Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Party For Ken Walsh Ultimate Ins

Booktv recently attended a book party for ken walsh, chief White House Correspondent for u. S. News and world report. Or his most recent book ultimate insiders white house photographers and how they shape history. This is about 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] howre you . Good. This is great. A lot of familiar faces. Well have some white house photographers and white house folks and people who have covered all the stuff like you have. Great. Im glad youre here. Are you going to have a little talk . A couple of surprise moments. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Hey. Nice to see you. Thank you for this. This is my husband. Nice to see you. Thanks for coming. You got it okay . The traffic and the construction . Perfect. 30 minutes from fdr to hear. Great. Thanks for coming. Im glad. We have our tv folks here so that will be nice. Straight back. Everything is good. Good. We will tell you a couple of easy questions. Thank you. Thanks, susan. You can look in the index. Youll be happy. Thank you so much. Oh, my goodness. There he is, the great motivator. [inaudible conversations] we had lunch and this idea emerged from salad and fried fish or something. I forget what we had. Why was that little [inaudible conversations] did you take charge cards . This is mine. Okay, thats yours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] okay, now this is yours. Thank you. Okay, thanks, jim. You will hear more about yourself in a little while. How are you . Well, good. [inaudible conversations] spirit i have had a chance. I put them in a couple of columns. Robert schlesinger might be here. He was here. Let me, ill catch up to you about that because we will definitely do that. Congratulations by the way. Thank you very much. He has good news. [inaudible] right. And it was great. I dated, because because i was a sunday. I was out of town. We had a nice crowd, and now doing a bunch of outoftown stuff. Tomorrow . Im going to the ford library tomorrow, and then they have two events. There in grand rapids and ann arbor so im going to the museum in the next week im doing the library and then the next week im doing a west coast swing. [inaudible] i dont know how theyre going to do that. Hes in grand rapids picky fighting a book about jerry ford. Im looking forward to seeing him. I am thrilled. Thank you very much. Thank you, al. I have all the others. Lets talk. Maybe we will have lunch next week. Ill be in and out. You are not giving up the world series for me, are you . No, absolutely not. [inaudible] its the yankees if the yankees were in the world series. Thats what i thought. If you wouldnt mind, gift, unknown. You want me to just sign one . You have no idea how valuable that is going to be. Thats what you tell me every couple of years. You dont want the date . Just sign it . Yeah. Wonderful. Its starting to fade. He knows that date. We had a couple of the treasures for you. We dont have them with us though. We will see you over at the house. Youll like them. I was just pointing out something the other day to mitch because ive a couple of things from [inaudible] one is the calendar we gave you last you. Then there was another one. Its a plaque i gave you thats hanging out. We will have something for you. Of course, we have a soul a full set of your books. Is of this book seven . Number eight. I hope we are not missing one. That can be remedied. Im sure it could. We are really looking forward to this one. Youve been talking about this for some time and is a great topic for interesting anecdotes. Thank you. Michael is supposed to be here. Say hello to him. And ill be going to be blessed with some remarks . Yes, thats right. Im going to do that, too. Thanks for coming. Berkeley is any other room. Good to see you. How are you . [inaudible] exactly. Are things going well . Slowly but good. This is an interesting time to be covering the white house. Theres always something, you know. This is my sixth president now. But this is the most unusual situation ive ever covered. Has anyone found this a usual situation . No. Thats exactly right. But its, you know, you learn something about what could go wrong every day. And it does. Yeah, and our relationship of course with the white house, the media relationship was very, very bad. Thank you for what you do. Where have i heard that before . So anyway. Have you caught up with the berkeley . Have you seen her . Im glad you did. Im glad you could come. Thank you. Great, thank you. Thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] hey, folks, can everybody come on in here a little bit . Whos in that of the room, the wall of silence . Can you just get those guys him out of the kitchen . I think its the wine they are nearby. They are protecting the wine. But thats not necessary. Protect some things but not the wine. Protect your sources. Welcome. Its kind of like a family gathering. This is great. Ken walsh book party. You shouldve gotten the annual subscription series, you could save money on that. [laughing] number eight. We would be doing an experiment a shakespeare play next time, but you dont have to pay for that because we do hamlet after that. But no, this is great. Its wonderful to be here with you guys for a reprise. I was slipping through his book, terrific and theres a wonderful photo of Teddy Roosevelt with that giant, you know, meat eating grin, and ken sites the caption, his daughter who was famous as a teddy always wanted to be the baby at the christening, the bride at the wedding and the corpse at the funeral. [laughing] you still one of my stories, but go ahead. [laughing] its not about him, its about me. [laughing] as long as someone else. Were in washington. But let me tell you about me. [laughing] i just want to be the mc at a ken walsh book party. Thats my goal. You guys have gotten a quick glance of this and we have a couple of folks will talk about it and then ken. Hes done it again. What can i say . Keeps digging into this incredible franchise and telling us things we dont know. This time he had to go all the way down to the realm of photo dogs, love that expression. Actually the white house photographers were nondogs. It