from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> ta-nehisi coates is here with a book of essays written during the obama era. it examines the issues of race in the first black president say. -- black presidency. his first essay called "the first white president" was featured in this year's "atlantic monthly". he has won many awards including the macarthur genius grant. the new york times calls him the preeminent black journalist of his generation. i am pleased to have him at this table.

explain to me the conceit of the book. >> the basic idea of it was to take the essays/articles i had written during the obama years and put them together into one single volume and say, this is what i wrote, i hope you enjoyed it. but as i went and read the old essays and work that i did during those 8 years, i begun to see the possibility of a new book emerging, one like a memoir interlaced between the actual articles i had written. so i picked a few of them and i wrote a story with the linkage being the thought process that went into each piece, where i was in my life. charlie: a great thing to do. they are, regarding good negro government, the first years, how

how we lost the white man, second year, american girl, third year, why do so few blacks study the civil war, and fourth year, the study of malcolm x, fifth-year, the black family, and in the eighth year, my president was black, and then the epilogue -- the first white president. is there one year that for you represented more than the others? ta-nahesi coates: for me personally, i think it would be the civil war one. i had a great gig, i have a great gig. but during the years when barack obama was the president i was in a privileged position to observe and write pretty much however i wanted to write. i had time to read and research, and the financial support, which i had never had in my career. a significant part of that time frame was spent studying the civil war.

the other thing that happened during the obama years was the centennial of the civil war, and i spent a good time reading about that and studying the conflict, clarifying something for me about american history. charlie: was it primarily the impact of slavery? ta-nahesi coates: more than that it was the fact that we lost so much life in the struggle to actually abolish slavery in this country. when we went into that timeframe, it was still respectable to say, and to some extent it still is, that the war was not about slavery, the academic consensus had long ago decided that. before south carolina pulled down the confederate flag, it was still possible in the minds of some to divorce those two things. my study made it clear, we lost about 800,000 americans, more

americans than in any war, and all of the wars that we fought combined, and it was over the right to expand and protect the enslavement of 4 million african-americans. i think that fact exerts huge weight, even today on american society. charlie: and therefore, the idea of the monuments was something that you looked on as coming on -- none to soon? ta-nahesi coates: definitely. i would add that it feels to many people that the idea of taking off these monuments of robert e lee is coming out of nowhere, but african-americans have been fighting these battles since the statues went up. for us, it is a very old thing, a depressive statement that the city like new orleans where you have a statue that literally says -- this was erected in preservation of white supremacy, there can be no real debate about what that statute is. that you have to have armed guards there when you are bringing it down, it says much about our society today.

charlie: do you think the idea of the white supremacy was a factor in the 2016 election? ta-nahesi coates: i do. as i said in the essay, i do not think it is a mistake that donald trump began his political career in birtherism, calling him the food stamp president. in the idea that our first black president was illegitimate. the debates believe that. the leadership, winking and nodding. it is connected to the congressman for south carolina who stood up and yelled -- you lie, when president obama was speaking in congress. i think it is all linked together. charlie: you wrote an article in

"the atlantic" about the case for reparations. where are we on that? has anything changed? ta-nahesi coates: there are some things that have changed. for instance, a number of the universities, opportunities and ivy league universities, there have been before that but now they are doing research on their past and their linkages to enslavement in this country. whether you are harvard, yale georgetown, there is a movement to embrace that history and do something about it. -- ingeorgetown's case georgetown's case. charlie: it is the legacy of slavery you believe, that most informs the sense of the

relationship between blacks and whites in america. ta-nahesi coates: i think without slavery, they would have no political purchase, the blacks would not. charlies: do they have meaning in france? >> they do. obviously, one of the cases that i make all through the book is the labels of race are always tied to politics and issues of power. i am black and obviously when i go to france, they see me as that when i open my mouth, that is not the predominant identity that i have. charlie: is it an intellectual identity? >> it is an american identity. charley: the -- charlie: they see you as an american, rather than a black man. ta-nahesi coates: that is it. it is the bottom line, as soon as i start talking. they had their issues with racism, and much more with cases of the north african people, they actually have history with

