Interesting characters. She was convicted of murder in the early 1970s. It is a fascinating story. She was convicted of murder. She was in georgia with her cousin and they got into a fight outside a bar. She ended up killing this guy. She says it was in selfdefense. She went to prison and was on a work release program. She went to the Governors Mansion and interviewed with Rosalynn Carter. Carter loved her and said, would you come and meet our daughter amy . She said the minute she met amy, they clicked. They couldnt stop laughing. They loved each other. Their nanny was still in prison. When jimmy carter was elected president , she went back to prison for a period of time. They had to have the president be her parole officer in order to bring her to the white house. She came to the white house. She was cleared of the charges. I interviewed Rosalynn Carter for the book. She says it was a racially motivated mary says she didnt need her lawyer meet her lawyer until the hearing. There were strange things surrounding her conviction. She was at the white house. They love her. The staff at the white house were suspicious because she was brought in by the family. But i loved her story because you just couldnt make it up. The president was her parole officer, which is hard to believe. Brian where is she now . Kate she lives in georgia and she babysits for hugo, so she is still a huge part of the carter family. I set up the interview with mary through the carters assistance. They consider her one of her own. Brian how often over the years has a president and first lady brought in somebody from the outside, instead of the white house staff . Kate it happens fairly often. The bushes brought one of their personal maids. Nancy ragan took one of the maids with her to california too. It does happen the other way. They grow so close that they bring them with them after they leave. Brian zephyr wright. Kate she was the johnsons longtime cook. They brought her from texas. Ladybird has a great story about driving from texas to d. C. With zephyr, and they couldnt find a place to stay because they wouldnt allow africanamericans in the state hotel. Ladybird is talking to some motel clerk and the clerk says we work them, we dont sleep them. Ladybird says, that is a nasty way to be, and storms off. Zephyr talks about how compassionate ladybird was and how that trip across the country helped to inform president johnson and lead to the civil rights act. It was part of his decision to push for it, seeing their friend go through this. Brian what was her relationship with the president . Kate it was very close. The president would say things to her like, they dont appreciate what im trying to do. Your people dont understand what im trying to do. He felt like Martin Luther king and these other activists werent grateful enough, always pushing for more, never enough. She was a sounding board for him. But she stood up to him. Theres a scene in the book where she got he got angry at her for leaving the lights on. She stood up to him because he was always yelling at people about leaving lights on and trying to save electricity. Shes one of the few people who could stand up to him. Brian your book went right to the bestseller list. It is called the residence. We just showed the cover of it with the white gloves. Whose idea was it for this cover, and this title, and why do you think this shot to the top of the bestsellers list . Kate the cover, i give harpercollins credit for that. It is a beautiful cover. I think it is gorgeous. I think it shot to the top of the New York Times best because it is something people can relate to. Im seeking to show the president s and first ladies as human beings. We know so little about them. Any shred of personal information we get told from a unique vantage point, so it is unique and theres a lot of interest with downtown aby, and the help and this culture that you never see. I think the book shed light on what goes on at the white house. The title, they call it the residence, and i thought that was a great powerful title. Brian you worked in the white house as a reporter for what organization and how long . Kate i worked for Bloomberg News for four years during obamas first term. I traveled around the world and it was a wonderful experience. Before that i was at fox as a producer and cbs as a producer. Al hutnt gave me my chance at bloomberg to go to the white house. But i was in tv first. I wanted to switch to print. Bloomberg is a powerhouse of the wire service. It was incredible. The greatest story was under my nose the whole time, these people who you never see. Brian you say you did 100 interviews with people who worked in the white house . Kate more than 50 former resident staffers and one current resident staffer. And 50 plus advisors. More than 100 people for the book. Including people like president obamas body man, and katie johnson, who had a unique view of these people and how they served the presidency. Brian how often did somebody say to you, you cant write this . Kate only one person said, you are going to have a lot of trouble. It was very difficult to get them to talk. It took two years, a lot of time and energy. This was my fulltime job. But there is one woman christine limerick, the head housekeeper. She was the linchpin for me. Once she agreed to talk to me, and i went to her house in delaware, she opened a lot of doors for me. I think she put in a good word for me. She gave me phone numbers. Brian lets show some video of something we used when we did a special on the white house to give people an idea of what it looks like. Inside the central mansion, there are 130 rooms with a floor plan that unites the ground, state, and second floors, with a centrally located ovalshaped room. On the ground floor, there is a diplomatic reception room, with the library and china rooms complementing it on each side. Next is the state floor, anchored by the blue room in the center, with the state dining room at one end, the east room at the other, and the red and green rooms off to either side. On the second floor private residence, the yellow over room is the central space bordered by the treaty room, lincoln bedroom, and the queens room to the east. And president ial bedrooms and studies, the west sitting all and the