Publicity stunt and the Republican Leadership were looking at all of their options talking to the parliamentarian and the sergeant at arms. What rules are they talking about and what kind of rules were potentially broken by the democrats during this . Said in . During this set in . There are rules and that you cannot disrupt. Other rules are weaker. You cannot take photos. Or videos of action on the floor. All of that happened during the sit in. Late. Ally speaker has said he is looking into what can be done. I am not quite sure what can be than forcing them off the floor, arresting them perhaps. At the notion of arresting civil rights icon like john lewis on tv in front of the millions of americans is something they do not want to have ingrained going into the november elections. I am sure that Speaker Paul Ryan does not want that forever imprinted on a 2020 Campaign Effort for president if he mounts one. I do know that republicans have advised them, they had their own Conference Call yesterday. Please, whatever we do, let us not handcuffed these people. Congressional correspondent for bloomberg news. You can read his reporting at bloomberg. Com. Thanks very much for being with us. I enjoyed it. That republican gun proposal is scheduled to come up in the House Rules Committee tomorrow as part of a counterterrorism bill. We will have live coverage of the meeting at 5 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan two. Georgetown University Held a discussion on first ladies and their impact on Public Policy. To former chiefs of staff Hillary Clinton and. An hour. Ust under good evening. We will get the program started. On behalf of of georgetowns institute of politics and Public Service, welcome. We like to say that Public Service is a good thing, all it be also. Connecting students directly with political leaders who embody this notion to understand how politics is done but more importantly how it can be done better is central to our mission. To that end, we could not be more thrilled to host such a distinguished Pattern Panel today to take us inside the east wing. To beespecially fitting hosting this allstar, all ofale panel on the topic first ladies and their chiefs of staff as we close out womens History Month this march. I would like to take a minute to thank all of our partners that made this event possible including ambassador landry and the Georgetown Institute for peace and security. The georgetown womens alliance, the women in Public Policy initiative at the Mccourt School of Public Policy, georgetown women in international affairs. A pretty good lineup. I would like to turn it over now college whon in the is going to formally introduce the panel. [applause] hello everyone. Thank you for coming. I am a freshman at the college. Events like the one we have this evening is a great example of the unique georgetown opportunity that geopolitics has been able to fulfill during this year. The depth and breadth of speakers that allows people to put interest in politics to get handson experience in the field. These experience has been some of my favorite georgetown memories so far. With us tonight is a panel of ladies to give us an insight into the east wing of the white house. Ms. Mcbride previously served as assistant to george w. Bush and chief of staff to laura bush from 20052009 directing the staff that work on a wide variety of the mystic and global initiatives in which mrs. Bush was involved. Her White House Service dems three president ial administrations including as director of white house personnel under Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush and is director of the u. S. The earth euro. U. S. Speakers bureau. Tina chen was assistant to the president and chief of staff to Michelle Obama. She also serves as the executive director for the council on women and girls and is a past director of the White House Office of engagement. She is the recipient of many awards including the Leadership Award from the womens Bar Association from illinois, the women of Achievement Award from the Antidefamation League and chicago lawyers person of the year. We also have the executive director of the Georgetown Institute of peace and security. She served as the first u. S. Ambassador of global issues to which it she was appointed by president obama. She coordinated foreignpolicy issues related to the political, and economic and social advancement of women. President obama also appointed her to serve as a u. S. Representative to the you and commission on the status of women. During the clinton administration, she served as assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady. She also led the effort to establish the president Interagency Council on women. She is the coauthor of fastforward how women can achieve power and purpose. Moderating tonight is claire shipman. An expert on confidence in womens leadership. She had a New York Times bestseller. Abcis a contributor to news, has covered the white house news for nbc and the indent and started her career with five years at cnns moscow bureau. Throughout tonight, be sure to tag all of your tweets with the gu first ladies. Thank you and please enjoy. [applause] thank you. Thank you for coming. These are three really powerful women. They know what is going on. I have worked with all of them. This is an incredible panel we have here. We were talking a little bit before the event about some of the questions we might ask and the one that i am most curious about is that chief of staff of the first lady what for all of you expectation versus reality. What did you think going in . And how did it match up with what really has happened . Let me, before i delve into that, thank you for coming and agreeing to chair this conversation. Howre, i asked you earlier many tricks she had made with us when she was the cnn bureau