Transcripts For CSPAN 20161019

Nancy pelosi, of course. Legislative affairs has a huge role. They are trying to get as many members of congress as possible. Engagementof public wants to invite folks. It is a huge amount of compromise and debate. Many names in the media. Chuck todd. Gayle king of cbs. What is the rationale behind inviting the media . Shop puts a lot of effort into who they want to see there. It is a way for them to see dinner and state ten have a part of the experience. Been 13 of them, they have been able to spread it out. The surprising people showing up. Chance the rapper. His dad is a former colleague of mine, working with then senator obama. Longtime chicago friend. Great seeing him there. Also, jerry seinfeld. One of the reporters said, you are not italian. Why are you here . Is there thinking about, lets think some people and think about our future . You saw a number of wonderful chefs. Rachael ray. Their friend, mario batali helping prepare the meal. Read aty of ideas crosssection of america, really. Comedian. N actor or ultimately who gets the invitation. Is the Prime Minister get to invite anyone . Yes. His government leaders, Leaders Within his government. ,here are a few celebrities italian celebrities. They get to come, too. That takes up acer certain number of spots as well in the dinner. Giorgio armani. Tell our viewers a little bit about him. Born in florence, 1975. Arid, three children. Married, three children. Became the mayor of florence at age 34. 2014, he became the youngest Prime Minister of italy. Name, thethe demolition man, for his out oldess to toss programs. He has been called a progressive. The president refers to the changes he is willing to make. He has the nato alliance. The military cooperation. The trade. Is that, how much of it is policy when the white house is thinking about, who should we invite . That is the majority, that is how they decide what country to invite and what state heads should be honored and invited with a state dinner and state visit. Along with that comes the arrival ceremony. Nsc determining that, as well as the state department. Made, it becomes an administration wide effort to make sure we are showing the friendship. I want our viewers to take a look at the administration and the countries they have chosen to honor. Indias Prime Minister. That, the president of mexico, china. And then germany, south korea. The u. K. , france, japan, china, canada. The nordic leaders were all invited. Singapore and then italy. Singapore was just august 2. What you make about the turnover . Fabulousthinking, this social secretary, she has had four this year. About as much as we have had. I think we probably worked through a lot of the kinks. Not that there are kinks. Arestaff at the white house True Professionals and can help you get through anything. Did the approach to state dinners change over the years . They have fun with it. Celebrating and honoring a good friendship and diplomatic ties. It is going to have entertainment, wonderful food. They want to have lightheartedness. Tonight, we are celebrating a accomplishments. Speaking of entertainment, here is an article. Sons phani and her meetstefani and her sons the president. This is his 13th. He also had an official visit for the pope. Compare that to george w. Bush, who had 11 state dinners. Clinton, who had 28. What do you make of those numbers . Fors that is a lot of work president clinton social secretaries. I think is a difference of style. I dont think it indicates a whole lot. Years, it does take a lot of effort. It is a building wide endeavor. Month, i dont know how many that was, that is a lot of work. Ask how many staff, staff working on it . Everybody. Everybody is there. Clearly, today was perfect. It is nerveracking. You have butterflies in your stomach. What it was like, here we go again, wanting to make sure everything was perfect. Months intions start advance . Three or four. You bring up the guest list, where you want to do it. 200 people. If you want to bring in a guest li,f, like mario nbata sometimes white house chef is the person that does the dinners. The florist has to design which colors to use. The seasonality of these. Some of the desserts are going to be pumpkins and apples and things like that. That goes into it, too. July, letsaugust, think about how it will be october. We will show our viewers the state dinner preview. Yesterday. The chef speaks. The current social secretary said they were working over the weekend. Today have volunteers that help them out . Not during state dinners so much. You are probably putting the tent up. We had a tent. I remember having to be there. Making sure it all went ok. They were very accomplished. What about the cost . Italy, the first dinner, cost 1 million. Compared to singapore, which 203,000. Of 3000 department pays for the state dinners. They are a true partner. She held my hand through it all. It models how many folks you invite, if you do a tent, that tends to be more expensive. Very based on the number of folks that are there. People remember it because of the white house crashers. When you took over in 2010, what changes were made to make sure that did not happen again . The state dinner for india was beautiful. The chef, marcus samuelson, it was wonderful. That was beautiful. It was a shame we had crashers come in. It was a matter of making sure we communicated very clearly and