families private dining room to the west. Brian to the best of my knowledge, weve never seen any photos of the obamas private quarters. Kate they are so intensely private. They have two young daughters. They are very protective of that space. Understandably i think. But i didnt realize there is this room on the third floor called the solarium. It is a really cool family room. Melia and sasha obama have their sleepovers there. It is where president reagan recuperated after the assassination attempt. There are layers of history in each of these rooms. Brian did anybody let you go to rooms like the solarium . Kate i didnt get any cooperation from the obama white house. The only people who would talk to me were people i knew from having covered it. The closest i got was a lunch with Michelle Obama in the old family dining room. That made me think about doing this book. This butler was coming in and out of the room and serving her. It was a small luncheon with her. It made me think of this other side of the white house. But i never got into the inner sanctum myself. Im even more intrigue. I would love to go there. These resident staffers told me some wonderful things. I can visualize it. Brian who are the thick lens . Kate they are an incredible family. Nine members of the family have worked at the white house. I interviewed james jeffries, the only current parttime butler who i didnt get to interview. He works every week at the white house. Nine members of his family worked there. His uncles were maitre de;s which is like the head butler. They brought him in when he was 17 years old in 1959 during the eisenhower administration. He is still working there. He describes how he used to work in the kitchen. They kept giving him ice cream to eat. It is incredible that he remembers what the eisenhowers were like. Theres this dying breed of person who remember that. Thats what i wanted to do, to pay tribute to these people. Ive gotten some great feedback. They are very happy with it. Six of them have passed away in the past two years. One of them passed away. His daughter wrote me a note saying, thank you for honoring my father. She included a 75 check saying, have lunch on me. These are the kind of people they are, very generous, sweet and kind. Having written a book, you usually dont hear back from people saying thank you. It is usually the opposite. Brian why are so many of the butlers African Americans . Are there any white butlers today . Kate it has changed. Since the clinton administration, it changed a little bit. Historically, it was an africanamerican job. It was a job they were really proud of. They formed private butlers incorporated, a group of butlers who would help each other get jobs. One of the butlers passed away recently. He told me that the women, these ambassadors wives, would introduce him as mr. Westerly, who works at the white house. This was something they were very proud of. It was a good paying job for a lot of the staff. They did very well because they made money outside the white house. I think it is just a tradition. They would bring in their relatives. One person works there and they bring in their brother, then they bring in their cousin. It is about trust. Brian who is Freddie Mayfield . Kate Freddie Mayfield was a doorman. He was there during the reagan administration. People loved him. One of the ushers told me that he was told he needed bypass surgery, and he never got it because he kept saying, i want to be here for the president. Im going to wait for his next trip. He passed away on his way to work. He had a heart attack. I talked to nancy reagan through her assistant, and i said, can you tell me if mrs. Reagan remembers Freddie Mayfield . I got an Immediate Response from nancy, she remembers exactly how sad it was, how empty and lonely it was when he wasnt there anymore because she saw him every morning in the elevator. She still remembered that. She remembered the details. She was at his funeral and repeated a little of what others had told me. It was moving to see the first lady at his funeral. Brian what is the story about nelson pierce and Richard Nixon in seattle . Kate nelson pierce was born in seattle and he heard the nixons were traveling out there, so he asked if he could go on this trip. He tells this beautiful story about being on air force one. He could view all these Beautiful Mountain ranges where he grew up. He said his eyes filled with tears. He was just so moved by that. Afterwards, he went up to mrs. Nixon and thanked her, and she said, i wanted to see the mountains too. It was a sweet thing to do. The nixons came across, from my reporting, as more sympathetic than you would think to the staff. Brian who came across as less sympathetic to the staff . Kate i think the clintons, because they were just dealing with so much at the time. They also werent used to having staff. That is a key difference with the bushes, the reagans, versus the clintons and the obamas. They didnt know exactly how to handle it. They wouldnt tell them when they were eating, so suddenly there would be a panic in the kitchen. The bushes would say, two for dinner at 6 00. It was very regimented. They lived their lives this way. They were very patrician. These people grew up in this luxurious environment. They treated the staff very well, with a lot of respect. Brian i know youve been asked a lot about this, where bill clinton, or Hillary Clinton i think Gary Eldredge was the first to report it. There is a story about the book being thrown. You say that clinton had stitches . Kate that is what a staffer told me. He had to get stitches, and another staffer confirmed this for me. He had stitches. They believe it was a book thrown. Nobody saw the actual book being thrown. The way i described it was, they found blood on their bed. The president says he walked into the bathroom door in the middle of the night. The staff thought that she must have clocked him with a book. I have it on the record from a florist who says he heard them yelling at each other in the west wing hall when he was going to switch out the flowers and he heard a heavy object being thrown. It feeds into the idea that it was a tumble to us time. I think it is understandable. There was a lot going on during their entire eight years. Not just during