this will turn us into something political but our government is always us and it is made up of us and what you are seeing is people going through real problems. the other thing you will see is of course the national archive and about the only good thing i can make of this thing is there is no traffic downtown in washington dc. other than that you have people and i was the first one in my family to go to a four-year college. i remember when my dad got paid i knew it because he brought home the dry-cleaning. couldn't afford to pick up the dry-cleaning until he got his check and that's how most of us live. i wish the president knew, but this is not a time where you can ask your dad for money.

i hope we can figure this out because throwing tantrums and holding your breath over what you want and whatever your politics are, just remember that there are people out there on both sides who are really going to be going through hard times. speaker dc and and came to this? >> the endgame is embarrassed the other side, that's what they are playing right now. they want president trump to look bad because then he doesn't look like a good dealmaker. on the other side, they want the democrats to embarrass them and show they can't mess with them so that is the endgame and it is a question of who will blink first. >> let's talk about your book and our first president. let me

focus first on george washington and then we will talk about the plot against him. he writes the following. honor, honor, honor, so much of towards washington's life is centered around the pursuit of this ideal. it is perhaps the greatest lesson of his youth and it will never let you down. >> listen. the plot of the book is subtitled the secret plot that killed george washington but it was vital and you get to see the depth of this character. one of my favorite moments in the book is showing where he comes from. he is not someone who grew up with a lot of money and what we do with our heroes as we dip them in granite and we build great statues and we do not do service because any hero you

look up to, they had a moment where they were scared and terrified when they did not think they could go on. one of my favorite moments in the book is the battle of brooklyn and one of the things you see is we just joined hands and beat the british fighting forces but in reality in the battle, george washington got out generals, he didn't have the experience that the british generals had. what he did have and what he always has, he has the british in front of him and the east river behind him, this is the endgame. at the moment where it is all done and he could have eaten his chest and said let's take out as many as we can and we will show them all up and we will go out in a blaze of glory

but george washington is not macho. there is nothing manly about that. he does the best thing he always does, he plays a daring escapee. he makes a plan. in the middle of the night they come along the east river and what they do is they will not put any of the troops on board until everyone is away safely. his troops say he is risking his life to ensure they are safe and that is honor. that is taking care of other people before yourself, that is the depth of his character. another person featured in your book, another figure from american history, john j writes the following. few men can claim as many titles

staying mostly above the fray and commanding almost universal respect. listen, this is a plot that killed george washington and i found this starley nearly a decade ago when i was looking at footnotes and i was like is this a true story, and it was true. in 1776 there was a plot to kill george washington and when he found out about it, he gathered those responsible, and in an open field he hung them in front of 20,000 people. the largest public execution in north american history, he brought the hammer down. i became obsessed with the story, especially because who comped them? how did they figure it out? one of the first things that washington did as he formed a secret committee and when you

form a secret committee you have to have a good name. his name was the committee on conspiracies and john j was put in charge of it. there were three of them that were in charge. these were the 3 that george washington trusted most and in this moment, what john jade does is they are kicking down doors and interrogating them but in the process they're trying to figure out this plot. what they are really doing is building america's first counterintelligence agency and john j of course goes on to become the first supreme court justice in the united states but the reason he gets the job is because of what he does helping george washington and as they build this agency, right now we ask historians what the precursor to the cia

is and many will tell you it's the oss, that's not true. and all comes from this moment where john j is covering the spot. right now at cia headquarters, there was a room dedicated to john j whom they called the founding father of counterintelligence and i love that you get to see just what he is capable of because he is an undocumented hero. at this moment at the start of the work, he is one of the great unsung heroes of figuring out the plot against washington. >> let's get to the plot to kill george washington, you write the following quote. there is a traders plaintiff, he has no idea it's coming since the day he was appointed, general washington had a nearly impossible task, to organize a scattered mess of backroad militias into a functioning national army to stand out to what is probably the biggest and most powerful military

force in the world and of course great written, so what happened?>> what happens is first you have to ask why does no one know the story? it is the first conspiracy, that's the title of the book but it is truly our first conspiracy there in america and what is amazing to me is how it happens and who is responsible because what happens is george washington have his own personal bodyguards and he asked his top regimens to give the four best men and he wants the best of the best. george washington himself narrows all those men down to about 50 of them and those 50 become the generals guard, the commanders guard, and what they are known as are the lifeguards because one of their jobs is to guard george washington and these are the men who turn on george washington. with a plot to kill him.

