Fwargary walters former whi house chief usher. When did you begin to think about the events that were going to unfold on january 20th with the inauguration after new president . Well, we had to begin because of budget issues a year and half before that. Each fouryear cycle we have to prepare for the possibility of a change of administration. Even with the sitting president. So our procedures began us down the road in the budget cycle of putting additional money if for inaugural activity which included things of packing up one family, getting ready to receive a new family, and overtime associated with that. It began for about a year and a half to get the money in the budget cycle. Then went to the next summer. Gathering information as each of the candidate started to announce that they were going to run for president. We started to gather information that we could gain from the media whether it be television or newspapers or magazines or articles about what their favorite likes and dislikes and family members and friends, just to gather general information. Then of course when we got into the summer and had the republican and democratic conventions, and a democrat wso selected, then we start gathering more intently the information of the two candidates, two primary candidates, anyway, republican and Democratic National committee. And we would go from there and just continue to gather information until election day. Over the years you had a unique personal firsthand account to history. Lets talk about you for a moment. When did you first go to the white house under what circumstance answers how did your job evolve into becoming chief usher . I started off as Uniformed Division officer of secret service. Called the executive democrat tektive service. En in in 1975 a position was leaving and a position came up in the ushers office. I applied to have a chance to be in that position. I had gotten to know some of the activity in the executive residence and people that work there. I just finished my College Degree in business and he was looking for sbhob homeone to ov the budget for executive residence. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was chose by then chief usher rex scouten and joined in 1976. When he decided to retire ten years later in 86 he recommended me to the president and mrs. Reagan as next chief usher. I stayed until 2007. So lets talk about 19761977. You had the only appointed president , gerald ford, loses in one of the closest elections in american shiftry. Could have gone either way. For the first time you had to prepare for a brandnew president including one with a young daughter. True. The ushers office lead by the chief usher that time rex scouten, gave us our responsibilities to gather information. Put together things. I was the new guy on the block and tried to learn as much as i could on inaugural day i arrived there at 3 00 in the morning to see with a was going to go on from morning until late at night. My actual job on inaugural day while the president and president elect went to the capitol to take president and new president to take the oath of office was to go across the street to blair house and bring carters cat back from the blair house. That was one of miprimary jobs. Theres a lot that goes on in the preparation leading up to inaugural day. As i said, gathering information, chief usher talks to the first family. Principally the first lady about the way she would like the house opt first day there. On the activities that are fwoing to be associated with those days. I remember the carters actually invited e invited everybody who marched in the parade to come to the house over the next three day answers the carters greeted them and shook hand with everyone participating in the parade. In the evening you have to plan for Family Activity before they go out to inaugural balls. Transition between finishing watching the president ial inaugural parade and if they have additional family members there preparing meals for them. Helping them get ready for inaugural balls. Pretty active time around the white house in particular for the res dwent staff with everything going on. We have this is great picture of the north portico entrance. One two of formal entrances. Did it surprise that you the white house is not quite as big as people might think it . Television has given the impression, starting with mrs. Kennedys tour of the white house, after it was redone in her early days, and it just gives the impression that rooms are larger than that are. I think most families who move into the white house have a misconception of what the size of the rooms there. Of course, the private quarters are large for family. When have you family like the cartsers had, in particular, they had two of their sons move in with their wives and we actually add baed a baby born i the white house with James Earl Carter iv born just after inaugural day. Melania trump tours with outfwoing first Lady Michelle obama. Where typically does the first lady take the incoming first lady . Traditionally to my memory it was usually greeting at the south portico. This would go upstairs into the private quarters where they meet and set quite frequently first ladies talk about children. If there are going to be children involved then, in the Reagan Administration there wasnt. But with mrs. Obama and mrs. Trump im sure talked about raising a child in the environment. The white house. At some point they also walk around the second floor, possibly the third floor to show them what their new home is going to be like. What changes they can make to the different areas. How they can use those areas to their wants and needs. Then i believe, mrs. Obama, if im not mistaken, went down to the first floor and talk about the rooms, state dining room, par lows, red, blue and green rooms, to give a history of the house. Lows, red, blue and green rooms, to give a history of the house. Rws, red, blue and green rooms, to give a history of the house. S, red, blue and green rooms, to give a history of the house. Are there constraints as to what any president or first lady can or cannot do to the white house . Actual physical constraints, there are none. The whole house belongs to the family. The American People elected them so it is their house. They could stop tours if they wanted to, but i dont think anyone will. The rooms have a historic basis to them. Upstairs on the second floor, in the private quarters, there are the traditional guest bedrooms on the second floor at the east end of the building. The lincoln and queens bedrooms. Those