context to which most judges and lawyers turn to, to the extent that it's useful in a particular case. >> and then at 8:00, on the presidency, presidential historians on the most influential first ladies. >> dolly madison, who really shaped informal politics in washington, she really understood that at social gatherin gatherings you could get men to agree to what the president wanted to do or get two warring factions over together over ice cream. >> for our complete schedule, go to c-span.org. valerie jarrett was a top adviser to president obama serving eight years in office. now she is helping the former president set up the obama presidential center on the south side of chicago. she recently sat down for a discussion at the city club of

chicago about her time in the obama administration. >> okay, everybody. we are going to get started. valerie jarrett is longest serving senior adviser to president obama where she oversaw the offices of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs and she chaired the white house counsel on women and girls. throughout her tenure at the white house, valerie worked to mobilize elected officials, community and business leaders and diverse groups of advocates. she led president obama's efforts to expand and strengthen access to the middle class and to boost american businesses and the economy. she fought to empower women, economically and politically in the u.s. and around the world.

and she oversaw the administration's advocacy for workplace policies that empower working families including equal pay, raising the minimum wage, paid leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility and affordable child care. valerie jarrett also led the campaigns to reform our criminal justice system, end sexual assault and reduce gun violence. she has a background in both the public and private sectors. she served as ceo of the habitat company in chicago. chairman of the chicago transit board. commissioner of planning and development for the city. deputy chief of staff for mayor richard m. daly. she's also served as the director of numerous corporate and not for profit boards, including as chairman of the board of the chicago stock exchange, chairman of the university of chicago medical

center board of trustees, director of the federal reserve bank of chicago, she's received numerous awards and honorary degrees including "time" magazine's 100 most influential people. valerie grew up in chicago, received her ba from stanford university and her law degree from the university of michigan law school. just last week, she was appointed to the board of directors of chicago-based reo investments. little point of information on that. her father, dr. james bowman, was one of the original members of the reo board of directors. so the obvious first question is, what's it like to be in your father's seat? >> oh boy. you're going to make me cry at the very beginning? first of all, good afternoon. i'm looking around this room. i think i know almost everybody

here. there's no place like home so thank you very much for welcoming me back here. [ applause ] give me a second to compose myself. it is an extraordinary honor. my dad was one of the original investors. those of you who know john rogers know he started as a young adult. i said you're far too young to start the business and somebody else you're far too young to run for president. so so much for my advice. but my father believed in john and his mission and not only is he an extraordinary business person but a great civic leader here around the united states and around the world so i'm honored to join his board. >> thank you. so after you finished telling then u.s. senator barack obama that he was too young to run for president, what did he say to you? >> the story goes back further. really where i gave him my most

advice is not to run for u.s. senate and those of you from chicago will know she had not that long before lost in the congressional race against congressman bobby rush and so i said, if you run so quickly, then if you lose again, your political career is over. so i don't think that you should do it. and he said, well, i'm going to do it and if i'm not afraid of losing then why are you which was really actually very good sound advice that you have to take risks. he thought his opportunity was right then and he decided to run. so actually, by the time he decided to run for president, i was like, okay, all right. you're kind of young but let's try. and the rest is history. >> how would you describe your experiences as a adviser to president obama over the last eight years? >> oh, extraordinary. best eight years of my life to be able to be there from day one until the last day and have a

chance to see our country come back from what could have been the worst economic crisis of a lifetime and certainly was in my lifetime. not since the great depression were we on the precipice of banks in free fall and losing 750,000 jobs a month and to see us go from an unemployment rate up to 10 to less than 5 and 20 million people with health care, many who didn't have it before and scaling down wars and figuring out how to grow and build the middle class, it was just an extraordinary experience and there were some highs and there were some lows but i wouldn't have traded it for anything. >> what was it like the first day when you -- the team moved into the white house complex? >> stunning is all i can tell you. before we moved in, one of the i was one of the people on the transition team and working after the election preparing for an orderly transition to power