i don't care how soon we all say you are, that is a moment that is devastating to george washington. we love to tell the story that, you know, theell the british were here, we banded together, we took them down, it was the british were here and we took them down and there was the declaration of independence and he's the president live happily ever after but it was never that simple. think were divided today as a country, in 1776, new york city where one of the first great battles took place there were as many loyalists on the british side as there were patriots on the american side and it was no different in our own military. what you can seize at the regimen for massachusetts followed the best font with

other regimens and see harvard yard and all the different regimens are coming together and the virginians had things on their uniforms and people from massachusetts and a mallet from it and a fight breaks out and they are fighting like crazy. george it's happening right now. back then we had politicians, whatever the politics are like to drape themselves in the flag and say how patriotic they are there was no american flag, there was no united states back then.

everyone bringing it together, it was by no means easy for me. because what were dealing with this 10,000 men in new york city where the best battle was taking place. guess with 10,000 men want to do the same thing they would do today when the with their wives, gamble and drink and back then they went to prostitutes and george washington is a proper, virginian gentlemen is horrified by this sees what's happening he can see the general order of the day and they will come down everyday and he's building the military that by bit he's gambling, stop drinking, no press same rules as my parents had for me growing up.

but this is what george washington is contending with. leaders are the best of us but when they pull us apart are the worst of us expect now, the first conspiracy author, the secret plot to kill george washington and in the book to that point you write the following. many new york city residents chair in washington and the continental army, there are many who don't support them, new york is a major power center loyalists neuritis many columnists have been lured to join the secret army it must be frustrating and distressing the act of the trail and part of his own soldiers, literally, nothing could be further from this ideal of a. >> good morning, just up the

road from you in a couple comments you made, making wonderful points and then you say something and i say what the flag yes, they didn't have a flag at the beginning but they did have a flag as far as the first comment at the beginning about trump thumping his chest, he ran on the wall he made it an issue in the democrats are the ones trying not to work that i would are we talking about that, 5.7 divided by a four-point trade dollar budget is a tiny percent college do the math, it's kind of silly to make the point you first meet at the beginning there but, what you're saying is very true as far as , nothing has changed really, except the wardrobes, as far as history goes and as truman said, the only thing new is the history you haven't learned and unfortunately in this country there are so many illiterate

people that don't think history is worth learning. so i applaud you for bringing out washington, he's our greatest president because without him we wouldn't have any other presidents. everyone talks about lincoln but they forget he shut down 200 newspapers which i wasn't crazy about learning when i was in college. like you very much and i look forward to learning your book . >> i really appreciate history, just to be clear i didn't say that about trump about beating his chest, i said george washington beat his trest i didn't mention any president, and i said the word you don't have to beat your chest and we project to we see. think like any historical figure, that's what we do with history. what any historical hero or villain is to us. how they are mirrors. hold them up and you see what you want to see.

i said nothing about trump, what i said is trump wants his wall and the democrats on their side want border security, without a wall and they will have their fights but sadly, what happens is anyone mentions the word trump or democrat in the opposite side immediately thinks, they're saying a horrible thing about mine. i made no comment on his right or wrong and i think what we have to do is a culture is take a lesson from george washington. take the lesson, what i think we've lost and what you are so right about this is yes, what we've lost is the word united in these united states. we've lost that. that's a disaster and i've been on book tour this week because the book came out this week and believe it or not, there are things we all agree upon. started on cbs news and went to my friends at fox news and then went to cnn and then mpr.

i was on all these different things and affiliates all week long and everything i talked about here i can tell you all the newsrooms are saying we've lost the united states, there are things we all agree on and no matter what your politics are, the only reason and the only way that ever changes is in leadership. you need the right leadership, need leadership like george washington who bring us together. my friends on cnn, there are things we do and we always were different and culture, were taken the lesson so well of our best heroes, george washington's and those who bring us together. i think we will be far better off as a country . >> i nonfiction book the fiction series last year and we spent three hours in depth with him in early december, if you missed it on a website at c- span.work -- c-span.org .