are the traditional guest bedrooms when the family has personal guests there. Then the other rooms up there can be used in any way that first family desires. It is their home. As well as the third floor. Over the years there are different family members who resided. President carter had his two sons and their wives live there while they were if office. Mrs. Obamas mother lives up on the third floor area. Those areas are private and they are used the way the family wishes to. This is the transition process we are in leading up to january 20th. Whats going on in the white house if anything . Well, fwht white house, the first thing that is going on is christmas holidays. With all the activities going off and have just ended with the president leaving to go to hawaii but in the evening there are tours for the candle light towers for the public. They go on. So up until through the month of december, the actual activity to the white house are traditional activity of december when the president returns there will be some degree of thank yous as there have been for each president , thank you for the people that helped them during previous four or eight years and then also on inaugural day there will be the activities that i stated before with the president ial parade. And immediately after inaugural day the incoming president will probably do receptions or dinners or whatever they decide to have for the people that helped him get elected to office. As far as staff goes, the staff will start to be making the preparations are for the move out of one family and move in of a second family. The sitting first family, it is their home until noon on inaugural day and the staff makes every effort to see that family is not slighted in any way. That they are taken care of, that its their home. When sitting president and president elect and their families depart from the north portico and head down to capitol hill, thats when things get crazy. I have referred to it many times as organized kayos. One familys belongs are moved out and another familys belongs are moved in. With the poshs of getting the houses established by the end around 5 00 in the evening on inaugural day and the house is transferred into their house and things they have chose. Pieces of furniture, pieces of artwork that can be change had out. All those things are done when they walk in the door. No boxes in the corner that havent been unpacked. They are gone and out of way. American people have great interest in what the president does in the oval office and that also takes place on inaugural day. President s very soon after coming back under n from the inaugural parade like to go into their office. Which has been converted to their office. With the items that they want to represent their administration. Let me take that one step further, gary walters, if you could go through detail organized chaos that requires a lot of planning. Walk us through what staff is going on january 19th and what happens at noon as the president departs for the capitol before noon, the ceremony begins at high noon and you have about six hours to transform the white house. Hopefully the staff has the opportunity to go home and get a good nights rest. That doesnt always occur. But the hope is that feverythin is in place. The next day the staff has been divided into the group that is responsible for moving family out and that Group Responsible for moving family in. We use two different elevators. One for thing going out, one for things coming in. All those things are predecided leading up to the 20th. The 19th is a day when youre trying to get everybody organized and make sure they know their jobs. Theres no time for decisions to be made that are something that hasnt been decided. It all has to be choreographed. There is a limited time, as you said, only about five hours usually. Maybe six. Efb haseverybody has a job. It is similar it an anthill. Ver. It is similar it an anthill. It looks like chaos but it is actually very well organized. People are packing things, people are unpacking things. People are placing things. People are taking things away. If white House Furniture is brought in from the white house thats prepositioned overnight but not on the white house ground and brought in early on the morning on i nicaragua role morning. Escorted by security and brought in. If there are things that have gone out of the first families, furnishings, paintings, last minute clothing or whatever, thats also taken care of by a dwrup of people thats been december ig noted to do that. It is a very organized way that we go about it. Very choreographed. And hard it explain the amount of effort that goes into that by everybody involved. The other thing is we dent use people from the outside. There is not hundreds of people involved. For the first familys privacy both Family Moving out and Family Moving in, we use resident staff and few people that may be there that have been there for years that help us when we have state dinners. We only have six but letters. Obviously you have to call in additional people and most of the people have been around for a long time. Theres a very small ka dri of people, the resident staff presumely that do this move. It is a privacy issue. We dont need a lot of extra people who are there at want to volunteer because to be quite honest with you, they get in the way. Ive had numerous requests over the years for having the press come in to, cant we just take a picture here or there. And the answer is no. We dont have time for that. We dont have time to move things around to move around light and various things and people who are there that dont have a specific purpose in the move. Are there family members for the outgoing and incoming first family to say we want this over here or move that over there. Or we want that picture next to that window . There could be. But i would hope that wouldnt be the circumstance. I would hope that would have been decided in the weeks leading up to the move. Usually the first ladies work with an interior decorator who has taken a look at floor plans and the various items that will be moved in and gives us an idea of where those things are going to be placed. Specifically in each administration that i dealt with we had those decision made well before inaugural ta. And had diagrams. Quite frankly the family brings small pieces of furniture of their own but use the majority of the furniture is from the white house inventory. Some things are moved out entirely, other things are moved in. In the transition from the reagans to the