the list, made sure we knew every person on the lists. A few little tweaks here and there. A lot of fretting about that . A little but fretting. Secret service is in charge of this evening . They are wonderful, they are great partners. They will make sure everything goes smoothly and unobtrusively. For the guest list, do people have to supply their Social Security and all that Sensitive Information . You have to order a government issued id. On an airplane. You have to get your Social Security number, date and place of birth. You are checked in by the secret service and then one more time on the east side of the building. You go through, make sure there is nothing on your person. Dinner, there are some interesting leaders honored at the dinner. Protocol when a leader comes by themselves . I think they held it handled it perfectly. You got annexed receipt. An extra seat. There were celebrities he got to sit between. I think it worked out perfectly. Honoring the nordic countries. What would the logistics be like . I would have been kicking, saying are you sure this is a good idea . Was aeat about it, it group of countries we do have Close Relationships with. It was wonderful to have them altogether. The issue is, when anybody has a dinner party at their home, you want to make sure you have their dietary restrictions right. You have to make sure that is the case for all of the leaders. It can be different and timeconsuming. That is where the Protocol Office helps us. What are they telling you . How do they prepare you . Placey have systems in for a long time. They work with the honored , saying, what does he not like . If he hates carrots, there will not be carrots. You find out these things ahead of time. And if you are a vegetarian, we will make sure you have a vegetarian plate. We will talk more about the arrangementsal coming up. Lets talk more about what we saw earlier. Arrival, thetico front door of the white house. Where is the guest of honor coming from before they arrive . They are coming from where they are staying. Some folks stay at blair house. Some folks might be staying at the italian ambassadors house. We couldnt drive through the north portico. It is exciting make it to drive right in. It is right across the street from the white house which is where the Prime Minister and wife are staying. They turn, the couples turn and then they go back inside. Where do they go from there . Upstairs topside the private residence. They have a smaller reception in the home, what is the president and first ladys home. The leadership and both governments up there as well to mix and mingle for about 20 minutes. And then the colors are resented to the president. And then you saw them walk down the stairs. The colors . The flags of our countries. You go up and say, are you ready to receive the colors . They go down the stairs. What is the tradition behind this . What is the tradition behind this . That is a good question. You are coming into our countrys home. The white house, the peoples house. Also in their personal quarters, their private quarters. The marine band plays, sometimes, healed to the chief. Hail to the chief. What happens next . Receivinge doing the line. I would imagine, the four of them would stand in the blue room. The guests would be announced. Into theake their way tent on the south lawn. When do the toasts take place . That would probably be coming up shortly. I dont know how they are getting down to the tent. It is a Beautiful Day so women do not have to have their heels sink in. All kinds of logistics to move that many folks from the building down to the tent. I saw that before at the mexico state dinner, to get folks down. ,any of the ladies attending they will be making their way gingerly. A lot of people waiting to hear what she will be wearing. That is something we talked with the fashion critic for the washington post. Take a listen to what she had to tell us. Obamabe the michelle style. Her state dinner style. I think when she dresses for grand state occasions, the thing that distinguishes her sensibility from that of the first lady is it is much more rooted in a contemporary hollywood idea of what is going on. By that i mean, she is not wearing anything revealing. Ofre is a certain kind modern edge to it that taps in what we are used to seeing coming down the red carpet. Less regal and more glamorous. Has it changed over the last eight years . Be, inwalk has gotten to some ways, a little more relaxed if that makes sense. When i think back to the first state dinner for india, the dress is gorgeous. Shebang. He whole she looked wonderful. Dinners, whenter she wore a dress by curling a inarera by carol herrera, there was an in for melody. It felt more like glamorous sports where. What do you think the impact has been on the role of first lady but also, some have called them diplomatic art . The first thing is, we all want to be proud of the people in the white house. In that way, we want to be proud of their hospitality. We want them to put their best foot forward. The notion of fashion is something that is embedded into their culture. Areher part of it is, these momentous moments. House that is a norm s. Into thely puts them public vernacular in a way red carpets do not but puts them in the history book. It lends a certain gravity to what they do. A certain gravity to the American Fashion industry is food,s important as the the auto