that has been a very eye opening book. one of the books i'm currently reading with my 8-year-old son are the graphic models by john lewis that talk about the civil rights movement and my son is transfixed by the stories in the book talking about how people fought for civil rights and equal would be in this country. one of my favorite authors i'm looking forward to reading this book. it is the fight for freedom so i will be reading that the editor

at large take us back to august, 2015 and how you felt about the election. >> i was not optimistic. my co-author felt quite differently and predicted trump was not only win but would go on to win pressure and he did that on the basis of the data that he was looking at particularly the large number of democrats in places like northeastern ohio that were pushing the registration for democratic to

republican because they watched the first presidentia first pree and realized he was thinking about issues that many of the democratic voters cared about. trump is where the action was. i was much more skeptical though i did see something was happening i think you can trace the date to the election to ju july 102015 that was about three and a half weeks after he launched his campaign and he was kind of going along in the polls but met with the project. trump showed empathy standing

with his arms folded and almost never relinquished the lead. showing them in general. i still thought hillary clinton had this on the other side. i was covering the west coast campaign events.

trump, bernie, hillary. they were well underway in the debates and covered that and even then i didn't expect him to win and when i started thinking about the idea for the book it would be something like the fall of trump tower i couldn't see you would have a great chance and i viewed it as a tragic exercise, a picture of individualism that had the resonance in american culture and falling short at the end.

over the course of the next few weeks it was as much a surprise to me on election night when he won. he had sources of data and was much more confident in the electoral votes. it was a surprise when he finally pulled it off.

they had the devotion that they would march over broken glass to vote for donald trump. >> was if you or your co-author that went to see the grave of rabbi? they gave it a religious direction. at the time it was fading and if it existed existed in the small

pockets and reversed that he promoted the ideas and values te values and practices as good in and of themselves. they became very widely respected. things like that bipartisan on both parties.

it was low in the day and i took the time because usually when people are voting there is not much news. i talk about it a little in the book but the tradition is to write a note at the grave site. i left my note on the side of the area. i got them back into town on the victory party and they got lost in queens.

to see the world although trump came from. they had achieved the ultimate. was i at the hilton or trump tower? >> it was access to the parties. the inner circles were for a while but they felt very diminished in a very sad and quiet and i talked to my colleagues and they all had explanations and people felt this wasn't looking good and the exit polls and so forth.

when i asked a woman at the rally in pensacola for the same question i asked women everywhere, why are you here, she says because i'm not an idiot suddenly everyone thought trump was going to win. he wasn't going to win but he

was often winning the conservative statement. they would have to win one to the blue column and this has been a republican idea for quite a while. mitt romney and paul ryan tried to swing to wisconsin but trump really wanted to do it and the day before i ran into him on the outskirts of a rally in north carolina and he said if he wins nevada, new hampshire, ohio and florida. the early votes have already come in.

he was running his own model and his team predicted the victory everywhere except wisconsin but they didn't think wisconsin is going to come into the direct column and they said now you can pop the champagne corks. they did their jobs and for sort of left at the end with the cr crew. it's a remarkable moment in

history and i write about that and i write a lot about that drama in the last few weeks many people started streaming at about 9:30 at night. it was like a mosh pit until about three in the morning. it's to talk about where were you when this happened that some of the conversations i had with voters were in the crowd.

i went to an event in the primary and trump did a couple things no other candidates does. the conventional wisdom among politicians is the one to keep an audience waiting even though you are not a celebrity in your own rights so they work hard and don't want to be accessible to everybody. the message it sends is driven and are weighted camped outside

the door at the time is worth something to them. there's an intimacy between the candidate and the audience. it wasn't crazy if you were standing in the room. it was a conversation that he would have among friends, and it was an ordinary conversation and people appreciated that he was sharing his inner reflections in "the new york times" even he lets on a little bit too much of what he's thinking.

i'm not going to tell me what they are going to do with iran or isis or russia. he's very direct about that and as i left the event that night. the policy is lined up perfectly with the conservative movement and he was very good on television.

people believed and elevated him and had a different appeal. they would come down from trump tower and giving up a lot of the prestige opened up and turned upside down under the investigation he exposed himself and a lot of these ways.

we got there late and it was one of the younger audiences. they asked the women in the media area and she said he loves us and i said to her how do you know he loves you and he said because he doesn't have to do this and that was the same that i saw people have an appreciation he was arriving on time and giving up his comfortable life. as they do for all at the moment it was kind of ironic that the

sense people have this he was sacrificing himself for this. that wasn't something that was the next step up on a set of political affairs. what is remarkable in the first six months. it's because he's delivering on things. democrats hated it, republicans loved it, but the one thing both sides agreed on is that he was doing what he said he was going

to do. the democrats didn't like that he was doin giving what they sad they were going to do and republicans loved it but that was the one common area of agreement and i think that is largely still true they had more obstacles that were unprepared. it's the way they handled the nomination and held the line. but mostly i think washington was unprepared so he is dealing withe's dealingwith a hostile me bureaucracy. they are not so secret rebellion

and it's a massive challenge but so far he's doing okay it's interesting to see the voters are delivering on what he's promised. >> did you reach fear and loathing? [laughter] no, i didn't put their kolko you know it isn't as crazy or adventurous. i talk a little bit in the book about some of the side trips i made while on the campaign trail. ..