chief to the white house or the White House Correspondent and we made trips to some 80 countries and claire was on a good many of them. I was a lot younger than. She has been part of this process in a significant way. And anita, this is also special for me. As i once explained, we belong to a very small club. The chief of staff to the first lady. It is a very small club. Just like the First Ladies Club is. I think it is even smaller. What did i anticipate and what did it turn out to be . Working for was Hillary Clinton, i really significanta Real Investment in issues. In policy. And in working on all of the things that she cared about. Children and families, significantly. And then very significantly moving into global womens issues. But i really did anticipate that it would be a heavy policy undertaking. What i think no one can anticipate is what it is like in the white house. Here who is now the general counsel here at georgetown. Thewas in the west wing as secretary. And all of the papers to the president went through her work. You have no idea on the outside everything that is involved on the inside. Things of the finest that i look forward to what tina and anita might say about this is how the first ladys office works with the west wing and one of the and what are the pluses and minuses of those relationships. We were very integrated into the overall operation of the white house. We all worked for the president. We may be significantly engaged with the first lady but first and foremost we worked for the present. , was really integrated into the overall operations of what the priorities to the white house or. I i will tell you that envisioned a less intense you in thehad experienced reagan and First Bush Administration working in the west wing and the Old Executive Office the link. And i also had a different frame of reference. Involved butwas her office was actually much smaller. And barbara bush had a view of georges work being his work and her work being her work. Invited by mrs. Bush to have an interview with her to eating heronsider chief of staff for the second term, i did not expect the first words out of her mouth to be i want to go to afghanistan. Right then i knew this would be a different experience and opportunity than may be what i had envisioned. It turned out to be a very policy oriented, integrated into the work of the west wing. Being an advocate. The first lady has in a norm it is best at it when they are integrated into the Overall Administration goals. You are not running a shadow government. You are trying to support what the president is doing. My expectation, i had got into the job with two young children. I was not anticipating having the schedule that it turned out to be. In four years, we traveled to 68 countries. A total of 77 for her for eight years. It was busy and exciting and terrific. But the expectations going in were different but the results were something far more powerful than i thought it would be. And tina, what about you . You see the first lady and the white house from the exterior. Im from chicago, not from i never expected to be in the white house. It is a huge platform. Every tv screen, you see them in the press room and it is a big room and a big house. Clearly, the president comes walking down the red carpet into the to give a statement and it is a long hallway. It really is not. Not. You see it on ask the scandal and west wing. That i have these big offices. Really not. Everybodys office is really small in all seriousness, the physical size of the building is quite small and on top of that, the resources of the building in terms of the number of staff and in terms of other kinds of resources is quite limited. The bunt of the white house has gotten increasingly smaller over the years. Congress has not been generous to the white house yet keeping expectations for what you are supposed to project, and is especially true for first ladies. The image youre supposed to project in representing the country and being out there as an advocate with what are a very limited set of resources. We often say we dont have the policy arms we dont have big policy offices. We dont have bunts. We dont command the budget and yet how do you take the resources you have and this, as my boss often calls it, the shiny bright light that follows her around and make it to its best use. It was very surprising to find here it is, the most important building in the land. Its very small and doesnt have a lot of resources. Did it surprise you all in talking to be impact you can have have you been surprised . Has mrs. Obama been surprised . The role of a first lady in some ways, the impact is enormous and youre almost freer in many ways to have an impact and to navigate outside of the system a little bit. First of all, i think it took her by surprise. I think all of our bosses sort littlehe degree to every thing you do. You get that scrutiny on the campaign but when you walk into the white house, the level of scrutiny is so intense and yet, the opportunity, youre right is so great because everybody is watching what you do. That was the thing that certainly mrs. Obama grew into which is how do you make the best use of those moments. Theyll Start Talking about shoes, and then the issues and how to you take advantage of that. And we have had a whole other set of tools, for someone who doesnt have a lot of resources, the ability now through social media to have at very little cost put out a viral video and all of a sudden you can hit tens of millions of people and it doesnt cost you anything is pretty remarkable. That is something, we have an ability in the east wing to be a little freer. Get a rap video. The president did in his second term but not in the first term. You have the ability to be a little more relatable and in the social media moment. If i could