it. i am not that representative of a friend to them. they regard me as american when i talk to them. they have a long history of african-american authors going there, but blacks do not occupy that place in french history. but if i were black coming from senegal for example, the relationship would be different. mentioned thei first rank of black intellectuals, you want to be the first rank of what -- black intellectuals without qualifying or describing it. ta-nahesi coates: i consider myself a writer and reporter, that is how i was trained, as a journalist and as a reporter, to go out on the street and talk to people, research and write. that is the job that i do. i am happy it provokes thought. "intellectual." harlie: i have friends of mine

in the army your african-american. they wanted to be the best in general, not the best african-american general. ta-nahesi coates: my influences are rooted very much in being black, like all other black writers, i pulled from all sorts of literature. charlie: barack obama. does he have a different attitude about white america than you do? ta-nahesi coates: probably, yes. charlie: he was raised by his mother who was white, he knew white people but he did not view them harshly.

ta-nahesi coates: he had white family that in place to -- embraced him as a black person. he didn't feel -- he was not made to feel any type of way, any type of negative way about the fact of being black. his family in many ways was the conduit to the african-american experience, the culture, the politics. i have not been encountered stories like that. i have encountered stories of black people with a white parent , not one in which the white family is that loving.

charlie: it's restrained him in ine way -- it restrained him some way. his experience was different. he didn't want to be talking about race all the time. ta-nahesi coates: he's been a lot time thinking and talking about race. when white people literally are and family, you go to iowa they remind you of your grandparents. that is a path thing that signals acceptance. that signals thing acceptance. charlie: did he change over the eight years? ta-nahesi coates: i do not know, i did not really start interacting with him until about 2011-2012.

charlie: two or three years into the presidency. ta-nahesi coates: he probably underestimated the kind of opposition they would face. charlie: was the opposition because he was black? ta-nahesi coates: more complicated. it was because he was a representative of the democratic party that the vast majority of black people are represented by. people often say, bill clinton also got a lot of resistance. but parties represent people. if you go to the south today, the republican party is virtually entirely a white party at the local level. so barack obama was not just a black politician, it was whose interests he represented and whose interests they represented. ♪

♪ charlie: how did you change over

the 18 years? ta-nahesi coates: i didn't believe in reparations.

in terms of an ambassador, barack obama was the best that we had -- charlie: ambassador from whom to whom? ta-nahesi coates: from black america to the rest of the country. he was like a character out of the brady bunch or something. a black ivy league lawyer, a beautiful, attractive wife who was also an ivy league lawyer, editor of the log rubio, -- review,f the law beautiful children, a dog named bo -- charlie: it is what hollywood would have done if they made a movie. ta-nahesi coates: exactly.

and then to see donald trump show this guy to actually show off his birth certificate, you saw that any set -- something deep is going on here. that is what spurred me on to my research, it probably radicalized me a little bit. i think i am a pretty standard-issue liberal, i was at the beginning. i did not really believe in race-conscious policy. i don't think people in america -- never talk about identity can ever talk about identity without politics. if you were talking about medicare and social security, you are talking about a certain type of people, you are not -- you are speaking to an identity not to 25-year-old, , that is not who you are making a pitch to.

i have seen the obama,nt, -- president time after time in conversations here in new york that i saw, talk about notwithstanding the conflict with police, notwithstanding what happened at charlottesville, notwithstanding all of that, i have seen the president say time after time, we have made huge progress. ta-nahesi coates: we have made some progress, i would agree. some progress, i would agree. charlie: he seems to think that we have made more progress than you believed. there is a fundamental sense of almost despair -- >> i disagree. i do not despair. charlie: so you are optimistic? ta-nahesi coates: i do not like thinking in those terms.

i think like a journalist. charlie: a lot of people who admire you think of you as more than a journalist. ta-nahesi coates: but the work that i do every day, i research and i write, it is the work of journalism. charlie: so the idea of "public-intellectual" has no appeal to you? ta-nahesi coates: no, it is like some dude stroking his chin. that is not what i do. it is foreign to have to think that way, as journalists, i think. my editors never ask me that. that is a real downer, no one ever says that to me, in the editorial process. arlie: let me posit this in a different way. you look at the election of president trump in many ways as a rejection of what happened in the previous eight years. ta-nahesi coates: i do. i do see that. charlie: because?

