Cspan two book tv. Up next on book tv former White House CorrespondentKate Andersen brower talks about daily life in the white house through interviews with white house butlers, made command other staff. Reporting on what its like to take care of the for staff. Clicks want to get started . Yeah. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for spending part of your evening with us at barnes noble in bethesda. We are excited to welcome the bestselling author Kate Andersen brower with her extraordinary book inside the private world of the white house. My name is a Million Euros the the Business Development manager at barnes noble command all of us are so happy you are with us today. Kate Andersen Brower has written a meticulously researched and fascinating book that chronicles 50 years of service by white house resident staff and she will speak to us about the writing of the book and read from her book. And accomplished. Accomplished journalist who covered the first term of the Obama White House for Bloomberg News and is a former cbs news staffer and former fox news producer. She and her family are local residents right here in the washington dc area. Please join barnes noble in bethesda and extending a warm welcome to Kate Andersen brower. [applauding] quakes thank you very much, million. Yes, i set out to write this book almost three years ago. I was a reporter of Bloomberg News and came up with the idea when i was invited to a lunch with Michelle Obama for about a dozen reporters who cover. The butler came in and out and served her and clearly had a rapport with the first lady. First lady. It made me wonder who the people are behindthescenes but this culminates, ushers, enforce. I set. I set out to interview them. Oldfashioned reporting. Ninetysix fulltime residents workers at the white house. And i set out to interview former workers because current staffers cannot speak. One of my favorite sources is here in the front row admiral stephen who was the chief usher of the white house for the bush and obama administrations for several years. And he as a chief usher basically as general manager and runs the residence and is in charge of all of the white house resident staffers and is the conduit between the first lady and the resident staff. The chief usher plays a really crucial role and i am excited he came. These are fiercely devoted people who really devote their lives to the white house. They work something called white house flextime. And they were very generous invited me into their homes and i get a sense of these people as human beings some of whom met the white house and fell in love some got married, one of the head housekeepers met her husband, the chief engineer measuring him for his uniform which is a great story. And so i set out to get to know these people. I feel like ive done them a bit of the service. They seem happy. A few of them have passed away since the book came out you know, i hope to pay tribute to them with this book. As one staffer told me what goes on in the white house stays in the white house. Was not always easy to defend open up. It took two years. Im going to read a couple different parts of the book to give you a sense of three of my favorite stories. The story is about lindsay little too was a house met the white house and the housman is someone who works in a housekeeping staff who moves every furniture, the second and third floors of the white house and vacuums. Like a lot of the staffers, he worked there for decades, which is decades, which is incredible. He started in the 60s. And actually started in the 70s, im sorry. Gordon robbinsville, north robbinsville, north carolina, town of fewer than 1,000, help them take care of the six brothers and sisters. His father was a sharecropper. Head north to washington. He started working working at the white house in 1979 leaving his townhouse. He would have the house ready for public tours by 730 setting up when the tours rover he would take it all down only to start again the next morning. Her morning. Her quick breakfast you would get a call from the executive housekeeper who would tell he and his colleagues when the family was out. His relationship with the first president bush extended far beyond cleaning up around the house. One of the handful of household staff who played horseshoes with the president several times a month. The pres. And his son would happily had out to the horseshoe pitch and play with he and his supervisor when they got off work. They all got so into the game that there were tshirts made. We always made. We always beat him until the end. Last year we were there they won the championship. Barbara bush said she and the pres. Were so upset when i left because they knew the clintons were not likely to continue the tradition. The pres. The president asked little to join him in the family dining room. We sat there and talked. Sitting at the table with the pres. Having a conversation, none of the rest of them were done nothing like that. He quickly forgave mistakes that would have enraged other president s. President s. Outplaying horseshoes and asked a staffer for some bug spray. The worker sprayed the pres. President from head to toe before realizing he doused in an act container of industrial grade pesticide. By the time they got there the president s face was already read. He needed to he needed to be decontaminated in the shower. President bush said okay we just want to get back to our horseshoe tournament and no one was fired. I like the story because i think it shows the staff devotion to the book family. They were beloved. Barbara bush would wander into the kitchen in the Early Morning before her swim with her bathing suit on in the bathroom of their in poker had in and talk to the cooking man pastry chef who she called the cooking and. It really was eyeopening. The book is not partisan in any way and i did not know what i would find out. One thing almost uniform, bush senior and misses bush were very kind of the staff. The second staff. The second story was about Lyndon Johnson. Very upset obsessed with the white house shower. The way the story reveals a new bit of information plumbing sermon buzz arrington