>> how are we doing, brad. i'm happy to be on c-span i love c-span because i feel like i can get the news unbiased. so, i am happy to be here, so radical a moderate which is kind of a juxtaposition . >> i like the radically moderate. do you have a question? >> the question is basic we, essentially, how do you see, let's say we get 50 billion cia documents that get dropped, in a year, how do we see that as a way to change the truth as we did before is a historian? >> talk about that, i do a lot of work, especially when the archives got shut down i met with the archivist of the united states named david feria

is a wonderful man that runs the national archives, i am obsessed with the archives, i love the archives. one of the things he gave me when i was there in honor of the first conspiracy is he always brings me a document they have one of the old documents, we have ones that get released all the time, all the government employees are constantly making sure every piece of paper, email and everything that comes out is saved in catalog so we can search it and look at it make sense of it decades later. , one of the things he gave me that day is, they wanted all the members of the military to

swear an oath of allegiance, it looks like an index card. the oath of allegiance as i do solemnly swear that i will be loyal to this military in this country., one of the things they wanted to do was to make sure you were truly there and what he gave me was a beautiful copy they were all numbered and everyone lined up to swear what was to do with our military today when you sign up with the military you raise your right hand and solemnly swear to be loyal to the united states. he gave me a copy and the first oath of allegiance that was ever signed, was signed by george washington. i love that. i love that it started there. what's interesting is number five, it was signed by george washington. there the work product that starts right there and we have to see what were

doing and you have again those centuries later so what you see is 50,000 pages of the jfk files released last year and then finally made public. the way we go through them is that by in the same way with goat the country is the same way we run the country in the same way it will work as human beings taking the time to do what they do and it's hard. but, i highly recommend those looking for their history go to the national archives and look at the documents and ask of them , so many are open to the public and that's how we find out, no one person can read 50,000 documents, you have to do it one by one. and the government opens get back there and check them out . >> the letter between martha and george washington, before she died she did that purposely but are there letters that give insight into who george washington was in the relationship?

>> what's interesting is george washington is the most of famous american most recognized american who ever lived. see him every day on the dollar bill but i knew the least about him as a person and the reason that is is because washington is not like jefferson or john adams who is flowing open loving letters to his wife and loved ones. george washington is very different and plays his cards close to his chest as a result it's really hard to know what george washington is thinking. on the day, during the first conspiracy, and they hang the man responsible for the secret plot that killed george washington, thanks them in front of 20,000 and he merits a mention in the diary, if i murdered someone in front of 20,000 people hydrate dear diary had a rough day but george washington barely mentions it is really difficult and as you said he's in so many

papers and what's frustrating is trying to figure out who george washington is, the one thing i can tell you is the letters you see your spectacular, especially the ones you see from firsthand. when george washington is first chosen as our commander-in- chief, one of the first things he does, he leaves the room, he doesn't want to be there and they can't find them and when they find him he expresses clearly that he doesn't know if he's up to the task. it's not a moment of chest but saying i'm the one who can save us all, it's a moment where he says you know what it's hard work and you immediately see, from the moment he entered the public eye the humility and modesty. remember when humility and modesty were great american values customer we've lost sight of that. what we do today is pay attention your to those who are the loudest. whether it's on facebook, twitter, or wherever we pay

attention to those who beat their chest and say look at me, look at me. george washington, one thing you take away from him as the modesty in fact the first thing he does when he takes control is, he doesn't say he's the best, he goes and orders books on how to be a better general, admitting that you need to learn and read. lincoln does the same thing when he takes office. i think that is a sign of great strength that shows you the depth of his character and who he is and how he approaches new job he's taking. >> the first conspiracy, the secret plot to kill washington killing us -- joining us from michigan . >> hey, i really love this. my family belong to the sons and daughters of the american revolution and we still have a town in pennsylvania named after us and according to my grandfather was one of the

people that used to go to the library and look up, did that several years ago. he found our family history that way. and according to what you said earlier about gathering the boats and stuff, exactly. they are large in pennsylvania and helped across the delaware. but on this national emergency deal do you agree and would you agree that the first national emergency was when to went up into a church steeple signifying that it had landed? if you ask me today i think we need streamliner's up there because were being invaded by land, air and sea. there is democrat and republican and independent but no one says i'm american anymore, you're absolutely right. >> listen, we have to get back, we have to stop identifying ourselves by our parties.

