Of the trump white house. Mr. President , for many years civil rights leaders have called for white house help or Police Brutality and police profiling. April. [inaudible] april, go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. Last question. [inaudible] yes. This is going to be a bad question, but thats okay. Go ahead. Mr. President , i need to find out from you, you said something april ryan, how did a selfdescribed workingclass black girl from baltimore get to ask for u. S. President s questions and get called out by every one of them. How did you get there . This is your life almost. This young green april with bill clinton and now 23 years later, it makes you wonder. How did i get there . I was doing a lot of work. I was filling my seat. I waswo out there working and Radio Network recognized my work. They said, look, we may have a position open. I said, okay. I thought it was for d. C. Bureau chief. I never thought it was for the white house. Mind you, i had done local governance. I had even dabbled in washington. I anchored on the weekends. Never in my wildest dreams what i imagine that i would be questioning for american president s, and they call me by name, well, at least three [laughter] but i did the work. I started out local. Local being baltimore. Local being my home. I love. Baltimore city. I came about 36 miles away, south, and said, okay. Lets try this. I did not want to stay when i first got here. I thought id stay for two or three years. Ive been here for 23. I started out being a reporter. I realized coming in what power was. Washington power was having a president call your name. The people who kept telling me that i needed to have a president call me by name, the first president i covered, bill clinton, where the people like the late elma brown, you need to get him to call you by name. Oh my goodness. My cousin, married to former congressman and i did not understand the concept. After a while and after it started happening, i understood the concept of being a reporter who the president will call on by name. It made a difference. You know, people will take note of you. I cornered bill clinton a couple of times. Thisle was before 9 11. A time we were able to walk around the white house had run into a president more so than we do now. I never forget one time he was Walking Around with a soft sourdough pretzel. Just walking through the hallways. He came he. He talked, everyone gave salutations. I said i am one of your newest reporters. Call on me, call on me by name. I will never forget then press secretary telling me, why are you so hard on the issue of calling you by your name . Ie said when he calls on me, cl on me by name. The first time he did not call me by name. The second time he did. A press conference. January 10, 1997, you walked into the white house and you recount in the presidency in black and white that you are ready to leave after about three daysd. It is a very, very different animal. When i say animal, it reads. There is a heart beat to it. It is a whole different scenario there. It is a hurry up and wait. It is a push for information. It is more than a desire. It is a need to get information to push information out to the public. Be it american or be it the world. The highest office in the land, where everything comes through, war and peace and everything in between. Tw it is a different type. You hurry and wait. You wait for that one person. You feed on every word that they say. I have never seen anything like it and never ever will again. This bill is a different beat. Running around looking for all types of congressional leaders, senators or congress people. At the white house, that principal, that one person and filtering out from there. Most importantly, that one person. One thing, it was daunting. It was overwhelming. I was green. One thing that i will say is that the president , i had to view him and white house. This wonderful Historic Place and city hall. For me to be able to take it in chunks. It was the most interesting place that i had ever been. January 13 was actually my start date. We had been talking about january 13 being thehe day thati said, okay. , are in here. Everything was ready to go. We started moving. Do you have an office at the white house . If that is what you call it. [laughter] in my first book, people could not believe it. It is a small phone booth. Many of the young people dont understand what a phone booth is. We have to liken it what it looks. London. The red phone booths. The size of a phone booth. Maybe to put together. Claustrophobics need not apply. That is where i call home. It is prime office space, believe it or not. People fight for that little room. Back to the presidency in black and white. You write about my appearance in the Briefing Room was a red flag for some folk. What do you mean . Yes. M what do you mean . Back in 1997. They were not above the polls and the newspaper. In talking to bill clinton and all the president s i interviewed for this book, race has always been on the table. The problem is, it does not always get asked about by these reporters. Talking about china, talking about russia, talking about so many policies and issues and when you have issues of race, and a lot of times it does not bleed until it leads. I found that in the white house, race was always dealt with at a crescendo moment. A Trayvon Martin or Something Like that. I was always asking issues of race beyond the crescendo moment is she militant . Is she with an agenda . No. I was covering stories about a portion of america where the highest number is negative in almost every category. Underserved and underreported. That is how i came into the white house. When they realized that, you know, some of these questions i was asking are real, this is not myth, this is not conjecture. This is real. It is so interesting now looking back 23 years later. My dear friend from msnbc, she said april ryan has made a race issue. It is unfortunate, you know, that that is the case. Black america, around america is part of america. Especially as they have the highest numbers of negative in almost 30 categories. What is a you are and. American urban