may have found president Lyndon Johnson amusing, but he was soon made completely miserable. He started in the white house in 1946 and retired in 1979 and passed away in 2007. His wife wrote done many stories. She remembers many stories. She remembers how johnsons erratic schedule affected their lives. We were at a restaurant and an annapolis and they came through saying white house calling mr. Harrington. I just thought that was so funny to read president johnson wanted something done. Johnson tortured him with his obsession with water pressure and temperature. No matter what the staff did the water never came hard a hard enough. When the president was in a mood to dole out letter grades the shower get an f every time. He started his Career Office high school teacher. He would wander the basement floors and give people grades to tell them how they did. And did. And everyone was a bit afraid of him because of that. His shower fixation was made clear from the start. On on december 91963 justice chief usher returning from his first day off since pres. Kennedys assassination and was summoned to meet the president at the ground floor elevator landing immediately. Two days after the johnsons have moved into the white house, and house and the president had a pressing matter to discuss read if you can get that shower fixed i will have to move back to the elms. The johnsons washington dc mention the clip of the shower like nothing the staff had ever seen water charging out of multiple nozzles would be like intensity and hugely powerful force. This part i this part i was not sure was going to say out loud. It makes you chuckle. Came to the find his relationship. He wanted the water pressure at the white house. He wanted a simple switch to change temperature from optical immediately. A few a few minutes after Lady Bird Johnson asked to speak with him. I guess you have been told about the showers. Yes maam. Anything done or needs to be done has been comes first, the girls second man i will be satisfied with what was left. I love the story because it also love that story because it also shows a real depth of lady birds character. I i just want to skip ahead. To thought everyone was involved. More and more people are summoned to 1600 pennsylvania avenue in an effort to fix the crisis. One usher jumped in this shower in his bathing suit to test it out. He said he came out as red as a lobster. Five were placed in the shower. They would not do. The the plumbers even had a special water tank installed with its own pumped up the pressure and added six to nozzles located at different heights. The post sprayed hundreds of gallons of water per minute and it still was not good enough. The funniest part of the story is preservation came into the white house and took one look at this elaborate shower set up and say get rid of this. So all of it was for nothing. It is also a sweet story story because it shows how committed the staff was. In fact. In fact, the plumbing foreman had a nervous breakdown of the shower and was hospitalized which i dont think something that people would know. Margaret told me that. She wanted people to know how committed he was to the job and how seriously took it. The final thing i wanted to share is about hillary clinton, and it says a lot about her and what it is like to live in the bubble of the white house. One weekend in august 1998 this before the president made his address the first lady called the usher with an unusual request. I want to go to the pool but i dont i dont want to see anybody except you. Yes, maam. I understand. He knew exactly what she meant. She did not not want to see your Service Secret Service detail anyone tending to the grounds or anyone on a tour. Not up for any of that. Just one of the few hours apiece. He would need five minutes to clear the premises to iran to find her lead secret Service Agent and told her it would have to work together. If anybody sees her or she sees anybody im going to get fired. And you probably will too. The secret Service Agent protocol is for one agent to walk ahead and wonder why behind. She will turn around and look for you. She just doesnt want to see your face and doesnt want you looking at her face. He met he met mrs. Clinton at the elevator and escorted her to the pool. She was wearing red reading glasses and carrying a couple books, did not have on makeup and hair wasnt done. She seemed she seemed heartbroken. They did not exchange a word do you need any but the service asked her . No. Anything at all . No its a Beautiful Day and i want to sit here and enjoy sunshine. I will call you when im ready to go back. Okay. As 12 oclock. As 12 00. I get off of one. I will call you when im done. Yes knowing that that meant she would have to stay until whenever she chose to leave. He did leave. He did not get the call until nearly 330. The company the first lady of another worthless walk. Before she stepped off the elevator the first lady let them know how much his efforts meant. Grab me by my hands, gave him a squeeze a squeeze and looked at me and said thank you. It touched my heart. It meant the world to me. I love the story because it shows how the white house staff can give the president and first lady a bit of time alone. To us a couple hours by the pool on a summer weekend would not seem very unlike a big thing to ask for called to them it really is. I think that is a really touching story. One thing is that kevin spacey and his Production Company bought the tv rights to this book. So i am curious to see what they do with it. I think it. I think that the dynamic between the first lady and president is an interesting one. If you have watched house of cards, it really really plays out. Obviously is a lot darker than this book but there are some kind of inside stories that i i think will be interesting to see. We shall see how that plays out. Overall the book is a tribute to the resident staffers who have worked so hard to make a white house run. And just so very kind, wonderful people. I i have received several letters. One from a butler a parttime a parttime butler who started during the kennedy administration. She sent me a note with a check and said, go