on the back of the first conspiracy you will see two blurbs. you will see one from bill clinton and one from george hw bush both great men but people say oh i only like one of those that you know what, they are american presidents, show respect, stop identifying yourself as a democrat or republican only because every one of us out there, every person listening is way more than that. i think what we do right now in our culture that you hit upon his, if someone disagrees with you on social media, you unfollow, you unfriend and then all you are doing is surrounding yourself with people who agree with you. nothing good ever comes of that, no great leader comes from surrounding yourself with people that tell you you are the best and you are great. i remember my friend george hw bush, i was at his funeral and i remember changemaker telling the story about how he had always thought president bush would say to him, tell me when you disagree might have big

arguments and james baker would tell him passionately why he thought it was wrong and bush said he always had a great way of telling him he was done hearing the advice and go make a decision. he was a baker if you're so smart, how come i'm the one that's the president of the united states, which is a great way to say but it's key part of the story is listening to the other side. you have to do that. that is how we come together. you 100% right, stop identifying as a political party, identify yourself as an american. don't just follow your side of the news, today on social media on television, cola, if you watch fox go watch msnbc, follow someone with the opposite political view of your spirit it will make you crazy, it will get your blood boiling, you will be so angry, but somewhere in there you will see , that they are just like you. every person you hate and

disagree with and don't like is someone said to me, has hopes and dreams just like you. we are human beings, we are americans and we need to remember what we have in common , rather than what pulls us apart. to that point from the book he writes the following.>>reporter: washington forge more than any brotherhood that he forged a nation, improve the one truth that the core of both of the revolution in america itself, that in our lowest moment we can find our greatest strengths. back to your phone calls, kathleen is joining us in dayton ohio . >> i couldn't agree with your guest more about talking to people who have different views than you. i went to a trump rally outside of dayton ohio in 2016 i had a sign that says i'm a sanders supporter and i want to talk to trumps of orders. i had a blast. you find out that we have far more in common about equity in education, healthcare, for all

and fair pay. then even banging on the doors which i've done almost every election, i talked to trump supporters of the time and had fabulous conversations. i learned so much, however, i want to ask your guests, i believe you said that washington's body guards were referred to as lifeguards and that they ended up if i heard correct, they ended up being part of the conspirators to take his life. i'm wondering what they were so angry about and i also want to ask c-span to do a show on those who have been hiring illegal immigrants for decades and why they are not in jail. show us some state-by-state graphs. i'd also love to hear more about the israeli conflict

anymore please have phil rice on . >> thank you kathleen. >> let's go back to the lifeguards were washington's private bodyguard they guard, just to be clear, the paperwork on george washington, they want to make sure that's there that they guard his life. they're the ones in charge of making them safe i imagine the mess the secret service, we trade the secret service of the pinkertons but they traced back to this moment, to the lifeguards in the revolutionary war. it was in a grievance they had, you will see when you read the first conspiracy that what they want is money. we are a country founded on legends and myths and those that we love most are our own. the story we tell as we came together to we all believe in democracy and take on the

british again, great story but not the true story. in reality, we were deeply divided in one of the and you will see in the book is the governor of new york at the time with the brilliant triumphant the mayor of new york was a man named david matthews, both of them were under british rule. they lost their jobs and we said, we don't need this rule anymore. you will get rid of the governor and the mayor and guess what, they want their jobs back there tired, they don't want that at all and they the ones that go out and say they can go back and get rid of this guy and what they do is start signing people who want to switch sides. the five people in the military and they find people who are ordinary citizens and who are patriots on the american side and offer money and say if you come to our side, and it wasn't the plot to kill washington but when the british invaded that