Radio Networks. We are the oldest Radio Network in the white house. We primarily serve north america with news and information. We are a heritage network. Black media. Black media is undergoing changes like everyone else. I say, when a Mainstream Media has a call we are on life support. You see main stream stream newspapers folding because of the internet. It is harder for us. They will go to the Mainstream Media before they come to us. We have an audience that is triedandtrue and realizes that when othersth will not tell our story or ask about it, we will. It was december 2, 2009 during the Obama Administration. I have to go back. You write about this in your books. Here is an exchange you had with then press secretary. Oh, yes. What is your concern in the white house that she came out being some may have called her at the bell of the ball overshadowing the first lady. Ive never heard that. It is around washington. Democratic circles as well as republican circles. That is not a station i live in life. Are you done speaking . I have not heard any of that criticism. I have not read any of that criticism. The president , the first lady, entire white house staff are grateful for the job that she does and think she has done a terrific and wonderful job pulling off a lot of big and important events here at the white house. Was she a guest, did the president invite her . Jonathan. Did she invite herself or did the president ask her . Her name was on the list and social secretaries are the ones. April, calm down. Just take a deep breath for one second. This happens with a my son. He does the same thing. I am being serious. Im giving you a serious answer. Was she at the dinner . Yes. She was the social secretary. I am going to get back to topics like 98,000 men and women in afghanistan. April ryan, visibly uncomfortable watching that. [laughter] most definitely. Those moments, and i guess i will see a lot of those moments that make me cringe, this is my life with peter flynn. It does make me cringe. That was an ugly moment. I will say this to you. Lets set the scene about that moment. We had the first black president become president. History was made. There were also, at that time, a number of Death Threats on this president. We all remember the story, and if we dont, lets bring our viewers and listeners up to speed on this. The state dinner with india, he had had Death Threats as well. An assassination attempt had just happened on him. We were talking about the state dinner. The first state dinner, i believe. The social secretary at the time had not followed protocol that was followed prior to other administrations. Mind you i had been in the white house to administrations prior prto this. I had even been an invited guest. At this time, president s were not inviting the press to come in for state dinners. Yeknew the protocol. What had happened, the layer of protocol had been to move where the press office would be there and the secret service would be there to watch. In the meantime, as the protocol had been changed, there was a reality show going on at the same time. Housewives of washington, d. C. I believe salah they were on the show and they thought it was cute for the reality show to crash the state dinner. Not only did they crash the state dinner, but they got close to the president , the vice president. There were pictures of it. My concern o was not the tv sho. It was not the theatrics of it. My concern, as a reporter, i am hearing from sources who are very close to the situation, sources outside of this white house that are close to the situation. From other administrations think this should have never happened because of the historic nature of this president and the Death Threats. What robert gibbs was trying to do was show his loyalty to the then press secretary who then left. The terms of that, you can take it for whatever you want, but, it was not pleasant, from the way i understand it. Robert gibbs was trying to be loyal to her at the time. Lets fastforward. About a year or two later after i wrote my first book, mind you, that was 10. We never really got over that at that time. I saw him at a Major Tv Network in the green room. He read word for word. He apologized to me. Robert gibbs told me himself, he said, april, i had to make you look crazy to support her. I said, but your social secretary said you did not do her any favors. She is still angry with me. I saw her once in new jersey. New jersey is a hotbed for me, i guess. I said robert gibbs was trying to be loyal to you. She said he was not being loyal to me. You were not being loyal to her. She said, let me tell you something. She rolled under the bus and stayed there. The protocol was not followed. She was a social secretary that told me different than the other hecial secretary beingrs a partf the event. She was not watching the event. She had her own table and her own guest. The issue was the breach of security, the compromising of two men that are historic figures that had Death Threats. That is h the whole issue. Robert was trying to be loyal to then social secretary who is still in that circle, but, ultimately, that circle was thoken. She left. Let them talk about that. The issue was about historic nature of this president , the first black president getting Death Threats. People off the streets being able to come in and get right there to him. That is all that was. I have talked to mitch rogers. She gave me her account of the event. It was ugly, but, you know, at the end of the day, i have even met ethan. He apologized. It was ugly. Because of that and because robert gibbs told me, i understood what the game was ans how the game is played. Even though that was ugly, it showed me, without me knowing what was to come, the gameboard. When he said, april, calm down. What was your immediate thoughts he was making it personal. He was waving me off. You saw his hands. This is real. Do not wave me off. This is a real situation. My thought was lets go down this line of questioning. Answer the question. He made it personal because he did not want to breach that loyalty. At that moment, i was angry. I will never forget. I was not angry until