clarify, i think its really interesting to think about this position because there is no job description. There is no salary. There is no appointment, there is no election and everybody in the United States, i swear, has an opinion of what the first lady should do and theyre all in critics with each other. So somehow coming into this situation, the woman who is there and so far its only been a woman in this position, comes there trying to navigate knowing shes only there by virtue of the election of her husband and she has to think through in terms of the administration its priorities, her experience, her background, her interests, where she can make the best contributions. But it is a very peculiar position if you think about it in terms of really no job description. Very tricky at times. Youre right, the scrutiny and the expectations is endless. And you are never going to please everybody. I see that, though i think it presents, in the way melanne described it. No description, no salary, all those things and tinas description, being in the white house and that and the all you all the time. Its a challenge but also an enormous opportunity because you get the opportunity as first lady to pick and choose the issues that you want to engage in. You pick the things that you have background and people relate to you. That doesnt mean the scrutiny and the questions wont be there about what are they doing up is there in that big white house . But there is an enormous opportunity. To tinas point about the social media and being able to use all the mediums that are available to you right now. Instant contain thousands rex of what you are doing, that has changed the role of first lady. Theres a greater expectation that americans have of what the people who are occupying this position are doing with it. Long gone for the are the day that is Mamie Eisenhower used to say i americans can never relate to that anymore no matter who is in the position of president ial spouse. The first lady is also has a little bit of teflon, right, in her ability to get the press, get the focus, sometimes its for the shoes or the dress or the hair but then to be able to shift and it get people to focus on whether its lets move on literacy or women around the world. All of those, its enormous. Talk a little bit about Agenda Setting and how do you pick, right . So the authenticity is important. All of your bosses ultimately really settle on things that feel authentic but theres got to be a little bit more to it than that. It revolves around awe thentistty and i think all three of our first ladies do that where you really do have to do something that feels true to yourself and it comes out of something you really are passionate about and you care about and you can speak personally about. Then i think, we all our bosses, you know, you want to have value added to the elected position. You want to pick things like our which resonates with the education domain the president has been doing. You want to be value added to whats going on there and you want to it be something that you can make a difference with. As our latest niche ty, mrs. Obama, Girls Education internationally, there are a lot of people doing it so we spent a while, if we were going to into that space, what we could uniquely contribute. You want to do it in a way that will move the dial forward in some satisfaction fashion and is directly related to your efforts and is not taking away from something somebody else is already doing. Theres a chain here of the women and girls issue international live. With everybody. Its really been a mantle that ultimately its an issue that resonates right now and its one i guess that all of your bosses are passionate about. I think it also has to do with the fact that these are absolutely critical issues. We call them soft issues but theyre significant issues and if there isnt leadership targeted to those issues, its not likely theyll be addressed and then ultimately, the first ady may take the lead but they really threaten become very integrated into the overall policies of the president. So i think some of it is the recognition that somebodys really got to play a leadership role here. Absolutely. So we also want to talk because i know everybody out here is thinking how do i get a job like this job you have had . Youre all Good Students wondering. So talk a little bit about what the daytoday job is like for and you what life is like. And especially that integration, think melanne or anita mentioned the integration of east wing west wing. The politics between those two considering just as intense or tricky to navigate. Ill just mention two things that were shared with me as i started the job. One was with my predecessor, who melanne newspaper. Andy had been george bushs chief of staff when she was first lady of texas for the first term and she had made the decision if george w. Bush was going to win a second term, she was going back to texas. Her husband had never moved up here so she was ready to go back. The day she was leaving and walking out of the east wing and i walked her out the door. Even though i had worked in the building, the white house three strayings now, was comfortable with the surroundings. I knew my way around but i was nervous. She just turned to me and said just remember, even on your worst day, remember where you are and that will really help you. Because youre in this small space but it is really magnificent and you can move the needle because you have such an opportunity as the temporary custodian of the position. That i remember. Also, andy card, who was chief of staff for the president at the time gave me a very good piece of advice. It was a very short meeting. He said remember, you have one client and thats the first lady. Do whatever you need to do to make sure she has what she needs and that