Melania Trump visits Children’s National Hospital, accompanied by escorts Faith Hinkle and Riley Whitney, celebrating the Bunny Mellon Healing Garden’s grand opening. She reads How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett, playfully imagining Santa’s antics—shrinking, turning into fire, or using mail slots—while joking about his dog interactions. The hospital’s holiday tradition continues, with Trump praised for her children’s health advocacy, while a Navy veteran’s flag replacement program gains Comcast’s community support, underscoring public service beyond politics. [Automatically generated summary]
Host Dasha Burns sits down with Democratic California Congressman Roe Conna and Republican Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon for a bipartisan dialogue on the top issues facing the country, including rising U.S. tensions with Venezuela and the future of ACA subsidies.
Bridging the divide in American politics.
Watch Ceasefire today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN.
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And now First Lady Melania Trump reads the book, How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett while visiting patients at the Children's National Hospital here in Washington.
Good morning.
My name is Kellen McLean, and 10 years ago, I was a patient at Children's National Hospital, where I met our special guest at the Bunny Mellon Healing Garden Grand Opening.
Today, I'm a student at the Virginia Military Institute, fulfilling a dream I had since the beginning of my treatment at Children's National.
I am incredibly grateful for the treatment I received at Children's National and happy to introduce our special guest, the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Trump, and her special escorts, Faith Hinkle, and Riley Whitney.
So thank you so much, Kaylin, for a beautiful introduction.
And thank you, Fate and Riley.
You all look beautiful.
Thank you for having me here.
Hello, Santa and Mrs. Claus.
So today I will read the book, How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?
How does Santa do it?
How does it work?
Does he cinch up his belt or shrink himself down to the size of a mouse?
Or stretch out like Taffy and step in one leg at a time.
Maybe Santa can turn into fire, but probably not.
Does he go head first or feet first or neither?
Does Santa ever get stuck partway down and need one of the reindeer to give him a kick?
Does his soot get sooty?
Because shimini have soot.
And then does Santa do laundry before he goes to the next house?
And if you don't have a shimini, what happens then?
Maybe Santa knows about the key under the flower pot, even thought nobody is ever, ever supposed to mention the key under the flower pot.
So how would he find out about that?
Does he flatten himself and slide under your door?
Or does he slip through the pipes and come out of your faucet?
Or if you have got a mail slot, I bet Santa folds up like a letter and has a reindeer pop him through.
And I bet the stamp on Santa is one of those Santa stamps too.
Dogs must like Santa very much or else they bark.
He probably carries treats in his pocket and knows just where every dog likes to be scratched.
He tells them they are good and whispers them names, which he knows without even looking at their colours.
I bet he lets them give him kisses right on his beard if they are kind of dogs that like to lick.
Can Santa see in the dark?
Does he wear night vision goggles that make everything green?
I bet he'd like that because Santa likes green.
Or hit vision goggles because he might like red better.
Should we leave out carrots, not cookies, on Christmas Eve since they are good for his eyesight?
No.
The twinkling lights on the tree will make enough light for Santa to see, tiptoeing past chairs without bumping his knee, to leave a present or two or three and get a kiss from the dog if it's a dog that licks.
And take a cookie or two or three and then leave.
Santa goes up the shimine the same way he comes down and I have no idea how Santa does that.
But I'm so glad he can.
Thank you.
I'm sure Santa will visit all of you this Christmas and bring you a lot of toys.
So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I wish you a lot of strength and love.
My husband, President, is sending love and best wishes as well.
Thank you for having me here.
Thank you.
unidentified
Thank you to the First Lady of the United States.
Mrs. Trump, thank you so much.
We are so honored to have to continue with this long-standing tradition at Children's National, and we're so honored to have you here today.
Thank you for spending time with us today and sharing joy and cheer.
And we are so appreciative of your partnership and your commitment to children's health and hope.
So, on behalf of Children's National and everyone here today, we wish you happy holidays.
Thank you.
Why we're talking about this idea Today,
on C-SPAN's Ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, host Dasha Burns sits down with Democratic California Congressman Roe Conna and Republican Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon for a bipartisan dialogue on the top issues facing the country, including rising U.S. tensions with Venezuela and the future of ACA subsidies.
Bridging the Divide in American Politics.
Watch Ceasefire today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN.
Boston-based writer Doug Most's new book is called Launching Liberty, subtitled To Build the Ships That Took America to War.
Most, who spent 15 years at the Boston Globe, writes, and I quote: In total, American shipyards produced 2,710 Liberty ships in essentially four years, peaking in the spring and summer of 1943, when almost 800 ships were built in seven months.
A lot of the credit is given to Henry Kaiser, who produced half of all Liberty ships: 1,490.
By 1943, average time per ship was down to 42 days, the fastest month recorded.