was the news photographers that were the dogs. George bush, ken recounts that in his book in a wonderful way. But just taking the sense of the visualization we are also play with with a great iconic images, and how did they get there . Who did them is such a fascinating thing. You look at some of the things that the stories that ken recounts in there. You know, the obama sitting there with, in the situation room when they get bin laden. Culmination of this thing and a couple pages earlier is bush with this unbelievable shocked expression on his face when andy is whispering in his ear, mr. President. The continuum of how these things that together is so amazing. Im going to let ken talk about that but one of the things that really struck me is he gives us a wonderful history. Abraham lincoln, the photograph, lincoln about itself to be photographed several times, and at the end of his career had submitted to 130 photographs. Remarkable, extraordinary. Bill clinton, as ken recounts, had approximately 10,000 photographs a day taken. [laughing] and pete souza by the end of his career with obama had to make photographs yet taken and most of them were on flickr. You see what this has meant. We have not accepted so much as a part of our lives and a part of understanding this incredible institution. But theres strings behind the scenes and that is what ken has done a wonderful job of here. We have a couple people here who know about this. Number one, mr. Mike mccurry was press secretary to bill clinton and has dealt with a few photo images. Thank you. Micah, please, centerstage. This this is a great opportunito pay tribute to ken who i dearly love. He has treated me to rock hill and tosca are so many years now, i think its the only reason they still have it on the menu. But we get together we talk about whats going on in washington. I am not an active player. Ive kind of given up my role in politics and actually teach theology at a seminary now. That proves that the doctrine of atonement actually [laughing] has something. We obviously spent many years going back during the clinton years together when we traveled many, many miles together. He knows many of the images and some of them are in the book that were interesting during that time. Im not going to talk about that. Good to talk about you mentioned lincoln and i work in the building called the Dorothy Height building, as all you know the seventh pennsylvania the big pink castle that is there. And this is not a book, are not a story that is in your book some actually going to right. So one afternoon in february of 1864, cold winter day, the president of the United States walked down to the building where i work now and in the Conference Room where we are, Matthew Brady, so you do write a lot about, you know, brady was kind of, i dont want to say was the Harvey Weinstein [laughing] theres a book for you. [laughing] he is what we think of as being now a producer at that time because he was not him he was a like taking pictures with a big camera they had at the time. He had a whole retinue of photographers. But one of the photographers came and sat in a Conference Room that we use at our office, you know, typical pr office, but the Conference Room is the Matthew Brady room because that afternoon in february of 1864 president lincoln walked down and sat and took a picture that the engravers then made into your five dollars bill. I can tell you come when i tell that story to our client they are very impressed. [laughing] you know, there are many other stories, and some of them ken nose and kept out. There was one you all famously remember that during my time at the white house i dealt with some interesting storylines. One of them involved a young intern, and then the ken starr report does that ring a bell with anybody . And after that came out, not long after that came out, the president of the United States was out playing golf, and he was out on the first tee and he had a big cigar in his mouth. And the reporters, the photographers, came to me, showed me the picture and said, okay, what are you going to do about this . And i said, i shook my head and i said, okay. And they said you get one free pascoe and those with the guys, the shooters, some of them that you write about in the book at that point. They said but if it happens again, youre toast. [laughing] thats an interesting story because it kind of reflex a time in which the press, which ken is a part of, the white house, the Public Relations Communications Operations at the white house, they work in some manner of synchronous midi. We did not declare them enemies of the people. We are at a perilous time now because we dont have that kind of engagement. One of the things about washington insiders, like right now ken would probably agree its not the greatest title for a book right now. Because washington insiders are exactly what the trump establishment is countering and does not think should be part of what the establishment should be. But what the book shows you are these intimate moments in which photographers capture what the presidency is really about. And it is a terrific, terrific book because the stories behind the pictures are important. The stories, yes, tell a thousand words in their own, but ken is managed to kind of weak them into a way in which actually learn more and understand more about what the context is for all those images. And it is a brilliant brilliant way to kind of forgot what really is going on and what has gone on, and maybe just a glimpse of what we need to have better going on as we think about where we are right now. So ken, thank you for doing such a great book. Its one of many, one of his, you know, hes got all kinds of books out there, air force one, you know, a lot of things that really kind of give you a real glimpse into what really is going on in our country, so thank you. [applause] mike, thank you. Thats great. The rules of engagement, theres a wonderful photo of the book of jfk passing by marilyn monroe, and his eyes decidedly not focus on her cleavage. I thought to myself id like to see the three frames before that. [laughing] which didnt get published. So with this is susan. , on up. Susan is an actual white house photographer. Theres a couple of them here