bushes, when the reagans were there, president reagan and mrs. Reagan. When bushes came in, they add very large family and mrs. Bush was very concerned that on inaugural day they would have to bring in 12 additional beds and all the things to go with that to convert rooms that were sitting rooms into the rooms for the bush family. She had great concerns we would be able to do it. But when she came in and walk id around and things were done and everything was inity place, she was happy. She knew what she wanted. She knew what she wanted. But a concern of the amount of things that had to be moved in. When you talk about moving in and out, antique beads. Mattresses. Changing out carpet. Putting art on the wall. Taking other art off of the wall. Moving in books. And quite frequently president s move in with a lot of reading material. Mrs. Bush was a great advocate of reading and she came in with a lot of their own items. Not to say this is easy because its not, but it is well planned leading up to inaugural day. I wish we could go back it one day that epitomizes the transfer of power and thats january 20, 1981. Have you jimmy carter, 39th president trying to release hostages up all night on the phone as president elect reagan was coming over the white house. Higher you had very much of a working white house until noon when Ronald Reagan took over on that date. Do you remember what happened . Ways there. I was there that night all night look. I took over beverages during the course to of the evening wauz echb else was gone. The president s staff with the exception of advisors in the oval office with him had pretty much departed. That operation was obviously taking place with the National Security Council People but the majority of the staff had moved on and moved out. So there was a lot going on. Orange juice, coffee, tea, water p. Couple of pillows and blankets. A very intense time and none of us knew what was going to occur. Leading up to inaugural day. Where they going to leave . Had they been moved to one location to the hostages from one location to another. So it was very intense all night long. And on the other side, president reagan, im sure he was getting briefings also on what was going on. But of course he was over at blair house so we werent involved with that. We were just trying to make things as comfortable as possible and maintain the fact that white house was still sitting president s house until noon. We were able to akplib that. At least our small part of it. I cant speak for all those people who work so hard in trying to get the hostages released in iran but it just shows that the white house is an active place that inaugural moment at noon when power shift, up until that point the sitting president is still in power. It is remarkable the country can operate and does operate in that manner. Does anything with regard to this transfer of power in what youve seen over the years stand out . Your mind . I think the thing that most people talk about and that im aware of, is that its a smooth transition. It is very self dom if at all that there is any acrimony and certainly the way our government op right is integral to what happens in the world. And the fact that we have this wonderful transition of power, he wasfu peaceful, people are talking to each other walking out of the north doors as they go down to the capitol. It is a remarkable thing that this country does. Weve had a president in office for eight years. And yet, its going to change very smoothly on inaugural day. From jimmy carter to barack obama, you were there when the incoming president walks into the white house for the first time as president of the united states. What do you remember and what do you think is going through their mind . What do you think will be going through Donald Trumps mind . I think after standing in front of the capitol and giving the inaugural address and standing and having the inaugural parade that theres almost a sense of relief walking in the north portico doors. Now youre for once on that day out of the public eye for just a brief moment. For myself, i had the great honor and pleasure of being able to walk up to the president s and say, mr. President , welcome to your home. And thats great honor for me and for chief ushers that preceded me. And that our choice. We want to be there and make sure that the president understands that this is his home. He and his family. So it is not just a house that the American People own. But this, for the next years, is their home and that the transition that has to take place. And in particular the staff. They were with the previous staff and family for four or eight years and become quite fond of them. Now you have that few short hours when theres a transition and the resident staff is a longterm staff. Served both republicans and democrats and they sefb the presidency, not the president. Long day for you because the president and first lady then have the balls that often go until 1 00, sometimes 2 00 in the morning. What time do you finally get to bed . Didnt. Most of the time there was Something Else going on. And in the Clinton Administration mrs. Clinton asked us to do something with chelsea and her few friend that would be there while the president s were off at the balls. And in transition to the Clinton Administration. We came up with a sophisticated pizza party that also add Scavenger Hunt for the young people that required them to go to all floors of the executive resident and find out historical facts and look for various things in paintings. It was quite an interesting time for the young people to run around, some in their bare feet, looking for historical facts inside the white house. So that ended. That party ended around midnight, i think. Then we waited up for the rez and first lady to be there and answer any questions that they may have for that night and next morning. The next morning, i think it was widely said by mr. And mrs. Clinton that they woke up in the morning and looked at each other and said okay, what do we do next. And im sure thats for all of the families that are there. Hopefully in that morning after january 20th, they have a feeling that they are in a place that they are comfortable, that its their home. What is the transition that needs done the first week or two of any incoming administration. Any new family. Depend on what the families wish to accomplish in that pirs period. Hopefully most of the initial decoration has been done on inaugural day but there may be thought about having additional carpets done or a painting of the