the press conference is. Let me ask you about a george w. Bush News Conference when he had a foreign visitor and you were not seeded with the White House Press . I was not. Where were you seated . I was seated with the africanamerican group. There was a faux pas on the part of the white house. I was told after the fact that i should have been grateful. I really dont think. But you were sitting with other black reporters . Yes i was sitting with other black reporters but i am a White House House correspondent and an american journalist. It was so odd because even my colleagues were on the other side of the room saying whats going on. President bush even noticed. During the News Conference he said why are you sitting over there. Are you trying to get a question . I said i was placed here. He even acknowledged it at least three times during the press conference. He even tried conference. He even tried to put me off so that the african president would call on me and he did. It was a faux pas and even the chief of staff at the time said it was a bad move. It was a bad move. Do you think president s regarded you differently than other reporters because you are black, because you represented a specialty media or because you are a woman . Did it in some ways work to your advantage . I believe yes it had worked to my advantage but it also worked my disadvantage because as bill clinton told me they said sometimes when i call on you all get in trouble because they didnt know what to expect from me. They sometimes didnt have an answer for me. Many times i wouldnt get called on. President. President clinton told me tha