by the way, you know. Ralph is here. [applause] and susan is, you know, having discretion, thats white house photographers must have, for stories out of them. But i will tell one little thing. Okay. Voluntarily. And what reminded me of it was this wine. [laughing] doing our job. The only photograph of president bush 41. I worked the last you a break in and all four years of bush 41. So the only photograph is of him in the bed with the children, you know, all the grandchildren on the bed. He was actually Vice President then. He was not president. So i will tell his story after he was president in 1993 when he left the white house and i was up in kennebunkport. You guys remember the ordeal figure he was running for president about the checkout thing . Social safeway. Right. So anyway, i go up to kennebunkport. It was june of 93, and they invited me to come over for lunch. It was a Beautiful Day in kennebunkport and i have a table set up on the back deck, and i got there, went out. He wasnt there. There was one of the man come and mrs. Bush had not arrived yet. So he said sit down. I said okay. I said would you like some wine . And i said sure, and so reportedly some wine and he said, are you going to tasted . I had barely had time to say hello. He wanted me to taste this one. I said okay, sure. Had a sip turkey said second wu think . I said its very good. And he said got it by the case at sams club. [laughing] and it was Kendall Jackson chardonnay. [laughing] which burned down. Only the best. How do you maintain the relationship . I mean, you are in these peoples lives, reckless not only like there, you are taking pictures of them. How do you create boundaries . How do you create that relationship . You know, you can ask the question who creates it, the other side are my side . But i tried, i always tried to show as much about the man as i possibly could because i thought that was important for history. Not just the pomp and circumstance but who this guy really was and his family and behind the scenes as much as i could possibly do. You maintain a professional relationship, and ken mentions in the book one time when we were killing some time before another event and he said to me, susan, come on upstairs to my office, i got to work on the speech and you can just wait there until this event happens. So i said okay. So then he starts working on his speech and he turns to be and he reads ally and he says, what do you think of this . I felt like, you know, my head was on fire. I couldnt hear, it was like, what . The the president of the United States is asking me what i think about a line in a speech . So of course i said it sounds fine. [laughing] that sort of the danger of a lot of people around the president. I think they get, they have a feeling of not being able to say what you really think. And i dont have any idea what his mind was because i was so nervous, but the people that are there all the time, you know, they do get intimidated by the president. Did you find where there was something going on and you decided you just did want to take a picture on your own . No. You could choose. I think the journalist speedy you can out of a newspaper background so you want to shoot everything, right . Did they ever tell you know . No. I mean, sometimes i i couldnt stay in a meeting. We never stayed in very long, but sometimes if the topic were sensitive, he would say something. Were there ever shots where you thought that they were staging it because he wanted to show a certain image . I didnt feel that except come unit, when youre on the campaign trail, sure. Everything, every Campaign Event is staged, of course. But in terms of my regular stuff, i didnt feel that. So you are getting the real view of who they are. Two president s, did they both feel in the public eye the same person you saw in private . Pretty much, yeah. I would say so for sure. Like reagan, you know, he was funny on stage. He was funny in his real life, too. And george bush is very funny, too. Hes a a very funny and maybe t didnt come across quite as much because people wanted to making seymour president ial and maybe funny isnt president ial. I dont know, what do you think . Theres a lot of image making that goes into the white house, but the thing about what ken writes about in the book is the authentic images that really give you a glimpse into these president s really are, glimpse that are everlasting. I think obama win leaning over with the little guy love that picture. I get a tear in my eye every time i see that picture. Thats the picture were staff member at the white house, africanamerican family brought their little son in, and the sun murmured, barely audible, to the president your hair looks just like mine. Does it feel like mine . And so president obama said why dont you see for yourself . And he bent down and lowboy touched the top of the said Company President said, what you think . And he said, yeah. Feels like my. It was a wonderful moment indicating his seriousness. A character trait called empathy. And then my other favorite photo on the opposite side of the coin, Richard Nixon in a staged photo obviously walking on the beach in his wingtip shoes. [laughing] having an actual walk in nature. But clearly the other side of it. So last question, susan, and key. What did you do would like the other 10 million photos that you took . They are in the bush library. I went down to about a year ago and just started going through stuff because i wanted to look back and cfi found anything else, you know. Great. Susan, thank you. And now its time for the star of the show. [applause] thank you all for coming. I want to thank brian and mike and susan and i do it else, my wife who is here who is a professional researcher, and shes a fibrous research and shes responsible for a lot of the in the book, if not most of it. Such as want to recognize berkeley. [applause] and also want to mention we have jim, we went to college together. We rent the College College dat rutgers many, many years ago. It was a few years ago from where we are now that jim and i were out having lunch, and he is a tremendous motivator because we talked about the idea of this book and somewhat to thank jim for being so persuasive in talk about the idea. Where