and i give president bush a shout out and the team because they did everything possible to ensure that we could hit the ground running, they were cooperative. they voluntarilied as much information as possible and set the tone and says a lot about our democracy where we really ran a campaign against many of his policies and he knew it was the responsibility to help us and the first time that i went to the white house as a part of the transition team, i went with mike who's here. put up your hand. now with the obama foundation and mike was overseeing the organization or the staffing of the offices of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs. so we go into the white house together an it's right before christmas and the decorations were up and it was just a twilight and we were walking up the grounds and we were petrified to say the least. excited, exhilarated. didn't know what we were going to encounter. just as we went through the checkpoint at the secret service counter, we were first of all

delight ds they let us in. who knows? parking ticket you never paid or -- what might pop up. i was really more worried about mike than myself. we are going through the gates and looking up at the white house all lit up. so exciting and the camera men on the place we called pebble beach to the right of the white house one of the camera men, you you'll remember this, mike, yelled out, welcome to the white house. we burst into tears. both of us i might add. we stood there crying like babies so i mean, really, just if you had asked me growing up what were the chances of i ever working in the white house and knowing, even knowing or meeting the president of the united states, i would have been stunned so that first day was overwhelming to say the least. while the parade was going on, in front of the white house, mike and i were inside trying to figure out where the bathrooms were. >> had you ever been in the

white house before that day? >> two other times. i was lucky enough to be invited as a guest when president clinton was in the white house to an event and then also my cousin worked for president clinton and so i went to her good-bye party but i had certainly not been around it the way we explored and discovered it over the eight years we were there. >> if that was the last day, what was it like on the last day. >> did you hear that sigh? oh my god. >> a groan. >> well, you know, i was determined to be there on the last day. i wanted to finish out the journey and people joke and say how did you last for eight years? there's not a single moment where in my wildest dreams it occurred to me to leave early. why would you leave early when you only come this way once? that last day obviously was bittersweet and i went over early and they have a tradition where they fly a flag on the first and the last day of an administration and then the

people who oversee the house, the white house, deliver the flag to the president and the first lady and so i watched that ceremony and it was quite powerful and emotional as you would imagine. and then i was there when president at that time president-elect trump and vice president spence and spouses arrived and they have a reception and an indication of how hard you have to work no matter how you feel about an election for a smooth and orderly transition and we tried as president bush did for us. but it was painful to see, for example, the house staff who we had all gotten to know on such personal terms come down to say that final good-bye so there were a lot of tears. >> you have been described, valley, as president and michelle obama's first friend. what does that imply? what's that mean? >> we are really good buddies. right? i've known him 26 years.

i was telling the story last friday about how i met them. susan sure who's also here was a corporation counsel and she went me a copy of a resume. michelle robinson. when i was mayor daly's deputy chief of staff and across the top wrote something like outstanding young lawyer. not the bit interested of a law firm. no offense to everybody at law firms. sorry about that. i'm sorry, al. i didn't see you. but i thought, my kind of person because i wasn't too high on law firm life either. interviewed her. i told about how ten minutes in the interview i figured she was interviewing me. and i made her an offer on the spot and then the next thing i'm saying to her, why have you not accepted the offer? she said my fiancee said it doesn't think it's such a great idea. he started as a community organizer and what if he doesn't

agree with something that mayor daly does? so i said, yes to dinner. that was a wise decision i made. >> i take it -- >> enlightning dinner. >> wasn't at valoy's? >> wasn't. but could have been. we lived in hyde park neighborhood. i think it's my mom's favorite in the neighborhood she told me the other day. but it -- it really was the beginning of a -- what i know will be a lifelong friendship and, you know, over the course of 26 years, they married, had 2 amazing children. we were involved with each other both professionally and personally over the course of normal vis tuesdays of life and out of that you find out who you can trust an i'm sure everyone in here who has a friend that you still -- you made friends with 26 years ago you become pretty good friends. >> absolutely. reflecting back at this experience, what do you think were the greatest successes of president obama and his team? >> that's -- that's easy.