industry. All of the other things that go into creating that state dinner. How does she go about choosing her dress and choosing the designer . When we paint each others my sense is the first thing is she wears what she wants. She wears what she feels comfortable in. I think there is some attention country beingm honored. An effort to a knowledge that directly by working with the designer who has that sort of ethnicity in their background. Sometimes it is just a matter of paying tribute to a particular owerr or flour that is fl that is important to that country. Last year, you wrote, she chose a vera wang dress. It was a diplomatic clarification. Can you explain . Now i am trying to remember what it looked like . As opposed to the one she chose for the first state dinner . The first dinner, it was beautiful, it was red. Designed by sarah burton. A British Fashion house. Vera wang is a very wellknown chineseamerican. Around, she had gotten criticism from particularly the american industry, who felt this was one of the occasions she had the opportunity to elevate American Design and to wear a dress by an American Designer. Industry felt she had missed an opportunity. This was a bit of a do over. There was any knowledge and and knowledge meant an acknowledgement the first time was a misstep. Wasought the herrera dress nice. Of the lastnd one. It was such a surprise. One of the things she does quite well, one of the reasons people are eager to see what she is going to wear, is because she does not just go with design houses that have been around for decades. Brendan mackerel hasnt even been in business for more than a year. Wore before, had not been in business very long. That is really nice to see. She is supporting small businesses. In the true sense of the word. Thank you for your time. And tonights state dinner dress versace. R such a tweeting, she looks flawless. Ceis comes from the versa fashion house. The first lady has had a major impact on the fashion industry. , following anlue appearance by the first lady, was 14 million. The dresses often sell out immediately. This diplomatic art. She tries to think about the diplomacy aspect. Robin said it best. When you are honoring a certain country, she looks for a designer that might have a british background in their history. Versace. N, is a wonderfully talented in doing that and looking so beautiful. It was so exciting looking and seeing those dresses. Does she approached designers . Do designers approached the white house . Likes andws what she she is really good at it. On the other side, they are clamoring to dress her. Does she have a stylist . She is a wonderful person who helps the first lady. You can see the work that goes into that. The first lady has a natural style, too. These dresses by these designers are really expensive dresses. Does she pay for them herself or does she paid full price . Yes, she does. To these designers ever donate the dresses . I think they do. I think it is a casebycase basis. Did they go to the National Archives . I think that is the plan, maybe going to the obama library. Some of the libraries have their spouses dresses on there we will see after they leave. Why is the designer kept secret . Thats funny. Watching this, that is one of the highlights of working there. Its not like we were getting ready to say ok, guys, what do you think . We all have our headset pieces in and we think, oh she looks stunning, she looks great. She looked gorgeous. All the first ladies do when its happening, i think. Its an exciting time. What about the president . He just wears a tex ito and looks great. Has he worn the same tax the the whole tuxedo time . I am not sure. This is a story i can tell you. We saw the president and the Prime Minister come down the grand staircase. He was getting ready for a state trip to china, his button fell off. We were like, what are we going to do . Around and find some thread and so the button back on. Crisis averted. People were like, what took so long . I will tell you later. Host what was his reaction . Guest its fine, its fine. It all worked out. Look back atake a Michelle Obamas Design Choices and dress choices over the past eight years. Fromt together a montage the cspan archives. Take a look. Host a look back at the first ladies dress choice for the past eight years at the 12 state dinners. Tonight is the 13th state dinner administration, and it is the last. They are honoring italian Prime Minister matteo renzi, who is at the white house with his wife and 400 of their closest friends who have been invited to tonights state dinner. There taking a look back at last eight years and what the approach has been from this administration to the state dinners. Juliana is here with us in studio, former social secretary for the administration. I just went to get your reaction to this. Guest chefi is the tonight. Why a guest chef . Is this unprecedented . Guest i do not know if the obamas were the first to bring in a guest chef or not, but its a great idea, and mario, i wish we could get a sampling of the food. For the one i did for mexico, we had written a less rick and it was wonderful. He fixed an amazing meal and everyone was thrilled. It can be intimidating for these chefs. They prepare wonderful cuisine, but probably not for 200 people that all has to be served t the same time. That is where Chris Comerford comes in, the white house chef, who is just fabulous. I