after it happened. When you are in the midst of it as a reporter, you are still trying to get the answer to the question. At the end of the press conference, press briefing, excuse me, everyone left. I sat in that seat and i stayed in that seat. Bill burton came out and said april wants to see us. I said for what. I was very upset. I sat there for a minute. Im not going up there. For what . He acted like a fool with me. I had some real questions that read needed real answers. He said i made a mockery of the process. I insulted the first lady. I said how did i insult the first lady . He was bringing everything. At the end of the day, you know, we agreed to disagree. He wanted an apology, but he never apologized to me until after he left the white house. Until after he saw this in the book and told me what was the deal. I knew what the deal was, but until he told me what the deal was, it was confirmed. I heard from him and rogers and others. At the end of the day, it was an ugly moment but it taught me something. It showed me the game. The game of politics. One of the chapters in your most recent book under fire ir entitled incoming story. Have you become the story in some cases . So much so. I do not like being the story. I am the journalist that is still wideeyed about helping people. I am the journalist that looks at politics and looks at humanity. It is about people. Who are still hurting. Who are in need of help. Now, instead of me relying that, it is now i am the story. I have written books that talk about people. Intertwine my story and it. If you read my books, the first two, it is mostly about others. Ii dont want to talk about me. What does it say in the background . The unfortunate thing is, with the climate, and i guess because i am that kid from baltimore who has tried to overcome odds because in from baltimore, and i think about my pastor, pastor walter scott thomas, Elijah Cummings pastor, he said, you know, they have an automatic word. Failure. An automatic. It is about survival in baltimore. I am trying. I survived and i am here. I am trying not to be the story. Now i am trying to survive in washington. Trying to survive in life. Because of the twists and turns that ive taken recently, i am now the story. You know what, being the story sometimes i think has saved my life. If i dont tell that story, people will believe the negative and false narrative. You have to tell so people can see the truth. If you read your books, tell me if you think i am mistaken, but if you read your books in order, beginning with the presidency in black and white, at mamas knee and then under fire, your personal opinion is. Coming out more and more in your booksbo. Right. We talked about the presidency and baltimore. We talk about the issue of reparation. Repairing a wrong. It was like the beginning of my time in washington and still 23 years later we are hearing president ial candidates talk about it. The second book, being a mother. Having it hit home in your backyard. You are watching the news. I will never forget my youngest daughter, grace, when isis was rampant. Mommy, are they here . I would say, no, baby. They are fine. When the freddie great issue happen, i had to talk to them about that. I have asked president and ive have dealt with it about these issues. The last book, freedom of the press. What i have gone through to make sure that you understand that narrative, that life that is been placed on me. I am not that person that you hear from. We will go through all of those. I know we are. Welcome to book tv and in depth with author and White House Correspondent april ryan. We will be taking your calls, getting your views. Several ways for you to get through. First of all, on the phone lines if you live in the east and central time zones and have a question or comment, 202, 7487201. You can also text a message. 2027488903. If youre going to text, make t sure you get that number correct. We also have some social media sites. Facebook, twitter. You can also make a comment on. We will get to as many of those as possible. April ryan has been at the white house as a White House Correspondent long time. The only black female with a permanent path at the white house. Covering black issues. The author of three books. Beginning with the presidency in black and white which came out in 2015, followed by at mamas knee and then under fire came out in 2017. Mostly about her time in the trump administration. Covering the trump administration. We will talk about all three of those. April ryan again being coming part of a story but unintentionally. Lets go to october 6, 2003. Show just a little bit of video. [laughter] okay. The president has kindly agreed to take a couple of questions and so a five. We will start with the american side an alternate back and forth april, you are not in his press corps. You are not in his press corps. This is subversion. [laughter] what was thatt about . The worst thing you could do is be on cspan. You have tape on everything. You backed up what i said and there. I talk about that. That was the most awkward moment. First of all, george w bush, i believe i had a decent work relationship with him. Also, personally. I was able to talk to him about matters of race. Because we had enough of a working relationship, i stood out like a sore thumb on the other side of the African Press corps. That was a press conference. Did you put yourself there on purpose . No. I did not. His press office did in hopes i would get called on. They made a mistake. I will never forget. Did you really . It was just off. They made a mistake. The president noticed it. He noticed there mistake. Even the American Press corps was likeam whats going on. I remember mark smith looking at me like what are you doing. They put me over here. E yes, the last known slave in my familyy , five generations removed, i have no problem being considered african. But i am africanamerican. I was in the African Pressfr corps. There was a question, ultimately , he could not help himselff. President george w. Bush could not help himself at the time. What is it like to be called out by the president at a press conference like that . You ha