Washington, D.C
I was in D.C. for Jimmy Carter’s inauguration. Let’s take a walk down memory lane | Opinion
The sight of many famous government buildings was a bit daunting for this Eastern Oklahoma girl. Yet, I always believed I were among the lucky few to experience working in the nation’s capital.
Inauguration Day highlights: Swearing-in ceremony
Donald Trump was sworn-in as the 47th president in front of a full audience inside the Capitol Rotunda.
These past few weeks I’ve traveled down memory lane, along with many others focused on the pomp and circumstance of inaugurating a new president.
With the peaceful transition of power from one president to another, I found myself locked in memories of deja vu.
This is how it was and the way we were back in our Washington, D.C., days.
I arrived in D.C. just days before the inauguration of Jimmy Carter. It was 1977. Grassroots politics had always been a part of my life. The hanging of political door knockers in the neighborhood, that is. Never did I ever dream of living in D.C.
At first glance, the sight of many famous government buildings was a bit daunting for this eastern Oklahoma girl. Yet, I always believed I was among the lucky few to start a new job and to experience living and working in the nation’s capital.
On Inauguration Day, it was invigorating to know only a short distance away history was being made. The best thing to do was to drive around D.C. and see if I could crash any political events.
Remember, this was a time long ago without body scanners at every door; officials to check IDs and hours of long lines to get into invitation-only events. The action, really, at that time was pretty easy to find.
I wasn’t even dressed up. Heck, it was the ’70s. I don’t think I even owned a dress. I just bummed around in jeans and sweatshirts.
The events of those days are no longer fully clear in my head. But I do recall one gutsy move.
I crashed a sit-down inaugural dinner that I believe was hosted by the Airline Pilot’s Association. Just walked in and headed to a table. Wish I had kept a monogrammed napkin as a memento.
My new DCF friends took me to the local haunt across the Potomac in Virginia ― a revolving bar. As we sat and sipped adult beverages, the floor and our table slowly moved, or revolved, circling the place around the windows. Consequently, this bird’s-eye tour made it possible to see so much of the D.C. area and inspired a “must visit” tourist list.
Look over there! It’s the Pentagon. Probably was the world’s largest office building at the time. In the day-to-day work week, a daily walk through the Pentagon public area was needed to catch a bus into D.C.
I was honored to work in downtown D.C. and in the Virginia suburbs for a little more than 10 years. Eventually some dressier clothing ― dresses and a few skirts ― were hung in the closet. We were headed into the 1980s.
Each day presented new and epic opportunities (we thought at the time) to enjoy the nation’s Capitol. Nearly every night there was a party to attend as invitations from lobbyists and their staffers were distributed around Capitol Hill offices.
Since space for this column is limited, I’ll hit some of the highlights from over the years:
- At my first job, I was issued credentials as a member of the Press Corp assigned to the Capitol. The work included covering congressional hearings, an occasional White House news conference and many unbelievably important D.C. events.
- One year, a surprise birthday cake was purchased for me from the Watergate bakery, and that made quite an impression on this girl.
- At a local meeting, I met a woman who took me to the White House to see the inside Christmas decorations and the beautifully lighted tree. First lady Rosalynn Carter dashed by at one point and left through a hidden door.
- Most spring and summer holidays, everyone rallied on the mall and the Capitol lawn. The celebrants were treated to fantastic music performances followed by fireworks. One night sticks in my mind, the evening thousands of celebrants were entertained by the Beach Boys.
- At a Kennedy Center performance, I once was seated by chance next to U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers from Arkansas. He fell asleep as the legendary Burt Bacharach performed his greatest hits on a stage piano.
- Business often took me to New York, a fast airline commute. One time while waiting to depart, businessmen in Middle Eastern dress boarded. I felt real fear wondering if there was going to be trouble. Months earlier, the Hanafi Muslims had overtaken the Capitol. My heart sank as these travelers took their seats, but all was well.
- A U.S. senator’s wife took me at the end of spring one year to the Capitol grounds where we retrieved flower bulbs that grounds keepers were tossing as trash.
- One work assignment was to cover the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner. But, what to wear? I borrowed a fancy dress, which made it easier for me to afford a pair of costly heels to complete “the look.”
- Once I spotted an astonishing lack of decorum by one elected official, and I will never forget it.
- A congresswoman walked onto the U.S. House floor for a vote wearing rollers in her hair! Even a small-town girl like me knew that was not cool. What was she thinking?
Andrea Chancellor has more than 20 years of experience in newspaper and magazine journalism and 20 years in corporate public relations.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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