Are being restricted due to barriers we have in place. We also have dedicated plans to implement when we have demonstrations at trump plaza. We have identified locations that are within sight and sound of the entrance of trump tower, and we will establish protest areas at those locations. Small groups of protesters will be allowed to be on the sidewalks so that traffic will not be impeded on fifth avenue. However, when larger numbers of protesters we may have to shut down traffic on fifth avenue. We saw that occur late saturday when we had over 20,000 protesters in front of trump tower. So far, we have closed fifth avenue on three occasions in the last 10 days due to demonstrations. When this occurs, we bring in more Police Officers from other parts of the city to assist us. We closed fifth avenue for safety concerns. For the safety of the demonstrators as well as the safety of motorists. The field commander at the scene makes that call. I made that call last week. We will always choose safety over convenience. Once again, this is the security plan that we presently have in place. We are doing this for over a week now. Operationally, every day it is getting more and more fluid. We are working more efficiently. We will work closely with the secret service, and certainly we can modify this plan as situations change. Thank you very much. Thanks, carlos. For the second time, i would like to introduce the commissioner of transportation. Thank you, commissioner oneill. As you heard, obviously security will be the priority for this area, but at new york city dot we will be working hand in hand with nypd to do what we can to ease travel conditions. It is an extraordinary pedestrian area. Historically, volumes on fifth avenue are some of the highest in the western world, and we will do everything we can to ease movement on the sidewalks. It is an extraordinary bus corridor. There are 140 buses in morning peak that run along fifth avenue. We will be working closely with pd to keep buses moving and other vehicles moving. I will reiterate what the mayor said, which is we would say this anyway during holiday times. To the extent that you can come to this area by foot or by mass transit, obviously that would help us. Thank you. We will open it up to questions about security. Vice president elect mike pence spoke to reporters upon his arrival at trump tower. Made brief remarks about the president ial transition. We have made great progress. Theing with president elect, he is a man of action. We have a great number of men and women with great qualifications who have come forward to serve this new administration. Im humbled to be a part of it. Out agency teams have begun to arrive in d. C. This morning beginning but we are very confident will be a smooth transition that will serve to move this country forward and make America Great again. Also visiting trump tower, former arkansas governor and republican president ial candidate mike huckabee. He spoke briefly with reporters after talking with donald trump. Mr. Huckabee i had an excellent meeting. Mr. Trump, i think, is doing a terrific job of looking for the best talent taken find, but beyond that, i dont really have anything to report to you because it is not my job to report. Reporter [inaudible] mr. Huckabee im happy with what im doing. My job right now is to listen to the president elect. It is his job to make the decisions, whatever those are. [inaudible] mr. Huckabee again, thats not for me to disclose. The only person giving out jobs in this building is donald trump, not me. I would respect that any information about our meeting should come from him. [inaudible] mr. Huckabee concerned with it . [inaudible] mr. Huckabee i feel like i am going to serve my country whether i am inside or outside of government. I will be loyal to donald trump because i believed him as a candidate, stood by him throughout. I did not come here looking for a job. I did not campaign for him because i was needing work. Any reaction to the [inaudible] mr. Huckabee absolutely wonderful appointment. Jeff sessions is one of the stalwart conservatives in the senate. He has also been a loyal, faithful ally to donald trump throughout this campaign. I have always considered him one of my favorite senators, and i appreciate the clarity with which he brought, especially to the tpp debate when it was going on, and i think that was a great choice. How long did you meet with president elect trump . Mr. Huckabee three hours. Im kidding. Long enough, and just appropriate. Ive got to go. Ive got another meeting. Thank you. Follow the transition on cspan as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the u. S. And republicans take control of both the house and senate. Watch live on cspan, watch ondemand at cspan. Org or listen on our freeseas band free cspan our radio app. President obama is in peru this weekend the last stop on his final overseas trip. Today, he will hold a town hall meeting with students in lima live at 2 20 p. M. Eastern on cspan. On sunday, the president holds a closing News Conference at the apex economic summit before heading back to the u. S. That is live at 6 30 p. M. Eastern also on thes cspan. Former white house officials and scholars discuss the president ial transition. Speakers included josh bolten, former chief of staff to president george w. Bush, lisa brown, who worked on the obama transition, and martha kumar, white house transition project director. This is just over an hour. Good morning, everybody. Its a beautiful morning. There has never been a better time to discuss a president ial transition than now. For over 40 years, the Washington Center for internships and academic seminars has welcomed College Students from across the country and around the globe. In washington, d. C. , our students immerse themselves in professional academic internships and become empowered to become citizens in our global society. Become citizens in our global society. Havevents of last week reminded us of the important work that we do here to falter Civic Engagement and active are just a patient active dissipation in civil discourse