Transcripts For CSPAN Former White House Chiefs Of Staff Dis

CSPAN Former White House Chiefs Of Staff Discuss White House Transitions August 15, 2016

And actions undertaken during the transition period. Led the president bush most determined transition out of office that we have experienced. He began the transition cycle in 2007 in discussions with his chief of staff, josh bolten, who lead that effort. Closed the circle that truman proposed to structure by having representatives of the incoming and outgoing chief executives meet well before the election. He brought together representatives of the two candidates in the white house in july, almost too much fire to the 2008 party conventions. , lead theon transition as executive director for president bush into office in 2001, clay johnson was the deputy for management at the office of management and budget and was the department and agency planning, gathering information for a new team. He is going to be on our second panel. Equally important in the 2008 transition was interest in making use of these administration preparations by those leading the transition effort for senator and then president elect obama. He was in those july meetings and hised with bolten deputy on the bush team. He is now the secretary, deputy secretary in the department of involved in the transition out of office of president obama. Ofa brown was codirector Agency Review for obama, also began work in july assembling teams to go into that meants into the departments and agencies on programs and staff positions and upcoming schedules and budgets. President bush and his team willingly lead a transition , the results of which president obama was eager to use. In finding ways to expand the areas of agreement such as the president ial appointments process. Mack mclarty along with clay johnson has been a leader of the aspen institutes project for reforming the appointment process. Lisa brown was part of a congressional and Obama Administration appointment reform effort. Group a a knowledgeable quick talk about the transition. Our program today comes about through the work of many institutions and individuals. From aelists have come distance to speak about president ial transitions, and we thank josh bolten, mack mclarty, chris, and clay johnson. Thank you for the support of the Moody Foundation and for your and Jamie Williams interest in our project. We appreciated and also the work you are doing in the president ial Leadership Program that you support. Next, the george w. Bush president ial center has provided our space as well as significant logistical support. We thank you as well as your colleagues and his director of operation just instilling, the stirling, justine the director of events. Finally, we thank the staff of the white house transition project, have worked for our onorerence and h analytical programs. Let us begin with josh bolten who knewmclarty, transitions theater their work as chief of staff. This will be followed by a program on the president ial appointments process and a discussion of the administrations transition out of office. Thank you. [applause] [laughter] you can tell who is in charge. [laughter] there. The 2008 transition was by the best viewed as that we have had. You all put attention in a way that it was not previously indicated in the transition out of office. Ms. Kumar i wonder if you can talk about the elements that you see that were important in that transition . Why was it so good . Thank you. [laughter] for the recognition of the work that the Bush Administration bid. Mr. Bolten and that the president did himself. That is my answer to your question. Is, it comes from the president. In a president ial term agendathe executives comes what the president says, he or eventually she, is interested in. Certainly true of the 2008 president ial transition, bush directed me more than one year before the transition, and you mentioned late thousand seven is when the president first spoke to me as his chief of staff. And talked about how important he thought this president ial transition would be because it was the first president ial transition in our modern history during which our homeland was actually under threat, 9 11 changed everything. Not just the bush presidency, but about our country. So, he was determined that we unnecessary period theulnerability during early months of the incoming president s administration, regardless of the party of clever the next president was going to be. That was irrelevant to president bushs consideration when he said he wanted, when he gave me the direction to run the most effective and most complete. Ransition in American History now, that was a pretty low bar to meet. [laughter] mr. Bolten traditionally, i have been on both and that a transition already, both going out of the bush 1941 administration and coming into. He bush 1943 administration it is a low bar, it was a low bar in a bipartisan way. It is not something that attracted a lot of attention. Will, nottion of ill a question of partisanship. Mack, i do think you will agree. Historically, in america, a question of, we do not need to do that. They will learn on the job and they have got time to get their feet on the ground and run the place they want to run it. We do not need to spend a lot of time doing stuff, doing preparatory work for the next and it probably is not welcome in the first place. It was definitely a change of psychology. In the 2008 transition, we had ultimately a terrific partnership with a very well that willobama team be represented on your next panel. Ms. Kumar what direction did he give you . Thebolten you know, well, truth is, i do not really remember. [laughter] mr. Bolten but i do recall that it was not, it was not detailed instructions. That was not george w. Bushs style to say, you know, i want to make sure that they have got all their appointments in place, and that the briefing books are here, and the diagram of the west wing, that is just not, anybody who knows george w. Bush knows that he is a leader, and a man of principle. He empowers people to do their jobs, and