i think number one, saving our economy. i mean, the fact that you now have millions and millions of people who have jobs who did not have them and who were at risk of losing them was very important. righting the economy and putting rules in place that the banks were not able to take risks to that degree and too big to fail. we wanted to make sure that we didn't repeat that tragedy again and so those rules are in place and i hope they stay in place. i'm very proud of the work we did around the affordable care act and still confused about how it turned into a politically charged issue. what is wrong with wanting everybody to have affordable health care? i just don't get that. [ applause ] i'm on the international stage. i'm proud of the fact that we were able to strike a deal with the consortium of other countries to ensure that iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons.

re-establishing relationships with cuba. i think president obama tried very hard to show that force isn't the only way to solve big problems. as complex as the world is, you do need to to use diplomacy. not afraid to use force and also use diplomacy and so i think our reputation improved on the world stage. reduced our dependence on foreign oil. i mean, amazing strides we made for energy efficiency. one of the areas i'm concerned about policy going forward. we have to recognize that the climate is changing and the fact that -- the fact we were able to get a nearly 200 countries to come together in paris and sign an accord all making commitments not just government commitments but private sector commitments, too. and thanks to those of you in this room who support those efforts because we do want to leave the environment better to

our children and our grandchildren than we found it so these are a few of the many things i'm very proud about. >> we're proud you were part of that. how about the lack of success? what do you think rankled the president and someone like yourself the most? >> i'll give you three. first of all, i deeply redwret that we were unable to get congress to pass a simplest of laws requiring universal background checks before we give people access to lethal weapons. i just think -- why wouldn't you do that? we focus a lot on the tragic of sandy hook and my worst day in the president's time in office. we heard the news and then just a couple days ago went to newtown and participate in a memorial service for the 20 children and 6 adults who lost their lives so viciously and soon thereafter i came back home to chicago with the first lady an attended the funeral of a victim murdered a mile or so

from where we live in north kenwood/oakland area -- south, a mass tragedy or one daughter, we just can do better. and so that's one big disappointment. another big disappointment was on comprehensive immigration reform. the president believes we are a nation of laws but we are also a nation of immigrants and, you know, part of why we are the beacon of hope to the world and people are drawn to the united states is that this is the land of opportunity. and we should have been able to get congress with the bipartisan support we had to pass comprehensive immigration reform. to path to citizenship of many people in the country and who do contribute mightily to our economy and quality of life as well as providing opportunities for people who come here and enjoy our incredible institutions. we have the best universities in the world and what do we do after they get the degree? send them back home to compete in another country. why wouldn't we want to keep them here?

because those jobs just create more jobs. and then, i suppose the final one is one that's disappointing to me because it was one of my responsibilities and that was to try to get criminal justice reform legislation through congress and the goal there was to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. our prisons and jails as chairman will tell you are full of people who either belong in facilities where they could get treatment for substance abuse or mental health challenges or they deserve to have had a better education and they need a path to diversion and we need to be investing in people when they are incarcerated and we need to be hiring them released from prison and giving them a second chance so that they don't go through the resolving recidivism door and the piece that required congressional action. again, where we have bipartisan support and i tell this story if anyone told me that i would spend the quantity of time that i did with the general counsel

of koch industries, i would say that couldn't be but they were supportive of it. we had grover norquist, fiscally conservative academic on the right and the aclu and everyone in between and yet and still congress refused to act but the good news there is that there is work going on all across the country including right here at cook county, the state of illinois, cities and states and counties passing legislation and the vast majority of people incarcerated are at the state and local level. 2.2 million people in our country are incarcerated in our prisons. 11 million cycle through our jails on an annual basis and so there's a lot of very important work that can be done outside of the federal government. >> thank you. could you describe president obama's management and leadership style? >> sure. >> for us. as a follow-up to that, did you ever tell him no about something and what was his reaction?