they will steal cannons and floor bridges and cluster washington. and this is an assassination attempt. either way, if you kidnap them at george washington's level of the military, one of the things they do is hang you. if you're at a lower level they will treat you one for another but at george washington's level they will hang you. the sad part is the lifeguards you see there are four different life guards they switch. some could be just because they thought they would lose all see the american revolution and we know the ending but he didn't know the ending there were moments when the british were going to win. we were paying people,

democracy was an idea that took a long time to catch hold. became originally because they were paid to fight in the military. easier = death as they were so passionate and they were being paid and old people signed up passionate about democracy, they needed money and were being paid also some who signed up for democracy and when it is you signing up to be paid and it looks like your side is gonna lose, no one wants to be the loser people start switching sides. the british they're doing better, i will work for them that's what happened with the lifeguards. see people who want money and a chance for power and you see them switch sides george washington pathway to me, what i love about the first conspiracy is a first nonfiction book is you don't just get to see the plot and it's great to say there's a plot to kill washington but what you see is how complex the revolutionary war really was and for me personally i don't

tell you the story as being complex because it's interesting to take down history. i don't think that that at all. if it were easy, if the war were easy why would we study smart it didn't happen, it happened hard. what is far more important is to study when it's hard, then the battle is really amazing. so, when you see other real complexity that that's a, the history lesson becomes more important i love all the people out there this week but the books, not just for themselves and for father and father-in- law's but all the come to signings and said, this is the one book my son and daughter want to read because they want to really see how it really was back then. the more we can tell the true story rather than the whitewashed version the more great you will see american really is . >> david mccullough said generally speaking, factoring

the revolutionary war period, about a third of the country wanted to stay with great britain and the third wanted to fight and a third were in different . >> would you agree with that assessment? >> 100%. it's no different than we are today. exactly what david mccullough for the source and the book, we looked at that carefully and i 100% agree. you were completely divided. would tell the story and paint the picture like it schoolhouse rock with the great american dream. but if you looked at the beginning of the war, a third of the people love democracy and the third are like it's just a tray different and we need to negotiate a better deal they don't want to get rid of the king they just want a better deal and pay less taxes. than a third was like i don't care as apathetic as the 30s today, it's amazing, we want to romanticize and tell you how great it was and if we all matched with the drummer and

you're holding the flag, if we were all behind him, it's just as frustrating then as it was now watching a third of the country with the other two thirds fighting on the other sides of the issue and wishing the others would listen. we love to think were getting smarter and better but the reason we study history is, it's attributed to mark twain but history doesn't repeat but it sure does rhyme . >> kit from albany new york and also joining us from fort lauderdale for . >> i am calling from stephentown . >> i was in washington in two days ago and it was crazy. >> i'll take this weather, any day.

couple questions for you, you mentioned try out and because of the war they renamed it, the county. where does benedict arnold fit into your story? to the events in your book occur before arnold's betrayal or after smart >> let's talk about that. benedict arnold came later in the war, this is at the start of the first conspiracy in the plot that killed george washington, it takes place from 1775 through 1776. i actually wrote another book that was about benedict arnold and i will give you my quick stories.

when benedict arnold betrays george washington , they say it's one of the only times he is ever seen crying what benedict arnold does is equipped the rights and no that is hand-delivered by alexander hamilton to george washington not in song or rap comes to george washington and the letter says three things. won a says don't kill my wife and is is don't tell my staff and in one of the craziest moments of letterwriting history, benedict arnold says, can i please have my belongings back. she wants her record collection back. then, george washington amazingly actually gives it back to him and sends back belongings. to this day nobody knows what's in the belongings. i love the fact that in the first conspiracy to see that benedict arnold was not the first one but it was brought against george washington pickett started way before .