out out to lunch and celebrate which i thought was the sweetest thing and very unusual for an author to get that from a source. It was very meaningful to me. Obviously me. Obviously i dont think ill use that check. Anyway, thank you very much for listening and for sharing and appreciating the stories. Thank you. [applauding] thank you. Adm. , come on up. I love putting you on the spot. One of my best sources right here. It took a lot to pry things out of me because we do have that unwritten code of not revealing all those things for the privacy of the first family. Kate was able to capture things that i didnt even know from your couple years of interviewing a lot of people. I think it was about as accurate as anyone has come close to getting it without revealing too much. Like mom always told me when you dont have something nice to say dont say anything at all. I only served to president s to have actually come i served a i served a presence in uniform in the military and to and civilian suit in the white house. And for the most part i think what i appreciated most about the book is that she is able to talk to a lot of folks so much on. And so careful not to blast any first lady for president. Maybe some of them deserve it. And i think second book i am a little bit leery about that one. Clicks you are supposed to help me with that one clicks i gave her a coin the other way, military tradition, any military folks here . It is called a challenge coin. You president of someones hand. If you see them again and you a coin and they dont have a coin of the coin you gave them they have to buy the next round of drinks. Drinks. And so shes going to have to buy a lot of drinks to get much more out of me. But it was done so nicely. She is just a pleasure to work with. With. I picked up the book and could not put it down. I put my life on hold is used to me going on is sneaking up to my study and turning and turning on the light but at night until i finished it. It it was so well written so easy to read. Like i said just extremely accurate. One day she called me up. The book was done and published. She called me i dont know if it was a good or bad day, she asked me a question in my heart started bleeding out about a particular first a particular first lady. She said, why didnt you tell me this before. I said well maybe its good that i didnt. You caught me at a time where i was able to just open up. People see how book number two goes. I can see why this one is a bestselling. It is extremely well done. Thank you. Thank you. [applauding] also a coast guard adm. Who is beloved along the forces bushes and obamas approach this next book will be of the same vein. I was not out to get anybody it is an oral history of what these people do. And the chief usher who is so important to the running of the white house. Jackie kennedy called chief usher the second most powerful man in washington. Nancy reagan named her dog after rex scout the chief usher and had him buried make sure he would be buried in arlington. Work that out so that he could be married millington which is unusual because he had not served in the military. So they military. So they really love the chief ushers. I know laura bush has a real fondness and love for you. It is a special relationship so it so it is a pleasure to work with you and a pleasure to interview these incredible people. Thank you very much. Thank you. Worthington. Do you want to come up your . Come on. Clicks expecting a visit. And of course everything had to be polished everything in order. The president was going out to what bonnie one day. He said worthington kind of a jovial guy and he likes to joke a little bit. President bush came out and says, worthington what is all this mess going on here. He knew what was happening but he decided this is something Say Something that did not take too long for the president. Well, we are doing this all for you. The president looked at him and said, dont bowl should make a moment. And he is a big guy really huge. He did not he did not say a word after that. The president as i think you mentioned in your book he really got to the. On things. He was not at all shy about about calling the shots. And this guy tried to seriously very them up a a little bit of a strict amount. In the bushes were so close to some staffers. New line developer who passed away. Laura bush delivered his eulogy at his funeral and flew from texas to dc to go to that the funeral. I think that people dont know the bond that is shared it is it is fair to say that the reason might be because these are the only people who dont want anything from you. I you. I just want to serve you and make your life easier whereas lucianne linda johnson, the jets and two daughters told me that everyone else is always asking for favors. They cant ask for favors because there would be fired and they dont want to. They are there to serve the institution of the presidency. That presidency. That is a beautiful thing that we have lost in a way. That nonpartisan nature of what these people do. Thank you very much. Does does anyone have any questions . [inaudible question] absolutely. Absolutely. They were very afraid. A cantankerous, difficult person. But i think the way i kind i kind of think it is lovable in retrospect. The fact that he with vietnam raging in all these issues for the fact that he was channeling it into the shower is so bizarre and an interesting way of looking at his community. Humanity. They were absolutely afraid of them. Very difficult. They thanked him they thanked him at the very end of his career. It was right before Lyndon Johnson was leaving the white house and was using the toilet. He would often have meetings on the toilet. He. Vitamin and said i just want to thank you for the shower. That meant the world to him. But that seems kind of sad that is 5 years all you got was one thank you, and it was enough. Think it think it absolutely does show the fear. This . I was wondering everyone says the first lady means along the white house. In some ways is the spirit of the house. I was wondering if you take that the first lady the one that gives the kind of power to the white house . Very with staff collec