>> >> and what worries us both at the time whether trump won or lost but america remains considerably divided . it is indeed an because of the campaign but it goes back earlier at the start of the obama administration or even before that but when i was in college in the 1990's among the political commentaries that american politics were too close to each other and there is a consensus there is no real disagreement with that began to crack with the impeachment than looking back to see where the divisions began.

the obama presidency did not react to the setbacks and then moved back further in that direction they intended to go. so they decided they needed someone to fight back. so here we are with this agent of change in the white house but obama was focused on changing the foundations of society with that long part of justice changing a society marked by racism. in trying to change america's government. in the re that resonates more deeply the also causes

a lot of problems. and then he comes from the real-estate world. the washington doesn't work that way there is a clash of styles. but with that little side trip by a jet of the campaign trail i wonder why we have come this far down the road as we have been one of those interesting comments that just told me that as someone from the outside was that my personal account of being on the campaign trail he is not seen as normal in the media

or is just seen is a tyrannical figured nobody can figure out. so to see the day to day in a broader context of the geography and changing of this season's the matter what it is that there is an element that is normal as a way of giving politics of my people were so frustrated. trump is trying to change that. but as a figure he is not outside the bounds of the american political experience. en to reverse themselves. if you don't want to go to a trump proudly -- rally then read the book because that is what i focus on.

and the other part is focused on the historical context of the trump campaign where is not unprecedented. and after giving the history. to further explain why trump one? so the shift from democrat to republicans that they're still on the republican side. but the electorate is following trump on the issues and democrats are not talking about issues they're talking about trump. it is not a good negative broadening so that is why the democrats are still

struggling. that is why there are almost paralyzed by this resistance that the democratic party leaders having trouble bringing bad and. so traded in national security and health care and that is why the electorate continues but if you to start delivering on these then you'll see that trend accelerated. >> so talking about your experience is on the campaign trail what was a like? was the reaction you got?. >> with breitbart when i joined by eli would not make friends. i knew not to try to be too close because either they

would not want that or maybe i wouldn't. i needed to focus. the interesting thing is how the journalist took an interest there was condescension, a feeder -- fear but that is the case that they played with and i would jump the fence. but this is what made the news story is talking to people at the rally. soviet had the idea and i am generalizing. it was fun. there was some very left-wing reporters.

but it was fun. many did not like trump but many would agree and were quite open it was better to cover trump than hillary clinton and she did very few defense without much access to the candidate and not much change from day to day in the speeches were scripted and the crowds were the save it was thus set up of the of politics you are used to but trump was different you never knew what was going to happen, protesters, all over the place, five events a day and he was exhausting but it was exciting. talking bader journalist struggling to keep up on the doorsteps with this amazing energy. so this sunday before election day was in seven

states. he just had more energy. hillary clinton relied on her surrogates i am not sure it was her health problems but they thought they had their bases covered. with joe biden and barack obama. but that did not connect to the voters the fact that trump was working so hard they did speak off the cuff for he was in would be next created that immediacy. it was fun at times to socialize and there were so many things that happened on the press plane also some tense moments are strict

rules of what happens on the press plane i had a disagreement about what of my stories with the reaction to what he said isis said the reaction but i did not use anybody in quotations but it was back and forth so lot of stories to not make it into the book for that reason which is why it is off the record which is a shame because these narrative's are set among journalists as a significant amount is somebody miss something they need to cooperate with each other but when that ids coalesces for whether that was acceptable by said all the time my disagreed 100 percent but when you are

surrounded by 40 or 50 people people who have been doing this for longer and working toward the deadline you have energy for that type of argument it would be interesting with the press is doing i think there is that a herd mentality that journalists should think themselves out of it. that don't fall into this established pattern. most of the media sees itself as the opposition party and i think it is a mistake. so if you have that combative relationship with any president they want to

report on how they're doing but the media has taken a partisan sense -- stands to reach the audience and then makes a harder to reach the fulfillment but undermining that old men -- from credibility there is room for media reform so with breitbart we have a conservative website is usually to present them as they are it isn't meant to be told what is good and what was bad so i went to cover hillary clinton last august talking about breitbart and was given he speech to the audience and

it's interesting to report what she said in the reactions of the crowd. in to see trump as the extremist but this report was very effective showing the audience what they needed to know but how out of touch they were with'' was really going on that it wasn't just a fringe movement were trump was connecting to millions of people. that they were experiencing things trump was talking about. >> i don't think that learning has happened yet. the surly ago with those that wanted to be friendly