lewinsky, but before then. I think it was a tough time for the staffers. Brian were you the first to report the stitch . Kate i hadnt seen anything on it. Brian how did they treat you, the clintons, when you wanted to write this book . Kate i asked them for a letter that was read at the funeral of one of these beloved butlers named james ramsey. When he passed away, laura bush went to his funeral. The clintons and the obamas both had letters they sent. The clintons gave me the letter that was read. Thats the closest i got. Brian heres president obama talking about the staff in a brief interview. Mr. President , what is it like to live in the white house . President obama it is an extraordinary experience. The thing that michelle and i and the girls appreciate most is the staff, which are so diligent, constantly thinking about how to make the first family comfortable. It was to some degree an artificial environment. They have become great friends. I think the white house staff has figured out how to accommodate families and make them feel as normal as possible even though there are dozens of people around all the time. You begin to see them as family. Thats the beauty of this place. It is really the staff who make it home for so many different families over the years. Brian what has it meant to the people that work there that this is the first africanamerican pcouple to the president and first lady . Kate one butler told me he would keep working there as long as his legs let him stand. Their secretary said on inauguration day, she could look at these older gentleman and see the pride. The head of operations told me, i dont care if it is a black man, white woman, it doesnt matter to me. Im going to do the job to 100 of my best ability. They stick with that too. Like the president said, they make the house comfortable for the first family regardless of color. But they never thought they would see this day, they told me. It was an incredible moment for them. Brian heres a clip from lady bird johnsons tour of the white house in 1968. It shows the family in the family dining room. Is this where you had your lunch with mrs. Obama . You said it was intimate. Kate there were about 10 of us, 10 female reporters, who covered the first lady. It was to celebrate the anniversary of her lets move campaign. Brian lets watch the johnson family. Having the entire family together for lunch is a joy, but also lindens hours vary with his work and the girls are just as unpredictable. But once in a while, everyones activities coincide and we gather in the family dining room. [indiscernible] brian the little fellow there is Patrick Lyndon nugent. We saw a brief clip of jean allen. Tell us about jean allen. Kate i love this video. He was a butler who the movie the mother was loosely based on. The butler was loosely based on. Charles tells a great story about how he was in the inference rein vietnam the infantry in vietnam. He said, please ask president johnson, is there anything he can do to get me out of this . I will be in the air force anything else. Eugene allen said, if this was president kennedy or anyone else, maybe i could help you but i dont have the relationship with him. They are not supposed to ask for favors. That is a big ask. Charles told me that it was just heartbreaking for him. He really wanted his father to push. Eugene allen was the penultimate butler. He never asked for favors. He was very diligent. People say that he was not the one who asked for a raise for the black staff. Ive been told that that was not something he would do. He respected the institution of the presidency. The way the staff was paid, a lot of the africanamerican staff were not paid as well as the white staff because the white staff worked as plumbers and in different positions. They werent butlers. There was an uprising led by bill hamilton, the storeroom manager. The movie portrays it as something eugene allen did. He was really beloved, but he never stepped out of bounds. Brian what is the difference between eugene allen and skip alan . Kate skip alan is an usher. Hes younger than eugene. He worked there for decades and decades. As an usher, he is more of in a management position. He was in charge of the housekeeping shop and the curators shop. They are in a completely different position. They dont see the residents as much as the butlers. The butlers have the real intimate work. There are six butlers who rotate on the floor and see everything. Those are the hardest to talk to, because they are very careful about what they say. Brian three of your president s how do you ask this, show up on occasion nude. Those three would be johnson kennedy, and reagan. Would you tell a story about each one . Kate johnson was probably the strangest character in the white house. He would often conduct business on the toilet. He was obsessed with the shower and the water pressure. I had seen that reported before. I interviewed the head plumbers widow and she said her husband had a nervous breakdown about the shower and was hospitalized for several days. One scene in the book, the president is trying out the shower, having other people try out the shower, and they would come out beet red because it was so hot and the pressure was so intense. Brian that shower was, ive never heard of a shower like it. Explain what he wanted in the shower. He had one like this in his home . Kate the general manager of the residence, johnson took him aside a couple days after kennedy was killed, and was furious. Right after johnson moved in. He said, if you cant ask this shower, im going to have to move back to the elms, which was his house in d. C. He was obsessed. He had six different nozzles spraying all parts of his body. He wanted to go from cold to hot. He didnt want it warm. He had a bunch of mirrors installed on the ceiling. When the head plumber would try it out, he would come out beet red, his veins popping out. It was not a comfortable thing. President nixon took one look at it and said when he came in he said, get rid of this. All of the work they had done was for nothing. At the very end, before johnson left office, he was using the bathroom and he asked the head plumber to come in. He said, i want you to know that this show were has been my delight. Thank you. That meant the world