room because theyve been eight years in one color maybe they want to change the color or various things. Those planning things go on. But mediacy is in the event they there will be some thank you parties that president will do. Rez and mrs. Carter had the whol wholly inaugural parade for three days after. M early february, president usually has the heads of 50 governor. There will be meetings, swearing in of the white house staff. We dont slow down. It is just a change of administration with the work of the presidency goes on and the work of the staff to support him goes on. I want you to relay the story that happened on september 11th. Not with regard to the trance figures after president but how quickly the staff has to react to intertagsal event. In the morning, you were preparing for a congressal barbecue. That correct. We spent about three weeks in preparation for a congressional barbecue that not people areware of that were to be held on the south ground that evening for the senate, the white house, president s senior staff. There were chuck wagons and picnic tables and barbecue facilities that were also the lawn. And i went out if the morning just before the okay to escort mrs. Pubush who was actually gog down to congress to testify before senator kennedys committee on childhood education. And she was told, mrs. Bush, theres a terrible accident and a plane through into the World Trade Center in new york. He said, you ought to go inside and watch and see what is going on. It is on television. He said it with an understanding that he and i had that there was something more than just an accident. Anyway, after talking to some of my staff, we were still preparing that point, starting to cook meat for that night and various things and i went up to my office and as i walked in the door to my office, i saw a plane on the television fly into building in new york. And i said to one of my assistants, my gosh, how did they get that on camera so quickly . He said, that the second plane. Like something hit me in the stomach. Very hard punch. And i sad down and immediately called the social secretary and told mer thather that i was mak decision to cancel the picnic and i had to get a hold of the people that were coming in to the barbecue that were helping set up for it. A dwrup called the parini ranch people. There from texas to do this barbecue. We had to cancel that and make arrangements for stopping the parttime butlers that were coming in to serve the 2,000 people that would be there. We had an awful lot that we today had to do. It was just a terrifying day on the south ground. At one point everybody had seen the pictures of Police Coming by and telling everybody to run, evacuate the white house and get out. I was able to keep seven men with when on the south grounds and we ended up during the course of the day, because i knew the president was coming back to the whouts, no doubt in my mind what the president was fwoing to do. Come back to the white house. The pentagon helicopters pad was no longer available because of what was going on there. Couldnt go to the Vice President s residence. I knew he was coming to the white house. We stayed there all day and cleaned picnic tables off of the south ground and got it ready for the president s return. He did return later that night after flying in air force 1 over a good part of the country during the course of the day. And went into the oval office and gave the speech to the American People. It was an ongoing security situation the next few days in the white house because no one knew if we would be hit again. There were a number of, myself and a number of other people, who spent about three days there. But we knew what we had do. The president was coming back and he would talk to the American People from the oval office. I knew from the beginning. Wasnt any doubt in my mind. Youve really had a front row seat to history. Unbelievable front row to history through my whole career at the white house. I had the opportunity to greet or meet every head of state from the time i started working here until i left in 2007. And i wouldnt change it for the world. My family wishes that probably i was a home a little bit more and i probably should have been. But the activities of the presidency dont cease and they change from daytoday. Gary walters, former white house chief usher. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your stories. Thank you very much. The president ial inauguration of donald trump is friday. Cspan the have live coverage of all the days event and ceremonies. Watch live on cspan and cspan. Org. And listen live on the free cspan radio app. This weekend, cspan city tour along with our Comcast Cable partners will explain the history of harrisburg, pennsylvania. On cspan 2, author of amiable scoundrel, lincolns secretary of war, talks about the life of one of pennsylvanias prominent political figures of the 19th septemberry. People talk about the age of Andrew Jackson but in many ways should talk about the age of simon cameron. This is a man whose political skills were undeniable and a man who built the political machine that lasted far beyond any of thighs constructed contemporary possess. On cspan 3, visit the site of the wig convention as harry park every explains back room deals and trickery that led to harrison becoming the partys president ial candidate. What makes this convention so special, it was the first time that there was more than one cann candidate put forward for the nomination of the presidency of the united states. And pennsylvania capitol preservation historian wilson takes us on a tour of the Supreme Court chambers in the Supreme Court capitol. There is only 15 to 20year period where a capitol like this would have been built and that was 1890 to about 1910. We call it pennsylvania palace of tart. We were at the height of industry, capitalism, everything was being made and done in pennsylvania at the turn of the last century. The cspan cities touring with saturday at noon eastern on cspan 2s book tv and saturday at noon on cspan 3. Working with our cable affiliate and cities across the country. Next, a look at Public Investment in education. Professors from university of virginia and harvard university. Looking at the future investment under the trump administration. Hosted by the brooking essence tugs in washington, d. C. , this is 50 minutes. Iessence tugs in washington, d. C. , this is 50 minutes. Nessence tugs in washington, d. C. , this is 50 minutes. Nsessence tugs in d. 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