>> joining us from new york city, good morning . >> hello. it's great seeing you. columbia alumni. guest: go chargers! caller: i was wondering if if you talk about the research. guest: yes, let's talk about that. prize-winningtzer author joseph ellis, and i said to him, do you know about the story of a secret plot to kill george washington? and he knew the story. every good biography has a sentence or two, maybe a page and a half, or a footnote, and one of the things he said to me is this is a story of george washington's size. can find the number of mount

vernon, you can you can find right now, mt. vernon will take the exact number of slaves that george er washington owned but you will never find all the spice. he said to me that day by nature what you're searching for will forever be elusive. if it works you get an amazing book and if not you'll have an adventure. i knew, it will all depend on the research. first thing i did is we had a tv show and we went looking for a the 9/11 flag the firefighters raised at ground zero and many people didn't know the flag went missing on the tv show, and we offered a reward and put the word out and for days after the episode aired the man walked into the fire station in washington and said i saw the show lost history and i want to return the flag that the firefighters flag that ground zero. everyone that we spent a year at the to getting it with the former fbi archives, we found

the flag and authenticated and on the 15th anniversary we unveiled it at the museum but, one of the things i said was brad thank you for doing that, it wasn't just me it was also incredible staff. i tell you the story because i had to do research. the executive reducer is the best researcher and writer we have. i knew we would go down the rabbit hole for the secret plot of what killed george washington, the first said listen identifying this and we tackle that with the great washington expert. and picture myself as indiana jones, i call crawl through the

cobwebs and hum the song and i finally find key facts but it's not like indiana jones at all. no one wants to read them. we took the time to read them and what cracked it open in terms of sources, as you will see in the book, we were able to find the transcript from the secret tribunal where they tried the mine who was hung for killing george washington . >> that man, you want to reveal and hickey himself was a lifeguard and, when they hung thomas hickey, one of the things you will see is the trial before and it wasn't a public trial when they hung him we finally got to see, but

that's where it all cracked open completely because one of the things that happened in that moment is the transcript. and now it's on the record. of the whole book cracked open . >> nancy joining us from springfield virginia, good morning . >> good morning, -- when washington and jefferson signed the declaration of independence, there were about 350 people -- i would like to propose a hamiltonian solution.

i like to propose a -- war bonds -- i think we new united states -- mexico and seven smaller countries to pull together in a federation because teaching is learning twice, we teach them how to have a federal system and we will benefit from it >> thank you for the call . >> this is why i love c-span. you can have a caller who considers herself a washingtonian, or a jeffersonian that has a hamiltonian solution. god bless america that there are people still believe in those people. what i will say, and it was hard because you were breaking up, i'll tell you my favorite story that has to do with this one because as you mentioned the declaration of independence is a couple months ago. we all know a couple weeks ago, former president, george h.w.

bush passed away, he was a friend of mine and barbara bush used to read my books. i loved mrs. bush very much for what she did for literacy when big and she did is she felt that the america that she dreamed had achieved. she dedicated her life to teaching people how to read who were foreign speakers who didn't speak english. she said that's how we achieve the american dream and especially with reading, arming them with the greatest things american has to offer. when bush died, we were honoring barbara bush at her literacy event a few weeks before this is now a few months ago and at this point we knew what was happening and we knew how sick he was and we didn't want to tell the story when he passed away but i can tell it now. you will see why.

i found out they were bringing in some of president bush's favorite writers to read to them. they said to me, brad would you like to read to president bush and i said i'd be honored. my wife and i were in maine and we went to bush's office and they warned me, they cities only gonna be awake for about 10 minutes, he is sleeping a lot these days that he will fall asleep on you but my wife said don't worry, brad is used to putting people to sleep with his books. we going to bush's office, the seek service leave and president bush, my wife and himself and his service dog sally and we know it's the end who were sitting in his office and you see the ocean outside the window and i can see on his desk, a stack of five books. i sent them a copy of the first conspiracy a year ago, eight months ago, which he read but i can see there is a copy of the

first conspiracy on his desk and it's dogeared and to know what pages on and i pick up the book and i say to him, i brought my own copy and at this point he's nodding and so i picked my favorite passage from the first conspiracy in the passage i picked was where washington, it's presented for the first time where the declaration of independence is read to the troops for the first time and said that's the passage i want to read. i'm reading along in the chapter and president bush falls asleep but i want to finish the chapter and get to the end and i'm getting towards the end and i get to the words where the declaration of independence is read and washington is there and he's being presented to the troops in 1776 for the first time and i get to the words, hold those truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. as i say the words, president

bush's eyes open up and as anyone who's been to a sick bed in a hospital with a loved one, you notice when they pop up their eyes and it's pure clarity. he's right there, as if the words of the declaration of independence are his lifeblood. i get to the end of the chapter in the book and still locked on me and i said you still want another chapter another, another? yes. and then an hour goes by an hour when he locked on it and i think, for me it was so humbling , so humbling to be able to read about america's first president who at that moment in time was our oldest living president, one of the most humbling moments i ever had in my life but when president bush passed away the one thing i noticed over and over again was one word that were in all the tributes and it was this word.