think she loves having these guest chefs. She gets to show them how she does things. She is right there beside them making sure everything gets out on time. The mario was part of preparations. As we were talking, he was sending photos on instagram. Squash. Es of you can imagine the logistics of trying to get hot food out. Guest but they know how to do it. Its like the flight of the butterflies, almost. Its beautiful. Host what is the kitchen like on a night like this . Inst when they do it dinner the state dining room, they have an old family dining room just off the state dining room where they have it all set up. They have the paper down on the floor, stations set and ready to go. It is a huge production. Tables and all the the stations and get it out. Het mario told one reporter wanted to bring his own ingredients and he was surprised when the white house said you cant. What kind of security is there around the president s food . Guest its very secure, of course. The white house has it under lock and key and knows exactly what is coming in and what will be served. Happened once with me, but they understand. Host tonights entertainment, Gwen Stephani will be performing. How many songs will she saying, typically . Guest probably two or three, i would think. They had the state dinner for mexico, beyonce was there, which was great. Host how do they go about deciding who the entertainment is question mark is at the first ladies decision . And thehe first lady president have conversations about it and decide who they would like to come, who the honored guest is a fan of. It goes back to protocol. You know what flowers they like, what do they like, what kind of food they like. Its a research project. Learned about the flowers and food that will be served tonight when we did a state dinner preview. Take a look. Good afternoon. I am the white house social secretary. It is my honor and privilege to welcome you here today for the press preview of the state dinner. Tomorrow, president and mrs. The attackwell come welcome the italian Prime Minister for the 13th and final of thisnner administration. Get into the delicious cuisine we plan on serving, i want to tell you about the decorah. Tomorrows dinner will be taking place on the south lawn in a tent covered in chandeliers and mirrored cocktail tables to reflect the beautiful bouquet and candlelight. We will have handmade glassware as well as neoflorentine handpainted goldleaf charcoal. You to theay a thank many people who put this together. As you can imagine, we have a huge team of folks who help, including the secret service, the military office, the state executive, the office, the white house communication agency, and the security council. Executiveand i cannot do any os without my fabulous social office team who are here today, who are going to introduce themselves. Quakes hi there. I am lauren kelly, deputy social secretary, originally from des moines, iowa. I am the deputy associate director in the social office, and i am from the bay area. I am also deputy associate director in the social office. I am originally from new york city. I am a deputy associate director in the social office and i am from silver spring, maryland. [indiscernible] and i am from indianapolis, indiana. Is working to make the visit so wonderful for you tomorrow. Without further a do, i will send it over to charlie from the security council. Quakes could afternoon, everyone. I am the specialists could afternoon, everyone. I am be a special assistant to the director , everyone. Ernoon i am a special assistant to the director for european affairs. The official visit and state dinner to honor the Prime Minister and his wife provides an opportunity for the president to build on a strong betweenship that exists the United States and italy, as well as to build on the strong, personal friendship that the president has built with Prime Minister renzi over the last few years. The president sees this as a very important meeting and an opportunity to reciprocate for the hospitality that the prime both to the shown president as well as to his family and italy. Wants to essentially demonstrate the strength of the relationship with italy, as well as to get behind and put wind in of sales of someone sails someone he sees as one of the most promising politicians in europe. The president and Prime Minister sher a great deal of common ground. Prime minister renzi is in the some very important political and Economic Reforms in italy, attempting to streamline the political system and make it more effective. He is attempting to boost growth in employment through structural reforms. These are issues the president and Prime Minister will discuss tomorrow, and the president strongly supports the efforts of the Prime Minister to undertake these reforms. I think president obama also sees in Prime Minister renzi someone who is very important to the future of europe. It goes without saying that europe has faced tough times over the last couple of years. Sluggish growth, the migration , a moregee crisis aggressive russia, and all of this has combined to create an undercurrent of populism and besteu sentiment, perhaps exemplified by the recent vote in the United Kingdom to move toward an exit from the eu Prime Minister renzi is someone who believes in a strong and integrated europe. He is someone who has laid out an agenda in conversations with his european counterparts