>> okay. i'll start with the first one. that was easier. so his -- his management style is -- i think, first of all, takes the long view. and there are lots of decisions that he made as president that might not materialize and come to fruition for years on end. i think part of the challenge when you're an elected official is that you tend to by necessity focus on the election cycle and there are certain things that you can do right after you're elected you can't do in an election year and then finding your moment for really bold change gets limited. and he always managed to say, let's take the long view. there were people, for example, who encouraged him not to go forward with the affordable care act. they said save that for later. it will erode the popularity. his point was what's the point of being popular unless you do both things and this is not a popularity contest.

and he was press cent because if you think about it the legislation contested twice where the lawsuits went all the way up to the supreme court and so it was important that we had that runway because it takes a while to get it done and really i wish we had four more years to be firmly part of the fabric and harder to unravel and it was hard to unravel anyway where we were. because it's a complicated piece of business. so, he takes the long view. he's a very good listener. many of you in this room know him. he's intellectually curious. high emotional iq and gives his undivided attention. whether the junior person in the room or chief of staff, he wanted to hear what people had to say and working in the white house or in my cabinet or in my administration, i know kelly walsh is here, he would appreciate this having served in the commerce department, general counsel of the commerce department, he wanted to know as

much as he could before he made a decision business the president's decisions are pretty important so you want to be informed and you want to make intellectu intellectual decisions and he used to joke with us and say why don't you bring me some of the easy decisions? no, no, no. we make those. that's what your staff does. you get the tough ones, the ones that you keep up at night. so i think it's important to note that he was very, very inclusive in his decision making process and then he wasn't afraid to make a decision. and he didn't just admire the problem and enjoy the conversation. the whole point was to drive it to a conclusion so he could make a decision and then go on to the next one and he was very patient in that to pro sesz and patient not necessarily patient necessarily with all of us. although he never lost his temper. eight years. goodness knows i'm sure we gave him reason to. but he always has that kind of even temper but he was patient in that if he didn't have the

information he needed he didn't make the decision. he would send us back and say, i want you to answer these five more questions and then come back to me and then i'll make it when i'm ready. the other big strength i think is he considered diversity a strength and he wanted to make sure he surrounded himself with a whole range of people who came from different perspectives than he did so that he listened most closely to those with whom he disagreed and i think that improved his decision making, as well. >> sounds like his style is very different than the current occupant of the white house. [ laughter ] >> let me get to the other question you asked me which i didn't answer which was what happens when i say, no? you don't say no. this is my opinion. part again back to the management is that people who were on his team felt so good about the process, the decision making process, that in the end when he made a decision, you

often couldn't remember where did i start on this? did we end up in a different place? because it was one intended to get buy-in and i think when you are running the country and you need so many people to implement your decisions, it's good to include them in the process along the way. makes implementation a lot more smooth and easy. >> you and your colleagues, susan share and others, the other night you said in an interview when you both worked for mayor richard m. daly that you were terrified. >> yes, we were. >> would you -- >> i know -- i'm sorry, nora. well, you know what? because he's the mayor of the city of chicago. and we were still kind of young. and we were thrilled to have these incredible positions that he had given us. i mean, he believed in putting, you know, women in high powered position. was there ever a woman corporation counsel before susan?

i don't think so. and so, we were really very happy to be there and thrilled to be there and he scared us a bit. so it's true. it's true. but the story to finish the story that susan and i were telling, we told this in the context of us being in his office very early soon after she was appointed corporation council and at that i was the commissioner of planning and development and love to tell the story telling so much about him and says soch about culture, and that is, we're sitting there. we're supposed to be paying attention to whatever the topic of the meeting was and neither of us paying any attention at all and kept looking at the watches and so finally he said, what is it that you all want to do that's more important than what we're doing right here? i looked at susan. we had this moment of truth. i said to him, the halloween parade starts in 20 minutes. it is 25 minutes away. and we both held our breath. who knows? we didn't know what he said. he said, what are you doing here? and the relief we felt to have

our boss empower us, we were both single moms. if we didn't show, there would not be a parent there. we go flying down lakeshore drive 100 miles per hour. i know. huh oh. exactly. and we get up to the school just as the little darlings are coming out and you can see them looking through the crowd for us and we were there. we were there because mayor daly gave us permission and not only permission but leaded by example putting family first and i think that model served well as we both worked empty white house to try to encourage our junior staff who had children to be sure to take care of your family. and that you can, you know, you can be in a high-powered position but still be a really good parent. >> so would you say -- [ applause ] by the way, i understand