ta-nahesi coates: i do not think you could have donald trump without the reaction to barack obama. i guess, i just go back to the fact of how donald trump began his campaign. charlie: the birther issue. ta-nahesi coates: i don't think that is accidental. think president trump would be president without that. charlie: i am trying to stay away from optimism and pessimism because i owe it to you. when you look at what the country has gone through, the kinds of things that have happened in the last eight months, the presidency of donald trump, what do you think the challenges are, where are we? your colleagues like david

brooks constantly write about this, what were the cultural and economic factors that were at play in the 2016 election? ta-nahesi coates: obviously i have taken aside the notion that race was very important, and i would argue that it was in fact essential -- charlie: you say more important than economics or they are tied together? ta-nahesi coates: i do not think they can be disentangled from each other, often times when you talk about race you are talking about economics and vice versa. i do not doubt for instance that there are people who are very angry about the fact that we had economic collapse and no one was held accountable for that. that pushed a certain number of people a certain way in the polls, into the voting booths, i do not doubt that when folks heard that hillary clinton took speeches from wall street and

was paid x number of dollars. that had any effect. had an effect. charlie: barack obama is making speeches for wall street. does that disappoint you? ta-nahesi coates: yes, very much so. charlie: were you surprised? ta-nahesi coates: [laughter] i am disappointed. i wish he didn't, i wish he did not. i think it sets a bad example. i think contrary to how -- the ethos of twice is good that he used to conduct himself as president and during the campaign, i think again for those people who watched and economic collapse and saw very few people punished, to see someone turn around i do not , care if you're giving the money away to charity or not, the fact that people can purchase access to you in that

way which was built off of public trust. they purchase access -- they are not saying things to please these people. no one is writing the speech for them. ta-nahesi coates: i do not think it is quid pro quo, i give you money and you say what i would like to hear. i think it is a matter of who you surround yourself with, and who you are around and that becomes normal to you. there are a lot of suffering americans out there who do not have the ability to purchase an audience with you like that. so i think you have to be really -- i do not think he should never give paid speeches. he was paid quite a good deal for his book --

charlie: barack obama, bill clinton, they get huge contracts for the book that they write. ta-nahesi coates: i think that is fine, i have no problems with that at all. charlie: he lives and a dollar home that millions of americans cannot afford. but the problem you have is that he is paid money to give a speech to wall street? ta-nahesi coates: yes, i agree to that. charlie: you have said that when you look at your own growth over the last eight years, you have become more radical. how would you define your radicalism? ta-nahesi coates: i did not understand -- my basic thoughts about policy in this country, stronger social safety net, the desire for people to have some dignity in their work, that did not change. charlie: that does not sound radical to me. ta-nahesi coates: yes, that did not change.

i did not consider white supremacy as essential to american history. charlie: how do you think the that?grow out of ta-nahesi coates: i think it is the work of generations. i actually do not know how we grow out of that. charlie: it is the work of our time, is it not? ta-nahesi coates: i think the first step would be to take it seriously and i do not think we are doing that. i think when you have a president of the united states who is objecting to a statue of a general who kidnapped that people out of the north, like he is not taking it seriously, you are not being serious. the fact that we are still having debates about that. when you get to the blue sky question it is tough to get there because we are still down here, on the ground level, arguing about things that should be obvious.

charlie: you have called president obama a conservative revolutionary? ta-nahesi coates: yes, i have. charlie: meaning what, he was not revolutionary enough? or was it his style? ta-nahesi coates: it means that he was revolutionary in the sense that he was the first black president but i think he believes an institution, he is establishmentarian. charlie: you say that this book was written in the first eight years of the first black president, the first year is called the good negro government. let us talk about that. ta-nahesi coates: the title is taken from a declaration made by the man named thomas miller in 1895.

