Melania Trump visits Children’s National Hospital in Washington, reading How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney by Mac Barnett with playful speculation—shrinking like a mouse, slipping through pipes, or using "hit vision" night goggles—while joking about reindeer, soot, and holiday chaos. She thanks the hospital for treating Kellen McLean (a VMI student) 10 years prior and extends Christmas wishes from herself and President Trump. The segment highlights her support for children’s health initiatives before pivoting to unrelated topics: Rita Dove’s childhood poetry secret and Charles Murray’s book Taking Religion Seriously, where he argues for Christianity’s moral and scientific credibility despite a "spirituality score of about 70," blending faith with intellectual debate. [Automatically generated summary]
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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 Henkel, 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 Shimney.
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's 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 leaks.
And take a cookie or two or three and then leave.
Santa goes up the shimeni 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 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 are you talking about this?
Watch it.
America's Book CLUB, C-SPAN's bold original Series.
Today, with our guest Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate, Rita Dove, who has authored several collections of poetry.
You say, I didn't even know that it was something that you could do and live with your life.
I thought that, and I was writing poetry from the age of 10, I guess, but it was always a secret thing.
It was a thing that I wrote and thought, okay, this is my secret.
It was my thing that I enjoyed.
I didn't realize that a little black girl could become a poet.
unidentified
Watch America's Book Club with Rita Dove today at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
Tonight.
On C-SPAN's QA, in his book, Taking Religion Seriously, political scientist Charles Murray discusses his decades-long evolution from happy agnostic to Christian.
He also talks about the foundations of human morality, the Big Bang, and the authorship of the Gospels.
Some of us have access to spiritual acquisition of knowledge that others of us do not.
In the case of spirituality, I don't have an ordinary level of spiritual perceptiveness.
If you put it in IQ terms, I have a spirituality score of about 70, which is way low.
unidentified
Charles Murray, with his book, Taking Religion Seriously, tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
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