he considered it my job and the job of my staff, the job of clay johnson to figure out what the details were, but what i do recall him saying very explicitly is that i want these people to be as prepared as possible to deal with a crisis, should one happen on the first day of the next administration, and that is both a tall order and a major undertaking in any administration. Ms. Kumar in fact, there was a threat on the inauguration. Mr. Bolten there was. We were particularly concerned a terrorist attack during the actual inauguration. It is a moment of really extraordinary peril in this country, if you think about it, because so much of the government actually moves. In other systems, a key people at the top move around, but most of the government remains in place. In our system, the top few thousand leaders in government actually replaced in a transition, especially in a transition between parties where basically everybody who used to be there is out all at the same moment. It is not like it is sort of a low process of one month a few people, and, the next month more people, and so on. It is new on january 20 every four years that the people who have been in charge suddenly have no authority anymore. They are done. You are out. Your batch does not work. You cannot get back into your office. Nobody either expects to or should follow your instructions of all the people that worked for you. So, it is a very abrupt change , and the new people, you know, i remember onking into the white house january 20, 2001, and you know, you kind of walk into a blank office, there is nothing on the walls, just a few supplies on the desk, there is computers, but you know, there is nothing. N the memory banks you might know the phone numbers of a few of the people you may it is a very, but complete and abrupt transition, and for the country, that is a real period of vulnerability. I do not think it lasts all that ing in the stark sense that am talking about, but for those first few days, in a crisis, you know, the people who need to make decisions might not even know how to reach the other people that they need to reach to take action. So, what we did in the transition period in 20082009 to thedid our best incoming folks to work with each ther, and also to pair up outgoing people with the incoming people, so, for example, we held a tabletop january, inearly which we assembled the cabinet officers who were relevant to a. Ational security crisis we assembled in the Old Executive Office building and we had all the outgoing officials of their from the Bush Administration who would be involved in a National Security crisis, secretary of Homeland Security, the National Security health, the secretary of , because what we postulated was ,n attack in the United States and so on. We had all of the right officials who in the Outgoing Administration knew each other and knew their roles, knew who did what in case of a crisis, and we brought in their incoming counterparts, and we went to the tabletop exercise with the old people sitting next to the incoming people, and i dont know if, i dont know how much you can learn in a threehour tabletop exercise about how to act in a crisis, but the main thing was that they laid eyes, everybody laid eyes on the other people with whom they would need to communicate, and i will bet, for most of the people in the incoming obama cabinet, that was the first time they had met fbi director mueller, who was one key official who because of the nature of his position, transitioned across administrations, and would be a key person to know and to communicate with in the event of a crisis. One other thing i will mention that we did, and that is that we asked the Homeland Security , whotary, Michael Chertoff had planned a vacation with his wife beginning at 1 00 p. M. On january 20 [laughter] mr. Bolten we asked him to stick around for a day, and during inauguration day, he was in an offsite with the incoming secretary of Homeland Security in a control center where they could monitor all of the threat information and so on. We asked him, even though his authority would be eliminated as of noon on generate 20th, we asked them, stick around, be 20th, we askedry him, stick around. There was a threat on inauguration day. It turned out, a credible threat. It turned out not to be an actual threat, an actual incident. Intelligencedible suggesting an attack at the inauguration itself on the mall, know, we were not perfectly prepared. I imagine if that had happened will be a lot better prepared than we were in we at least have thought about it, had talked peoplelks, and had our as well petitioned as we could under the circumstances wellpositioned as we could under the circumstances. Had both worked as prosecutors and knew each other very well. It was an easy discussion between the two of them. Can you tell us about the discussions about transition into office that you had with president clinton . Mr. Mclarty i would be glad to. First of all, it is good to be with you and terry sullivan, and the white house transition, the bush institute. Good to be with chief bolten. I always look forward to it. Our transition was quite different. It was a different time and place. I think josh makes a very key point about 9 11 really changing the fundamental psyche in many ways of our country. Personal security became National Security and vice versa. It affected transitions. Ours is at a much earlier time. At that point, terry and i talked about this. Governor clinton, like most president ial candidates before him, was very concerned, if you , largeerious developed effort underway on transition, it would be easy for the press to say well, such a show of arrogance here, measuring the the office. In there was talk about that with his transition efforts even after 9 11. That was part of it, for sure. I think, in our case, as lisa remembers from her time working , i came into it late, having served as his chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange national gas company. You were coming in knowing some of the people, but not all. On the Positive Side