halloween was his favorite holiday. >> so he got it. he got it. what susan said last friday the best excuse in the world if you had to get out of a meeting is parent/teacher conference. we had lots of parent/teacher conferences. >> it's the lab school. what do you expect? okay. >> he was great. >> so, there were so many women he appointed to meaningful positions. and he obviously recognized talent and energy and creativity. yourself, susan. we could name many others. ingrid comes quickly to my mind at this moment. so was mayor daly you would say a strong feminist? >> yes. unequivocally. i think he raised his children to feel like you can compete on an even playing field regardless of gender and should be mindful of supporting working families

so yes. i think he was -- he was amazingly supportive of each of us. >> good. how close did you come when president obama gave up his senate seat -- >> i knew you were going there. >> it's a city club. we like to probe and find certain things out. how close did you come to making a decision to strike out for that seat and you were quoted as saying that the obamas sort of dissuaded you. could you talk to that? >> yeah, sure, sure. why not? it's just us. right? >> just 340 of your closest friends. >> and whoever is watching on tv. no. i mean, i haven't been asked about it that much but susan and i did talk about it again last week so i think seriously of throwing my hat in the ring and my family and closest friends were all supportive of it and they thought that it would be great to be a u.s. senator, be a

legislate or the. be a principle if you will and do my own thing. so they were all for it. and what the president ultimately said is, look. i know you. i know the senate because i've been there. and i know what i want to build in the white house and i think you will enjoy the executive branch more and you will feel as though your impact could be greater in the executive branch with me with a portfolio that you described of issues that i had cared passionately about for a very long time compared to joining the senate and boy was he right. i'm very, very glad i didn't join the senate. i think for those who did in the work in the senate or house it's extremely frustrating and there are so many people there who are putting the short-term political interests ahead of what i think is the greater good and what's good for our country and so if you talk to our u.s. senators they'll tell you it is really, really us from tratding and i think they do an amazing job and glad they're there fighting for us each and every day but i think i made the right decision

to be in the executive wranch. >> how frustrated, speaking of frustration, would you say that president obama became over the merritt garland and the refusal to give him a senate hearing? >> well, on a scale of one to ten i would put it about a 52. because it's ridiculous. look. he's elected for four-year term. as far as i'm concerned, that four-year term ended january 20th of this year. not a year earlier. it's a first time in history where you have had a vacancy during an election year not filled and last time of a vacancy was for justice kennedy when he was nominated by president reagan. i would mention that vice president biden them chairman of the judiciary committee. the democrats gave justice then judge kennedy a hearing and confirmed almost unanimously. i think unanimously. that's how it's supposed to go. you give a hearing to the nominee in public so that the

american public see for themselves how those questions are answered. if i were you, i would get some input from the constituents and then make a judgment whether or not they're qualified to serve but to simply say because we're an election year, we're going to strip the president of the power he has to make an appointment, it's unheard of. and not only is it unheard of, but then you ended up as we did until now even with a court that's split 4-4. and we all know this is a group of a lot of business and civic leaders, the certainty of the supreme court to give you by having a national law is important. you all don't like uncertainty. operating in multiple states, you can imagine you can have different circuits coming to different laws and that's the law until the supreme court makes the ultimate decision. it is bad for business. provides a lack of certainty to everyone. and it's not the reason why our democracy created the supreme court. soo yeah.

pretty ticked off about that. >> okay. take that to the bank. okay. [ applause ] >> and -- and -- >> yes? >> i'm not done yet on this one. the most -- what i should have led with was there isn't anybody i know that's ever been appointed to the supreme court with better qualifications. here he's the chief judge of the d.c. circuit? he served there 19 years. and in all of the time -- i'm going to beat this dead horse. in all of the time you heard of his appointment held up, i never heard a single republican on the judiciary committee or in the senate say he wasn't completely qualified for the job. >> absolutely. >> all right. i'm done now with that one. >> speaking of elective office, would you consider a run in the future for an elective office? >> i don't think so. >> okay. >> i don't think so. that was very sweet.

