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Black america in the aggregate is better off now than it was when i came into office. the jobs that have been created, the people who have gotten health insurance, the housing equity that has been recovered and the 401(k) pensions recovered, a lot of those african-americans are better off than they were. >> joining me now jay karner and april ryan. you just saw the question of the president. she's also author of the presidency in black and white. and april, since you asked that question, let me ask you, you said he couldn't take about race like this in his first time. and i believe you said it...

Like trayvon martin. >> jay, that was an incredible moment and a personal moment. did he think about that before or did it just come off the cuff? >> erin, i advised him on a lot of things and things he should say in press conferences and speeches, but when it came to matters like that, he used his own judgment and tended not to listen to his advisers at all and what he said there was completely from the heart and completely thought-through. i think what april said is exactly right in the sense that the issues that have presented themselves in the last few years, including at the end of his fi...

Women into other areas in that room. and in 2014, we're talking about president kennedy and we're looking at 2014 and we just had this happen. there is still a long way to go. >> i guess it is true. there is a part of me that just thinks, oh, goodness. it is a bummer we need to point that out. >> erin, we have to bring you along. come on. we have to bring you along. >> erin. >> go ahead, jay. >> and there were times, and april remember this is, in a briefing, when i would look at the front row, the first row in the briefing rom and a lot of tvs there and the associated press and reuters and th...

She was the one that wasn't on the list. she got in there unscripted, which was -- which was the special one. >> the special one. >> that is what i'm saying. you didn't know in advance. >> i didn't. >> but jay, the white house defended this move of calling on all women. the quote was they had a unique opportunity to highlight the number of women that cover the president. and that is a good thing. and i'm torn on it. do we need to highlight the number of women that cover the president, are we past that? >> i think it is important. most press conferences the president has and the press conferenc...

>> and miss obama talked about an incident when she went to target and the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to take something off the shelf. these kind of things happen in life, so it isn't anything new. jay, have they made a concerted decision to make this personal to make race a core and critical focus of the rest of his presidency? >> i don't think it is a decision in the sense that they had a meeting and they thought, okay, now we're going to approach it this way. i think they've learned over the years, as they've had these positions, president and first ...