however, governor clinton, like most president ial candidates, had laid out a pretty clear agenda of what he wanted to accomplish his firstst 100 days, two years in office. That, in and of itself, laid out a roadmap, pathway, in terms of the policy to work within the administration. I think, secondly, during the transition, a high priority was placed on the selection of the cabinet. We spend a lot of time there, and i think our work reflected that, and richards death, the newstaff, richard ewsta the historian it was clearly a priority of president elect clinton, as he and al gore had run as a team. Before that, the Vice President had been an important figure, but it had not been fully integrated into the presidency as we have seen in more modern presidencies. Where we got behind the curve was on selection of white house staff. I think that was a setback for us, although, on the policy side, we were able to move forward with economic plans. We were able to move forward with the cabinet. I like to so much of the spirit of bipartisanship or the theme because we did receive good cooperation from the republican members of the Senate Getting our cabinet members in place, but as clay johnson notes are well, that is only a start. You have got to get the deputy and the assistant secretaries in place. That was our experience. I think, on the National Security front, again, it was before 9 11, before the terrorist evidence we have seen. Landscape,fferent although there were vulnerabilities and there. You hadnk the fact that a very experienced team in National Security that had worked during the campaign. They were able to make that transition. Andfinal point i would say josh has alluded to it, the real two hallmarks of a transition open, and,being start early, which i think now has become much better understood, much more accepted. Recently i had spoken with the atiness roundtable, speaking the National Governors association this weekend with governor leavitt, i think it is much better understood how critical transitions are. It is that moment in a 77 bay period where there is so much is so period were there much to be done, so many various stakeholders to respond to, a moment where it is essential to pivot from campaigning to governing. That is really what transitions, that is the hallmark of any successful transition. Ms. Kumar howd you make one of the aspects of moving from campaigning to governing is that there are different needs in a campaign. The rhythms of a campaign are different because you are trying to win each day, and you have a policy agenda that is limited that you are talking about. When you come in to govern, you lesspeople that are partisan, in a sense, and ones with experience in the Washington Community because you are going to move from one issue to another, where you may have in one,ns of supporters and then, your enemies, your friends in the ones afterwards. When you have Campaign People, their mindset is your guys good, your opponent bad. How do you make that transition of the personnel, of bringing in people who are appropriate for governing who may not have been on your campaign . And what do you do with the Campaign People that you want to reward . And how does a president deal about . Mr. Mclarty im getting a headache does try to remember all those problems. [laughter] makeclarty i think you exactly the right point. You have had people in the workedn that have truly their hearts out for their candidate in that campaign, and in many cases, made tremendous sacrifices where they have taken a leave of them from their job, at work, and moved to little rock, arkansas or austin, texas, or were ever to spend a year plus of their lives trying to get george w. Bush and bill clinton elected. There is a feeling of loyalty by the same token, you do have to be pretty steelyeyed. You are moving into a different passage. There are different requirements. You have to have basically a blend of people that were in the campaign who were naturally and hopefully wellsuited to make that transition to governing, and there is usually a good number of those people in the policy realm, the press realm, and others of that are pretty natural in that regard, but you need new people, broader people. Ofernor clinton knew a lot other fellow governors that were natural cabinet selections. He had worked with a number of people in education, so that was a natural area. A number of people in the National Security area, that was a natural. That is i you make the transition. You have got to achieve that balance. There is one other major factor that is different. That is the members of the congress and the house and the senate. You are not going to get your first hundred days moving in the right direction with your legislation, as josh knows so well and is so skilled in handling members of the house and Senate Without establishing immediate rap would leadership thereport withiate rapport leadership there. You cannot get ahead of yourself for that will create problems in and of itself. In our case, i do not think we did as good of a job reaching we to the republican side as could have, in retrospect. I think we caught up with that otherfare to work and legislation in the administration, but that is absolutely key. It is very different in campaign. That is a new constituency. In our case, i know you are going to talk about this later you had hadon, but a years of republicans being in the white house, so that is quite a big change when you have a different administration, a different party, into the white house. In our case, i think it is worth noting, governor clinton only got 43 of the vote. That had a difference in our dynamic in that campaign. In that transition. Ms. Kumar yeah. Josh, how did you all establish your legislative relationship . You had lasess. Mr. Bolten george w. Bush came in with a landslide by comparison. [laughter] mr. Bolten we both had our respective challenges there. [laughter] bill underestimate 571 votes in florida. [laughter] that made it challenging. That gave the start of t

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