Im susan eisenhower, and its a terrific pleasure to be here today to have a conversation with dr. Lynne cheney and karl rove. This is a real honor for me and a real treat to be able to have kind of an intimate conversation about the executive power in the United States, to actually wield power alongside of the president of the United States and also to talk about what its like to be behind the scenes. Let me just say very quickly of my cough, im not sick. [laughter] i dont know, you came back from wuhan with that cough. [laughter] feeling all right . Youre a little warm, little warm. Lynne, you want to change . I think the two women ought to be here i had to clean out somebodys fireplace flue the other day and inhailed some fire smoke. In any case, dont be alarmed if i find myself coughing. Its really a thrill to talk to you again. And as i had some experience as a child with what its like to be in the company of people who wielding enormous power, to observe both the pressures of the
We wooel weel well look at challenges of the presidency. Four top aides, all of usveat sd president s of the tooits United States and weve seen the ities qualities of what takes for a r president to be able to govern. Weve seen qualities both good and bad. And i guess thats what i want to begin with. Is looking at president s that each of these individuals serve. What was their greatest strengtt and what was their greatest weakness . And how do you think history is going to look at them . We are talking about president reagan, president clent kbron, president bush and president le obama. Lets start with president reagan. Ken . Leon, thank you very much. Leave it to leon and sylvia to put together an alpha bet panbe. David axle rod, a. Ber skin boels, b. Rod, andy card, c. And duber steen, d. M aep p for pa netta. All of it is an absolutely joying to here with leon and ray and all of you. Ronald reagans greasest strengths. He knew why he ran for the presidency. And he knew what he would
Thank you, thank you all very much. And i welcome all of you to our final forum of our lecture series this year. Our theme as you all know is looking at 100 years since world war 1, 2014, 1914, an awful lot of history has occurred during that time. And to onanalyze the changes th have been made, we looked at war and peace and the changes in that arena, we have looked at government and we have also looked at the issue of freedom versus security. Tonight were going to look at the president of the United States and how president s make decisions. And president s very frankly influence all of those other areas that we just talked about. The president of the United States has today assumed incredible responsibilities in facing incredible pressures in that position. Since 1914, we have had 17 president s. Of the United States, all of whom will have various places in history. We have gone from wilson to harding, truman to roosevelt, kennedy to carter and reagan, johnson to bush and obama. Wha
The most important Strategic Initiative of any president over the last 40, 50 years, it was the strategic triangle of nixon and kissinger to allow the United States to build better relations with both china and the soviet union than they had with each other. And it was cia intelligence that provided the impetus to suggest that we could do this and as a result the soviet union would have to engage us which they did in terms of the treaty of berlin and the arms control agreements and we would end up with very good bilateral relations with both of them. So, the cia can be effective as a support instrument in this area. In terms of what needs to be done, because im running out of my time, i think we could do ourselves a lot of good by going back to that oped that president truman wrote in december of 1963. The warning about covert action, the warning that covert action is policy. And covert action, therefore, can taint clandestine collection and even taint intelligence analysis. That the c
Good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington where theres a lot of news today. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning in a case that could have big impact on tens of millions of women across the country. At issue is the case of peggy young, a former u. P. S. Worker who requested a temporary transfer back in 2006 to light duty. So she wouldnt have to lift heavy packages while pregnant. As advised by her doctor. But u. P. S. Refused and young had to take an unpaid leave of absence losing her medical insurance. She spoke a short time ago outside the court. I want all of the women out there to know that you have a voice, and you need to use it. We want to start our families, we should be able to start our families and continue work at the same time. Is it Workplace Discrimination . Should companies be required to make accommodations for workers who cannot perform on the job because of pregnancy . Joining me now, nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams from the Supreme