is say question of temperaments of conservative journalists try to get along with everybody is just as impossible but maybe the next book could be written about the of russia's interference in the campaign >> how did you get to breitbart?. >> i was very liberal in college in shirley thereafter per car was part of the college democrats club but i was more radical ring -- weeding and a group in the suburbs of chicago and went to public school and religious school younker but i began to change remind thinking of myself on the left the most important

thing that we went to left-wing political evens to ask questions with that incorrect assumption. if you ever question is because you didn't understand something. and then i never got that reaction. even though the students did not agree with me so that open mindedness of conservatism really my time in south africa working as a freelance journalist that would open my eyes because is all those policies implemented and that is the opposite of what they set out to accomplish.

so at law school realized i wasn't so i became active in the republican party and i had this infamous conversation from harvard and it will enviro from when youtube was relatively young and i got a call asking if i would run for congress in a very blue district on the conservative platform in and we've lost but the campaign was very successful year raised almost $700,000 but it was the excitement with hundreds of volunteers landowners across the country so in the course of

that campaign i met you drew breitbart so i was doing little opposition research nobody has ever really run against her so we never tried for years to never put the resources into it so i ran as the offices of that tell the story was going on in the democratic party fluff of the consulting if the political that as a community the organizer and the way that masterminded this policy was implemented the first year or two of the presidency those for never fully explored or uncovered

it went breitbart dot com was not the site that was today. so then i pitched the idea to come out to work in los angeles that started with one employee now half a dozen employees and was becoming a national media story i was employee number 79 moved out there as in-house counsel for six months i still have those responsibilities but then he made me editor-in-chief including that period when he died suddenly. and then to rebuild it as a news organization it was a block site for the first few years and that was good as a

citizen journalist but not through the mainstream media. on the front of the pack and his vision was to get into a 24 hour news and to move into other media. and with the weekend show. so it is amazing with 100 employees to see the company grow to still be relatively young. i fet andrew would be proud and fascinated with is going on but in the way trump was the kennedy anticipated by breitbart. he was not a conservative especially here we are african fest on the libertarian side and trump

has of liberal tendencies some of his policies are not libertarian. and andrew -- the key understood how the media worked. because of the way trump beats the media he will be your candidate one day if you don't watch out. because he knows how to fight and then to vote for trump and then as they feel less democrats and liberals and more media. that given no level playing field with equal respect and coverage conservatives will

win most of those debates. and then to marginalize conservatives and then to have that same chance and a remedy for that. and that is to expose bias and that is something we have done a lot of. because they think that they are held accountable. so based on those policies and principles and contrived it was i called said they were asleep for eight years.

satan get to complain is is like those reviews. so that is my path to breitbart. i like that by being conservatism or those attitudes. and to be is lockstep with everybody else. i was critical. but that obligation that we have to hold accountable to save democracy will happen with the mainstream media filter. and we see that democracy

and to utilize that agreement for that offers certain things to do voters and that is what makes democracy function. the particular those in then they are recovering and the book was exciting to write. but then of his drinking too much coffee during the campaign and decided to take a break. and then people think it is entertaining. >> how trump one is the name of the book is senior editor at large is the co-author you are watching booktv on

c-span2. meeting in up to world war i with that great parallel you may not know but to convince bismarck to have a small navy and then what they did was try to change the game and then it was germany pressuring the u.k. will look like a small point at the time. looking at the south pacific for a large navy so another one i'm starting is american

million by mecham. did talk about george h. to be bush. and about the free enterprise system. so right now we are reading one call. it took seven years in captivity from columbia that was kidnapped and kept 70 --- seven years by the far. seven --- is that i will read a book by a close and longtime friend of mine as an ambassador to the divided states. and he has written a book about his life.

. >> so you have then writing a book. and i just finished a book called the of boys of the boat. and now the of the guns of august. from world war i. and then a fiction book which was terrific by joel klein here is a new york. and that is another and i

read a lot of philosophy in spiritual philosophy. but my wife reads almost one book a weekend just finished roosevelts last battle. i am so proud of her she is a voracious reader and the things i would really enjoy. and add i absorber lot of information by which those the yorker stories could be laundered. and with that information and to do a lot more reading. >> what is called three days

in jail you very about the transition with negative transition of eisenhower and kennedy. fifth friday of eisenhower's considered with the cuban missile crisis has been eased during rate cut after that transition. . . the the the

>> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> next on booktv, "after words" journalist milo yiannopoulos discusses his book dangerous which explores the speech he is interviewed by marji ross president and publisher of regnery. >> milo yiannopoulos wonderful to have you with us today. >> thank you how are you? >> i am wonderful. i wish you were here in d.c. but you are in new york and we are excited to talk.