participation in civil discourse. Our discussion today will Cover Campaign to governing, the white house transition process. Our panelists include lisa brown, who served as codirector of the obama transition project, and josh bolten, who served as the white house chief of staff for the george w. Bush administration. Both have an intimate knowledge of the transition process from the Vantage Point of both democratic and republican administrations, including the hiring of an estimated 4000 political appointees in the executive branch. Theha kumar is director of white house transition project and has written a study extensively about the transition process. Our moderator will be nancy is coveringrrently the transition process for politico. I might add that all four of these folks are in big demand right now. So we welcome them during their busy schedules, and we look forward to a great discussion. Lets get started. [applause] thanks so much. We have a lot to talk about. We were talking our ears off in the green room, so lets keep doing that. The lightning round crest lightning round question, i would be interesting to know how you would grade the Trump Transition Team. How do you think it is going . Go for it, josh. Mr. Bolten incomplete. Nancy ok. Thatolten this is a group is mostly really new to this , and the typical transition is, at this point would be much further along, but really ranroup that without the republican apparatus, so they dont have the builtin institutional memory and personnel around them that would make it possible for them to hit the ground running. Nancy lisa, what do you think . Ms. Brown i agree with josh. This is a campaign that ran a lot on the president elects personality and ideas. He did not have a big structure around him. Where you have to transition. The transition from campaigning to governing will be an even bigger challenge for him as a result. It is turning ideas into policies and actual steps that you are going to take. The government is a big bureaucracy. For them to get their hands around it is a major endeavor. They are not as far along as we were with the obama transition. I think they clearly had one thing that was different besides having a candidate thats not in elective office, but they changed leadership of their transition. From Chris Christie the mike pence. Pence to mike pence. Thats a jarring transition. One of the benefits of it is the we can see the republicans control the house, the senate, and the presidency, and therefore having mike pence is a real benefit because he has the relationships. He was in the house leadership and deals well with mitch mcconnell. In addition, he was a governor, and as a governor he would be able to tap into a base of appointees through knowing other heernors and seeing who could bring up from the state level, because they want to reach beyond the usual crowd and he has the contacts to do that. Last 24 hours, we are starting to see trumps cabinet picks take shape. Morning, it was announced he picked senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. Last night, it broke that Lieutenant General mike flynn would be the National Security advisor. What do these early picks tell us about the way he is assembling a, and what do they say about his own priorities in the administration . Ms. Brown loyalty, and connection to the campaign. Loyalty is very important to him. Martha loyalty, and connection to the campaign. Loyalty is very important to him. They went out day after day like Jeff Sessions and flynn did and in what sometimes seemed to be hostile settings. He wants those people around him that he trusts. Has to reachnt becausehat, especially he does not have elected experience. He has to bring in people who compensate for his lack of experience in particular areas, and thats something he will have to do. Obviously loyalty is the key word, trust and confidence. Thats not surprising. But it should be noted that they ,ave made five appointments five people so far. Reince priebus is chief of staff, steve bannon is senior counselor in the white house, general flynn is the National Security advisor, senator Jeff Sessions is the attorney general. These were announced this morning. And congressman mike pompeo is the cia director. , now are the only five nine days in, more than that, i guess. We are nine days in and they have only made five appointments , and of those five, four of those people were among the closest six or eight people in the Trump Organization and the campaign organization. That not surprising president elect trump would pick people who have been very loyal to him through his campaign. Right. Tha is exactly now the need to reach beyond. The people who were close to president elect trump in the Campaign Number only about a dozen. You lose a lot more people than that in some very senior positions, hopefully with a lot experience, to fill out the government. Lisa, i want to talk to you about how you go about building a. So far, all of these posts have in white men. Im trying to look ahead and see, how are they going to build a more diverse cabinet . Trumps spokesperson said yesterday on cnn that diversity was important. How do youomen area go including women. How do you go about thinking about the cabinet from a Broad Perspective . You have any since the Trump Transition Team will do that . Anybrown i cant speak in way to how the Trump Transition Team is thinking about it. Its something president obama thought about. You think about it as a group. Variety of different perspectives in your cabinet, and you need to think about it holistically in that sense. Now that you have chosen your attorney general, thinking aout, ok, i have this type of persons year, what are the other skills that i need, what are the other perspectives that i need . I hope he is thinking about that in terms of how it will represent the country, but you really do need to consciously think about it as you are a pointing people. Apa pointing people pointing people. Nancy the vetting process, how has that changed over the years . I was looking recently at the questionnaire that president