in the era of reconstruction. he spoke to a number of legislators who had been black people and had been in fact enslaved and in 1895 he was at the south carolina constitutional convention and they are effectively disenfranchising blacks and taking the rights away from them in the state of carolina and he could not understand why they would do this. and in our time, we basically reconstructed the entire state. in response to that, the writer dubois said that he made an error, that he was making an argument for a good negro government. that this thing that white people feared was not a negro government but a good negro government. that the fact they had been so successful showed the lie of white supremacy.

charlie: didn't barack obama put the lie to racism -- ta-nahesi coates: yes, and i think that was a lot of the problem. charlie: yes, he put the light to racism because he was so supremely talented -- ta-nahesi coates: when i was talking about barack obama being a great ambassador, the idea of looking like something out of the brady bunch, it was to counter the idea of what that are., itpeople countered the stereotype. the stereotype of black people at the root of the belief system behind the actual policies of white supremacy. charlie: you are saying that these people, if they had looked at barack obama in a way that measured their own expectation, they would not have had the need to rebel against him? ta-nahesi coates: there is a long history of it. if you look at the history of lynchings and race riots and this country, often the places

that are attacked are middle-class, "well-to-do" black areas. because they stand in violation of the very idea of white supremacy, they offend the hierarchy. and barack obama was very much in the same sort of school. >> offending the hierarchy? ta-nahesi coates: yes, he was as many people said, he gave evidence of the idea that my child could be president. there are other people on the side of that equation who also take evidence of something else. and i think that explains a lot about the way our politics is right now. charlie: what was the expression by martin luther king -- the ark bent towards justice? do you believe that? ta-nahesi coates: no. it bends toward chaos. chaos means that you do not know, it could be that, i hope for good but you just do not know.

charlie: in your judgment, what are the core values of the country that you think have served us so well? ta-nahesi coates: i do not know, i like individual freedom, i like that. i like the idea that someone like me, if we were talking off-camera about being in france, and i was very aware when i was there that my story would not be possible there, not for some grand and huge reasons, the society, all of a sudden individualism made the way for someone like me to be a college dropout and be able to finesse my way. it wasn't the same social he i saw over there, so i like that. it taught me to think and that way. this is a different way of looking at the world. i guess i have not examined enough societies to make comparison to charlie: there

were people who a comparison. charlie: people have talked about this, that there were people who voted for trump because they were not white supremacists, because they did not like the other candidate, because they saw him as the "lesser evil." that may be 18-20% of the people might be considered -- and the other 85% were people of a different political philosophy? it had nothing to do with race. >> i would put that number of little bit higher. where would you put it? >> i would put it around 40% of the people who support donald trump are white supremacist? >> no, but that they hold some kind of bigoted belief, some --d of his homophobic belief aphobic belief.

i believe towards the lgbt community. let us take the argument that it was only a 15%, the other 85% had no problem electing someone who at the very least, at the very least activated white supremacy, began his campaign in white supremacy to become president. that is really disturbing. it says i might not be a supremacist -- if you are black, that is very scary. it should be scary for us all, even in the most conservative reading of it. charlie: are you fearful of the future of the country? >> i would not be offended. mi fearful? i am not fearful about that. i pick up a newspaper and read about north korea and i am scared, yeah. charlie: because it demands a rational -- >> i don't think we have that. charlie: what do you understand about donald trump, he is evil? ta-nahesi coates: i do not use words like that. i think he is dangerous.

i think he is really, really dangerous. i obviously did not vote for donald trump. i think he is dangerous. charlie: the book is called "we were eight years in power, an american tragedy." we'll be right back. ♪

♪ charlie: laura ingraham is the most listened to woman on the country on political radio.