about how to revitalize the european project, realogy demise it, brief new life into it. Relegitimate it, breathe finn to it. His progrowth agenda is one life intoobama new it. His progrowth agenda is one president obama supports. This is a topic that will be at the center of the discussions tomorrow. Let me briefly run through what i think the conversation will focus on. First, reforms domestically in italy, but also within europe to help drive forward the project of integration, to speak to the needs of average europeans, to boost growth, to bring down unemployment, particularly among. Uropean youth there will obviously be a conversation about the ongoing migration crisis. The situation in the aegean has improved. Be oncus tomorrow will the central mediterranean, where we continue to see migrants coming. There will be a discussion of how to address that crisis in an orderly and humane way. There will be a discussion of the cooperation between the United States and italy on everything from the counter isil campaign to defense cooperation in nato and the efforts by europeans and americans to advance the fight against terrorism. , i expect there to be a conversation about the ongoing conflict in ukraine and how the United States can work with italy and at least european address a europe that is confronted with a more aggressive russia. I will now turn things over to. He executive pastry chef susan good afternoon, everyone. My name is susan morrison. Almost everybody calls me susie. I have a desert in my hand that is a flaky and ellicott crust delicate crust filled with a tender batterer and lightly poached green apple. And a a caramel sauce soft crumble top tube with a topped withelato a buttermilk gelato. In keeping with the theme of the have a handmade dessert creation made of chocolate and poured sugar that includes a chocolate pumpkin , and of course we have to have a little chocolate beehive. Pastryiature selections include a pumpkin iramisu,y tart, term 80 chocolate fig leaf, and an orange a chocolate fig leaf, and an orange slice. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am the white house executive chef. The state dinner tomorrow will celebrate our fall harvest and a lot of italian dishes that have been embraced in our american cuisine. As part of the canapes we will be passing, we will have smoked rainbow trout, roasted figs from california, some wonderful basil , crab cannoli, how much he from hawaii, a dish from sweet and sour eggplant. We have some rosemary that came from the garden. Our objective is to utilize as much as we have from our fall garden harvest. For the main course, we are doing a classic italian dish in aan american beef ancote. Pe it is kind of a 10 minute diversion of the normal flank of a that version normal flank steak that would be praised for hours. We have a Butternut Squash and pumpkin finished off with a cheese from new york. For the first course, we are serving a sweet potato onion motif that has been garnished with a wonderful Monterey Jack and wenoma, california, have used a lot of wonderful all of oils that are part of sonoma county, california. I think thats it for dinner. Right . [indiscernible] [laughter] hello, everybody. And i ams mario c helping to make the dinner tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do. Our day is full. I brought you a taste of one of the dishes we are making. I am going to pass it around. I am proud to be here. I am proud to be an american. Celebrity chefs and restaurant tour mario vitali surprising the media, giving them a taste of the state dinner tonight. Its underway at the white house and we have coverage of it here on cspan for all of you. We showed you the north portico arrival and the descending down the grand staircase. Toastt is the traditional the two leaders will be giving each other. We will try to bring that to you live if we can hear on cspan. In the meantime, Julianna Smoot is with us in studio to talk about the last eight years as social secretary. Lets talk about the seating arrangement. Who decides who is sitting where and by whom they are sitting . Compromise is a huge as well. If you have planned a wedding or a dinner party where you have talkative guests and not talkative guests, you have to take that into account. The tables seat eight. Generally, the president and first lady like to have couples sit together. Theould be that they sit at same table, which would be fine. You would have couples together. A couple of italians and a couple of americans, government leaders at each table, and then you would stick them in with, you know, the regular people. Gwen stephani, if she were going to eat. You do aut number of friend through his for that. You do a number of run throughs for that. Somebody cancels last minute or has an rsvp at the last minute, there are lastminute glitches, but you need to start the seating chart probably three days ahead of time to get it going. There is no panic like not having the seating chart. Host some of the regular folks tonight include chance the rapper, who tweeted this out. Also, frank ocean tweeting. Showing off his footwear for the evening. Fromt lots of questions reporters about why he decided vans this evening. It would be interesting to know. Hat table they are sitting at in terms of choosing the plate where, the glassware, what are those conversations like . There are all different kinds of china you can use