thank you for that. no. you know? i think i'm at a different stage of my life. you never say never and i say this because i said i would never, ever work for the federal government and then what did i do? i worked for the federal government. i was frustrated here in local government and you feel as though it's so far away an their programs are not tied to your reality and part of what we try to do and i see derrick here from the university of chicago, when derrick was in the white house, as well, we tried to ensure that our programs were being tailored to the needs of the community. but i think i'm at a different phase of my life. i do want to continue to be a force for good. we just made public today i'm signed on to be a pro bono advise tore the obama foundation and very interested in what it can do. so it's not my day job but it is something i'm very passionate about. i think that the president and the first lady an their team including mike and others who may be here are committed to

making it not only a beacon of hope and an engine and economic engine in chicago on the south side where the south side, a great side of chicago, but for the country and the world. and they are less interested in the library part of it than they are in the center and the foundation which is not looking to the past and all that he did as president and important and educational and historic but to the future and how can the two extraordinarily talented people who are still very young have an impact? and use that as an epicenter for how they develop a platform for engagement with all of you and many, many more to solve some of the big problems that are left unsolved here in our nation and around the world. that's going to take up a good bit of my time and passionate about it. we invite everybody here to participate. it cease something that civic engagement is something you're not hired to do but hopefully born recognizing it is your responsibility to do as a citizen. >> i think we all appreciate

your commitment to that. remember, mike, she said it's not her day job. okay. >> got it. >> it is not my full-time job is what i said but i'm looking forward to working with mike. he's terrific. and has made a big impact since arriving back home in chicago so we've got lots of big things to do together. >> many of us were impressed with the president's wife, with michelle's activities during the last presidential campaign. do you think she could be a candidate to run for public office in the future? >> i think it's safe in saying no. i think that she considered being the first lady of the united states also an unpaid job i might add where you work really hard a great platform to be a force for good and whether it was her efforts around let's move to reduce childhood obesity or the work she and dr. biden did with the military families

to help support them or the reach higher, helping young people aspire to go to college and now a big piece of last year is let girls learn. there's 100 million girls around the world and not in school and staying in school is best indicator of economic success in life and so all these issues that she focused her time an attention were where she felt passionately about the subject and where she thought she could help move the needle and that work will continue both of them will sort through what are the issues that they really want to devote the rest of the lives to and that's focused in their obama center and i think that's where her work will occur. i don't think she will be running for office right now. >> one of the questions that was submitted to us, democratic voters and activists watched as the senate, the house of representatives and the presidency have slipped away to the republican party. what do you think it will take

to right what appears to many to be a sinking ship? >> interesting question. i don't think our ship is sinking. and in fact, i'm still very optimistic about our country and part of it is that i now get to spend so much time out of washington and when you do you see the amazing transformation happening across our country on a whole host of different metric points and i think that what's going to -- what it's going to take is the -- for example, the 43% of the people that didn't vote in the last election getting engaged. i don't just mean when there's a presidential election. it's really important who is your -- who your alderman is, and the county board and the mayor and the governor and the state legislature is. one of the areas where eric holder, the former attorney general is spending time and president obama will help him, is on the whole issue of redistricted. we have gerrymandered the lines in such a way that the american

people aren't getting a fair voice and so i think my optimism comes from the opportunity and the potential for civic engagement and when the american people decide that they want to get involved and elect people they think represent them and come and turn out and vote then that's when things will change and i'm hoping that happens soon. and we want to create i think -- i mean, part of what the president -- president obama -- i have to keep saying president obama now. it's confusing. the's lots of presidents. so i think what president obama's really interested in is one of the things he's very interested in is creating a mechanism by which young people can find out the best practices to run for office. i meet people across the country who are interested but they don't know where to begin. they want to get civically involved but how do you do that?

teaching civic engagement and civic organization is a way to pull into the obama center not just people in the united states but around the world who are the young leaders and the what really is kind of like is preparing for a marathon.

tom, where are you? >> all the way in the back. >> way in the back, okay. that's good. he wants to know, all the work that your team about did to structure a smooth transition, it appears that the current administration has ignored that or chose not to act. how do you really feel? >> thanks, tom. look, our job -- and i mean this most sincerely.