on october 30, she would join fox news channel's prime time lineup. "the ingramalled angle." she also has a new book called "billionaires at the barricade, the populist revolution from nixon to trump". why did you want to write about the populist revolution? laura: election night was very enjoyable for me to watch because of the sullen faces, the dour looks, the projections of gloom and doom on the global scale predicted after president trump won, that america would become this protectionist force, isolationist, and none of that happened. the economy is booming globally, new forecast for 2018 is very strong except for maybe russia and great britain. so i wanted to write the book to

take people on this journey going back to nixon and the silent majority through the ascendancy of ronald reagan -- his statement that wherever government grows, freedom retracts, all the way to george w. bush who said he would have a humble foreign policy and promised to be there for the working people, even obama who had some populist zeal. charlie: is it more about economics or culture? laura: i think it depends on the times that i think the focus right now is on the american middle class, the american worker. from a time of about 2005-today, the middle class has not really seen their wages go up. to have become despondent and began to think of the system is working against them not for them. i come from a working-class background, my mother was a wait

waitress until she was 74 and i carry her spirit. charlie: at the same time, you have had the benefit of the establishment. dartmouth, university of virginia law school, clerk at the supreme court -- >> i never forgot where i came from, charlie. never. that working-class sentiment made me hungry and it connected me to what was happening in politics. charlie: you see yourself as someone who respects that working-class sentiment, you think that populism is who you are? laura: i think it is who i am. i think the american tradition is under assault, civic pride and civic virtue is under assault. civic pride and civic virtue are not necessarily republican. for eight years under clinton,

eight years of obama, there were a lot of things i disagreed with. laura: that's ok. republicans did not have their act together. i never sat for the pledge or never kneel for the national anthem because there are certain things that hold us together, the glue the society that i do not think we should trash. charlie: does president trump equal american populism in 2017? laura: it is early. we will see. himlie: we have seen transition. we have seen him governing. he has shown his colors. i do not think we're going to see anything new. the reason i use the word barricades, it is a double meaning, but for him the barricade is something very big to clear. just getting elected was a monumental feat, he beat the obama's, clinton's, media, many corporations, a lot of the big not want him to be

president, and yet he won the electoral college. he has work to do on the popular vote. that was a stunning feat. charlie: you say this is the story of donald trump? laura: no. charlie: it is also the story of those who supported reagan, and where they are. ronald reagan led the conservative movement. donald trump leave something else, which is populism. where did they overlap? where are the separate? laura: i think remember going back to 1976, it was a shock that ronald reagan almost won the gop nomination. they called him dangerous. they said he was a disruptor to the status quo. ronald reagan was an actor who knew nothing. he not write his own speeches, and i worked in the reagan administration. people act now like everybody was embracing reagan, the media -- we did not have the apparatus that we have now. we did not have cable news for

the most part back then, but they ridiculed reagan. reagan was ridiculed for most of his presidency, but what he tapped into was this sentiment for people in the south who for years thought the democratic party was working for the little guy. the democrats had. that's why they had the house of representatives since the 1950's all the way to 1994 unbroken hold come up they had the populist understanding. as was written about in the atlantic last october, they lost to the populist vote. he captured it. charlie: so donald trump, is he a reagan inheritor, a true populist who recognized that those like him, who believed in the same values, or is donald trump a very smart celebrity and successful businessman whose on saw opportunity and grabbed it? laura: i think going back to his early remarks about trade, and immigration, he had those two

issues in the palm of his hand for some time. trump was a democrat. he had a lot of democrat friends and donated to a lot of them. but i think when he came to run for the presidency, he saw that there was a double vacuum, a deep vacuum within the republican party, with the mike huckabee and rick santorum, and pat buchanan. there was a lot of zeal for b cannon but he did not have the money to take that message -- charlie: many people look at buchanan's campaign and say that that is where it all began. absolutely. that is what i say in the book. charlie: not only that, but the ideas against big business? the isolationist aspect, it was also buchanan. laura: let me talk about the isolationism thing. the weight many on the left and right dismissed trump and his populist appeal is they say he is anti-immigrant, isolationist.