obama used, and it had things like social media questions. It was not like, did you fail to pay your taxes or did you fail or did you get a dui . Any insight about what it would look like in the current environment . Ms. Brown it is becoming increasingly onerous area i think it is one of the frustrations of government. Nominated, the amount of paperwork you have to fill out. It asks everyplace you have traveled for a period of time, which is crazy today. Two, they want to see everything you have written. Most of us do not even have everything we have written. I think that is an area where we need to bring a morts bring a little more sanity to that, but these are people being put into the highest positions of government, so you do want to know who this person is and what their values are and what their views are, so what is going to be ultimately a question of finding balance. Get if you look at how far back it goes, the office of government ethics was created in the carter administration. Really began with the reagan administration. It does not really go back that far. Has become an increasingly important aspect of nominations, because what you dont want is to have a nomination blow up on you, because if it does, it can just be days of stories at a time when you want to develop a narrative of what your administration is about, and you dont want to have nominations that are not working be part of the narrative. You wanted to be positive and talk about those things that you are going to be doing. Is the confirmation process going to look different this time . Republicans also control the senate, which seems like a huge trump. So how does that change the process . Mr. Bolten it makes it a little easier and nicer. [laughter] mr. Bolten but i expect that the senate will still get a serious and probing look at all of the nominees. Bearing in mind that the senate does not get to look at a number of the key appointments the. Resident will make of the five positions i announced, only the attorney general and the cia director will end up being subject to review and advise and consent from the senate. The folks you are inside the who are, they inside the white house, the president gets to pick those. Having picked a controversial person like steve bannon to be the counselor, thats done. Nobody else gets to have a say. If they do go before the senate, i think we will have a serious look. It would be kinder than it otherwise would be, because republicans are in the majority, but democrats are still there. They get to ask the same questions. Hopefully there is hopefully be senate will continue be pretty strong tradition, unless there is a real problem. Histhe president have picks. You probe where you need to probe. You ask questions of the nominee to ensure that the senators are comfortable with this as someone who is confident to fill the role. Thisy hope would be that time, as in most previous times, outset of anhe administration, the senate would be deferential to the president s picks. He won the election. It is his prerogative to fill out the candidates who are reflective of the views that he wants to bring into government. I am the one thing curious about is you cochaired the agency team, which is a huge process of this transition. The trump people are just starting to go to the agencies now. There was a little bit of delay because of that shakeup of leadership on the Transition Team. What does that process look like . I think this is one of the places where they are behind. Our Agency Review teams were in a large number of agencies monday after the election. This is a massive management endeavor. If you think about all the federal agencies, the goal of onentially is that Inauguration Day when the president starts governing and newe is potentially a cabinet secretary, they can start governing. You dont want on the day after inauguration for someone to walk in the door and say, where is the bathroom . You want to learn as much as you can before then so you can actually start governing. There are two key pieces. One is defense, one is offense. On the offensive side, you want , what are the opportunities for and limiting the president s priorities . Did waswhat we candidate obama had made a number of promises during the campaign, and one of the things you do is map those out to the agencies so that when you come into office, ok, how did we go about it limiting those promises with regard to that agency . The other piece is defense, which is when i walk in the door, what is going to hit me in the face . Is there pending litigation . Are the regulations . Is there a big authorization coming . You will know what you need to react to. With a change of party, that is particularly important, because there may be things where you want to change direction, and you need to get your hands around that. I think a point to add that is different this year is the legislation that was signed by president obama in march white houset a Transition Coordinating Council the created six months before on election, and they did so may 6. He issued an executive order cil, which hascounse senior white house staff. And then they set policy on transition. And then an Agency Transition directors counsel which has 20 people on it representing the 15 departments in the five largest agencies. They are to implement the policies. That is composed of career staff. They have worked for that whole time period figuring out what kinds of things that the agencies should be gathering, so that they gather information on whatudget, on programs, on. Roblems they may be having positions, what are the descriptions of their positions . Who are holding them now . There is a lot of information that has already been gathered, and schedules of what kinds of meetings that are going to be taking place that the cabinet startary might have to traveling very soon after they get into office. The government is a moving train, so the president and his team are jumping on a train. The government does not stop because the president stops. So the idea that legislation is that it is asn smooth as possible to get on that train.