it wasn't just because he was a decent man but because the country today is starving for decency. no politics about it, whatever side we lost a sense of decency and that always starts with leadership. we want it back and you've got to find leadership brings it back i love that i got to have that final moment with president bush and shake his hand and say goodbye he gave me that gift and so many other gifts there are many things i love about the first conspiracy , having that moment with president bush was absolutely top of the list . >> we have a minute left, if you could be brief from mobile alabama . >> as a black man, i find it disheartening, disingenuous and peeking the whole thing about

all these president, how they enrich their lives up the backs of men, women and children, so tell the whole truth. he's not heroic in the eyes of every black person and that's the reason why we have a lot of divisiveness in this country . >> let's talk about that, yes, i'm glad you brought it up. one of the things was very volatile, this is dealing with george washington and how he owned slaves. one thing i do want to say to you is i appreciate you saying that, because you are right but we should never be judged, whether it's george washington, myself or yourself by our worst day. none of us are who we are on our worst day. is a great book out there about george washington going out against a runaway slave.

if you're looking for something perfect, none of us is. don't judge people by a their worst moment. we are all amazing and terrified and wonderful and scared, we are all awful and we are all amazing. sometimes in the same day, sometimes in the same hour. so i appreciate your call and i appreciate every person is a go on book tour i'm going around the country still those who support the conspiracy and i appreciate all the love for the book . >> we are bad for your time, this is book number what for you? >> it's the first book is nonfiction. i've written 12 thrillers and 16 kids books but this is number one in nonfiction. i've never done nonfiction before and i found this one about the first president . >> it's called the first

conspiracy, the secret plot to kill george washington . >> thank you for being with us and please come back again. >> thank you my friend. c-span's washington journal is live every day with policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, daniel strauss discusses the the entries and the 20/20 presidential election. also, the heritage foundation's discusses a government shutdown, border security and immigration. discussing what china's rise to the will border means for the u.s. be sure to watch the washington journal saturday morning during the discussion. >> as a government shutdown continues, the senate will meet in the morning at the request of tim kaine who will be recognized for up to two hours alive starting at 11 am eastern.

after saturday session the senate returns tuesday live on c-span to. the president will make a statement on border security, live from the white house at 3:30 p.m. eastern time that we will have that live on c-span. the houses at for the martin luther king holiday, returning for legislative business on tuesday. more votes her plan next week to open the government . 800,000 government workers remained furloughed, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell will not bring up a villainous as the backing of the president . on saturday, women's rights advocates will march in washington dc had the third annual women's rally. live coverage starts at 12:15 pm on c-span you can listen on the free radio app the senator will speak to the iowa democrats in downtown des moines. she recently launched a

presidential exploratory committee. live coverage at 6 pm eastern on c-span you can also visit our website and our radio app. next, form on sexual misconduct in the media with journalists and news editors talking about how they cover these kinds of stories. the freedom form institute held given earlier this week. >> in this section which we think is critical, we will talk about stories that have broken news, stories that still need to be done and resources for journalists anywhere get this from the program are collected as we will be doing in the person organizing that for us is uniquely qualified to do it, karen for the better part of a year the associated press has commissioned coverage and has been a supervisor of coverage, and karen, we brought you in for this purpose. what advice

do you have right now for newsrooms know that there are stories to be done and want to do them right? >> i think, i would say, don't go looking for a bad guy to take down. toco looking for a big-name. understand that so much of what we can do is proactive journalism, understand what are the regulations that exist, who put things in place and what is a culture in almost any beat we can cover. it's hard to think of any that wouldn't have intersectionality . >> give us an idea of some of the stories you seen and that you edited . >> sure. that are stories as small estate houses, i love thinking back to maine, we discovered there had not been one complaint of harassment made in the state house it's not