now think about what he did, his first foreign trip. this is the countries that house the three major religions. he reached out to muslims, the vatican, and to israel. kushner that trip together, and everyone said, oh, more than you off can chew. that is someone who understands that america cannot carry the load by itself. it needs allies. needs to be respectful surely of allies, but i i thought that in the trip, he did not get a lot of credit for it. there was an amazing trip. charlie: i agree with you. he went to the g20 and raised real questions because he did not include article five when he started talking about where the united states would be if there was an attack. people raise questions. then he reinvigorated our

alliance with nato. charlie: angela merkel said after that trip that we have to start looking after ourselves. laura: when you go back to his united nations speech, he talked about the fact that all of the leaders there. they work for the benefit of their own people. they were elected, britain, france -- charlie: and he said you should be acting in your own self-interest. laura: china is doing that. i do not agree with your tactics, but they want the chinese people to be the dominant people globally, not just in their hemisphere. their philosophy, their outlook, there economic and military power, they want to dominate and you have to admire that. trump says that we need to do that. if we are a weak power economically, we are not going to be a great ally to everyone else. the american people are going to be retrenched and say my wages have not gone up in 20 years.

we need help. when he is talking about sovereignty, he is talking about freedom. charlie: you saw what happened in the alabama senate race. did you support that? laura: i decided not to get involved in that race. that should have been another wake-up call to the establishment. charlie: the big wake-up call primary cantor lost the . was brought to me before the primary. i did not know who he was. my friend ron maxwell is a filmmaker, he said you have to look at the sky. he is on fire. he has a working-class spirit, he is a professor and economics. startedet him and having him on my show, and my barometer is very simple. if you are a republican and afraid to come in my radio show, you're probably going to have a difficult time convincing me

that you are going to connect with the average working person. once in a while they will come on, but very rarely. he comes on and starts talking about we have to work for the american people. we have to be for the little guy, otherwise you are just for big operations and for a bit government. that is not how we were raised under the principles of reagan. i thought this guy is pretty interesting, so i decided to go down to a country club a week before the primary,. i said i do not want to speak at a country club. he says it is eric cantor's country club. i want you to give a speech at his country club. i said no one will be there. i showed up and brought a couple of staffers. we drove in and i thought there must be some event here. there was several hundred people packed in this open area, hanging from the rafters and they are like laura, you have to help dave. and i thought it was wild. one of the parking attendants

said we had to park some of the cars an overflow parking in front of eric cantor's house, then i got the call a week later. charlie: when did trump and populism meet? laura: when you look back at his first speech. charlie: immigration? just: it was not immigration. it was working-class. he said you are not a forgotten man or woman. government should work for you. charlie: what did brexit add to it? laura: i was covering the rise of ukip, and nigel farage, and i think that is should've woken the elite to what was happening in the hinterlands. these people are hard-working people. they are good people. they want the best for their country. few people were speaking to them , central comes along and says these republicans keep cycling the same policies and the voters are saying: no, no, we don't

want open borders. if we want trade deals, let them work for us here at charlie: why did bob corker decide not to run for reelection? laura: if the elites really have the best path forward for the republican party -- charlie: why is he an elite and donald trump not an elite? laura: it is a sensibility, not how much money you have. charlie: i am talking about how you live your life. laura: again, you could be a rich person come up and get the arking class and understand lot of these policies sent a lot of jobs overseas. you can be poor and more in touch with policy -- charlie: how long have you known him? laura: i met him first in 2002. charlie: 15 years ago. was he thinking about running for president? laura: when i met him, and what

struck me, we had lunch. i rolled my eyes, donald trump. i always had an image of him and i said oh, he will just talk about himself the entire time. and 15bout an hour minutes, i realize he had hardly said anything about himself, which shocked me. charlie: he asked questions? laura: yes, how do you make money in the radio business, how many minutes do local stations get, and by the end of it, i look at my friend and said he talked about himself hardly at all. and he said, we need a car, to go sit desk to go somewhere. and i said, take my car -- i needed a car. and he said, take my car. then he gave me some hand sanitizer. they will take you wherever you need to go. he was really nice and very

curious about my life. he had a sense of curiosity about my mom, my upbringing, my father. he asked me a lot of questions about how did you become what you are today? charlie: what was the answer to that question? laura: i think it was my mom. she worked her tail off, she did not have a chance to go to college. she grew up in the depression. she lost her mother at age 14, and she believed that america greatest country on the face of the earth as her parents came here from poland in the middle of its own struggle to keep its independence. she said you have to have a basic level of respect and don't have her forget or you came from. of that.s reminded me when i went off to college, she said i would have loved to have gone to college, and she told me to make it matter. i was the editor of the