for state dinners. Sometimes it depends on what you are serving. If you are having a red sauce, you might not want to put it on an orange bordered china. A matter of figuring out how many people are coming. My last state dinner, i wanted to do finger bowls. I thought that would be so great. The butlers said it could be a bit of an issue because people dont use finger bowls. You would have to explain it at every table. So we decided not to do it. But it was interesting. Of course, coming up, the president and Prime Minister will toast each other and talk italythe u. S. Relationship, something the president has done many, many times over the last eight years. Here is a look back at all of the toasts he has given in 2000 since 2009. Mr. Obama i want to close with the words your first Prime Minister spoke at that midnight hour on the eve of Indian Independence because those words speak to our hopes tonight. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, the opening of opportunity to the great triumphs and achievements that await us. The past is over, and it is the future that beckons us now. And yet, we know that life is , as the extraordinary writer wrote in one of his poems. You must deserve your dream. Chinesed there is a proverb that says if you want one year of prosperity, go green. Grosgrain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. So i propose a toast. Tonight we honor angela merkel, not for being denied her freedom or even for attaining her freedom, but for what she achieved when she gained her freedom. Politics determined to lead a united germany. The first german chancellor in german history and an eloquent voice for human rights and dignity around the world. This evening, i want your country to know what korea has meant to america. [speaking korean] of our alliance, i think, is embodied in the concept that is uniquely korean. It doesnt translate that easily, but it reflects the affection and bonds of the heart that cannot be broken and grow stronger with time. To her majesty the queen on her diamond jubilee. To our dear friends david and on the great purpose and design of our alliance. We remain, now and always, faithful servants. Cheers, everyone. Toast. I propose a to our friend and partner, president hollande, to all of our friends here today. France,. Bless america, and long live the alliance between our great god bless america, and long live the alliance between our great nations. Just as you say in china that the sea excepts 100 rivers , our countryivers thetronger when we accept diversity and views and contributions of all of our rivers. A alliance between the United States and canada. To our friends, justin and sophie. Americansship between and canadians. The spirit that binds us together. Abidingine, deep, and respect for each and every human being. Cheers. If you have visited any of these nordic countries, everything is orderly. Everything is clean. Everybody is well behaved. Even prompted a bestselling book called the almost nearly perfect people. There were some shockers. Apparently, nordic people can aboutto heated arguments which country is happiest. That, as wender pursue a more peaceful and prosperous order in the asian pacific, our partnership is strategicmore than interests. We are bound together by family and friendship, the dedication of our men and women in uniform flying across the skies, the excitement of our students and entrepreneurs who crossed the oceans to learn and work with each other, and the leadership of a son of singapore who is respected around the world and a trusted partner to the United States. Host president president obama giving the traditional toast. A are honoring italy Prime Minister matteo renzi. Julianna smoot, what goes into the toast . Who writes these toasts . Who gets to have input on them . Juliana they are so eloquent, and the president does them so well, so he ultimately decides. But the speechwriters, the nsa, and the staff in the white house held put that together, and he is great delivering it. Organization the behind the toast. What goes into that, the protocol and the logistics of it . That is through the department of state. Do a the toast they toast, we do a toast, and we know where the glass is. See sometimes he has a different glass than what the leader might have. Orchestratedy well. There is a walkthrough prior, too, so they know what to do. Greta we are waiting on the toast. That will be coming up shortly. But as we wrap up our conversation with you, Julianna Smoot, what advice would you give to the next administration about president obama and Michelle Obamas of which to state dinners, and approach to state dinners, and what would you pass along to the next administration . Ianna i am proud to be an american, but i will i am very proud to watch the state dinner. The folks did such a great job. The great thing is it is bipartisan, or nonpartisan. When you get out of the white house or get to the white house, it is amazing how wonderful the staff is. They will let you know, president bush did it well this way. We figured this out with him. We figured this out with president obama. Thathere is previous staff will be more than willing to help for the next administration. Thank you. We enjoyed the conversation. The president and Prime Minister will beginning this toast shortly, and will be bringing those when that happens. First, we want to take a look back at some of the