our job is to do the very best job we could, preparing as many transition -- both documents and in-person meetings as possible. so that they have the benefit of what we learned over eight years. then it's up to them to choose how to go forward. elections matter. they have consequences. and i can't tell you that we accepted everything that president bush's team told us. we didn't. each new administration is free to make their own decisions. and so all i can comment on was what my job was, and that was to work very hard. we learned a lot over eight years. we tried to distill it and put it in an intelligent form. and then you transfer it over like a baton. and then it's up to them. >> there are a couple questions that we have, but we didn't -- won't have time. but i'm just curious. the girls. sasha and malia. they seem to be two incredible people. >> they're terrific. >> which is a real positive for whatever michelle and the president -- >> it's attribute to their

parents and their hard work, too. >> and mrs. robinson. >> a gem. >> what was she like? >> she's wonderful. she's wonderful. and i think if you were to ask the president and first lady, what truly made a difference -- susan is nodding, first lady's chief of staff for a period early on. it was having -- there's nothing like having your mom right there, helping out where -- when you were living in this completely different world and the world they lived in chicago. and i was a single mom. and i know i couldn't have made it without the help from my parents. and so having her there, having that continuity, having another adult there, if the two of them had to be out of town, knowing that there was someone that the girls loved deeply and sincerely, who only had their best interests at heart, right there, living under their roof, was absolutely essential and made a huge difference. >> we didn't even ask about the dogs. >> well -- bo and sunny are just

precious. adorable. somebody asked me were the president and first lady taking their dogs with them when they left the white house. and i thought, you obviously don't have dogs. of course they're taking their dogs with them. >> absolutely. valle valley valley, is there a book in the future? >> yes, i hope. so i just have to determine if i have the discipline to write it. but i have a lot to say, as you can tell. >> when you do write it, of course. >> i come back here -- >> you're going to come back here, we'll sell the book. >> i might just do that. particularly if you're going to help me sell the book. thank you. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. >> don't leave yet. we have some thank yous. we just have a couple items of business. >> gifts! >> this is a lifetime membership to the city club of chicago. >> that's good. thank you. that comes in handy.

it really does. >> the famous city club mug, often imitated, never duplicated. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> and then if we could ask you to close your eyes and pick out one of these business cards out of here. for our drawing. >> what do i get? >> normally it's a trip to the islands. blue, stony or goose. >> a hewleh! >> but something different today. a $200 imagine anno gift certificate. >> can he accept it? >> a public official. do we have a rule on that? no. joe, sorry. >> yeah, that's a tough one for you. >> it was joe moore. but we're going to pick out another name. >> oh! >> want to pull out another one? >> yes. you know joe isn't going to take that. >> no. he deals with ethics and ethics resolutions and -- what have you. we don't want to get him in trouble.

kari daniels with dlz business development. thank you so much. jay? kari, if you'll just see jack thornton. let's everybody -- anthony cek, coe, one of our board of governors. let's everybody give valerie jarrett a big round of applause. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you. how precious. >> thank you.

president trump will mark his 100th day in office with a rally in harrisburg, pennsylvania, saturday night. that's scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. eastern, and you can see it live on our companion network, c-span. and for the first time since ronald reagan was shot, the president is not attending the white house correspondents' association dinner. the dinner is going on, nonetheless. the entertainment is hasan manage, of "the daily show." our coverage begins at 9:30 p.m. eastern. >> sunday on "q & a," the house of truth, the washington political salon. we talk with author brad

schneider. felix frankfurter, walter lipman, oliver wendell holmes jr. and herbert hoover, who meat regularly in the early 1900s to debate politics and the future of the country. >> i think everybody associated with this house, frankfurter, lipman, race wasn't a salient issue. they cared about the rights of workers, and it took oliver wendell holmes jr. in a 1923 case known as moore v. dempsey which found for the first time that the mob dominated criminal trials of southern blacks, violated the due process clause. that's the first time the supreme court struck down a state criminal conviction under the due process clause. that was a huge moment in putting fair criminal trials on the liberal agenda and linking the idea of fair criminal trials with race. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q & a."