dartmouth review. i remember the election night party in 1984 at the hanover inn where i was editor of the dartmouth review and the going was good. all of the professors were on the outside looking in. we were a merry band of political renegades back then. >> tell me more. >> i kept watching the mclaughlin group, and i sitting with a friend of mine said, i think i could do that. i would like to do that. msnbc called me and tell me we are starting this new network and would like you to calm. the conservative voice? laura: i was one of many people. cbs also called me at the same time, and i was working for both networks at the same time is on.

it was a nod thing. i wasn't good at cbs. i did not know what i was doing. and a lot of interesting people on the way. it has been a wild ride. this country is awesome. i get teared up every sunday when i go to mass, i thank god for what i have and i ask him to give me wisdom and humility as i go forward. i adopted three kids. charlie: is he answering your prayers? laura: sometimes. if i do the right thing. i adopted these three kids, one from guatemala, and two from russia, and i want them to have a country that is free and prosperous as the one that gave me all of these opportunities. i know that it sounds hokey but that is what i want. charlie: you adopted them as babies? laura: maria is three and the boys are 11 months and 12 months when i adopted them. maria was three. >> so you are going to fox, and hannity's top slot. laura a ingraham: yes.

charlie: you continue to do the radio show? laura: i i'm trying to be like am. you. you work all day. your staff by the way is like, he is doing this and this. my friend look semi and says you can do that morning radio show a nighttime tv show, not a problem. off.arlie rose can pull it charlie: what happened to the legislative program of donald trump? laura: the jury is out. charlie: is that a failure of donald trump? laura: i think he made mistakes and he has learned his lesson. he made the mistake of diluting his message to capitol hill. he needed to get more into the weeds a little bit on health care. willought these guys repeal obamacare and we will be on our way. that was a logical way to think about it. who thought the republicans

seven years later would say oh, it is too hard. charlie: where do you think he is on north korea? laura: that is a tricky one. north korea has been a disaster and i think he rightly says that we presided over the rise of a potential nuclear north korea. madeleine albright was there and tried something, bill clinton was hopeful, george w. bush, barack obama, none of that work. so what is new, what is next? the war of words with kim jong-un, that is not something i would do. charlie: what is he trying to do? is it good cop, bad cop? because as you know, a lot of national security people look at that and say, that is not really the way to go. laura: again, i would say to the national security experts -- a a lot of these people are the ones who advised policies that led to the rise of a potential nuclear north korea. i get it. he is an outsider.

charlie: when someone like senator corker says he may be taking us on the path to world war iii? laura: i would say that we are at this is because all of the establishment politicians from both parties, not just democrats, i think both parties have culpability here. donald trump comes along and says we are going to do things differently on north korea, east, on trade, on immigration, on tax reform, and he is going to have some wins and some losses. but message discipline, stopping leaks, getting good people confirmed, having some allies on capitol hill. he has a lot of barricades to clear and we will he how he does. the jury is out. charlie: will the wall be built? laura: if it is not built, i think he is finished. i think he has to build the wall. it in certaind parts, but the structure has to be there and we have to have a significant barrier to entry. charlie: that's the breaking --

laura: that is the cornerstone of his campaign, and it the faces a break with of american voters, so you have to deliver on immigration enforcement. charlie: a billionaire at the barricades, the populist revolution from reagan to trump , laura ingram, thank you. laura: thank you. charlie: we'll see you all next time. ♪ who knew that phones would start doing everything?

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♪ alisa: let's start with a check of your first word news. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he and president trump "have the same agenda." after a working lunch at the white house, both men agreed to speak to reporters in the rose garden. mcconnell pushed back on the notion he and the president are at odds. president trump will ask u.s. allies to pressure north korea on its nuclear program when he travels to the asia-pacific next month. the president will visit japan, south korea, china, vietnam, and the philippines in november. he will also meet with president moon in south korea.